Anniversary Gift from Heaven by Bob Dodds

Posted on June 24, 2019 by VHFC

The ride out was not, but the fishing definitely was!!

Some of you know that my very healthy wife, Doris passed away in December of 2014 only 8 weeks after being diagnosed with stage IV gallbladder cancer. She was my surf fluke fishing & catching buddy. After her death, I backed off of fishing until this year. On 6/19, our 48th wedding anniversary, my son Shawn, son-in-law Eric & I went on a charter with captain Greg Carr on the Kev n’ Ash II.

Needless to say, the fog at 6am was bad. With Greg’s ability and electronics, we got out into the ocean. We tried a spot or two and after Greg’s repositioning, we started catching sea bass after sea bass. We let numerous legal fish go – see the photo of me tossing one back to grow even bigger – and kept our limit of sea bass from 13.5 – 23″. Unfortunately the 4.5 lb.+ was caught by Eric and was not entered into the FOM.

This trip was Doris’ gift to me with a promise that I would write this to give you guys a message: Spend as much time as you can with your spouse. Not only fishing, if you are lucky, but also other things as well. Like laundry, house cleaning, food shopping, ( I just can’t include clothes shopping) or just doing nothing together.
Do it today. You never know what can happen tomorrow.

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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.