“Every time you learn something, your performance improves”

Transition Zone Surfcasting

By Dennis Zambrotta

{A “transition zone” is an area where one type of

 bottom structure changes to another.}

            As a surfcaster I’ve always been fascinated about the environment I fish.  From how baitfish and different types of seaweed relate to how weather and tides affect each other.  I enjoyed learning about them because they were integral parts of what I loved to do.

I have extensive experience and background in fishing for largemouth bass in sweet water where bottom structure plays a very important part when fishing.  For example I learned to concentrate my efforts for largemouth bass in areas called “transition zones” such as where two different types of cover or structure abut each other.  Examples would be where milfoil turns into lily pads, or where a sandy bottom turns rocky.  I’ve taken this knowledge and applied it to surfcasting for striped bass and found that it can be just as important in the salt water environment.

Transitions zones are key areas for a surfcaster to locate as they often act as a magnet for

forage and in turn for striped bass. Locate transition zones anywhere on the striper coast and you’ll often find striped bass. Transition zones are the first places I look for when I visit a location for the first time.  Areas where a sandy beach transitions into a cobble bottom; the corners where a cobble bowl transitions into a boulder point; maybe where red rock weed transitions to eel grass; all these areas have different ingredients that in turn attract various types marine life.  Learn what kinds of structure are preferred by different marine life and you’re a step closer to improving your performance.   Mullet for instance take refuge and travel through mats of bubble (pop) weed when the tide is at higher stages.  As the tide drops the mullet are forced back out of the bubble weed fields into open water where stripers wait.  Lobsters and crabs take refuge in a boulder field that abuts a sand beach – bass travelling along the beach basically enter a restaurant when they finally reach the boulder field.  Fish that same boulder field on the correct tide with eels to catch those bass grubbing on crustaceans.  Study your environment and how everything relates to it and you’ll be a better surfcaster.  Fishing transition zones will improve your score.

Editors note :

Dennis Zambrotta is well know Rhode Island surfcaster and friend of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine since our humble beginnings. Dennis is also a very popular seminar speaker and he will be speaking at Surf Day this upcoming Saturday. He was fortunate to be one of the major players during the great Block Island Giant Striper Blitzes in 1980′s and he has recently wrote a  book about his experience,  Surfcasting Around the Block. You can find more information about the book by clicking on the cover. You can also purchase it from Dennis at Surf Day and other shows this winter

Before we get to today’s awesome giveaway let me do few things . Was Bill Wetzel post yesterday awesome or what ! Holy cow I almost grabbed my rod and went casting in my back yard. How much do we need to pay Bill to write every week? 🙂

We will be at Berkley Flea market hanging with our boys Choopy, Guppy and Big Rock this weekend. As you know, we have a special deal for you at these shows. Subscribe or extend your subscription and get an awesome new shirt Tommy just created. Or buy a shirt and get a subscription for free. Whatever rocks your boat. We will be at RISAA, Asbury, Lindenhurst Flea Market and Rivers End. While supply lasts as they say and only at shows.

For those of you that registered last weekend, please contact us if for any reason you did not get any login info, passwords, have had problems logging in, need peanut butter cookies or Swedish massage..we’re here to help;-). Seriously, anyone with any issues please contact us at info@surfcastersjournal.com. Those of you that extended your subscription at Surf Day, log into your account and click on Main Page button. There you will see that your subscription expires in 2015, and even in Cringlish that is two years away

Speaking of Big Rock, the winner of 2 ounce Big Rock giveaway is M. Heppler.

Please provide your shipping address by emailing us at info@surfcastersjournal.com

And for today’s giveaway, we will give you a chance to win this Guppy 3 ounce JOBO Junior 3 ounce Pencil Popper, courtesy of Guppy Lures at http://www.guppylure.com/

Coincidentally they will be at Berkley Flea Market too so check out their awesome pencil poppers and poppers and I do mean awesome. Since my season was shot last year due to bad elbow I really did not get the video footage that I wanted but this year I hoping for better luck and some better Guppy footage. In any event, the  winner will enjoy this plus, that I can guaranty.

