Hi All,
Spent a very windy Saturday fishing the Hudson shoreline between GWB and Yonkers.
Winds were gusting up to 40 mph and even witnessed a cyclone touching down for a few brief moments. White tip waves abound and rod was bouncing all over the place - very hard to keep bait in one place even with 3oz of sinker.
First fish of the day was a 19" striper around 11am, unfortunately riddled with fungus so it went back in. Nothing biting between noon and 4pm and was thinking about heading home.
Went for the final cast and within minutes had landed a clean striper of circa 18"......given the release size for striped bass between GWB and Tappenzee Bridge is 18" it went back in as I prayed to the Hudson River Gods for bigger fish. Between 4.30pm and 6pm I pulled in another half dozen or so Stripers all around 17-19", again all of which were released and the prayers continued.
6.40 pm the rod bowed, the reel screamed (just a little) and whatever was on the hook took off for the palisades on the opposite shore at a high rate of knots.
With some coaxing, and a mighty fight and not too much brute force (light rig and 12lb main line) I eventually brought in a Striped Bass of around 28 inches - see pics below.
Caught on bloodworm with sliding sinker about 20yds from shore and eaten on Mothers Day for Sunday Lunch. Damn thing was too big to fit in the sink, knives were too blunt for precision filet/gutting and an hour later both the cat and I were covered in scales (as was the rest of the kitchen) but we all ate well!
Tight Lines
Bravo
