Striper

by Andrew Stairs
(Merrimack, NH. USA)

This is a striper caught in Gloucester, Mass. trolling with live mackerel.

It was 45” long. But I don't know how much it weighed because we dropped our scale in the water when landing the fish. The fight took about 10 minutes, and we caught it during high tide in shallow water (like 30 feet).

I also have a funny story on this same day...

I was using a bait rig for catching the mackerel. And then all of a sudden I hear "zzzzzz" and my reel starts whipping out line. So I set the hook not knowing what was at the end of the line. It took like 13 minutes to get the fish up, and I actually caught this blue fish.

It was the strangest thing ever. The hook was like a kiddy sized hook and it didn't break! But is was really bent.

Well anyway, that happened on the same day that I caught this striper. After we caught it we brought it home and ate it. And I normally hate all seafood, but this is the only fish I like. So overall this was a really fun day on the water.