The Dark Side of surf fishing

[J Barbosa]

When you live an hour drive from your favorite fishing haunts not falling asleep at the wheel becomes a serious concern.

The worst is when you plan to fish 9-1am after a long day of work and then around 1am you finally start catching fish. You fish all night until 6am...and you have to be at work by 8am. You get to work and your coworkers ask if you were out drinking last night and you LOL.

[dogfish]

You get to work and your coworkers ask if you were out drinking last night and you LOL.

Semi-related joke-

Don sneaks in after a night out on the water.
On his way in he rubs lipstick on his collar, and drinks a quick beer so it appears he has been drinking.
He gets into the bedroom and his wife turns on the light.
"Where were you, honey?" his wife asks.
Don says: "Oh honey I was out drinking with the boys.
She walks up to him and sees fish scales on his hands - "Don't lie to me you have been fishing again!"'''''''''

[basshunter]

^^ Haha! Funny stuff dogfish! Here is a cool video maybe you guys will like it.

[porgy75]

Hilarious lol!!!

[DarkSkies]

Basshunter, thank you.
The guy I fished next to is a mutual friend of Finchaser and me. The guy in that video reminds me of him. Looks like him a bit too, only the guy we know has a beard...

Today is his anniversary and he was out fishin....hope he's still married by next year....

[finchaser]

Basshunter, thank you.
The guy I fished next to is a mutual friend of Finchaser and me. The guy in that video reminds me of him. Looks like him a bit too, only the guy we know has a beard...

Today is his anniversary and he was out fishin....hope he's still married by next year....

He's celebrating like I always tell you your not in trouble until you come home and your clothes are packed in bags on the front lawn. aah the memories,

[DarkSkies]

^ Finchaser would know about the dark side of surf fishing, folks....one marriage ended because he was fishing most of his free time...
(I think you're better off with the new model you traded in for, pal...make sure you tell her that when you read this....)





*********
In the last few months, I have been running into some of the most bizarre characters....so bizarre that they almost make me and the fishing I do look normal..
These are people for whom fishing is more than a casual thing...it's a big part of their lives...

1. Most of them are old-school....
2. Most have or want nothing to do with the internet....
3. And yes....they're still catching bass, big blues, and whatever the biggest thing out there is....to put a solid bend in their rod at night....
4. They are all night fishermen...various areas.....
5, And most have caught impressive numbers and sizes of bass, long after everyone else gave up and switched to fluke fishing......


Am I coming here to blatantly praise these dedicated and talented fishermen?
To an extent, yes....
But there is a darkness to this as well...as Finchaser experienced.....

Every single person I know who is at the top of their game......and fishes frequently....
has had to make some significant sacrifices.....
And cut out some other things in their lives.....

Some have cut relationships....
Divorces, failed marriages....Some continue to be single...
All because they love fishing....but beyond that...are obsessive about the catching part.....these are all highly successful anglers.....
A. It's a priority in their lives....
B. Is one of the most important things that drives them to be out there as often as they are....
C. In many instances, these folks I know....are half-insane....
Managing to keep a job or some other structure in their lives...but still half-crazy.

They have contempt for those who fish in groups....that kind of fishing is really not why a lot of us are out there at night....
One of my friends recently said:
"What's this with the new concept of group fishing? Are these guys dating each other or just fishing?

These are the concepts that a lot of us grew up with....
For the most part, the best fishermen I know out there....are loners.....
Unless health reasons require them to fish with just one other person....
Most of these folks, are happiest when alone out there, in pursuit of bigger fish at night.......

Just wanted some others to be aware.....
If you are envious or jealous of what they're catching......
Remember that they had to make some sacrifices, to be able to get to that level......
food for thought.....

[DarkSkies]

Being able to fish a bite, at a moment's notice....

I'm not talking about blitz fishing here....but the fishing when a solid bite develops..
Some folks are able to drop what they're doing, and in some cases drive a hundred miles, or several states away...to find fish that are not in the usual areas....
The Cape May/Atlantic County area bite earlier this summer, where most of the Berkeley C&R tourney winners came from, is but one example.....

During the last 2 weeks, a bite developed in a state North of us.....
I first heard of it about 2 weeks ago....I can talk about it now because it's fair to say it's mostly played out....only the locals have a fair shot at the isolated pockets of fish that remain.......

I just couldn't rush up there...I don't have that kind of committment-free luxury in my life...
However there are some people who can.....and do...being able to travel at a moment's notice...
And that's what makes the difference...sometimes it's just one or two nights of good fishing....


The list of out-of-staters up there read like a "Who's Who" list of the surf fishing world....A friend, one of the best fishermen I know...
Recently went up.....he only had 24 hours,,,,and got nothing....while another friend had double digit fish to 30# the night before.....
That's part of what I mean by the insanity of this all....
And the reality that we are seeing less fish around....lack of a sustained pattern to plan your fishing by.....
forcing people to gravitate toward bites like this.....

I got feedback that although this bite wasn't highly publicized on the internet....the fishing was shoulder to shoulder....
That's not my kind of fishing.......and for that reason I wasn't in a hurry to get up there......

It has become, for some, a mad rush to jump in the car or truck, to get to the one shining area that month, where there is a good bite....if you miss it your numbers for the year will suffer.






**Just thought I would share...the ridiculous attempts some of us will go through to get into some decent fish.....
It really ain't that easy lately, to catch bigger fish from land....
If some folks can't look at this, and see how bad things have become, for most of us...creating frenzy conditions whenever a decent land-based bite develops..then they will never understand how far down, the quality of fishing for bass has fallen in the last 8 years....