This giveaway is for subscribers of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine only. New issue coming in a week or so

 [youtube]http://youtu.be/b-fiyMJPpis[/youtube]

I wrote this few years ago but since i will be talking about this at RISAA show i figured its fitting to bring it back

It’s All About The Whitewater ……sometimes  🙂

It must seem preposterous to suggest that something as simple as the rising and falling of a wave can unearth the clues to the feeding habits of striped bass. That is only if you believe that a striper’s behavior is unpredictable. With their broad shoulders and powerful tails, stripers are built for short bursts of speed. They are opportunistic feeders with tendencies to take the easiest way to find a meal but, unpredictable? It is my opinion that they are not. You show up a day after you hammered the fish, same tide, same plugs, and same area. Even the wind is the same, well, almost. Instead of a moderate southerly, now it is coming from the northwest but other than that everything is the same. Hey, with a wind in your back you can cast another 50 yards further. You even notice the presence of same bait fish in the water as you did yesterday but the fish are not responding. Now your mind is spinning trying to come up with an answer that would justify your curiosity.” Did the bait slingers clean out the bar overnight? Did the fish migrate westward or eastward? Is it possible for a change so drastic to occur without an apparent reason?

Let’s examine the facts

Stripers are not built for speed like a tuna so chasing down a meal is out of the question. What they are built for is short, strong bursts of speed, propelled by their powerful, broad tails. Akin to a basketball player who looks for an opening as he dribbles at the top of the key and then explodes inside the paint with a burst of speed that often surprises the defense. Now, this same player would probably be left in the dust after 20 yards in a race with a sprinter but then again he is not conditioned for an enduring speedy run. Neither are the stripers. Instead of giving chase they stalk and ambush. They lay in hiding, or cruise the beach waiting for a “perfect” moment to strike at prey. What is a perfect moment? A time that could be best described as a precise time when the least amount of energy will be expanded in order to capture a meal. Unlike us humans who cannot seem to let a Mr. Softy truck pass by without picking up a treat, stripers feed in a more orderly manner. They only eat enough to sustain their growth, probably the main reason why we never see an overweight striper. So the question becomes, under what conditions do stripers find themselves in the most advantageous position to fill their bellies, yet expand the least amount of energy while doing so? In my opinion, the one thing that affords them this opportunity and is more important than moon phase, cloud cover or even the presence of bait fish along the ocean front is foamy, delicious white water. Seems like a pompous statement to make, doesn’t it? Some water being tossed around by wind being more important than the availability of food? The answer is yes! Onshore winds puts things in motion on the bottom of the ocean and the transformation that takes place bellow the surface is astounding even if it’s not visible to a naked eye.

Transformation …..

Although having some bait fish present in the surf is desirable there is no need to fret when they are not around. Under flat water conditions the ocean bottom is not exactly brimming with activity. The crabs, sand worm and sand fleas bury themselves in the sand as soon as they sense danger in close proximity, in this case a hungry fish. Stripers themselves become inactive and move into the deeper water .In addition, a lack of wave action becomes an issue as stripers are known to prefer some “cover” over their heads when cruising shallow waters. Now add to this scenario an onshore wind and this same stretch of beach that moments ago looked like a dead zone is suddenly teeming with life. Onshore breezes push the water onto the shallow sandbars that usually run parallel to the shore. This strong rush of water has nowhere to go but up until it crests, fold into itself and rolls toward the shore with white, milky residue forming behind the wave. This turbulence shifts sand on the bottom exposing the crustaceans who buried themselves to hide from predators. They become a victim of a powerful surge of water, getting tossed around inside a rolling wave. Voila! An easy meal for the striper who is cruising effortlessly through the same turbulence picking at this smorgasbord at will. As you can see the presence of bait fish is not a requirement for fish to become active if the water conditions are right. Right about now I can hear the wheels spinning in the heads of those who have been conditioned to “find bait and you’ll find fish” approach. “Crabs, shrimps”, they’ll say “give me sand eels, peanuts, mullet”. Not necessary, would be my reply. Think about it besides those few glorious weeks in the fall when bait is so thick you can almost walk on water the striper’s diet consists mainly of crustaceans like crab and sand fleas on the open beaches. In has been my experience over the years when cleaning fish that there are at least three times as many crustaceans in its stomach than bait fish.By now I hopefully convinced you that white water on the open beach is akin to the straw that shakes the drink and that large quantities of bait fish are not a necessary requirement for success. But what does happen when you throw little oily suckers in the mix? An absolute mayhem usually but not in the way you might think. Just because the beach is loaded with bait and white water is rolling does not mean that you can just pick any stretch of a beach and start nailing fish at will. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Few guys positioned on a particular piece of structure will do a bail job while most others will have to be satisfied with a fish or two

I would hate to be a mullet….

