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Fatties of 2008!!!! Get the cameras ready!!!]

65K views 156 replies 105 participants last post by  GRIZZ 
#1 ·
Post pictures of your 2008 fatties here.

DO NOT POST WITHOUT PICTURES

edit: = jim rebuild thread
 
#77 ·
Re: Got Stryper Jigs - 2 thumbs up!!

Had a tremendous day using the GotStryper bait in pink. The attached photo shows one of the six bass that was taken aboard the GotStryper in a five hour trip off of Chatham. Lost one that was bigger than this when he swam away with the gaff.
Water Vertebrate Watch Jaw Sky
 
#78 ·
I love surf cast fishing with my friends from 24/7. But I am more at home on a boat with a hook and an eel.

The continuing adventures of Captain Dan and Coalman.

I have been looking forward to this trip. It was a year ago Dan put his 2 personal best (PB) 35 pound striped bass in his boat. Our striped bass adventures in August and September saw fish measured in pounds not inches.

We got on the water about 10:30 PM. We were armed with a cooler full of eels. The first couple hours were slow. All we managed to do was drown a few eels. As the incoming tide picked up its pace we put the first fish in the boat.

38" 19 pounds


It took a few more drifts to get "dialed in". I hooked up for fish number two. As Dan was about to net the fish we saw two fish in the headlamps. One fish dwarfed the other. My hook was embedded in a 36". The big one swam away.

The tide turned out just before the sky started to show gray. It was the Captains turn now. This bass had fight.

I bent the net boating this fish. It is Captain Dan's new PB . The measure said 47". Only because that is how high it went. The fish was bigger.

The scale said 41 pounds 7 ounces.


Captain Dan's new PB striped bass.


All the bass were released to fight another day. Stay tuned for more continuing adventures of Captain Dan and Coalman. The summer is young.
 
#80 ·
Re: I finally caught a striper

Congrats Cheech...I know how you feel. I recently started chasing stripers too and haven't had much luck. I've tried everything...eeling at night, poppers, swimmers, shads, chunk, bucktails......and only a few fish over maaaany hours of dunking. I'm an avid largemouth fisherman and can bag 20 on any given day but these stripers are a whole different animal...I did however, with the help of Shocktherapy, get this one over the weekend...about 31" ....absolute junkie now.
 

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#88 ·
Wild Dave couldn't have picked a worst week to come down, relentless storms, heavy wind, rain and fog made for a miserable week...Monday night into Tuesday looked like a good slot, although the clouds threatened at times we ended up having a decent night weather wise, because of the uncertainty in the forecast, I stayed"home" and opted to fish the river rather than risk running the beach...

I picked Dave and Meghan up at their cottage at 8:00, soon after we were trolling eels on the "Mac".. shortly after civil twilight we had a screamer, I set the hook and handed the rod off to Meghan, unfortunately the fish wasn't solidly hooked and was lost in the hand off.... we spooked a few fish during the rising tide, but had no takers, the river fish have been very spooky and fussy when it comes to chow, about half tide, I began casting and had a solid take after a dozen half hearted taps, once again I handed the rod off to Meghan and the battle was joined, after a prolonged battle, Miss Megan bested a fish in the low 20lb range on my light #15 test outfit... great job Meghan!... Now we had fish all around the boat, but as has been the protocol as of late, they had lock jaw, shortly latter the port troller laid down to the gunnel and Wild Dave jumped on the rod.... after another spirited battle, I netted another 20lb class fish for him... so the night went, we laughed talked about hunting fishing and life.. two veteran warriors from different cultures and countries, sharing what we like best about life...just being on the water or afield, any fish caught were a bonus, we stayed until the first streaks of grey dawn and a fog bank told us it was over...... We ended the night with 5 fish, the largest approx 30lbs, the smallest about 15lbs, one of the slower nights of the season ,.but one of the most enjoyable, which I was happy to be able to share with this fine Gentleman and his daughter from Canada...

Here's a few pictures from the night...

Trousers Smile Fish Fisherman Fishing


Jaw Fish Fin Recreation Ray-finned fish


Jaw Fin Fish Fishing Fisherman
 
#89 ·
Hey Guys,

I live in the Midwest and would like to get some opinions on if a fish I caught was a hybrid or striper. Both hybrids and stripers reside in this tailwater. I released the fish, so, in the long run it doesn't really matter. But, if it was a hybrid it was possibly a new world record. No joke. Here's a fish story......

