Bill Wetzel

I pretty much eat sleep and dream surf fishing. Just last night I had a dream that it was early season and I found some casters poaching a few of my Montauk rocks. Yeah I said MY rocks! With that said there isn’t much I dislike or especially hate about surf fishing, but I have to tell you that I can’t stand the New Jersey death machines, aka pencil poppers. Take a fall trip to Montauk. Go to Camp hero during a daytime bite. Watch a zillion guys throwing the same plug and catching stripers like crazy. Then ask them “where ya from”? After you get your answer you will know why I call them NJ death machines. I guess I will not mention how the NJ boys kick ass with these plugs during their prized bunker blitzes that have been taking place over the past 10 years or so. Just think about how silly it is working this plug. An eleven foot rod locked in-between a grown man’s legs, while the grown man takes the rod with one hand and bounce’s it back and forth, not side to side mind you, and reels it at crawl( if worked properly) with the other hand. It’s almost like an extension of ego, or perhaps the super ego if you’re into Freud. So now you have about fifty or sixty grown men with wet suites in three feet of water violently stroking their super egos. Makes me want to hurl! I will rarely join the crowd, but when I do I will throw something else just to show my New Jersey buddies that stripers also like bucktails. However when I am somewhere deeeeeeeep on Montauks south side and no one is looking I will secretly whip out my New Jersey death machine and watch it zig and zag until a wonderful being with stripes on its side engulfs this weird looking piece of wood ,putting a smile on my face that lasts right through the winter.

Here is my personal theory on why the NJ death machine is such a kick ass plug, that I can’t stand. I have had many conversation and heard of many baits that the plug imitates, but ya know what? I don’t think it imitates anything. I mean have you ever in your life seen a bait fish swim or look like a pencil popper? If you have I want to hear about it, because I have not.  A striper will hit this plug almost any time of year.  What that tells me is that if the bait is big or small, the water hot or cool, Mr. or Mrs. Striped bass will pounce on this piece of wood, but why? I really believe that the plug just pisses them off. Yep, pretty much as simple as that. Think about a large school or white bait (bay anchovies) that have been pushed in a small area. It probably took a lot of work for a striper school to push this bait, and here comes a three ounce piece of wood causing all kinds of havoc, thereby dispersing the bait. The next thing you may see is that wood knocked up about five feet in the air by one pissed off striper. You rarely will see any other plug get hit like that.  And, yes. I am in the mind of a striper and I know damn well what they are thinking! Believe me, they love to screw with the surf guys. Do you want another example of how this death machine pisses them off? How about the times you are throwing everything in the bag into the froth. You know the stripers are there, but why are they not hitting? Many times stripers are there, but I believe to be at a resting state. This is typically at a time when the tide is not optimal. Along comes the death machine and its game on. Did it piss them off? I think so. Do me a favor. If you see me throwing one of these things, don’t tell anyone. Thanks!

Editor’s note;

Bill Wetzel is what we like to call “The Hardest Working Guide in the Surf”. A quintessential Montauk Regular Bill works hard at teaching his clients the secrets of Montauk coves and consistently puts them on the fish. No wonder most of his customers come back for more year after year. Bill also runs a Surf Rats ball, Subscribers only forum at www.surfratsball.com. There he exchanges ideas with his subscribers and of course, logs each and every one of his trips for all to read. Check it out at www.surfratsball.com

By Bill Wetzel

It was Mid-August and I had been doing the night shifts targeting the big girl’s deeeeeeep on Montauks south side. On a morning that I had not fished I awoke at 6am to NE winds 5-10 knots, and light rain. After the morning caffeine had kick started my brain I began thinking about how I was going to approach another late night session. On the way to the day job I turned on NOAA to hear a robots voice screech the forecast, “NE winds 5-10 knots becoming 30-40knots this afternoon, seas 6-8 feet, with heavy rain”.  Being a Montauk surf fisherman and hearing that forecast is like receiving an injection of drugs that spin your head out of control, causes your hands to tremble, and gets you so jacked up your nearly completely out of your mind. “Oh my God, I have to work. I can’t do it. What’s the tide? Holy shit, I have the last of the ebb and first of the flood around dusk. I can go into work, get what I absolutely need to get done, then just take a half day. Drive 90 minutes from work to home, then pick up the buggy and be in the water by 545pm. I can do it”. I would say that those were very close to my exact thoughts over and over again the entire day. Through the trembling hands obsession I managed to post that I had an opening for a three hour slot for experience casters only. Mark Deangles who is a very regular customer that loves hunting large took me up on the offer and met me out in mother nature’s fury at 530pm.  Here is the rest of the trip from my log in the Surf Rats Ball.

