Greetings!

[JakeF]

Hello all. Just wanted to drop a post here and introduce myself. I just got off the phone with DarkSkies, and realized that I'd never checked his site out. Well done, Rich! Looks nice!

My name is Jake. I come alive on dark nights in the frothy wash of the New England surf. I can usually be found somewhere along the RI or MA coast, but fish anywhere from NY/NJ to Maine during the course of the season. Nothing warms my blood like a striped 50 in the surf on a dark night

I'm Vice President of Stripercoast Surfcasters Club, and an avid surfcaster, skisher, and kayaker. Striped bass are my quarry, but the vast majority of the fish I catch get to swim away with a kiss on the nose and a story for their girlfriends of the crazy looking dude who unhooked them. (I like that smiley! Can I steal it?)

May your rods be frequently and powerfully bent!
- JakeF

[Stripercoast1]

Well well well, what have we here!
You will notice I came here about a week ago, and you've got some catching up to do!

[JakeF]

Wouldn't be the first time you came early, I'm sure.

[BassBuddah]

Wouldn't be the first time you came early, I'm sure.

God I hope you guys are good friends, them are fighting words! Welcome aboard, Jake.

[JakeF]

God I hope you guys are good friends, them are fighting words! Welcome aboard, Jake.

Haha,, at least you didn't reply with "How do you know that?"
Yah, we bust balls all the time. He can take it

Thanks for the welcome BB!

[cowherder]

Welcome Jake this is a great site, I like it a lot. What is skishing like? How long have you been doing it? Ever get brushed against by any sharks?

[JakeF]

Hmm,,, what is skishing like? It really has to be experienced to be understood, but it's definitely not for everyone. I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone who is not at least a little crazy. But for me, skishing is to surfcasting, what a hurricane is to a windy day.

To be immersed in the element that holds your quarry, bass sometimes swimming so close to you that you can kick them, feeling the raw power of a big bass pull you around, wrestling one on one with a big fish in their element is unreal. They don't give up when they're still in the water, and you can't lift a big bass out of the water when you're swimming, so it can become a friggen wrestling match until you get your hook out if the fish is still green. I always crush the barbs of my hooks for an easier release anyway, so sometimes you can just give them some slack and they'll release themselves if it's just a lip hook. With an 11' rod, you really have a lot more leverage than most would think, and with some practice you can horse a fish in (or pull yourself closer to it) rather quickly.

Skishing also provides the surfcaster with access to many very fishy areas that are not accessible from shore or frequented by boats due to the hazardous rocks and reefs. How many times have you been standing on a rock or on the beach and the fish are busting beyond your casting range? That's frustrating. Skishing lets you get out to where they are.

My favorite time to skish though is at night when the tide is moving, and you can swim out into a tidal rip, drop an eel or jig, and just effortlessly and silently drift along a reef or over a trench where the bass lie in wait. The fight in the darkness, the gaping mouth than comes straight at you through the darkness, as you pull it closer, the ensuing battle for the retrieval of your hook, and the tail slap to the side of the head as she swims away as if to say, "HEY! Thanks alot for interrupting my dinner time with that pokey thing!" The sudden realization that you're a lot further from shore than you intended

Have I had any brushes with sharks? Everyone asks me that, and the answer is no,,, not yet. Quite frankly, I think most people's fear of sharks is largely unrealistic and blown WAY out of proportion by the movie industry. Go onto a surfing forum and see how many surfers in New England have even been harrassed by sharks, much less injured in recent years,,, VERY few. Statistically over 100 times more people are killed and injured by cattle each year than sharks. I grew up in the feed lots, sale barns, and corals in the midwest and witnessed several close friends get killed by bulls and freaked out cows. I had a few close calls myself. I'll take on sharks over that any day of the week. That said, I have had my heart jump into my throat a few times while swimming backwards in the dark and bumping into a rock I didn't realize was there

Thanks for the welcome!

[albiealert]

That's a great detailed explanation about skishing, I'm almost tempted to try it....next year! Welcome aboard, Jake.

[basshunter]

Welcome Jake. That's some narrative about skishing. I would say it's not for me but I am impressed with those who are successful at it.

[surfwalker]

Jake, welcome to the site. I've seen people skish and it's wild, look forward to your future posts.

[williehookem]

Hey Jake welcome. How goes it in Mass? Any big bass up there yet?

[JakeF]

Thanks for the welcome guys.


Big bass in MA? There are no fish in MA,,,, or RI for that matter .


Actually, the fishing has been pretty decent lately. There's been swarms of bait of all kinds in the waters, which is a double-edged sword. Yes, it brings in a lot of bass,,, but they're well fed bass. I've found that when there is SO much bait around sometimes it pays to think outside the box and offer up something different than what they're getting,,, something interesting and out of the ordinary that will stand out and catch the attention of a gluttonous bass who's already had one sandeel too many.

The nice part is that the fish I've caught over the last few weeks have all been FAT and unusually heavy for their length.

[stripercrazy]

Hi Jake.

[JakeF]

Hi stripercrazy

Hey DS. What hoops do I have to jump through to get rid of the Guest Welcome message at the top of the page and access to PM's, etc.? I won't do just anything you know.

[DarkSkies]

I'm Vice President of Stripercoast Surfcasters Club, and an avid surfcaster, skisher, and kayaker. Striped bass are my quarry, but the vast majority of the fish I catch get to swim away with a kiss on the nose and a story for their girlfriends of the crazy looking dude who unhooked them. (I like that smiley! Can I steal it?)

- JakeF

Hey Jake what's up! Great talkin to ya today, you really got things going like a steamroller over there. Thanks for all the effort you put into Stripercoastsurfcasters. It really shows.

Steal all the smilies ya want, we're finally at the stage (tiny site that we are) that a few enterprising empty heads can't think up ideas on their own, and are now coming here to find stuff to post on some other sites. My thread "How I did it: my eel tank" is just one such example.

It's all good, I suppose I should be flattered, but I'm just amused, life goes on.


"Hey DS. What hoops do I have to jump through to get rid of the Guest Welcome message at the top of the page and access to PM's, etc.? "
Jake, the PM permissions are universally set at 25 posts to discourage spammers, you're more than halfway there aready with 15 posts. At the rate you're going you should hit 25 by 9am tomorrow. :

[JakeF]

Thanks DS. By the way,,, I'd be happy send you that Selective Quote plug-in if you want to add it to this forum (and any others I have that you like) Most of them are quite easy to install. (edit: just noticed that your forum is on ver. 3.7.3, so my 3.8.3 plugins may not work here. I can however get you a link to the 3.7.3 versions of them if available)


Did I read that right, that somone stole your eel tank thread?
I hope they at least gave credit to the author and source...

[DarkSkies]

Jake, 1 day after my eel thread was up, someone I used to know somewhere else put up a thread asking "How" to set up an eel tank and asking if anyone had pics of theirs. Maybe coincidence, maybe not, though not important in the big scheme of things.

I'm not so arrogant to think everyting I say is meaningful. Half of my posts probably have no compelling appeal sometimes, I'm only right half the time anyway.

But like we said today, small issues arent worth picking over. I think if you check all the sites out there you'll find the same basic threads, rehashed over and over. It's the nature of the beast, I just roll with it, too busy to worry or care.

Besides, any free time I have is spent fishin, why would I let something petty take me away from the whitewater, right? Thanks for all the advice, you put a lot of nice tweaks in over there, I think the members should really grow to like them.

[JakeF]

I hear ya

Time to go get wet. I have a good feeling this morning.