A nice striper caught March 2013 I grew up happy in Iowa, where everyone in the family worked their tails off for 51 weeks a year & fishing was limited to an annual vacation with relatives in WI & MN. My best memories are helping my Mom garden (I sold vegetables door-to-door from my little red wagon); helping my Dad smoke hams, bacon, turkeys & dried beef; & riding horses. In our Scandinavian family, the fish delicacies were pickled herring & gelatinous, smelly lutefisk made from salted or dehydrated codfish (I promise to never bring lutefisk to a striper club potluck!).
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Bruce's Fish & Ski with its "weather bonnet" My working career in Iowa, WI, MN & NC was high stress health care for 36 years, with interludes of fantastic trout fishing near LaCrosse, WI (which I still do each May). Thanks to my wife’s good judgment, we bought a condo at SML near R25 about eight years ago. A major heart event almost 4 years ago, which I survived with the help of the Scruggs Rescue Squad & others, resulted in so much relaxation that I took up striper fishing for an occasional jolt of adrenalin. It’s amazing that after all those years of dreading early morning work meetings, I now love getting up early to go fishing, listen to the birds & then take a nap. My wife has tolerated pretty well the investment in fishing gear, but she put her foot down when I proposed trading in the ski boat for something better suited to striper fishing. Consequently, I’m the guy trying to fish from a modified blue & white ski boat, with the home-made inclement weather “bonnet” for fishing on rainy, cold days.
I finally joined the Striper Club last year & quickly wished I’d done it sooner, as I’ve learned a lot very quickly (although the number of fish in the boat hasn’t changed yet). The club website & monthly meetings are really enjoyable, & I look forward to getting to know everyone better. Throwing tacos with the cast net for several months was pretty frustrating, but now that I can throw a respectable circle most of the time, netting shad gives me another good adrenalin rush. A striper club member inspired me to build a bait cage this spring, which was really a lot of fun & it works great, except in the heat of summer .
If we are able to sell our current home in Greensboro, then we plan to move to SML full-time. We will need a bigger place with garden space, as you can’t take the farmer out of most Iowa natives, even though it still seems strange trying to grow vegetables in red dirt. I like to cook & my wife & I enjoy traveling (both our kids live in CA, so we generally go west). I’ve recently begun smoking different kinds of meat, this time adding fish to the menu. I like beer battered striper the best, but I have to limit my fried food intake, so fish tacos, fish chowder & smoked stripers are my new favorites.
I finally joined the Striper Club last year & quickly wished I’d done it sooner, as I’ve learned a lot very quickly (although the number of fish in the boat hasn’t changed yet). The club website & monthly meetings are really enjoyable, & I look forward to getting to know everyone better. Throwing tacos with the cast net for several months was pretty frustrating, but now that I can throw a respectable circle most of the time, netting shad gives me another good adrenalin rush. A striper club member inspired me to build a bait cage this spring, which was really a lot of fun & it works great, except in the heat of summer .
If we are able to sell our current home in Greensboro, then we plan to move to SML full-time. We will need a bigger place with garden space, as you can’t take the farmer out of most Iowa natives, even though it still seems strange trying to grow vegetables in red dirt. I like to cook & my wife & I enjoy traveling (both our kids live in CA, so we generally go west). I’ve recently begun smoking different kinds of meat, this time adding fish to the menu. I like beer battered striper the best, but I have to limit my fried food intake, so fish tacos, fish chowder & smoked stripers are my new favorites.
 Bruce with a 31" striper from June 2013 |  Bruce's bait cage |
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