Looks like STRIPERTHON 2013 went without a hitch this year. We are hoping to expand the format next year. Some of our sponsors like Guppy Lures and Pelican  for example, wanted to help out with prizes but we purposely decided to make this small after last years, shall we say, challenging experience.

There were enough fish landed to be excited but as you can see, even although we have some of the sharpest minds in the surf fishing world reading the Surfcaster’s Journal, catching a fish this season has been difficult for them too. We fished with many of the sharpies over the weekend and the cry was the same, terrible season from coast to coast. They say that you should not count your chickens before they hatch so I think we should wait to see what NJ will experience this fall. The hope is that sand eels will draw bass in crazy numbers like few years ago. I can show you sand ells up to ying-yang on Long Island for a month now and sadly the only thing eating them tiny blues…and seals

But back to celebrating accomplishments of our readers, there will be plenty of time to reflect on our season at a later date. Right now I would like to thank our sponsors for making STRIPERTHON 2013 possible. Without them and their continued support we would have never been able to move out of our grandma’s basement and into the executive SJ offices at Trump Tower. Ha-ha…hey a man can dream. So thank to ZeeBaaS Reels, a reel makers whose conservation ethics are as strong as ours. Same could be said for Super Stake Lures, St Croix Rods and folks from Hansom Tackle.

Thank You all

Here is your list of winners. Each winner please contact us with your shipping address and we will forward it to our sponsors for a fulfillment. Thank you again for your participation and go get them..there is still a lot of fishing to be done

1st ZeeBaaS Reel Jake Naso 38 inch

2nd St Croix Rod Carlos Casas 37 inch

3rd Hansom Tackle Knife/Pliers/Heath pack Sean Kearney 37 inch

4th Super Strike Lures set Frank Concalves 37 inch

5th SJ gear Michael Thornton 36 inch

In case you are wondering what is the best way to take a picture for your STRIPERTHON entry take a look at this submission by Ryan

Awesome clarity making my life sooooo much easier

Leaderboard going into 5 pm deadline

Jake Naso 38 inch

Carlos Casas 37 inch

Sean Kearney 37 inch

Frank Concalves 37 inch

Michael Thorthon 36 inch fish

enjoy and good luck to all of you

It never fails, even when you try to do something to raise awareness of importance of conservation and to promote catch and release, you still manage to screw things up. This was all on me. Never in my wildest dreams (Kate is usually front and center there) did I anticipated that half way tough sending 1600 emails the server would crash in middle of process. …Three times!
Leaving us clueless of who got the email with a TAG and who didn’t (and some of you got all three emails)
Again, my bad here. Kick me next time you see me. But its here on the blog now. Print it, download the graphic to your phone and go fishing.
I will be here when you get back. Popping Zantax..or was it Prozac?

after this snafu I might have to invest in some “protection”?

I want to spend few moments today on the upcoming  STRIPERTHON 2013, starting tomorrow at 5 PM. I hope you enjoy a little friendly competition. The rules , they really are simple so let’s go over some of them.

Use your measuring tape. I would suggest the bigger numbers are better. Do not put the tape on top of the fish. We will disqualify your entry immediately. Lay it alongside of fish.

Please do not keep fish out of the water for too long. And if you are alone, self shot of you and the fish is fine. Partial face/fish is ok too. Selfi for those of you cool kids are ok

Do not send any entries without SJ TAG being clearly visible in the picture. If we have to blow up picture in Photoshop to read numbers or tag, it’s getting disqualified.

You must be a subscriber at no later than 4pm this Friday  to be eligible to compete. The TAG will be emailed to you at 5PM.

This is basically the gist of it. For complete rules go here

Please read them, we will not except any ” I was under the impression or I misunderstood ” explanations. You have a question, ask it here. Will we try to update the leader board over the weekend? Possibly but if we are away than you’ll have to wait till Sunday. We would like to fish too you see. Just because we try to do this so you boys can have fun that does not mean we can’t have a little fun, right?

One quick note, the winner on St Croix Avid surf rod will receive the model we used for testing purposes. It’s a almost new rod with barely a scratch on it. St Croix offered to send a new rod but I declined. Why not use this perfectly good almost new rod instead of St Croix spending hundreds more dollars and shipping on another? I know they are a big Co but their money don’t grow on trees either. Those boys work hard to. And I am anal when it comes to what I perceive “wasting” money. In my opinion that would be a waste. So now you are fully informed

here is a TAG

We had a problem with email system crashing so if you did not get a tag in the email here it is

I am writing a blog entry on the past weekend happenings during the strong northeast winds. But I don’t think I will post it this week, probably wait for next week. First we are getting ready for STRIPERTHON 2013 on Friday. And two, you got to let some time go by before gathering your thoughts. Yeah, I know the blow its over but it’s hard to believe how many people will chase yesterdays bite. And even harder to believe how many think that fishing Montauk is fishing from Clark’s Cove to the Kings. When Legendary Vito O says “I did the walk” it means he walked and walked and walked. Not that he went to Caswells. And please, enough of this silly  “I was in Montauk and it sucked, I only seen two rats caught”. Montauk SUCKED royally in September and the early indications are that its back to being dismal again after this blow. But during the blow, if you fished the right spots, with nothing but bucktails, you could catch fish till your arms fall off. Or until your bad elbow blew up like a beach ball. I hope and pray that we get a little uptick in fishing because for me personally, this is the worst season I ever had to endure. Coming on the heels of an awful season last year. And catching few fish this weekend did nothing to change my opinion that striped bass stocks are in trouble. Because even with solid bite there should have been more fish in more places.

