Eclipse Bite Confirmed

On April 8th, while scores of people sat in traffic heading north to find the path of totality, Gerald Berrafati and I were walking along a beach towards a point where Striped Bass tend to be this time of year. A kind woman in the parking lot had been handing out eclipse glasses. Gerald grabbed a pair, and as the moon started to pass in front of the sun, we donned the silly paper glasses and stared at the Sun. 

The fishing was slow, until it wasn’t.  Our friend Chris was there as well, who welcomed a daughter into his family just a few weeks prior.  His time was understandably limited, and he began wading out of the water to head to his fatherly duties right as Gerald had hooked into a Striper just about 40 inches.  Poor Chris.  I’ve been there, I get it.  The past two seasons Chris had caught his first Striper of the year before me anyways, he’ll be fine.

What we found to be most interesting, was in the hour and a half or so that the moon was passing in front of the sun, was the time in which we landed our best fish.  Some quality ones at that, between 30 and 40 inches. Before and after lunar transit, the fishing was somewhat slow and much smaller fish decided to eat our offerings.  A text from Gerald later that day read “Eclipse bite, 100% confirmed.”

 I used an underwater camera for the first time to capture these images, look out for more underwater photography this season.