Fifty pound line? Quite the sportsman, eh? Anyway, he now holds the
record. Good for him if it makes him happy.

Personally I'd be more thrilled to catch a bull Red on eight or ten pound
line with artificial bait. Of course I'd probably be just as happy to catch
a nice Red with live shrimp, a bull minnow or even dead shrimp but there is
something about catching fish with artificial bait.

Yesterday I caught several Specks with artificials but all were undersized
so went back in the bay. My fishing partner put five Specks in the cooler.
Of course we had all the usual catches like croakers, cats, stingrays, and
best of all oysters which we were kind enough to leave behind for our
friends to catch.

Butch
"Harry.Krause" wrote in message
...
52-Pound Reward For 5-Year Obsession
Striped Bass Earns Man Spot in Md. Record Book

By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 21, 2005; B01

For three weeks, 30 to 50 hours a week, the manic Allen Sklar paced behind
his three tall surf fishing rods, sitting only to munch a sandwich, and
cursing the low-rent sharks and skates nibbling bait they weren't big
enough to take.

For three weeks, Sklar cast fat fish heads into the surf at the end of his
50-pound fishing line, in search of the monster striped bass he knew were
somewhere out there, chugging north in their annual spring migration off
Maryland's Assateague State Park.

Then, at high noon Monday, after Sklar, 54, had endured another morning of
fishing torment, one of his rods bent deeply, the reel sang and he spotted
a fin in the water that made his heart leap. Here, at last, was the quarry
he sought.

Twenty minutes later, in the solitude of the empty beach a surf fisherman
loves, Sklar dragged onto the sand a 50-inch striped bass that weighed 52
pounds, 14.4 ounces and that state officials said yesterday was a striped
bass record for Maryland's coastal region.

It was the biggest fish Sklar had caught -- it was "the biggest I'd ever
seen with my own eyes," he said yesterday. It brought the state record
home to Bishopville, just northwest of Ocean City, where Sklar has run a
bike rental business for 28 years. And it climaxed one man's five-year
adherence to the mystical ways of those who fish the surf.

At its height, surf fishing is a cult of stubborn, driven individuals who
prefer long vigils by themselves on the beach to the bland certainties of
fishing from a boat. "When you surf fish," Sklar said, "you don't expect
to catch fish -- you hope to catch fish."

"Their passion surpasses that of most fishermen," said Martin L. Gary, a
fisheries ecologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. And
their patience is legendary.

Sklar said he has been fishing for about a decade but fishing seriously
for about half that time. "I did not become a crazy person until about
five years ago," he said. "It's an obsession."

The striper spring migration usually runs from the beginning of April
until about the second week in May, Sklar said. "During that time period,
you fish hard and hope to get your fish." It's not a lot of time, and this
year's run had been relatively fruitless, especially the last three weeks.
"I had caught so many skates and sharks that my forearms were sore, and my
elbows and wrists," he said. "It's just ridiculous."

The only recourse is to bait the hook with an eight-ounce fish head that's
so large only a big striper can swallow it.

Sklar had started out at 6 a.m. Monday, zipping his four-wheel-drive truck
down the beach. He put out five lines, then cut down to three, setting
them at distances that were essentially long, medium, and short. "All
morning, all three rods just jumped and jumped," he said in a telephone
interview, as the "junk fish" dined.

"It was so much work," he said. "I had lunch and I thought about leaving."
He was still sitting in his beach chair after his sandwich when he saw a
rod tip go down, and stay down, and heard line ripping off the reel. He
got up and grabbed the rod.

The fish headed straight out, peeling off about four-fifths of the line
from the reel. There was no stopping it. But Sklar still thought he might
have just a really big ray on the line.

The fish slowed, then veered south. Sklar walked along about 100 yards.
The fish headed out to sea again and then turned north. About ten minutes
into the fight, Sklar spotted a dorsal fin and realized this was no ray.
He began to reel the fish in. He was very careful. "I knew that it was
bigger than anything I had previously caught."

"I put it on the beach," he said. "I looked at it. I stared at it." There
was no one else around. He put the beast in a cooler and resumed fishing.


Article & photo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...052001444.html




--
Impeach Bush

My favorite nephew lives in Virginia and surf fishes for stripers at
every opportunity. I'll send this along to him, he might know Mr.
Sklar...