Let's just get started somewhere...

I'm not yet sure what my compulsion is to share about it and I'm not even sure what the appropriate medium is to share about it, but let's at least get started...somewhere...

So here is my first blog:

My name is Jeff, and I live in southern CT. And like many other anglers out there, I have a bit of an obsession with a species of fish known as the Striped Bass.

"Yea, so what?" one might ask.

Well, I spend countless hours reading other people's blogs, striper fishing forums, northeast area fishing magazines, how-to books, etc. on how to, where to, and when to, catch these creatures, but so far, in my now two plus years of fishing for them, I have had, what most would consider very limited success. I currently have 3 "keepers" to my striper fishing career credits; two 28" fish caught in 2012, and a 31" caught in March of 2013.

Here's my first ever keeper:

In my time reading all this material on striper fishing, I have found that most folks posting stuff are fairly successful at it. I especially enjoy those posts that might be titled something like, "Got the wife out on the boat for the first time in 3 years..." which many times include a photo of "the Mrs." with a nice 25-pounder. Dang....

Well, first of all, for me, this is real weekend warrior stuff. There is a constant tug-of-war going on between my daily 150-mile round-trip commute to work in NJ (maybe a story for another day), my love of my wife and two teenage daughters, and my love of fishing, especially for stripers. A couple weeks ago, as I was negotiating with my wife for some time on the water, she said that she would be happy if I spent half as much time thinking about how I was going to spend time with her as I did thinking about where and when I was going to get my next fishing fix. Bottom line is I don't get to fish nearly as much as I would like to.

Secondly, this is more of a "fishing on a budget" pursuit. I don't have a boat and I'm not sure if, or when, I ever will. It sure seems like a there's a lot of extra time and $$ that goes into owning a boat. No, my vehicle of choice is a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 kayak, or from time-to-time, someone else's boat. My nephew Paulie has a nice new Triton bass boat that I look forward to getting out on with him soon for instance.

So, I'm after big game, but on a smallish budget and on a severely constrained time schedule. When I'm out there, it needs to count because I may not get out there again for weeks. Finding the right time is an enormous challenge when you are generally limited to Saturdays or Sundays. For some reason, the weather does not want to be perfectly kayak-fisherman-friendly every weekend when I'm actually available to fish....

So this blog will channel my thoughts in my pursuit of that elusive "cow" striper. I have much I'd like to share and I certainly can't squeeze it all into this first post, so I will do my best to sprinkle my thoughts and anecdotes along the way. Hopefully there'll be a few of you out there that'll find it interesting and even humorous at times. Believe me, my fishing prowess can sometimes be more like a perpetual "amateur hour" than anything else you'll read out there.

Enjoy - Jeff