Monterey Surf Stripers

The recent reports of Stripers got me fired up, and I managed to convince the wife to let me head down Saturday afternoon to see if I could finally shoot one.

Been trying for about 3 years now and so far have had no luck...

Got to the beach, suited up and jumped in and right away came across HUGE schools of bait. 

Spent 2+ hours in and around the bait hoping to see stripers coming through to feed but no luck...

Decided to head in tight to shore and right then a school of stripers showed up!!

Took aim at one and planted a nice holding shot right by his pec fin!

Not huge but could tell he was legal and ended up taping out to 20 inches.

Put the fish on my belt and reloaded as fast as I could because the school was hanging out right around me...of course as soon as I got reloaded they vanished. 

Worked the shallows back and forth and saw some more about the same size or smaller than the one I already had but passed on the shots...

Then another big school came by and while I was trying to figure out which one to shoot, one of the bigger ones turned and came at me and I shot him right in the face.   

Stood up and yelled to a guy surf casting that they were right here and got out of the water...turns out the angler was bmb! 

He snapped a pic and got back to casting and I headed back to the car and had a celebratory beer before driving home.

Super stoked that I finally was able to shoot an ocean striper and hope in the future I get a chance at some bigger models!! 

Huge thanks to all the guys on here that have bee supportive in my quest to get one and have helped me out with advice and info on locations and reports!

 

Only bummer is that my GoPro ran out of batteries before the action...just have 2 hours of bait and sand. 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Few more food pics.

Tasted awesome!!!

 

 

Awesome!!  Congrats on a goal pursued and fulfilled. 

HELL YEAH BRO!!! Bout fukn time!!!!

Right on, dude!

Very cool!

Way to go Jim. Glad your perseverance paid off big time!

THWACK .... Bullseye and Congrats!!  I would have already given up after 3 years of attempts. 

Awesome job Jim!!


-Kiel

Dude nice job glad you got on them! 

 

BMB.  You were just mentioning him on a previous post  not to snag you while casting. What a coincidence .

I think salt water striper are one of the best tasting fish.

Alex

So awesome that you finally got them Jim!  What a great challenge!!!  Nice work buddy! 

BMB.  You were just mentioning him on a previous post  not to snag you while casting. What a coincidence .

I think salt water striper are one of the best tasting fish.

Alex

i knew where Jim was the whole time.  I was trying to put a rapala in front of his face to see if he would bite it.

BMB.  You were just mentioning him on a previous post  not to snag you while casting. What a coincidence .

I think salt water striper are one of the best tasting fish.

Alex

i knew where Jim was the whole time.  I was trying to put a rapala in front of his face to see if he would bite it.

I would have snagged him to see if he put up a fight. 

Congrats on finally getting em

You "stood up"?

How deep were you? Did you shoot from the surface?