Stripers And Anglers Most Unusual Catch Awards!

[DarkSkies]

The above shows what a good sport Monty is......but beyond his proclaimed victory as the Googan of the Year ( A title which I am at times jealous of and have tried to steal from him with my own googan mistakes.......)

Monty is a compulsive fisherman.....
When he's out there he is (usually) targeting bass.....

However, sometimes other creatures jump aboard the retrieval train of White Water Monty.....

There was the time in the summer of 2012........
When he caught the cownose ray on the teaser.....
And promptly got mugged by Al Ristori, who was fishing nearby......

(note, Al is a fixture among the salt water community, writer, colorful character, somewhat of a BS' er, but still, in all, a part of NJ Saltwater Fishing History...... )
















Here's that story, giving White Water Monty the title of StripersAndAnglers "Biggest non-bass Catch caught on a teaser"



July 15, 2012, post 41
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...nty+al+ristori

Great report, congrats on the bass (again) Finchaser
My wacky report.
I fished this morning ocean side from 2:30 - 8:00.
Was delayed (stuck on the Driscoll Bridge ) for an hour and half. Fished one area for an hour and did not catch anything. Moved south about 10-15 miles. I proceeded to catch everything but what I wanted to catch .
Caught a herring on a teaser, 3 Sea robins on teasers, a small blue fish on a teaser and then two rays (one on a teaser, ended up hooked on the tail....took a good 15 minutes and some strong runs to land), the other on J-rod 4 oz metal....when it hit the lure I think I saw it roll in the wave....., landed and released in 5 minutes. Was real happy how my rod and line held up to these fish as I had to really put it to them to stop the runs and get them off the bottom. Lost a few fish on long casts (small fish), missed a blow up on the Dookster . Was fun, no bugs, water not to hot, no one else out there until the sun came out. I had not caught a sea robin this year until last week (now I'm catching them on teasers in front of poppers) and I can't remember the last time I caught a ray.

[DarkSkies]

Here's Al Ristori's follow up report........

Monty's now famous, ....congrats Bro...you gave Al a run for his $$.....
As he was driving home, he told me about this guy who was mugging him on the beach. Every time Monty got a fish the guy was there to see what he was doing and how he was doing it (Monty was the only guy on the beach that got fish that morning......)
Later on, we discover it was Al.....







Al Ristori's report......
"I didn't catch anything in the surf this morning, but watched a surfcaster fight two snagged sting rays. Fortunately, he was using relatively heavy spinning tackle that enabled him to work the first ray that I'd estimate at 30 to 50 pounds and was snagged in the tail. He switched to a surface plug, and was working that hard when he hooked up with a sea robin that hit the fast-moving teaser on the surface. Then he went back to the original diamond jig, and amazingly snagged into another sting ray that he eventually cut off on the leader in the wash. "

[DarkSkies]

Chas527, the Long Long way from Home, 2012 AWard.....










For catching a Sheepshead, at Sandy Hook, in the middle of October 2012.......
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ing+sheepshead

fished the hook this morning.rough water 6 onces was just holding bottom.4 bass 2small 2 keepers on clams.also got a drum.i think? pretty fish silver with black horizontal stripes about 6 lbs.

that was a sheeps head. the tackle store told me it was a druml

[Monty]

I catch weird things like Stomin Steve finds dead things.
Some catches this year:





Last few years

[cowherder]

Monty kudos for all the crazy things you catch! The reports are always funny and the pics rock even when its not a bass.

[storminsteve]

The coolest - the stargazer and the hooked shoe. Did you kiss that stargazer for good luck monty?

[ledhead36]

Nice going . There was a guy who got a 70lb drum off one of the piers in Sept. Maybe you can add that to your bucket list, you seem to have every other creature conquered. Awsome catches.

[jonthepain]

The coolest - the stargazer ...

i caught one of those in surf city 30 years ago - had no clue what it was, the old timer fishing next to me told me not to touch it (as if!) cuz it's a shocker

crazy looking beast

my fishing partner caught a hatch cover in the rips back in 1990... fought it for about an hour... never laughed so hard in my life.

then we ran out of gas on the way in. his paddle had delaminated, so we paddled in with the handle.

until the tide turned.

no matter how fast he paddled, the dock kept getting farther... farther... farther away

luckily some stunad took pity on us and towed us in.

my face hurt for a week after that trip.

turnabout was fair play, though, cuz when we got back home i burned out my clutch trying to back his dam boat up his steep crooked driveway on a skinny busy street in central jersey rush hour... luckily i couldn't see him laughing at me cuz of the giant cloud of clutch smoke.