Third Time’s Just Barely a Charm by Ed Valitutto

Posted on November 17, 2019 by VHFC

Not for any lack of trying, but last week was tough for me and several club members as we tried to get in on the striper action.
Monday 11/11 started with a charter Bill Dabney arranged on Steve Purul’s Reel Fantasea. Joining Bill was Dave Spendiff, Greg Camilleri and me. During our 6 hour charter, we tried trolling, plugging, jigging and live spot from the inlet to Seaside Park, the North jetty, Oyster Creek and the sod banks. Total take – Gregg got a slot fish on a plug outside the inlet and Dave, Bill and I had shorts on spot and Storm minnow jigs near the sod banks. Steve tried everything and even took us back out for an additional hour after his afternoon charter was a no show.

Thursday 11/14 Dave Spendiff, Alan Goracy and I went out on my boat “Set the Hook” and we did everything but set the hook! Once again, we trolled, plugged and drifted spot! Ultimately more than a dozen spot were released to fend for themselves. Beautiful day but no birds and no fish!

On Friday, Phil Simon had a charter on Brett Taylor’s Reel Reaction. Due to a cancellation by one of his group, Phil called me Thursday evening and I joined Phil and his neighbor Dan Ludwig for an afternoon tog / striper trip. We arrived at the dock to see Brett’s earlier trip come in with 2 tog and 6 stripers including a 20 lb beauty. They said they caught over 50 fish and had great conditions. Unfortunately, our afternoon trip was much tougher as the fish were scattered. We got our limit of 4 Tog 1st, and then played run and gun for Stripers. We kept one tagged fish, and released a few in the 20-22 inch range. Bird play was pretty scattered and fish were feeding on small sand eels. That’s Dan with a nice tog and a photo of Sue Simon’s Blackened Tog.

All three trips last week had fantastic conditions as far as weather, wind and waves. Oh well, will try again before the season is over.

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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.

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