A couple of buddies and I were fishing our local honeyhole. Got in the water about 7:00 pm and fished with them until around 11:00 pm. It was a weeknight, so, we couldn't stay out too late. The fish weren't biting and my two buddies had to leave around 11:00. They had to drive about an hour to get home. I live within 30 minutes, so, I decided to stay another hour. We had thrown flies and stick baits during our four hours of fishing with no love reciprocated from the fish. Flies and stickbaits = no love, maybe they're down deeper.

I tied on a big 'ol Sassy Shad and told myself, "Self, those fish are in here." An hour passed by....no love. I'll give it 30 more minutes.

I positioned the boat in the fast current with a jumbled up mess of a seam to my right, but, a fairly well defined seam behind where warm water is mixing with cool water. Weird water about 40 feet deep. Threw out the Sassy Shad and let it work through the jumbled up mess of a seam down to the transition water. A couple of sharp snaps of the rod and let the bait flutter back down all the while telling myself, "I'm injured, eat me". I talk to myself alot.

Tap, what the??? Threw the rod tip forward setting the hook. Darn, a freaking log way down deep. No, wait the lines going slack, fish on! A fairly short struggle ensued...6-7 minutes. He/she (the fish) was very cordial and came in rather easily. Just a bunch of bulldogging and a couple of short bursts. I was geared with medium / heavy tackle, so, it wasn't an epic battle.

First thing I thought when lipping the fishing and bringing her on board was what a football. The Sassy Shad was in the top of the lip and this beautiful fish was not injured in the least. Is that a hybrid? Surely not. Too big. I'll take a picture for visual proof to my buddies that I'm not full of stuffing. There's no scale / depth proportion to a fish on the bottom of a boat, hopefully, somebody is on the bank and will be kind enough to take a picture for me. My motors' running and I was only 50' out from the bank. Yep, two dudes. "Hey, guys could you take a picture". "Yeah, bring it on" I think was the response. I lowered the fish in the water with a firm grip on the lip and went to the bank. "Holy Crap!" "What you catch that on?" "That's a hog" were the responses received from my two new best friends. Click. One picture. Thanks guys.

I lowered the fish back in the water and shoved off to revive the fish out in the fast current / cold water. No problems. The fish was still full of spunk and gave me a shot of cold water up the nose in response to interupting her dinner time.

The fish had a minimal broken patch near it's pectoral fin. And, it kind of had a tongue patch, but not really. I've caught hybrids up to 8 lbs. and this fish had the dimensions of a hybrid. But, I just don't know. It could have just been a squat / short striper. Digital scale fluctuated between 28 lb. 15 oz and 29 lb. 3 oz.

Whatcha guys think?
Edit* Click for larger picture


 
#90 ·
Had my 1st charter this week with my favorite type of clients... a father and his son. Tim & Tim came on board for the morning and although we were limited to where we could go due to heavy fog, we found some decent fish.

It's always fun to have families on board and it seems like the kids always get the first fish. As it should be....

We 3 wayed live baits today in 30-50ft of water catching a few and watching many big bass chase our offerings to the surface.

We had 2 nice fish early and then about 9am I got a call from Capt. Anderson who gave me a heads up to the nice pile of fish he was on so we took a ride. Sure enough Blaine and his son BJ were into fish when we pulled up. So I had 2 father/son teams working around me.

Very nice morning indeed... here's a few pics.

Tim Junior's first fish and PB Striper

Dad and Junior

Blaine & BJ
 
#91 ·
Well Summer is 1/2 over... even though it's been soggy, the fishing has been hot... both beach and river have been producing... some nights it took the grave yard shift ( 2AM to daybreak then off to work) to stay on them, at least this week I got to finish with a "working mans tide" , a quote from my good friend Coalman...

I got to meet and make some new friends, and fish with some old ones..
here are a few of the pictures from the past month...All these fish were released to procreate and bring a smile on another luck anglers face...

Gas Recreation Engineering Event Entertainment

Fisherman Fish Outdoor recreation Fishing Recreation

Vertebrate Fisherman Fish Fin Ray-finned fish

Fish Fin Balloon Fish products Fishing net

Jaw Fisherman Fin Fish Fishing

Fish Fisherman Fishing Recreation Fin

Sleeve Fish Fin Ray-finned fish Tail

Fish Fin Food Recreation Ray-finned fish

Watercraft Boat Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies Cap Baseball cap

Fish Fisherman Recreation Ray-finned fish Tail

Seafood Fish Fisherman Fin Flash photography

Jaw Fin Fish Shorts Fisherman

Jaw Fish Fisherman Recreation Ray-finned fish

Entertainment Gesture Public address system Microphone Performing arts

Flash photography Entertainment Event Fun Music

Jaw Fish Fisherman T-shirt Striper bass

Fisherman Fish Fishing Ray-finned fish Recreational fishing

Jaw Fin Fish Fishing Fisherman

Jaw Fish Fin Recreation Ray-finned fish

Trousers Smile Fish Fisherman Fishing

Water Cloud Sky Water resources Afterglow
 
#92 ·
Good god where did all the f'in blues come from. Holy crap everywhere I went today there was 8-12lb bluefish waiting to sink their teeth into my tubes!!

