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Monomoy Flats - 40" in two feet of water

2K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  juro 
#1 ·
What a day. Bright sun, flooding tide, and big fish.

I took my co-worker on his first striper trip ever after a quick casting lesson yesterday at lunch. Usually doing the schoolie thing to break in a newbie, I opted for the Rip Ryder to get the whole experience in one shot.

Met up with Domenic and Seth at the refuge and hopped over to the beach. We split up and staked out some good water, and the shadows started to appear.

Domenic had a hot hand, hooking up early and often. He was having a blast sight fishing on a broad flat with Seth as we worked along the flat.

After having fun hooking some finicky stripers in the bright sun and shallow flats, we left the flat before it was too late. Amit needed to get to a barbeque and although there was no striper fillet this time, it was time to walk back with him to the shuttle point. On the way back I spotted three bass and luckily still had the line stripped in the basket.

A quick lead cast, pause, strip - the big lead fish inhaled the fly and all hell broke loose. It churned the water, ran deep into the backing, and after an epic fight came by our side. It measured out at 40", as gorgeous as you could ever imagine laying in the tide current in the sunshine as it started to fidget.

The thought of Amit's barbeque appointment flashed in my mind, and I looked at him to see what he was thinking. He said over and over "what a beautiful fish" and with a hard head shake the fish went free again. We watched it as it disappeared again into the deep water, and headed for the shuttle.

It was the kind of day that makes Monomoy what it is. Awesome.
 
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#8 ·
Randy -

Coming from you, thanks!

There were four of us when I hooked it, and none of us had a camera. Dom and Seth decided to move on after I had hooked the fish, and they were a good 150 yards down the beach when I landed the fish but they got a real good look at it as it churned up the water and headed for Woods Hole.

When she came in, I held her in the water by the thumb and the current flowed over the big body and huge head, as she started to get tired of being pulled around. Amit and I stood there letting the image burn deep into our minds. Believe me I said at least ten times "I can't believe I have no camera". One of the things that stands out in a big fish is the change in the head proportions. The eyes seem to have a different spacing on that big skull than when they are tykes. The mouth was so huge I could fit both fists in it. The scales on the cheeks and around the head were like little gold leaf work laid on an olive brown backdrop. We took a measurement and she bolted over the edge of the flat to deep water.

This was Amit's first experience fishing for stripers, he asked "do you always get them that size?". I WISH! I told him that most are in between that size and the smaller ones we caught earlier.

I'll just have to find another like that someday with a camera at the ready ;-)
 
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