Day with Grandson by Dave Spendiff

Posted on November 26, 2016 by VHFC

At least once a year my grandson, Michael Marchitto and I get out for a day of striper fishing. As a police officer in Voorhees, NJ, his schedule can be tough to plan around, but he was off the day after Thanksgiving and the forecast was for calm seas so we headed out before dawn. We went to the Governors Mansion area along IBSP before we saw any marks on the machine, stopped and started fishing. The first was our biggest of the day, a 41″, 23+ pound fish. We were casting swimming shads and it took Mike a little practice to get the rhythm and speed of the retrieve down, but soon he was dealing with a bent rod. The catching was not steady, had to move often to keep up with the southern movement of the fish. Mid morning turned into a follow the birds pattern that resulted in being able to take a couple of fish on surface poppers as they chased the bait on the surface. What a blast! We headed for home around noon with 2 in the box and plenty of fun and action in our memory banks.

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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.