LOL... well we did manage a couple of decent tube bass in between the chompers.

The tube action this week has been excellent, so those of you who like to dragg'em should certainly get them in then boat for your next trip.

Shallow or deep the bite has been very very good!!

Here's a couple pics...

 
#93 ·
Stayed in E.Sandwich. (never again....too far from the fishing grounds)
-Fished for Fluke in MV sound on Aug 3rd. Drifted middle ground and lucas shoal thru the outgoing tide. 12 keepers ranging from 17.5 to 21".
-Hit Race point Tuesday afternoon - incoming tide started jigging steel wire and jigs for stripers but ended up casting light tackle at big blues up to 31" long as they tempted us by blitzing around the boat.
-Thursday 6:00am back to Race pt. - out going tide. jigged wire and jigs. caught some nice eaters for the cooler. My buddy caught the fish of the day...a nice 39" fatty :)



- Thursday afternoon took the girls out to try their luck with fluke but the dogs showed up. They thought it was cool.



then my daughter made me proud,...a respectable 29" striper on light tackle to finish off the week.



good times!! good times!
 
#94 ·
Not exactly the monster cows typically posted on this thread but these were the fruits of the live eeling info I gobbled up on this site...Thanks Roc
 

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#95 ·
Re: Team Canada '09

The year class that showed up at the beach we were fishing could be described as plentiful and in great shape(27" fish weighing between 8.75 -9.5 lbs.). Other reports as of lately describe days were groups of 12+ fishers caught fish of 26.8" or greater during the first hour of fishing. Some fish have been caught around 40 -42" but not very plentiful. There also seems to be more 30-35" fish being taken. It is safe to say that less than 5% of fish over 26.8" are released. In order to foster a quality sport fishery I believe fish retention regs. similar to Maine is required (one fish between 20-26" or one over 40" retained per day). This type of regs. would help people adjust to a catch and release philosophy and still enjoy some fine eating fish. If you really need some more fish to eat we'll give you some Macks we always seem to have lots left. Overall the Bay of Fundy has shown a steady improvement over the last five years. One last item is the spawning grounds(ie.Stewiacke River) should be closed to fishing before and during the spawn.
 

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#96 ·
Re: Iowa Wipers

Water levels are almost to normal pool now. Here is a 27 1/2 inch 11+ lb Wiper caught a few days ago. Jay is the man !!

I have not caught anything close to that ....YET !!!:redbiggrin:

 
#98 ·
Managed a few today on topwater. They hit a Cordell Boy Howdy prop bait trailing behind a Launcher float. Really fun to watch them smash it on top. They went down under after a while and still hit on Very small Threadfin Shad and smaller Skipjacks. We even caught a few on 5" Swimbaits. Almost perfect conditions on the river at the dam(Greenup).
 

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#100 ·
Those of you who have been to my seminars or on my charters know how much I like to target the slacktide periods for trolling my T&W system. Today was a great example of what you can do....

My son and buddy Eric fished live bunker this morning on the moving tide and got ripped by the bluefish. We had one small keeper bass and nothing but damn bluedog biteoffs throughout the moving tide.

Once the tide went slack we started dragging tubes in 30ft of water and scored a great double of decent keeper bass.... remember to troll parallel to the structure during the slack as apposed to up and over the structure when drift fishing.

Here's a pic....

 
#101 ·
Gotta have some WC representation in here...

Diggin the board. Searched this whole thread for some WC pigs....... Well gents looks like Im gonna have to take matter in hand.
From the extreme south CA delta we have my PB fly striper.....


Another delta tw pig, she ate a lunker punker in ten feet of water.

a profile

A true No Cal. double. King on the fly and Striper on the LP.

20lbs on an overcast morning.

The still eat those lil baits? This guy ate a Lucky Craft Sammy 85.

Striper ninja says, "Shit gets cold up here."

And the broad that pushed the needle on me??

(technically not '08 but close.)
Hell guys we still got all the fall to go........
 
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