I was pressed into service as charter captain to two of my cousin's husbands; Derek and Jeff. Jeff is from Minnesota and had never caught a Striper before ( notice the past tense ). We met at the boat at 0600 and I asked them "Quality or Quantity?". Both answered "Quality" in unison. They are my kind of guys.

We shot out to Greenwich Harbor to find bait. In order to get the skunk off of Jeff we tubed just as the tide was turning in a favorite spot of mine. As we all know T-man's tubes are a great way to break a new Striper fisherman in and here is the proof. Small but his first Striper ever.

It was then quality time. We snagged four bunker and headed off to a spot which I will keep to myself for reasons that will become obvious. We set anchor ( yes my new one, if you read my posts )and within five minutes Jeff followed my circle hook instructions to the letter and fought and landed a NICE 38" 23 lb. fish.

We revived that girl and she swam off strong. I hooked up another head for Jeff and before I could tie a leader for myself his rod was doubled and another heavy fish was pulling his line out. Another 38" fish, this one weighing in at 26 lbs. on the Boga.

The action was non stop for the first hour with rods running and fish finding their way into my boat, all before I could even wet a line. I didn't mind at all, a succesful charter captain I was. Next it was Derek's turn, another 38" Striper this one a "measly" 19 lbs. .

We caught five smaller Stripers during the next two hours and just before the bite shut off Derek's rod bent over hard and his drag sang a high pitched song that got my heart racing. The fish took line rapidly until the spool started to show but suddenly went limp. The leader came back chafed and broken. I was thinking one of three things, bluefish, shark or BIG Striper that took him around a rock.

Derek did manage one more Striper 31" and 12 lbs.

We were out of bait and went to Greenwich Harbor to re-load. On the way out we ran into several schools of bunker with blues pushing them up. We fished until 12:30 and headed in with the fish biting. ( I had to work ).

It was a great day and even though I didn't catch a single fish, it was one of my best days on the water. All fish, 6 blues included were caught in the lip on Gama circle hooks. All were released to fight another day as I firmly believe that they will grow to fight better another day.

- Tom

Wow!!!! Looks like you had a great day!

Nice fish and nice pics...

Tom

way to go... awesome day ...congrat's

Rockin'

Great report!! Those are some great fish, they must have had an awesome time