During past mullet runs (which usually occur in mid September after a first strong cold front) I often observed stripers slashing through the schools along the open beach and then regroup. A scattering of mullet that went airborne trying to escape the predators are taking the same route as they too regroup into dense schools looking for safety in numbers. You could follow these schools westward down the beach and hope that you pick a few fish along the way or you could use the ambush approach the stripers are fond of to using to ambush them. Talking about turning tables! Even though the mullet schools can be dense and large in size; the striper still has to chase them down to eat them. These are not crippled or sickly bait fish but healthy specimens hoping for a long journey down the coast to their wintering grounds. Mullet travel along the beach front in the trough between beach and a sandbar, usually reachable with a short cast. What I like to do is to find a sandbar that curves toward the beach and in the best possible scenario, runs into the beach. While the mullet (or any other bait fish) often travel unmolested to this point once they hit the turbulent white water on the shallow sandbar all hell breaks loose. Stripers who let the bait fish swim to this point unencumbered are slashing through the turbulent white water with ease while the mullets are getting tossed around like socks in the dryer. If an onshore breeze does not exist, there is no white water. If there is no white water, the bait fish moves over the shallow sandbar undisturbed, and the stripers? They go feed in a different location, a place were a current will bring them a meal like behind a bridge abutment or an inlet jetty rip. So white water is the key that brings it all together, the prey and the predators. Bait fish cannot navigate these turbulent, churning waters without some difficulties and at some point during the wave rolling sequence it will find itself helplessly at the mercy of predators. At which point the stripers will move in for the kill. What? You thought just because you have white water you can now cast at will and as far as you want you will catch fish? Oh no! The ability to cast and place a lure at certain places during a wave sequence is what this is all about. This is the most important part, the essence of white water fishing.

We are not done…..yet

So now we place ourselves in the prime location, we got bait rolling in the wash and an onshore breeze is creating some nice rollers. Now comes the hard part. To put yourself in the right position you did not need any skill, just your eyes to find the opportunity that is now presented in front of you. Now you will need to put it all together in order to increase your success rate exponentially and please do not think I am making this statement lightly. Once the “white water “light went on inside my head it never went off. It has affected everything I’ve done since that day; the way I look at water in front of me to the way I work a lure. Any lure! Some ground rules…..

<div >First rule of fishing white water is to never, ever cast your lure or a leadhead in front of a folding wave. This is considered a cardinal sin for two reasons. If you place your offering in front of the wave, the rushing water will collapse on the lure and you will momentarily loose contact with your lure. The second reason is that all the action is taking place on the “backside” of the wave. I often observe stripers fins cruising in the milky white residue left in a wake of a folding wave. Stripers are fond of trailing the wave and when it collapses they move in with precision. They cruise the foam for a few seconds looking for any crustaceans that were lifted off the bottom or any bait fish that was tossed by the force of white water and is now momentary stunned in the foam. This extremely coordinated feeding lasts a very short time. Perhaps, twenty seconds at most in each wave sequence. So in order to cash in your lure must be placed in the right location with precision. When using a metal lip, popping plug or another top water lure I will time my cast so that my lure will land behind the wave as it folds. If you wait until the wave crashes and then you make a cast your plug will land in the prime real estate too late as the foam will already start to dissipate.

