October 29, 1999 - A new place
The saltwater slump has been shattered!!! Finally! After repeated trips out to the sore we managed to land a striper! This particular trip was to Long Beach Island near the Barnegat Light. Big Mike was driving and we were both rigged for Surf Casting and Fly Casting. I got first blood while fly casting from a jetty (the striping baskets we got are a wonder for this!!!) and I landed a nice Flounder. Then not too long after Mike saw his rod doing the all too few bob and duck motions while in the sand spike. Rushing from the waves where he was playing tag with the fly he was tossing he starts to bring in the mystery fish! Mike made both of the rigs we were using the night before. His was a circle hook custom striper rig and mine was a conventional hook. The bait was mullet.
As Mike struggled with the rod and the fly rod he was holding I raced across the surf to aid him. I got the fly rod from him and went back to the equipment pile to grab the camera. As we got the fish closer I saw that the circle hook had done it's job. Hooked clean through the cheek! No way that guy was gonna throw the hook. Once we saw it in the challow surf we knew we had a keeper!
This was a great day out for us! The best part was it was my first Saltwater fish on my fly gear with a streamer that I had tied myself! So far I have managed to tie for both fresh and salt with good results!