Ok, we do this once a year and as you know, we do it via pre-order only. We are not a retail outfit to hold inventory, we try to concentrate on doing a magazine , blogs and video. But we always get request for hoodies so here they are.

Pre Order only until January 10th. You can order any hoodie in our online store  by 1/10/2013 . We then collect all the orders and have them made. Expected shipping date is January 24th. No pickups, no drop offs, they will be mailed to your house. The price includes Priority Mail shipping with Tracking. You will receive a tracking number via email once the label is made on or around the 24th.

New for this year, zipped Night Crew sweatshirts

Heavyweight Black Zip Up Front and back printing.

12 oz. 70% pre-shrunk cotton/30% polyester.

One-ply hood with double-needle hem and matching tipped draw cord. Double-needle
cover stitching on neck, armholes and band bottom. 1×1 rib cuffs and band bottom with spandex. Cuffs with concealed seam. Full-zip front with pouch pocket $55 including shipping. Available size S trough 3XL

and also available SJ Lighthouse pullover sweatshirt

Heavyweight Gray sweatshirt Front and back printing ,with pouch pockets

100% Super Heavyweight 12oz Cotton

Available size S trough 3XL

$50 including shipping.

This is limited time offer. Once January 10th hits we will take an order page down and there will be no more ordering until next year. Available size S trough 3XL. If someone needs larger or smaller than those sizes, drop us a line. To order go to our online store at http://surfcastersgear.com/ or just click on any sweatshirt picture.

one note. something that drives me nuts. You DONT need to have a paypal account to use online store. Paypal just procceses credit card transactions if you wish to use one. Keep going trough the checkout until you get to this screen.

I want to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Fishy 2013.

I am very excited about what this year will bring and if my elbow stops hurting at some point, I might even get a little more excited. Hopefully this therapy will do and if it does not, the cortisone will have to do next month.

I hope all of you got all the gifts you wanted, I hope you enjoyed the holidays with your families and I know that many of you can’t wait for another season to get going. I hope we see many of you at the shows this winter. We will be at RISAA in Providence this year, I am honored that they asked me to speak and I am looking forward to return trip after few years of absence.

Let’s take a quick peak of what we at the Surfcaster’s Journal have in store for you. Tommy is working on our first issue in the new vertical format. All I heard from him was that “it looks sick”. I think he is reenergized to do something different. I am happy that for the first time we will have a true flip viewer for the tablets. We are also redesigning the whole website which should debut with a new issue. As we told you before, the SJ in 2013 will be a subscription magazine while the blog will stay where it is. We have some ideas for blog too but right now we are trying to get the magazine and new website and layout complete before we moved on to other things. Our new managing editor Dave Anderson has a lot of ideas that he wants to implement but like I said, they too will have to wait until we launch our first issue in a week or so.

I wrote yesterday that John Skinner will become a columnist starting with March issue, something that we are excited and honored to bring to you. In addition, I will be working this winter on creating episodes of the Montauk Surfcasters Time and Tide original series, which will encompass surf fishing in Montauk from WWII to today. Each issues starting in March will feature one original episode that will be made exclusively for the subscribers of SJ.

In addition to this original series, there will be more original videos embedded into the SJ just for readers. I spent this past weekend in Connecticut with Ron DiCostanzo, maker of Lordship Lures and also of the ZeeBaaS fame. We shot few videos on making wooden lures , from offset drilling to sealing lures, making tail twists and other stuff. These videos will also appear in the each issue of SJ in 2013. But that is not all (now I am starting to sound like an infomercial :-)). I will also be making some more original content for SJ with our Rod Guru Lou Caruso in few days. What I envision SJ to be is a very media rich publication, with original programming that you won’t find anywhere else. I hope that we can deliver the content you guys crave and fulfill not only ours but your expectations too. I hope that you support us as we embark on the new chapter for Surfcaster’s Journal. In this issue we have as a centerpiece a long and very detailed interview with Don Musso from Super Strike Lures. From his days of woodcarving little swimmers in 1961 to his break up with Dan Pichney and reason behind it all the way through today, a reflection on his glorious career as lure builder and his contribution to the sport of surf casting.