Trust me on this. I still remember a recent morning when I fished under less than ideal white water conditions due to the lack of wind. I possibly made more than a few hundred casts with Troublemaker Surfsters yet I only hooked up when my lure landed in the white water behind a decent roller. All the other casts with a Surfster or a Danny in the same area were ignored. Back to white water. Once the lure lands in the foam keep it there as long as possible. When using poppers or a pencil popper I like to finesse the lure over the top of an incoming wave just enough to keep in contact than regain solid contact and work the lure over that milky foam like it is the Promised Land. Under most conditions you can work this little patch of very productive water on the multiple incoming waves on a single cast. In the rough water I will opt for working the same area by going “under” the foam with needlefish and bucktails with the same principal approach but a slightly different retrieve. The cast again should be placed behind the wave and slack picked up as soon as possible. You have to time the incoming wave as it will lift your lure up in the water column. Just before this happens I like to pick up the speed of my retrieve but then almost immediately after regaining contact with the lure (which is now on the backside of the wave) I’ll slow it to a crawl and keep it in the foam behind the wave. I’ll do this on every consecutive wave as it rolls toward the shore. Almost all the hits will come as the bucktail or a needlefish is wallowing in the foam behind the wave. With a bucktail I might at times speed up the lure and try to keep it behind the single wave all the way to the shore or for the better part of it.

Day or night…..

This kind of fishing produces equally well in daytime or in the hours of darkness. The difference is that during low light conditions we must rely on our rod to telegraph what our lure is doing instead of visual contact. This is not as hard as it seems especially with bucktails and needlefish. Metal lips (by the way, my favorite lure for this type of fishing) are a bit trickier until you get a “feel” for what the lure is doing “out there” but they can be mastered fairly quickly.

Casting experience not required

When I say white water I don’t mean that foaming wave three casts away rolling off the offshore sandbar. I am talking about that last stretch of foamy water before it hits the lip of the beach. I know it seems kind of ludicrous to make a cast of 30 yards when we all have this gear that can cast a 100 yards but that’s were the action is. Making the longest cast possible, when fishing white water, is counter productive as you are wasting valuable time and your rotator cuff. Precision counts more than distance so what you want to do is make an accurate cast and then use your index finger to “break” the cast so it lands in the desired part of the wave.

If a googan like me can exploit this very rewarding patch of foam, I am sure some of you with better analytical skills, when it comes to reading the water, will be able to make great catches. In any case, find good beach structure, pray for onshore winds and work the white water. It might take a little time to get this concept to take but I will guarantee you that once it takes hold you will never be able to look at rolling waves towards the shore the same way again. And that’s a good thing………

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4EMHrtM8A[/youtube]

Anyone ever pulled their back out by sneezing? Holy shit! I lost a half of week of work and pay last week after I sneezed and afterwards was not able to even get my socks on. I though it would get better in few days but tomorrow will be day seven and still I only have a limited range of motion. Respect the sneeze….haha

This week is the Annual Berkley Flea Market were dudes who have been saving their money in the sock draw so Da Wife does not find it, are going to go a little nutty shopping. It’s like a Back Sunday for the surfcasters, having a chance to buy plugs from guys like Big Rock, Choopy, RM Smith, Guppy, Cyclone and many others who only made plugs for Berkley and Asbury shows and then they are done for the year. It used to be pure madness but the crowds have abated somewhat when it comes to plug hoarding. Both shows are still we attended and it looks like the weather is taking a turn for better. Should be a lot of fun

Tommy and I will be there, and like we told you yesterday, swing by the table, start or renew subscription to SJ and get a new t-shirt Tommy just designed. Speaking of new SJ subscribers and there are many after the Surf Day…

All of the new subscribers, that registered on Saturday received the username and password to the email address you provided to us at the show. Please remember that you have to be logged in to view new issue and exclusive videos and have access to archived issues. If you are not familiar how does it work, got to MAGAZINE tab on the top of this page on right hand side, then click on LOG IN  and enter your username and password. If you misplaced your password, just use password retrieval tool. Plug in your email address you gave us on Saturday and it will automatically send you new password.