But I am usually not in the “right” place when I fish Montauk and I’ll explain that in my follow up post. I don’t hang in Kings because that is where I want to fish. I am in Kings because that is where my best photo opportunities are. There is where most people are. Or under the Bluffs on the north side.Simple as that. Without fresh pictures, SJ looks like any tired old fishing mag. And we are not about to let that happen, are we? 🙂

Anyway, let’s find who won that gorgeous Lemire’s Plugworks Calamari Popper.

The winner is joe m  jmprop3@gmail.com

You have 5 days to send us your shipping information at info@surfcastersjournal.com. Check out the whole line of Lemire’s PlugWorks lures at http://www.lemiresplugworks.com/online-store.html

About two weeks ago , after we were done fishing for the night at the Napeague State Park in Montauk, NY we found these East Hampton Baymen pulling the Gill Nets from the beach. They set up shop about 20 feet west of the sign where the state park ends. I don’t believe they are allowed to do this on state property. Anyway, use of gill nets from the beach is supposedly (or I been told) perfectly legal. I don’t agree that it should be, but I always follow the letter of the law and have to accept it. If that is the case, than they are just working for $. Yes, we hate when something we consider so dear becomes just another slab of meat on the shelf of your seafood store, but until we make stripers a gamefish, this is what it is.

I am not sure about the green netting at the end. It’s a much thicker netting than the rest of the net which is thick monofilament.   I believe you need to have a certain size “eye opening” in order for smaller fish to swim trough. Material is probably irrelevant too

However, to me the green net looks more like seine than  gill net. Anyone with knowledge cares to chime in? Here is the video

[youtube]http://youtu.be/YkAli4LrDoU[/youtube]

I am short on time since I was running back and from Montauk for the last three days and I am operating on very little sleep. Friday was more or less a bust for me although I did managed a twenty pound plus in Caswells and half dozen more. But compared to what other people did, that was pretty poor.

Yesterday was a different story with easily over fifty stripers caught and released. But all in due time, right now my brain is fried, every muscle in my body hurts and my elbow feels like it’s going to fall out of the socket at any time

Do enjoy this video of John Skinner fishing this crazy water last few days.

Needlefish = sand eels= bass

[youtube]http://youtu.be/0ZjzOIHvl88[/youtube]

You know, those of us that been fishing for awhile are sometimes little ignorant of the issues that those new to the sport might have. After all, some things like rigging eels, making leaders, tying hooks, that kind of stuff, we can do with our eyes closed.

Tie a knot or change a plug in the darkest of the night without a light? No problem.

But those new to the sport must be looking at us and saying, damn, I need to learn THAT. And yet, we think nothing of it.

I watched guys who started yesterday struggle with using a manual pick up on their reels (or bailles reels). I watch them use both hands to get a line on a roller, I watched them turn reel upside down, I’ve seen them struggle. And in the dark, I’ve seen some new casters totally fall apart because of their inability to put the line on the roller before that bucktail is buried into the rocks at Montauk.

When I was guiding for one season this was a common theme. I should have offered a casting lessons instead of fishing because some poor folks spent more time being stuck in the rocks than fishing. And yet they keep saying “I can do this, I am good”

You are not good. And admitting you have a problem is the first step in SJ Twelve Step Program in becoming a sharpie

It’s easy. I mean it, no joke, easy as pie BUT ONLY if you are really serious about learning how to do it right. No looking where your plug lands. No worries where the fish are.

Just two things. Cast like you always do and put your rod  between your legs. Place one hand on reel handle. Stick your index finger out. Once the plug lands in water (remember you are not looking at it, you are listening to your line slowly down coming off the reel) you do two things but you do them at once

With one hand turn the handle, with index finger grab the line as the line will slap your finger as its coming off the spool. The line should get on your roller automatically. Obviously you will release the line as soon as you feel the reel pick up

Need a visual ?

It just happens we have it on a new video. We are happy to provide this service..lol

[youtube]http://youtu.be/SdO4fQwDIZk[/youtube]

A very special giveaway for our readers today, this stunning Calamari popper made by SJ supporter Lemire’s Plugworks. You can check out the whole line of their lures at http://www.lemiresplugworks.com/

In some ways, these lures look more like works of art than something you would cast into a ocean, but we know with certainty that Lemire’s Plugworks Master Builder, Al Lemire made them for you to catch fish on.

plus the dude has the most awesome videos produced by Mike Laptew

[youtube]http://youtu.be/TnM1vcZn368[/youtube]

Remember to Subscribe to the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine

and gain an automatic entry into STRIPERTHON 2013

Sometimes I wonder if you guys just do not realize there are videos inside of the pages of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. Maybe you just don’t care, which is fine too. I am not exactly Spielberg here. But I find in puzzling that only maybe a hundred guys will watch a video in the magazine.

