Fishing Fanatic: Quite possibly the best weekend ever! Another all nighter included!

Wow! Where to start...I guess the beginning...nah. Let's go backwards.

Last night I got a black lab puppy! I've always wanted one but was never in the position to have one. She is an awesome little girl and I can't wait to take her (Molly) fishing with me! The Mayer family just got a little bigger!

Saturday before the puppy I fished with Ashley Bishop at Beaverdam reservoir. It was nothing special because it was very slow fishing. I ended up with three 12" bass and lost one pickerel at the boat. Ash got one 14" bass and one 20"pickerel (10 Kayak Wars points)

I spent all Friday afternoon with my awesome wife Alice. We went to the Williamsburg antique mall and I got her a letter opener shaped like a sword. Just so everyone knows my wife is the best wife in the world. So that pretty much makes me the luckiest dude in the world. I am truly blessed.

I fished for striper from 11pm Thursday night to 7 Friday morning. It was an amazing night of striper catching! It started off about as slow as it could get. I fished for 2 hours without a single bite. In that time Forrest caught 8-10 striper up to 28". I was getting frustrated but had to stay at it. By the time Forrest quit he had caught a dozen or more and I was only up to 3 small striper. I was getting extremely sleepy at this point and was tempted to just leave with him but I had a feeling that it was about to get good. It was after 2am, I was fishing by myself, and dozing off periodically when it finally started getting good. From 3am til 5:15 I caught a striper every 2-3 casts with the occasional 10-15 cast slow periods. They were fat and most of them were around 24". My biggest 2 were 38" and 42"

I finally used my new Release reel that Wes Seigler gave to me. I have to say, it is a powerful reel. It is not designed for casting small baits but I couldn't wait to use it so I tied on a mirrolure. It has such an amazing free-spool! I was expecting the reel to be impossible to cast with 50 lb power pro but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could cast a mirrolure nearly as far as I could with my spinning rod! I am kind of spoiled with all the fancy new brake controls for my baitcasters but after a few casts I got thumbing the spool down to a science. It landed a fat 24" striper like it was a minnow! I can't wait to get some tautog with it! Thanks Wes!

At 7am I finished the trip with at least 25 striper (300 kayak wars points). I was just a little sleepy so the paddle back was tough against the 25 + mph winds. I was so tired I actually fell asleep while paddling and almost tipped the yak! I don't know why but I love pushing myself like that!

Before the striper fishing I went to the Piscataway creek to try my luck with some yellow perch and crappie. It was a little slow but I ended up with 3 crappie, 2 perch, and 2 shad. Nothing huge but still fun.