If you have ANY issues please feel free to contact me directly at zhromin@verizon.net.. And DO check your spam folder. Some of our readers found their info there

Also, I am not sure two fellows gave us correctly information, meaning correct email address. I did set up the accounts for them but they have not accessed them yet so I am thinking there might be a problem. If you know either Frank Heater or Al Maahs have them contact me via email at zhromin@verizon.net

Speaking of the plug…and plug ho’s

Plug builders are a funky bunch, or at least the ones I know. He might be the most charming fellow in the world who would chew your ear on how the plug is suppose to swim but turn the conversation to sealing or drilling or making tail loops and suddenly is like they are back at Guantanamo Bay being waterboarded. Which I find hilarious..I know many of you like to thinker with stuff, some even like to build the plugs to fish. Luckily Ron DiCostanzo from Lordship Lures (and now ZeeBaaS master) is sharing all his secrets in series of videos for the subscribers of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine in 2013. In this issue we had how to offset drill trough the lure and in this upcoming issue in March we will take a look at sealing your wood lure

[youtube]http://youtu.be/USN5tJ1GOFs[/youtube]

Back from Surf Day in New Jersey. Wow, what a great show, from helping the vendors set up to making sure everything runs smoothly, someone has an impressive organizational skills ! It was great to see many of our supporters including The Surfcaster, Fisherman’s Headquarters, ZeeBaaS, Super Strike, Rock Hopper, AOK Tackle, Dave Anderson with Surf Asylum, all our readers, Bill Wetzel, John Skinner, DJ Muller, Big Rock, Dennis Zambrotta, Peter from Saltwater Edge and I am sure many more that are not registering in my head right now. That was neat. We wish we could have caught some seminars but we were chained to our table. Thanks to more than hundred of you who signed up or renewed your SJ subscription, we appreciate it and are looking forward to some good picture in your new SJ gear. Everyone who subscribed at the show, including the next week Berkley Flea Market and RISAA gets a free t-shirt Tommy just made. If you are already subscriber, you add another year to your subscription and we give you a $20 t-shirt. Or you buy a t-shirt and get your subscription for free. Whatever you can get passed your wife easier..lol..while supplies last. We ran out of shirts but will try to reorder this week.

Second thing..Berkley show coming up this Sunday in NJ organized by Berkeley Fishing Club. Here is the link.http://www.berkeleystriperclub.org/

This is your chance to drop some mad money on custom plugs by makers who only make small batches for this show and Asbury. Again, stop by our table, sign up or renew and get a free shirt. It’s just our way of saying thank you to all our readers.

Third thing is another thanks, to all the advertisers on this blog that keep the lights on and allow us to do what we do, follow our passion. People sometimes wonder why would we switch to subscription but when I explain to them that I spend 10k just on camera equipment out of my own pocket last year they get it. I visited BU school of communication with my son this week and seen what my video editing equipment SHOULD look like..haha..not anytime soon. But our advertisers on the blog help us in great way defray the cost of all the stuff we like to have to make SJ better.

I would like to welcome ZeeBaaS Reels at http://www.zeebaas.com/. It’s the reel that I use and loving every minute of it. There are other great reels out there and I tried them all. The second supporter to join SJ Blog this year  is Cow Harbor Bait and Tackle at .http://www.cowharbortackle.com/ Mark who owns the store is not only a former construction worker like myself who realized his dream of opening a tackle store but he is also a friend, fellow club member and a blog subscriber from a first day we started this. He shop has a great line up of seminars every weekend. Check it out.

And last but never least, The Surfcaster’s new 2013 catalog is out but now for the first time you can read it on line in a beautiful layout that SJ have used in the past

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Ok, it’s time to have a giveaway, we have not had on in a week and that is just not like us.

Today’s giveaway is open to all, Surfcaster’s Journal subscribers and those who just visit the blog or facebook.

One winner will win this Big Rock 2 ounce metal lip swimmer. For those of you that are going to the Surf Day, Big Rock will be there with his stuff.

 here is a video of a  bigger version

[youtube]http://youtu.be/CccR3U06iYw[/youtube]

Speaking of the Surf Day, we have few surprises up our sleeve, stop by our table and ask us how can you get these $20 t-shirts Tommy just made yesterday for free

for the first time in a loooong time the SJ hats are back. and new night crew stickers

