What A Shame! by Dave Spendiff

Posted on May 22, 2018 by VHFC

I arrived at Gulf Point this morning at 7:30 and started to troll the bay with spoons. I trolled and trolled and trolled without a touch until 10:00 when I finally hooked and boated a small bluefish. I went back over the area a couple more times and got nada so I headed north to the BB area and started trolling again. Very quickly I got a double hit but was only able to land one small blue. Every time I went back over the same area I got hits, many of them doubles. Probably had 30+ fish hooked but only landed half of them. Because they were so concentrated and there wasn’t much wind, I made a few casts with a surface plug and was able to boat a few. None of the fish were larger than the one I photographed – all less than 4lbs! Just doesn’t look like the big boys are coming in this year – what a shame!

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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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