Here is a video I did with my son few weeks ago, where my son was a cameraman. We came back from Mexico where I got spanked by casters there. In fact, my son spanked me too with Torque after just learning how to cast. I thought Torque would blow away the competition because of its spool design  but I was way off

[youtube]http://youtu.be/bO2saandPxQ[/youtube]

Managing Fish In The Real World

By John Papciak

By now you’ve probably heard about the latest Striped Bass Stock Assessment. If you are like most, you were probably confused with the acronyms and the bureaucracy. Let me take a minute to try to put the situation into a scenario you might be better able to relate to.

***

Let’s say you just got called into your boss’ office.

Times are getting tough, not like it was in ’05. He wants your input with setting plans for next year. Whether he will listen to you is another story, but at least he’s asking.

You’ve been around the block more than most. Realistically, at this point, you know the company will book sales of about 62. The original sales “target” was 72, but that was a pipe dream. You wonder why it is still put out there, no one takes that target seriously.

62, on the other hand, that’s getting a bit close to the “threshold” of 58, which is absolute zero. Anything below 58 and you know the company is probably losing money. They’d probably have to lay people off and close some operations. Nasty stuff like that. You’ve been there before, and you promised yourself “Never Again.”

Maybe now is a good time to be proactive, rather than wait and hope for business to improve?

In walks the whiz-kid from Finance. He gives you both a copy of his updated forecasts. It has all the latest projections from Marketing.

You thumb through the report making believe you understand it all, but it’s really complicated (it’s thorough, but maybe more complicated than it needs to be).

It’s all these acronyms and technical terms. He’s got all these different types of forecasts, and you don’t know which, if any, is more reliable than the next. There are so many tables and graphs, your head is spinning. At least they are all pointing in the same general direction. And at least the direction seems to jibe with what you are seeing and hearing in the real world.

You know it’s gotten harder over the last few years, but just how bad are things?

The whiz kid’s conclusions are hard to interpret.

“At current status, the probability of losses increases until 2015-2016, but declines thereafter. If corrective action is delayed until 2014 or 2015, the probability of losses increases.”

It takes a long time to get through the techno mumbo jumbo, but there is one set of graphs that is easier to understand.

The graphs show the different forecasts over the next few years. It looks like there is a 60% chance of the company being in the red by 2015 – but only if immediate corrective action is taken. If there are delays in taking action, the chances of losses increase to almost 80% by 2015.

“Wow, 80% chance of being in the red, that’s bad,” you say to yourself!

Then it sinks in – no matter what they do, it will almost certainly get worse before it gets better. Cutbacks are hell. Losses and layoffs are worse.

So where is the silver lining? When does it getter better, and then by how much?

The Whiz-Kid’s projections all show a return to profit by 2017, but not by much. It will not be a return to the boom years. This is the new normal. And a lot of the upside hinges on some new prospects that may or may not materialize by 2017.

The whiz-kid is going to get an ear full, that much you do know. Some will want to discredit the report, others might already be working behind the scenes to find a way to spin it. Maybe they will twist his arm for a “new” forecast? You know none of the Big Shots around the place is going to accept any cut in HIS empire, not without a fight.

***

Well, that’s how it all might unfold in the private sector, but we will have to wait to see how this plays out in the business of managing fish over at ASMFC. Only time will tell. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Management Board gets together in late October to review the 2012 Striped Bass Stock Assessment.

How do you think it will turn out?

You can read it for yourself in the ATLANTIC STRIPED BASS ASSESSMENT SUMMARY FOR 2013

http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd1314/partb.pdf

Key Excerpts-

The Atlantic striped bass stock was not overfished or experiencing overfishing relative to the new reference points from the 2013 SAW/SARC57 (Figure B1-B3). Female spawning stock biomass (SSB) was estimated at 61.5 thousand mt (136 million lbs), above the SSB threshold of 57,904 mt, but below the SSB target of 72,380 mt. Total fishing mortality was estimated at 0.188, below the F threshold of 0.213 but above the F target of 0.175.

When compared to the biological reference points currently used in management (ASMFC 2008), the stock is neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing. Female SSB in 2012 is above both the target (46,101 mt) and the threshold (36,000 mt), and F2012 is below both the target (0.30) and the threshold (0.34).

Projections: Five-year projections of female spawning SSB and fishing mortality (Figure B4) were made by using a standard forward projection methodology. If the current fully-recruited F (0.188) is maintained during 2013-2017, or if it increases to the threshold or decreases to the target, the probability of being below the SSB threshold increases until 2015-2016, but declines thereafter. If action to reduce F is delayed until 2014 or 2015, the probability of being below the SSB threshold increases (Figure B5). If the current removals, meaning landings and dead discards of 3.59 million fish, are maintained during 2013-2017, the probability of the fully-recruited F being above the F threshold increases rapidly starting in 2013 and reaches near 1 by 2014 (Figure B6). If constant removals equal to 50% of the 2012 removals are taken during 2013-2017, the probability of fully-recruited F being above the F threshold is near zero.