Here is a little video on what is coming up in the next issue

[youtube]http://youtu.be/AZJ6YuPrHPU[/youtube]

You know what a man-crush is? Sure you do, you just pretend you have no clue. Man crush is that thing that you do when you go to Crazy Alberto’s seminar and you get all puppy eyed when Al shakes your hand and pats you on a head…lol…nothing to be embarrassed, we’ve all been there. It’s nothing more that saying “I got a lot of respect for that dude”. I felt like that about late Al Bentsen. Never quite got comfortable fishing next to him. Yeah, we stood a rod length apart and chatted a little bit but I always felt intimidated so I kept my mouth shut most of the time. There were others over the years, Fred Schwab is the one that comes to mind. Manny Moreno is another, Joe Bragan, Pat Abate and there are many others. All guys I am honored to know and call friends.

But of all current surfcasters, many of whom  posses sick surfcasting skills, there is one who, to me always stood head and shoulder above the rest. Not because he catches a fifty on every cast, not because he writes like a mad scientist, not because he is one of the most respected surfcasters of this generation. Actually, that is it. Respect. I’ve met self promoters, I’ve meet some plain mean guys who hate themselves by noon and the rest of the world in the afternoon. I’ve met some wannabe’s, have-been’s and couldhavebeen’s but not one of the current generation is as universally liked and respected as John Skinner.

You can go to Jersey or Connecticut, Massachusetts or New York and you will find out that the respect for the man is universally shared. He not only does he have a brilliant analytical mind but he has the fishing skills to go with it. His YouTube videos get more hits than anyone’s else. His seminars are packed and his advice is in high demand. Yet he fishes alone just about all the time. He never struck me as one that cared if anyone saw the fish he caught. He fishes for himself , for his own pleasure and for his own sanity.

And it is my pleasure and honor to introduce Mr. John Skinner as one more voice that will be joining Surfcaster’s Journal family with his own column starting in March issue. Man crush or not, I am one happy and proud blogger…and if you never seen this video, you owe yourself to watch it.

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

Ok. …back to work on the videos for the new issue

As many of you know , I am a big proponent of fishing  the “white water”. Unfortunately too many have taken my preaching as a gospel and not as an application that should be used when conditions are right. Let’s be honest, if you fish Long Island Sound, Connecticut or you are a back bay dude, you will never see the white water the likes of which you will encounter on ocean facing beaches.

And in the fall, when prevailing winds are from the north which tend to flatten out the surf, should you just stay home because there is no white water present? Of course not, the migration is in a full swing, fish will feed white water of not. So the importance of fishing white water lays not in its availability at all times but instead of you recognizing when present and using it to your advantage.

Here are few things off the top of my head which might help you utilize this highly productive technique.

• Best wave conditions are usually wind driven and not swell driven by hurricanes of offshore storms
• Best winds are usually diagonal instead of straight in-your-face or cross (side) winds. This does not mean that waves will come at you diagonaly although they might. Usualy they will come at your straight even on a hard diagonal wind
• Best wave period is when they are fairly tight, less than 10 seconds between waves
• Best applied when cresting wave is reachable with a medium cast (because metal lips swimmers are deadly under these conditions and they cast like wet rage)
• Always, always cast to have your plug land in the white water behind the wave when using this technique
• Great for finicky fish in Montauk white bait blitzes
• Best plugs, poppers, metal lip swimmer and bucktails
• Works great on the sandbars on the west side of any inlet year round and not just in the fall because of ever-present white water.

But what do I know, you are better off listening to experts who combined know enough to fill an Encyclopedia of surf fishing.

And here they are

[youtube]http://youtu.be/1u4EMHrtM8A[/youtube]

To all the surfcasters, Have a Merry Christmas and a Very Fishy New Year

[youtube]http://youtu.be/CMUFA26ZBlU[/youtube]

The winner of Guides Secrets set of lures giveaway is gus637@hotmail.com

Please email us your address at info@surfcastersjournal.com

I understand that my English can be a mid hard to decipher but sometimes I feel like I have to write on a kindergarten level. Even after editing my poor attempt at humor the other day and explain the changes at SJ I still got emails saying “sorry to see you go”. I am not going anywhere! So let’s try this again but this time read it sloooooowly

It is my pleasure to tell you that our Plugoholics Anonymous columnist Mr. Dave Anderson will be a managing editor of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine in 2013. You have a story to pitch? Email him at dave@surfcastersjournal.com

What does this mean? Only that I am relinquishing some reasonability’s to those who are hopefully better qualified than I (I know, not a high bar there..ha-ha). Dave will be lining up content, editing and working with writers in general. He will also be doing something else but more on that when we are ready. Like I told you, there will be expansion in more ways than one.

