Happy To Be Joining The Hunt
Hi, All. I'm new to the sport this year, been a member on this site for a couple of months and am excited to be learning how to hunt these beasts.
Good fortune finds me here and this is my first post. I got interested in striper fishing last year. Earlier this year I was selling some water sport equipment I was no longer using and ended up meeting a skilled striper fisherman in the process. Instead of buying and selling we negotiated an equipment trade and a couple of lessons for me but I had some homework to do first.
This site has been great, not so much for telling me what I need to know, but for helping me figure out what I need to learn. Just by following the threads I knew I had to get educated about knots, tides and currents, baits and lures, underwater structure, safety measures, etc.
I found a great instructor in Newport who taught me the basics about tying knots, design and use of lures, information sources, etc. and his services were very reasonably priced. I didn't want to waste my surf lessons time on these fundamental things.
I took my first surf fishing lesson at Brenton Point yesterday morning. What a blast! I got knocked on my ass standing on the ledge, washed off the side into the rip, climbed back up and kept casting. A little sore today.
I'm a little late to this game, 57 years old with two shoulder surgeries and two new hips in the last four years. I love doing stuff where the danger can be tempered with training and equipment. I'm 24 years in the scaffold business, I ride motorcycles, I'm a gun nut, I hunt in the wilderness and just resigned from active duty after 20 years as a volunteer firefighter.
The point of this is I recognize the danger of surf casting, I recognize my limitations and choose to wear an inflatable PFD. It deployed when I went into the water yesterday which is why this is a funny story. The drowing that occured in Sandwich eight hours prior to that is a very sad one.
Thank you to the founders of this site and my instructors (you know who you are!). With all your help I'm going to catch a keeper in the next few weeks!
Stay Safe.
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