I had the pleasure – well let me be real here – a lifelong wish fulfilled this week when I was able to take one of my old school WWE wrestling idols, Jake the Snake Roberts, out to catch his first striped bass.

Being that it’s late July in Jersey, you would think there would be an issue trying to find stripers in mid 70 degree waters, and you’d be right. But Captain Dave DeGennaro of the Hi-Flier www.hiflier.com had the bass dialed in at the Barnegat Light inlet. The key to success was to match the hatch and time the tide when they spark to feed. As 3 to 4 inch sand eels have been present in the area, Captain Dave had us casting 1-ounce Kalin’s leadheads tipped with Storm Searchbaits and Zoom rubber baits in clear silver fleck colors.

DeGennaro’s method was to carefully position the boat just outside the swashing currents and tidal flow that push over the submerged jetty rocks while we all launched lures into the whitewater rips, allowing the lures to sink 10 to 15 feet down and retrieve at a moderate pace.

For weaponry, we used a medium power 6-1/2 foot spinning rod matched with a Shimano 3000 Stradic reel spooled with 20-pound Power Pro braid, a 50-pound Spro barrel swivel, 30-inch section of 20-pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader and the lure tied via loop knot.

As terns and gulls were dipping and diving into the churning whitewater, The Snake and I made plenty of casts that got short bit by 3 to 5 pound blues when Jake finally wrestled in a solid 26-inch striper that put up a strong fight on light tackle. Even though water temps were not bass-friendly, the confluence of swirling currents and presence of bait in the area combined for the right recipe to get any resident stripers feeding with ferocity. As we bailed bass and blues during an afternoon tide, Jake put the finishing moves on some fluke inside Barnegat Bay to round out the day. Well done Snake!