Triathlon Bass

While there was no swimming or running involved, this lazy man’s triathlon did have its share of driving, cycling, and walking. An end-of-summer fishing adventure with a good amount of time and energy expended to reach a chosen spot; effort that would pay off in spades just a few casts in.  

Wearing wetsuits and standing in water 50-yards from shore on a dark night, it was challenging not to think about the plethora of brown sharks that chomped striped bass catches all over Long Island Sound this summer. Jim, the trip planner and my host for the night, started with a live eel. I opted for a lure that punched through the light breeze to reach the dying current, which was going from right to left around a rocky point with an ebb tide.

This lure was an Xplorer, the brainchild of a talented angler and plug builder named John Stirpe. Made of resin with a portion of its core being urethane foam, it is a unique and versatile floating swimmer that digs on a fast or slow retrieve, flashing a super realistic paintjob. It was gifted to me by my pal Eddie, a fellow fishing and artifact junkie from Massachusetts. He has fooled a number of plus-size striped bass over the past few seasons on Xplorers. Knowing I had coveted one for some time, Eddie generously mailed me a plug from his personal stash with the understanding that I would fish it hard.

Our first casts came right after full darkness set in. I was aiming to about 1:30 on a clock face. On my second cast, my lure had just splashed down and something whacked it, even before I had a chance to put my braid on the line roller. A good omen no doubt and I hollered to Jim to give him a heads up. While retrieving the very next cast, a fish slammed the Xplorer and immediately thrashed around on the surface. It then made a bee line right at me and I reeled furiously to stay in contact. When the bass realized it was hooked, she did an about face and flexed her muscles, peeling an impressive amount of line in the process.

This was the biggest test yet for my 'Montauk Eel Rod,' a Lamiglas blank cut and wrapped in 2015 by a friend and expert rod builder, Billy DiLizio. A rod soft enough to throw and feel lighter offerings, yet with enough balls to put the screws to big striped bass, which is exactly what I was doing in this moment for fear of having it bitten in half by the taxman. A strong fish, but beaten pretty quickly and still green when my Boga Grip clasped its lower lip.

In the faint beam of my headlamp, the bass did its best planking impression just under the surface, allowing me to snap a half decent photo with the Xplorer still in its jaw. Before letting her go, I lifted the fish quickly out of the water and watched the numbers on the scale drop to a hair below the 36 mark. This was a notable catch for me in a few ways. It was the largest striped bass I had caught in years, the largest ever landed on that particular rod, and my largest ever using an artificial lure. Stoked doesn’t begin to describe it. Do I wish I had gotten a better photo? Yes, but there was no good way to document it without bringing the fish to shore and risking its health and possibly missing out catching other fish. I took solace in how strong she bolted away for deeper water.

The fish were there as soon as we arrived, and likely before that, though they seemed to vacate the boulder field soon after, as the moving water grinded to a halt. Jim ended up losing what felt and sounded like another big bass on an eel and I had one more hit on the swimmer. That was it, though we kept trying for a while before the long walk, pedal, and drive back. My partner was on vacation and could have kept fishing for another 12 hours, but I had to be presentable at work the next morning. Still, I wouldn’t have changed anything. I floated on air the whole way home and for some time after. 

That was a memorable fish and experience, and I am grateful for the many cool pieces that came together to make it possible—from Jim organizing the trip, to Billy wrapping the rod, to John building the plug, to Eddie mailing it to my door. One of the greatest things about fishing is, you just never know what is going to happen on any given outing.  

Newfound Confidence

For each species of fish that we anglers target, there are a few symbolic catches each year. Whether it's the first fish or the biggest or one caught by a certain method, some catches will stand out more than others when looking back during a cold winter day. Well last night, the last night of April, I landed my first keeper-sized striped bass of the 2012 season, as did two of my friends. The three chunky bass were caught within 10 minutes of each other, all on plastic or wooden swimming plugs. The lures mimicked well what these fish were hunting, andadromous river herring. We could see schools of the baitfish pushing water on the surface and stripers were undoubtedly picking them off underneath. 

A seven-inch jointed, plastic swimmer was the first lure out of my bag. It's color pattern was called chicken-scratch and it was on my short list of confidence plugs.  The battle scars it wore, also referred to as 'mojo', proved that it was a catcher. The lure cut through the black water like a snake slithering in wet grass. But for a half hour, all I felt was one subtle bump, perhaps a striper second guessing at the last minute. Then I reached for another offering in my bag, a wooden metal-lip swimmer on loan from a friend who doesn't live as close to the brine. The plug was handmade by a Connecticut builder and given to my buddy by a tackle shop owner now carrying them. Feedback was needed on how it swam and last night's flat calm water was a fine testing ground.

On my very first cast with it, after only a few cranks of the reel, a striped bass clobbered the plug as it tail-wagged across the surface. A few short bursts of the drag sung out and the fish was soon bested on the muddy bank. I snapped a quick cell phone photograph to document my first legal bass of the season and sent the future cow back on its way. My two friends each landed fatties and hooked two others; one of the stripers was clearly in a bigger class, yet that one spit the hook unfortunately. All in all, with a symbolic catch and a plug with newfound confidence, it was a fun night of fishing.

First 2012 keeper bass caught on a Lloyd's Lures metal-lip plug