dont feel that bad dude. stripper fishing is pretty hard. i fished castaic last week with my friend peter for that moonlight madness thing. my third cast with a z-plug and i got nailed by a 15 lber. its really all about luck, but if your looking for strippers and are throwing trout plugs best bet is to look for quick drop offs and points. theyre the ambushing type. i also lost one when we were making a move to the other end, i was trolling a plug and the fish nearly ripped the rod outta my hand! didnt have time to react so he went bye bye! oh yah, my dad is in the w.o.n on the second page, he's awesome about fishing chovies. last time he went he caught 7 fish, all over 6 biggest was like 12 i believe. so yah, dont get discouraged, stripper fishing is tricky, but when you get in the grove it can be awesome!!!!!