By Dennis Zambrota

A SURFCASTERS PUZZLE – THE GREAT UNKNOWN

In the modern era of sport fishing it is the striped bass fisherman who stands alone as an icon to the humble beginning of surfcasting. Although advances in his equipment have changed for the better, the surfcaster of today still encounters the same challenges of his predecessors that fished in the earlier part of this century. In constant pursuit of the somewhat unpredictable striped bass, a surfcaster must use all his knowledge, his equipment, and an understanding of a multitude of environmental factors to hook and land a striper.
Unlike pursuing stripers from a boat where bass can often be “seen” by using modern electronics before anyone even wets a line. A surfcaster must use knowledge gained through experience, trial and error, and often times, intuition. A surfcaster must take into account the type of shoreline, weather, wind speed and direction, water conditions, time of season, tides and currents, presence of forage, what lure to use and then how to present it. Most of this is done without having ANY true knowledge that there is even a striper to be had within miles of his location. Surfcasters don’t have the luxury of an electronic fish finder that will tell them if the bass are here. A surfcaster must use all the items mentioned above to solve the puzzle. What makes this puzzle even more challenging is that it can also change from moment to moment, and it can have multiple solutions. I call this puzzle the “Great Unknown.” Solving it has become my favorite pastime for the past 40 years or so. I’m faced with the following questions each and every time I head out to cast the beach: Are the bass here? If so are they feeding and if not, why? Will they be feeding on a different tide stage or when the wind changes? Will a plug catch them? If so what color and size? If they’re not here could they be down the beach on the next bar or around the next point? There are so many spots, they all look the same, but they don’t all hold fish. How come?
The following is a typical surfcasting scenario: How many times have you run into someone else who after having a slow outing would tell you that the “Bass weren’t hitting tonight”, or “There’s nothing around.” Did you ever wonder how they knew? I mean, how does a surfcaster really know that the bass are not there? There could be thousands of bass in the water they were casting into; all watching their plugs go by but for one reason or another wouldn’t hit. You know – bass don’t eat all the time; if they did there probably wouldn’t be many left. Maybe this guy didn’t throw the right plug, or maybe he got left his favorite rock perch one cast too soon. Here’s a good one: maybe he didn’t use eels! Using eels is as close to “automatic” as surfcasters get to ensuring success. I’ve watched a caster fish a particular area for hours, get off a rock and lament the lack of bass. Another guy gets on the same rock (the rock is still warm for crying out loud!) and proceeds to catch bass on live eels until his arms hurt. Just another unpredictable part of the Great Unknown puzzle.
I’m encouraged to say that I continue to uncover secrets to the “Great Unknown” each and every season. And while at it I’m treated to the best that Mother Nature can set out for me, crisp starry nights, the sound that cobble stone makes as a wave recedes, the taste of salt spray on my mustache, the northern lights, and fire (phosphorescence) in the water. Yes, even fire in the water – yea, I hate it too but fire in the water is oh so beautiful. Just think of how fortunate you are to witness it. You tell a non-fisherman about fire and most won’t know what you’re talking about never mind seen it. Don’t take your environment for granted – enjoy it while solving the puzzle.
As I get older I continue to encounter even more questions when a new set of surfcasting conditions set up another riddle. But these questions keep the surf casting game fresh and renew my vigor in trying to solve them. I figure I have 500 questions of the great unknown puzzle solved. Only thing is the puzzle has a 1000 questions – I hope I never solve it.

Editors note :

Dennis Zambrotta is well know Rhode Island surfcaster and friend of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine since our humble beginnings. Dennis is also a very popular seminar speaker and he will be speaking at Surf Day this upcoming Saturday. He was fortunate to be one of the major players during the great Block Island Giant Striper Blitzes in 1980’s and he has recently wrote a  book about his experience,  Surfcasting Around the Block. You can find more information about the book by clicking on the cover. You can also purchase it from Dennis at Surf Day and other shows this winter

We’ll the time is finally here, the first big Surf show on tap this weekend in New Jersey. The Surf Day is a fairly new show but the guys behind it do  a hell of a job organizing it that most attendees and vendors can’t wait to get back to it. It is located in Lincroft, NJ in a high school and it’s not a terribly huge show when it comes to exhibitor space but they make up with kick ass seminars. Check out the website to get all the info here

I  am sure they will be looking for a bigger venue soon as they are growing fast

I still do not know why you could not post comments on John Skinner post the other day. Our web designer is an Australia of all places chasing kangaroos I guess. Sometimes getting answers takes a little time and I am clueless with this new design and controls.

After the Surf Day this weekend we really get cranking with shows for surfcasters from Berkley Fishing Club Flea Market, Asbury Flea Market, RISAA and River’s End Surf Day in CT.

