Helluva End to 2021 by Ed Valitutto

Posted on December 15, 2021 by VHFC

With my boat scheduled to come out today, Tuesday December 14 was my last fishing opportunity. With a great weather forecast along with manageable winds and waves, members Alan Goracy, Dave Spendiff and Bill Dabney joined me for our last striper trip of the year.

With many good recent reports from Marty Friedrich, we headed south for Little Egg inlet. With the blowout tides, navigation was tricky but still doable. We started trolling outside the inlet but despite some good readings, we had no luck. A radio call from the Red Herring (Bill Figley) told us the fish were off Brigantine and biting!

We joined a fleet of ~20 boats fishing fairly close to shore in depths of 20 – 30 feet. With sporadic birds and fish marking the screen, we jigged the area and managed four fish 30 – 34″ in the box and a few others that got away. It was a great end to the 2021 season!
Bill Figley said his boat caught 20 – 30 stripers! The man is truly amazing!

Posted in Member Reports

Membership Form

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.