Mr. Roger Martin, our editor emeritus will try his hand in writing a column from Old Fart perspective. Hell, I think we should call it Old Man Farts column. Just don’t tell him he is not “cool”. He does not like that.

Tommy is still Art Director and I am still here. Same chair, same keyboard, writing this blog and helping Dave with magazine. I see myself drifting more and more towards the visual end of things, video and photos so I will hopefully have more time to devote to that from now on.

There are few more (possible) major announcements to come but none of those are finalized and I hate to have to take stuff back after I open my big fat mouth

Over the years I have met surfcasters who can’t wait for a first warm day in March to wet their line. I’ve meet guys who have an insane collections of tiny lures which the rotate in their bags in the early spring, looking to match the hatch. Then they are those who prefer to use only large lures and they usually start their spring hunt much later. I always gravitated to the later group although  I been on both sides depending on weather and things going on in my life. I went through the period where I would wait for big skinny bluefish to show up in May before I ever make a first cast. That used to be an automatic thing although in recent years it has not lived up to its billing.

Last few years I been spending more and more time, usually with Silver Fox in the back bays in May. Traffic is light that time of the year and by the time we get there after dark its usually deserted. But we found a consistent bite, depending on tide and weather of course. And they are usually all bass. Bombers, Yo-Zuri MagDarters, small Redfins, Redgil teasers, they all catch fish. But my best lure in the spring of 2012 was a new lure in my bag, Guides Secrets Mucho Minnow. I am sure this was to a large extent a result of me casting it more than any other. In fact, I am sure it was. The thing is, I don’t care if you will admit or not, for whatever reason, one lure seems to be “hot” every season. And then everyone and their mother buys one, and then they all toss it, they all catch fish and suddenly the lure goes from “nice plug” to “omg you MUST have this”. Which is funny because I always thought that lure makers give us the tools but unless you are skilled tradesman, you final result will not be what you expected, regardless if you have a hot lure or not. I don’t ad many lures to my bag each season although I go through dozens of them when I try to get a sense if it’s worth testing and writing about. Even some lures that we write about can’t fit in my bag, there is only so much room in there and Super Strike takes about 75% of the space. It would be hard to fish without them. But some trickle in , especially in the spring bag. Admission to the fall bag is a tougher nut to crack.

I added magdarters, redgils,gotstrypers over the years and now it looks like Macho Minnow will get a spot too. Not sure if it’s the size or profile but the bass seem to love them when conditions are right. Last fall I been using their Big Poppa Pencil poppers in addition to Guppy’s pencil poppers because the not-so-bright people at Yo-Zuri discontinued our beloved surface cruisers. Funny part was, I don’t feel I gave up anything by using these lures, in some ways I like them in some situations more.

I found a stash of Guides Secret lures in my man cave yesterday so I will give one of our blog readers a chance to win them and have some fun tossing them to stripers this spring.

It includes

• Mucho Minnow swimmer
• skinny Minny swimmer
• Baby BottlePop popper
• Needle Stick

Good luck to all and say hi this weekend at the mall when I am trying to elbow my way to cash register. Oh, the procrastination disease is not an easy thing to deal with.

new video from Peter Laurelli….

This year the full 20 minute movie will be shown as part of the International Fly Fishing Film Festival

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/56019229[/vimeo]

Dude makes EPIC videos…the underwater footage of last year one was insane!

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/39594064[/vimeo]

Once in awhile I put this stuff out there, a call for help in a way. Stuff I can’t get to, stuff I could use, stuff we need for a magazine.

And I also promised you to continue with news. The big news of the week is that I KVIT . For those of you without working knowledge of Cringlish language (croatian-english) that would be, I quit. Dave Anderson who I have a  world of respect for will be  managing editor of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. He will work with all the columnists and writers and do what I have been doing. Where does that leave me? Hmmm, let me see. Write, pictures blog, ad sales, billing, invoicing, video, shows…oh yeah, that pesky thing called regular job….lol. So from now on , any inquiries about writing ,stories , please contact him at danderson_nef@yahoo.com  . We are working on getting him surfcastersjournal.com email but use the yahoo one for now. The haters can still contact me at zenosucks@surfcastersjournal.com.