“Report Date: MECCA 8/21

Fishing Report:
Mark Deangels took me up on my suggestion that the fishing was going to be good. I think he was glad he did! 5:45-9pm, NE winds about 30 knots, rainy, with waves 5-7’ on the south side. When we get conditions like this I get a little loony tunes, the cheese begins to fall off the cracker, and who knows what my charters are in for—who cares as long as its fish!! We hit the town beaches first to find no fish, then we got deeeeeeeeeeeep on the south side at a very productive big water spot. The first area we hit was all munged up, the second area was a little mungy but fishable. We were into fish almost immediately on 1.5 oz. white and lime bucktails with red rind. With waves battering are torso and knocking us from our perches we battled fish after fish. Hell, we lost count! Most of them legal and above, with a few shorts mixed in. At one point I was bringing in a low teen striper, as a wave broke through my body, picking me off my rock and dumping my beaten corpse into the teeth of the white water. As I was dealing with this fish I saw Mark nearly get yanked off his perch from the strike of a tremendous striper. Mark yelled over the roar that he had a “very nice fish on”. I finally managed to get my fish off the bucktail, and hop back onto my perch. At that point Marks rod was bent in half and his drag was screaming. I know how tight Marks drag was, as whenever I am fishing single hooks in MECCA the drag is extremely tight. There is no doubt in my mind that this was a mid-40+ fish. As Marks eyes were bugging out of his head he saw her tremendous tail. Soon after that she must have turned her head a little and caught the power pro on a rock. This was a fish that I will personally never forget, as I do not forget any of the true cows that have been lost. I remember Mark asking if there was anything he did wrong. “There is nothing you could have done” I responded. If nothing else we as fishermen should be happy to have a true monster like that on, and lost her knowing that it was not the angler or the anglers equipment that was at fault. During our dark walk back to the buggy, I tripped over a rock and fell on several others, banging the hell out of my elbow and hands. From this I got the feeling of nausea and weakness as if something had been broken. Thank God nothing was broken, just banged up pretty good. I mention this because somehow it made me feel a little older. Ya always learn something in the suds, if not about fish, about yourself. I am back out Thursday night—Stay tuned!!”

That fish was more than likely well over 50 lbs. Watching that stripers tail as she rolled in the white water is something that will be etched in my mind forever. It was simply tremendous.

Thoughts:

NE winds are almost always a good wind in Montauk because they are accompanied by big water, and big water creates opportunities for striped bass. Note that during this trip I choose to hit a daytime tide. I have found that in sloppy, rainy, big water conditions that the daytime bites are usually as good as or better than the night time bites. As a big water daytime angler you tend to be more aggressive in your approach to push out to the good water, and the fish have good cover from the white water, rain and clouds. The rain will also cool off the surf a bit on a summer day like we have in this case. This very slight change in surface temperature can turn on a bite in an instant. My approach in big water is to let the water work for me by targeting the edges of points and reefs where water is forced out of the shallows into to a deeper adjacent cove.  It is on the edges that bait will be flushing off the reef into the cove, and the larger stripers can just lay and wait as opposed to working the water. On the point where the water is shallow and turbulent you will usually find all the schoolies. Those fish will have to work much harder for their meal then the potential slobs laying on the edge. In the video you can clearly see the kind of edge I am talking about. I bet that you also noticed that this was an August trip. August is probably my favorite month to fish Montauk as there is no one there and it is perhaps the most difficult month to fish of the year.  Yes, difficult but year in and year out it is the time I catch my largest fish of the season. If you think you are are going to come here in August and clean up on big stripers or even have a shot at one big striper, but have not been paying attention of past patterns or recent patterns you are going to be in for a rude awaking. August is work, work, work! Sometimes we will walk five or six miles in the heat of the night just to fish a 10 foot piece of water that I noticed had been holding bait. With the right wind and weather day time can be very good in August but if you want to fish Montauks night August cows be prepared to take a beating.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7KrlOGsn3o&feature=share&list=UUdPPiGBS0PxPb2F2JdklWjw[/youtube]

 A nice cow Mark landed with Bill later that August….

Editor’s note;

Bill Wetzel is what we like to call “The Hardest Working Guide in the Surf”. A quintessential Montauk Regular Bill works hard at teaching his clients the secrets of Montauk coves and consistently puts them on the fish. No wonder most of his customers come back for more year after year. Bill also runs a Surf Rats ball, Subscribers only forum at www.surfratsball.com. There he exchanges ideas with his subscribers and of course, logs each and every one of his trips for all to read. Check it out at www.surfratsball.com

By Bill Wetzel

I gotta tell ya I have had it with the non- faithful, no believing, no patience, I gotta have a fish right now type of high tech, million dollar gear wearing friends of mine. Every since I can remember, which ain’t long anymore, there has been that guy I fish with that wants to leave after 15 minutes because there is no bite. You know the
drill. The bite should start at about 130am and last until about 2am because that is when the rip sets up just perfectly over that underwater boulder field. You are completely stoked to get out there, and make the walk a tad early. You arrive with the bug spray on your fishing hat mixing with your sweat making a solid effort to burn your eyes from their sockets. Making the first cast at 1230am neither of you get a touch for 45 minutes. Your buddy with all the latest and greatest wants to go home, and states ” this isn’t worth it. I have to work tomorrow” You know that bite is going to start in 15 minutes, but your buddy drove and he wants to leave. Reluctantly you give in and
head home. You enter your cozy bed, but wake up your loving wife or God forbid the kids. That turns into a small fiasco that you will no doubt hear about the next morning. Too make matters worse you can’t sleep because you are haunted by the all the fish you missed and you know every one of them were potential world records. At least you don’t have to wake up in the morning, because you already have been up the entire
night. A shower, a cup of Joe, and you drive to work obsessing on how your going to sneak past your wife, and get back to the spot without your buddy knowing. Only now the tide is 230am, and you know damn well that you’re going to somehow have another sleepless night. Been there?

Editor’s note;

Bill Wetzel is what we like to call “The Hardest Working Guide in the Surf”. A quintessential Montauk Regular Bill works hard at teaching his clients the secrets of Montauk coves and consistently puts them on the fish. No wonder most of his customers come back for more year after year. Bill also runs a Surf Rats ball, Subscribers only forum at www.surfratsball.com. There he exchanges ideas with his subscribers and of course, logs each and every one of his trips for all to read. Check it out at www.surfratsball.com