Drove from PA to NJ yesterday to grab Adam as soon as he got home from school, and from there, we ran to meet my friend, Craig Gorczyca, and his son, Tyler, for a trip in the Raritan Bay for stripers aboard the "Sykk Physh" with Capt. Joe Gahrmann. It had been far too long, since Joe and I last fished together; so I was eagerly looking forward to getting out on his boat with him.
We scheduled a late evening "happy hour" trip ... and, happy hours they were. After a quick scan, we found the marks we were looking for, and the kids commenced to catching stripers one after another as fast as we could get baits in the water. At times, we had 3 stripers hooked-up at once.
The fish started out as small rats at first, but as the tide ran harder, the bass kept getting bigger. By the end of the trip, the kids had worn-out arms from fighting fish after fish, and they also had worn-out cheek muscles from all the smiles and laughter. We probably landed 25 bass up to 25 pounds, and we had plenty of other "log arm releases" and misses. Craig and I let Adam and Tyler handle the majority of the fish, but we each landed a couple as well when the kids were taking breaks. We kept 10 from 29 to 32 inches to divide among us while releasing all of the others, including most of the fattest roe-laden females.
For those of you who have been thinking about getting a youngster out saltwater fishing, these trips are perfect. They aren't too long and overly exhausting for kids, and as a bonus, the trips are in the back of the bay right now where the waters are more protected and sheltered. These fish are beautiful, hard-fighting and relatively easy to catch ... especially with the aid of someone who is on the water daily like Capt Joe as he knew exactly where to look for these fish and how to move with them throughout the tide cycle to insure we were on fish more than we weren't.
Can't wait to hopefully get the chance to do it again real soon as it was a blast watching the boys crush striper after striper.
- Gr8ful
