Sandwiched between the departure of Hurricane Sandy and the arrival of the nor’easter Athena on November 7, one of the largest striped bass of the 2012 season was landed in the Rhode Island surf. On the night of Monday, November 5, 25-year old Rhode Island native Nick Gibbs landed the striped bass of his lifetime. While fishing a 7-inch, black Bomber Long-A, he hooked into a super-cow the likes of which has not been hauled up from the surf in quite some time—even eclipsing many of the boat stripers landed this year!
With most big fish also comes a great story, and this one is no different. Nick , already an accomplished surfcaster who has beached bass to 41 pounds, had been into a pretty steady bite the previous night but hadn’t hooked anything near as large as this fish. His standard surf rod was out of commission as he had broken the second guide on it, so he borrowed a 6-foot Chaos boat rod, matched it up with his Fin-Nor Offshore S5500 reel and set out for a night in the surf with friend and fishing companion, Lucas Berg. They arrived at the chosen spot for the night and began casting right away. Lucas immediately landed a small schoolie bass of about 20 inches and a few casts later Nick had three solid back-to-back hits on his black, 7-inch Bomber. Lucas commented that it “sounded” like a large fish as the two of them heard a big slurping sound when the fish missed the lure.
Roughly 30 minutes passed without a touch before Nick hooked into the cow. After a relatively short battle he had the fish at his feet in the wash where he was astounded by its immense size. He dragged the fish onto the beach and handed his rod off to Lucas to use as they agreed Lucas’ rod and reel would be a bit under-gunned if another fish of this caliber was still swimming in front of them. Lucas went back to fishing, but after a short time he called it quits and the duo left.
%pullstart%The 41-pounder, his personal-best before hooking the 58, was landed exactly 2 years and 1 day earlier on a similar night.%pullend%Nick loaded the fish into the back of Lucas’ car and set out to find a weigh station—not the easiest thing in the middle of the night. Not finding an open tackle shop, they eventually made it home and waited a few hours for Quaker Lane Tackle in North Kingstown, RI, to open. Once it hit the scales the fished came in at 58.445 pounds with a 53-inch length. The fish was donated to the Amos House, a non-profit social services agency located in South Providence, Rhode Island. It was used to make chowder and fed hundreds of needy individuals at the shelter.
We here at The Fisherman wish Nick a huge congratulation on a wonderful catch!
