80th Birthday Suprise by Bob Dodds

Posted on November 21, 2024 by bayside425

For the last 10 years, on my birthday, 11/4, I have gone on a sea bass trip with Captain Greg on the Kev n Ash. As usual, it was my son, Shawn and some friends, Kyle and Paul and club member Greg Camilleri.
The plan was sea bass until we arrived at the boat. Greg said it was blowing too much, and the sea bass have not been biting. So Greg said “We will go for stripers. “What a birthday present that would end up being!

We headed up to Seaside Heights and he put us on bunker time and time again. We tried to snag, bring up and change to circle hooks. That worked some of the time but most of the big ones nailed the bunker as soon as they were snagged.
So, my birthday present was 3 stripers, the biggest being over 43”. In addition, we caught 14 others from 32 – 45” up to 40 pounds. Greg certainly knew how to celebrate my birthday. He even had a cake. I wonder what 81 will be like?

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.