Curses, By Alexi

I don't believe in good luck, bad luck or curses.  I eat bananas in my boat.  I wear clothes with fish prints, and sometimes I don't.  I don't have a lucky lure, or a lucky rod, or any of that crap.  BUT, if there is one thing that may verge on the superstitious, it is that IF I have fish in the fridge, I will not catch a keeper.  Maybe it's just a confidence issue, I don't know, but it seems to be true.  Last week I still had some striper steaks in my fridge and all of my fish were 27".  I ate the Striper steaks, and this week I managed to land a 33" 12.5 lb Bass.

And now for the report:

   This was a solo trip, and I wasn't in a rush to get out of town.  I've fished Raritan mid-day, and morning, and wanted to fish sunset this time (without having pedaled all day.)  I got to the Keyport Boat ramp with bloodworms and a cheese hoagie around 3 p.m.  It was a little on the windy side, and there was a nice chop on the water when I set out.  I had my Humminbird fish-finder working, and while during the past two trips I had marked fish,  this time I was not.  Things were different, and all rumors pointed to a flush from the rivers into the bay of fresh water from heavy rains.

   Within 45 minutes or so I had a big blue on, .....and off at the side of the boat.  Whenever this happens I get it into my head that I am going to be crushing big  blues all day.   As the day wore on, what seemed to be this inevitable truth became less and less likely to the point where I was  going to be skunked.  I hit a few new areas.  I passed by some other kayakers who told me they were on the fish, and I was in a good spot, and I kept going passed them.  I was getting fatigued, and starting to hate Raritan Bay when, as I approached the area that I had the Blue on at the beginning of the trip, I hooked into another big fish.  It felt like another big blue, tight head shakes and all, and I was so sure that it was, I was a little cavalier about the fight.  As it got closer the boat it sounded in ways more like a bass.  And then I saw stripes.  I immediately changed my tactics to "Land this fish dammit!"  And as is the case with sunset fishing, it's always the hail Mary, end of the day "getter-done" fish!   (Or I was just lucky)

33" 12.5 lbs