Sailing the Seas Of Cheese
First, no, not shop news, an announcement.
The Berkeley Striper Club would like to announce their 13th Annual PonyTail Mike Malek Memorial Striped Bass C&R Tournament is scheduled to be held over Thanksgiving weekend. More details will be announced as we get closer to the date, but they did mention new this year there will be a boat division added to the tournament.
Now shop news.
We have something new for the kiddos. We now have sweatshirts in your sizes. Check out the Grumpys Tackle Youth Embroidered Full Zip Hooded Sweatshirts. We have them in youth sizes small, medium and large, and in Ray’s favorite clothing color (black).
We have had restocks on Shimano Stradic reels, ODM Surf belts, and Shimano TranX reels.
As far as the fishing goes, talk of the town is the big bass are here and moving through. They have become a bit finicky and are mostly looking for live or fresh bunker. Remember, to fish natural bait for striped bass, it has to be on an inline circle hook. The conservation officers have been out and giving tickets to those who are doing the snag and drop and waiting for the bass to take the snagged bunker. You must bring that snagged bunker in and put it back out on an inline circle hook to be legal.
Those who are not fishing bunker are doing best using swim shads, with white being the most popular color. Metal lipped plugs, SP Minnows and Mag Darters are also taking fish.
The blackfish bite remains good from the local rockpiles. Green crabs on tog jigs or rigs are taking some nice fish.
Some recent notable catches:
Our cover shot. Music legends in the fish. Mickey Melchiondo (i.e. Dean Ween from Ween) and some guy named Mud (ie Les Claypool from Primus) on the big fish on Mickey’s boat. They were feeding on bunker (the fish, not the musicians.)
Tons of life was seen on Saturday. Mickey had bass at his feet hitting plugs. Here is one example.
Buy a plug, catch a bass. Mike Mulholland came was in the shop Saturday morning and was rewarded when he got to the beach.
Neil Yingling with a beauty, caught in a secret spot.
Last Thursday’s fishing report was titled “PB Season...”, which triggered one of our long time customers, (who I won’t name, but their initials are JW., they share a first name with our Online Sales Manager and share a last name with a famous stranded volleyball…). He also noted he is not a fan or the term "skinny water" and is annoyed by seeing anglers hold a rod in their teeth. So, In Grumpys fashion, this “Ray Segment" is for him.
Here is ray with his PB striped bass he caught in skinny water with the rod he is currently holding in his teeth. There ya go JW…
And, since the word "triggered" tends to trigger some people, for the record JW wasn't really upset about any of the things he claimed triggered him. We are just having fun at his expense. I wonder how many triggered people were triggered by "triggered", since triggered has been used extensively in this last paragraph. This is getting confusing. I am outta here...