Definitely not a Trout!

This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you all about the phenomenal efforts put forth by yours truly with the fly rod. However, such was not the case. After crusing to Staten Island and other places of general striper interest, we wound up live-lining adult bunkers off Monmouth Beach. As the picture shows, we found the cow pasture that early June day! This fish was released to swim and fight another day. A smaller striper that had obviously spawned already made the trip home for dinner that evening. In all, we caught fish between 25 and 43 pounds with a double header between my friend Russ and his girlfriend Christine where both fish were well over 30 lbs. each! This was the first time I used circle hooks with such a large bait and great care needed to be taken to make certain that the fish had the whole bunker in its mouth before you came tight to the line, letting the hook sink itself into the corner of the fish’s mouth. Man, can these cows pull hard! So far, I haven’t been able to land a hog such as this on the fly rod, but not for a lack of trying, I assure you!!!