Last year my friends and fellow fly fishermen, Matt and Mark Reilly, set out to fish the Northern and Central New Jersey coastline. We hammered striped bass and bluefish but our real target, the weakfish, proved to be all too elusive. On our last day we found an enticing shore spot where the water formed an impressive ripline all in casting range. Armed with ten weights and pink jiggies, we dredged the rip hoping to feel the line go tight. Our morale was falling lower and lower as the sun set against the watery horizon. Just when we were about to call it quits, my line was ripped out of my hands. A tell tale orange tale thrashed the surface in the distance. I was on with a weakfish. I worked the fish in and landed the 21″ fish. Hoping to capitalize on an improving bite, we cast back out. On the next cast my buddy hooked up. Real screaming, his fish made a powerful run and used the current as leverage. His rod was stressed and we looked at each other wondering when our undermatched tippet would succomb to the weakfish’s impressive teeth. Unfortunately, our suspicions were confirmed and the fish popped off. We packed it in and made the trek back to the car all smiles. We weren’t so much happy because of our catch but rather because of the future prospects that this tremendous shore spot offered. Last week, twelve months later from our first experience, we headed back to down to the now famed shore spot. My friends and I had talked about nailing these weakfish all year long. Done with college and anxious to harass fish, we sped down to the spot. My fly box was full of 6-9″ long pink deceivers. Pink is a crucial color for weakfish. At times it seems all they will take is a pink offering. I tied on a 7″ fly and this time wisely used a 40lb shock tippet. We all started to cast. Our hearts pumping, we used two handed retrieves to imitate a disoriented baitfish caught in the rip. After a half hour, the weakfish proved non existent. Our spirits were hardly deterred. My buddy asked to try my new rod, so I handed him my 10 weight and reached into my bag for a water. Thirty seconds later I hear the welcoming sound of a screaming reel. I turn and my friend has a sly grin on his face. “I’ve got a big one, Mark” he non chalantly says. Well that’s not the first time I’ve heard that, so unimpressed, I went back over to help him. My unenthusiam quickly faded when his reel ceased to stop. Whatever he had was now taking line for a solid minute and showed no signs of stopping. Finally, a fished surfaced almost out of sight. We still couldn’t tell what we were dealing with. He worked the fish in slowly. After ten minutes and a brutal fight we were back to the clear head of our Outbound line. We then got a look at this fish. “HOLY (*^(*#&@” we all screamed. It was a weakfish, it was a huge weakfish. Half giddy, half pissed that this thing was on my rod and my fly, I moved in for the land. I wasn’t gonna lose this thing so I took my arms around it and flung it on to the bank. We quickly moved for a scale and measuring tape. The fish was 38″ long and came in at 19lbs. I speculated that this might be a record, but it wasn’t until later that we realized we shattered the previous 11.5lb fly rod world record. We even came within ounces of the all tackle record. Ecstatic, we all fished into the night hooking many more weakfish. We ended up breaking the fly rod record several times over as we landed two 33″s and several 30’s. Our 2007 weakfish assault was complete and an unimaginable success. These are really an incredible and beautiful fish. Their name is quite deceiving as they will put a striper of comprable size to shame in terms of fighting ability. Fortunately, these rare fish are making a comeback. Reports of giant weakfish are becoming more and more prevalent. We can only hope for a continued resurgence. One thing is for sure, I will be able to give you a report next year!