2 weeks ago i came in and bought a new peen reel got a great deal. The best part is that the first cast i landed a 32in striper.. Val ordered me a rod for the reel and when that came in again fisrt cast was a striper 29in. starting to think oceanside is a lucky shop. the last 7 weeks were great fishing in brant beach had a blast. see u next season val.

Steve from philly

Hot Tuna won the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club's Mako Shark tournament on Saturday with a brute weighing in at 186.5.using rigs, bait and chum purchased from Oceanside bait and Tackle. The crew for the trip consisted of the boat's regular off-shore mate of Rich Stracensky, its junior mate in training Ryan Kellogg and Barry Thomas from Allentown, PA. Capt. Bob Gerkens was unfortuate enough to be near the pole when the Mako hooked up on a whole mackerel and did its first of two spectacular back flip jumps, so had the duty handling the pole to the end of the battle. The fishing team did every thing correctly, including having to fire-up the boat for a spin when the Mako near the end of the fight made an attempt to get under the boat. Two gaffs were used to hold the fish for the bang stick to the head before hauling the fish on board. There were 3 other hookups for the day, one of which resulted in a release of what appeared to be a 75 to 100 pound juvenile thresher shark. One of the lost hook ups resulted from a failure in a rig not purchased from Oceanside. Please have another 6 shark rigs made up for me. Good heavy duty design (no spinning bait).

In the picture of the crew--from left to right: Barry Thomas, Rich Stracensky, Ryan Kellogg and Capt. Bob Gerkens.

Valerie, Just want to thank you for the friendly assistance and service on our last fishing trip last night. I was with Alex Field (Big red haired guy) who is a former student and fishing companion of mine. He has had nothing but good to say about you and your establishment and now I know why. Congrats on the BIG striper you got and we'll see you soon. Talk to you later and keep up the good work as it is refreshing to get bait/equipment/scouting reports from someone who doesn't appear to be put out by servicing a client. Tight lines.

Thanks again for all of your help on the Striper fishing. I put a post on www.boatlessfishing.com and I recommended Oceanside Bait and Tackle so hopefully you will get all of the business from Boatlessfishing members who come to LBI. I think that I am coming to LBI next year, Hopefully I will beat 12 pounds then!