I been chauffeuring my son to colleges this weekend I did not get a chance to post some stuff here that I wanted to. Boston is a darn nice college town. Tomorrow a blog post by  a guy you all respect, RI Dennis Zombratta.

Today’s post is just some info abbot SJ

Yes, we will be working on new issue soon. It will feature NE legend Charlie Soares, late Frank Pintauro’s works are back i the magazine, in particular his interview with late Stan Gibbs. There will be lots of new videos I this issue including a 30 minute interview with a local sharpie, all exclusive to subscribers. And other surprises are on tap

Two, we recently restocked the store with Night Crew shirts and we ordered few Night Crew Zip hoodies. There are only one of each size left in the store. When hey are gone they are gone.

Tommy also made a special shirt just for the shows. Right now, the shirt will be available at shows we mentioned before. More details coming up

Video of Surf Day

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Z4KKBywFvD4[/youtube]

My apologies for not being able to post comments to John Skinners post..we are still trying to figure out what happened.

By Zeno Hromim

Grandpa and Me

It was a late summer morning in its predawn glory with a gentle breeze coming off the ocean. The sweet smell of salty air was awakening all the senses in the body of a youngster. This was a special morning for this seven-year-old kid who had been waiting for this moment for a long time…forever it seemed. You see, his grandfather was a master fisherman, an old salt with no match, some say the best in town, and today he was going to accompany him for the very first time. Now, they had made plenty of trips together locally, but this was an overnight trip; a trip he always longed to go on. The night before passed agonizingly slow; every tick of the old clock seemed to take hours.  The kid was having a hard time containing his excitement. This trip held a special meaning, a promise of places never seen before and to a kid, it seemed so exotic and exciting. His grandfather was an old-fashioned fellow, a man of few words who never seemed to say more than he had to. That morning on the dock, he just motioned to the kid to get into the boat. The craft itself was not much to look at: a small 21-footer handmade out of wood and powered by a 7 horsepower Foreman German car engine which was loud and slow. It had a couple of bunks to sleep in.

But to the youngster, as he sat on the bow for the long trip to the fishing grounds, it seemed like a magnificent fishing yacht. Imagine his excitement when his Grandpa took out a small captain’s hat bought for the kid’s first trip and gave it to him. He loved this man like no one else because he had retired and given up his career early to take care of the boy after his parents split up.  In those magical two days they fished side by side, just the two of them, removed from thoughts of everyday life that waited for them back at home.

For the kid, it was an eye-opening experience. He knew that his grandfather was a good fisherman but he did not know that he could use objects on land to establish his bearings. As soon as he found the fish he was able to return to the same location on each consecutive drift without any electronics on board, while the boats around them seem to drift aimlessly with no apparent luck. That was something the youngster wasn’t prepared for. From that day on, he promised himself he was going to try to follow in his footsteps in life and fishing. There would be many more trips over the years, school days missed and plenty of fresh fish barbecued for dinner at night.  They would often take shelter in local ports after a whole day of hand lining and pulling up long lines. They were the best of friends, joined by a love of fishing and each other, for ten years. The youngster grew up to be a teenager and left for America in search of a better life. It took him a few years to get accustomed to his new surroundings but the passion for fishing was still there with him. Living in the city and having no command of the English language made his experience in New York limited to Jones Beach trips with his family. One day he was taken by a friend on a surfcasting trip to Gilgo beach. He marveled at the trucks lining the beach and the many anglers tending to their bait. He was fascinated by the gear employed by these anglers. Big rods and reels were not something he was familiar with. In his youth he was considered a good fisherman for his age but this was all accomplished using hand lines and winding them on a piece of styrofoam. A few days later, he took a trip to a local marina and discovered that local fishermen pulled the loglines with a winch. He and his grandfather had done it by hand. Grandpa was the one doing most of the work, pulling the lines and aligning each hook as it would come within reach while the boy was the gaff man. He stood at the rail with nervous anticipation, knowing that if he missed a fish with the gaff, the ride back to port would not be a pleasant one. Missed fish meant less money when they got back home. This often meant no new shoes for school or no good jacket for the winter.

