spending a lot of time on cuttyhunk as a kid got me interested in it back in the early 80's. I would walk out to SW point and go exploring and watch the very few locals who liked to surfcast fish out there- they would drive their golfcarts out to the end and cast Atom striperswipers out into the whitewater- i remember it like it was yesterday....
I started fishing the surf when I was 16. I would go out blindly around newport and chunk pogie heads with some of my highschool buddies and have a blast. We'd chum with a water balloon slingshot and chum up big bass... A guy from newport that I only knew as 'Nunes' took me under his wing a bit and gave me one hell of a lesson about striped bass and how to fish newport that i will never forget- he took a fish over 45 lbs every year on ocean drive on rigged eels that he rigged with toilet chain and 9/0 stainless siwash hooks.. He taught me everything I know pretty much about the basics of surf fishing- the right knots, rigged eels.. eel bobs, etc. I took heed to the eels, but fishing artificials interested me more as I was not fishing for food, nor money- the catching was just a bonus I guess......
In the early 90's i built a 18 foot sea kayak and was one of the first guys that I knew of who was striper fishing out of a yak in newport- I am sure there were others, but i never saw any... Id paddle out to seal rock sometimes and surf cast off of it- Gooseberry Island was another favorite place to paddle out to and surfcast from.
Then I went to college in the late 90's and forgot completely about striped bass and it wasnt until i moved to south county RI that I dove back into it. its funny, because a lot of people thought I was new to fishing only becuase I was new to south county- a new face learning new spots so to speak...
back then... back when I was learning how to surfcast, there was no internet and learning things was a lot harder than it is now- it took years to learn what one can learn now in a matter of a few hours using the search feature. Guys fished alone or with one other and most importantly, there were no cell phones to ruin a good blitz- if you were there you were lucky and if you missed it, it was because you were not fishing enough-i miss those days- i think i am getting old
hows that for a ramble??
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