This youngster continued his trips with his friend to Gilgo over the year. These were mostly afternoon affairs where they soaked some bait after work. Then one day they decided to head to Montauk Point, more out of curiosity than anything else. Talk about an eye opening experience! Although he was familiar with sandy beach bait fishing, at Montauk Point he found hundreds of anglers perched on the rocks tossing lures in the water. He had never seen anything like this before. He walked around the lighthouse rocks and observed surfcasters catching stripers almost at will. He and Grandpa caught fish, but nothing like this! As soon as he got home he opened an Offshore Angler catalog he had previously received in the mail, and with no input from anyone, he ordered a 10 foot rod and matching reel. He had no idea how to use it but he was determined to learn. Along with this, he ordered a surf bag and a few lures from The Surfcaster catalog. A few days later the packages arrived at his Astoria apartment.

One Sunday morning he took a ride to Jones Beach and walked to the jetty at West End. After observing a few guys at the tip catching a few fish, he reasoned that the end of the jetty was the place to be. Unfortunately, there were a few big gaps in the rocks that separated him from the other anglers. With no waders or Korkers he suffered many lacerations on his legs trying to cross over. Trying to time the waves, he crouched behind rocks questioning his own sanity but he pushed on. By the time he got to the tip, the other surfcasters were walking back, giving puzzled stares at his bruised hips and bleeding shins. One of them mentioned that the current was done, but he could have said anything since the kid had no clue what tide or current were. It was all foreign to him. In fact, he did not even know how to cast. His only experience was a few feeble attempts he made with his friend’s rod and bail-less reel. On the walk back to his car he endured a lot of puzzled looks and even his girlfriend at the time (now his wife) gasped at the sight of his bruised limbs.

This nightmarish trip, as bad as it was, did not extinguish his desire to become a surfcaster. Over the years, he improved his casting ability to a point were he caught some nice fish. The many hours he put into the surf started paying off as did his better understanding of the English language. This made it possible to read articles written by local sharpies that appeared in the Fisherman. He enjoyed the quiet time to reflect on life and the simple pleasure of finding the fish without the help of fancy electronics. This always reminded him of his grandfather. One recent summer night, as he stood on the jetty casting into an ocean that seemed barren of any life, suddenly he felt the unmistakable bump of a fish. He quickly set the hook but this fish was not going to give up without a fight. He struggled to gain leverage on the fish in the strong inlet current. Finally, after a few tense moments, he slid the fish onto a rock: a ten-pound weakfish. As he admired the stunning reflection of this beautiful fish in the moonlight, he thought about his grandfather.  Surely, he would be proud of him, the grandson thought; this was his biggest weakfish ever. When he got home that night , the teary face on his loving wife said it all – no words were needed. His Grandpa had left this world quite unexpectedly a few hours ago in a land far away. Crushed, he took the first flight home. He thought how ironic to be fishing while his mentor was taking his last breath a half a world away. He remembered a year ago the excitement they both felt over the phone when his daughter was born on his Grandpa’s birthday. But most of all he remembered all the trips they took together and he was grateful for the love of fishing Grandpa had instilled in him. After the funeral, he walked into his childhood room for the first time in many years. On the dresser he found his captain’s hat – the same one that Grandpa had given to him on their first trip together. He folded it neatly and put it in his pocket, hoping that one day his own son would share his and Grandpa’s love for fishing.

Today’s video blog post is by SJ columnist John Skinner.

This is about how to be lazy and still have a lure deadly enough to entice big fish. There are a lot of ways to catch bass on Slug-Gos, this is just one of them. The rigging can’t be simpler. You can buy similar hooks in different weights or weightless. I carry just two weights, the 1/4-ounce model in the video, and the unweighted hooks. I used to throw these on jig heads, but I like the swim bait hooks better because the weight is further back resulting in a more balanced bait. It’s one of the few artificials that you can give a twitch and it will keep traveling on its own in a very natural fashion. This is all about convenience. If my life depended on catching a big bass, I’d want rigged or live eels, but for the times I just don’t want to mess with eels, these are an excellent substitute.

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

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

John Skinner is author of A Season on the Edge and Fishing the Bucktail, his recent and very popular book. He also has a website at http://www.fisherslog.com/ where you can download a sick fish log to try for free. Find his book on Amzon, SJ store or your local retailer