And yes, I will still be writing this blog…I can’t believe some misread my original post this morning but then again my cringlish is tough to grasp

The winner of Ultimate Surf Belt is  frankbklyn21@yahoo.com …please email us at info@surfcastersjournal.com with your shipping address

Can someone please email me a picture you took which shows this  mycobacteria disease? I need it for an article and I don’t have any. I would really appreciate it.

As I told you, I will be working on this Montauk series over the winter. Does anyone have old vintage pictures of trucks, people, town, anything related to Montauk? Please email me or send me a link to a place where you know there are some. You can contact me at zhromin@verizon.net

If anyone has an idea for article for SJ they want to write, please drop mDave a line with your idea. Even if you have a suggestion as to what you would like to see other write, let us know. We can only think of so much.

We’d like to feature a gear modification column, not so much on regular basis but as an occasional series. We all tinker with our stuff and until recently most of the stuff you bought for surfcasting was not designed for surf fishing only. If you have an idea, shot Dave an email.

Let’s face it, your feedback is important. Like I said many times, in a lot of ways, we do this for you guys on this blog. Yes, a lot more people come and go but to me, you are our most important readers. No disrespect to masses that read SJ but to me you guys are like family…except there is no sneering remarks, insults or putdowns. What kind a family is this ?:-)

And how ironic is that after we moved the blog to another server that it went caput yesterday? You can’t make this stuff up

As I was writing today’s blog which was going to be an giveaway of a different kind I checked my emails after giving my one typing finger a break. And there was a note from Steve Knapik from the Ultimate Surf Belts thanking us for a honest review of his belt and asking us if he could make this Christmas more special for one of our readers by giving them a chance to win one of his belts.

With so much pain and suffering this year, in the spirit of the holiday season, he wants you to tell us how you were helped by someone this year. It does not have to be fishing related. During these times, reflecting on others and what they mean to us is what this season is all about.

So, in order to enter the giveaway, you have to tell us how you were helped my someone. There are a lot of good deeds done this year, so let’s hear about it. We will pick a winner at random in a day or two and try to get you the Ultimate Surf Belt by Christmas time.

What a terrible week it was in so many ways. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go to all of those affected by the terrible tragedy in CT. Sometimes in life you try to make sense of things but you just can’t. Tommy sent me a text on Friday to put the TV on, I was running around, trying to get to physical therapy on time that I did not even have a radio on in the truck. I am at the loss for explanations as a father, husband and just a human being on what happened. Tommy’s dad lost his battle with cancer this week and I know how much he hates the group hug stuff that goes on the other websites,,,but I just wanted to acknowledge it. Any person that is responsible for creating a genius art guru who makes the SJ come to life should be remembered with fondness.

After writing all this, the rest of the words, to be honest, seem irrelevant but just like we felt the world was caving in during Sandy and on 9/11, the sun came out the next day, athough in so many ways so so many, life will never be the same.I promised you some more details of what we have planned for you in 2013 so i will try to put them in some coherent sentences this week although I haven’t mastered the “coherent” part yet.

When we bought the new platform we thought our dreams have come true. Finally we get to embed videos and customize it with our logo, the way we wanted to fit. And unlike our old issuu platform which did not work with Ipad or any apple products, this one did. If you remembered we had a separate link for IPAD viewers and one for desktop. Not very professional but keep in mind that it’s just two dudes on shoestring budget. Yes, Tommy still made it look better than anything big boys out together put out but on the end of the day, we only have so many hours..and family always, always comes first. That is why I am typing this at midnight after they went to bed.

The platform promise was wickedly simple. You make a single file, upload it to a server and then the software recognizes automatically what you are using, mobile, tablet, desktop and voila, it adjust its layout so it can be optimized for that device. Thing of beauty I am telling you…except no one told us few things.

The most important in my view, and this is by no fault of anyone, just a nature of a beast, our landscape format….pages are  long and it’s impossible to fit two landscape pages onto a tablet (or a phone) and make them flip. So we decided that as of next issue in January SJ will be laid out in vertical format. Still same size but now in the classic format like most publications. Tommy is actually excited about the idea. He likes the challenge. I was glad to hear it because at first I thought he was going to show up at my house with a can of gas and matches. So that is number one. For the first time you will have a true “flip” viewer on your ipad

You’ve seen the sample of the video we embedded into the last issue. That was just a test run. I am of the opinion that the publications will feature more and more interactive content or other media formats besides just text and picture. And I want SJ to be on the forefront of this, just like we did with web publishing. We are developing an original series about history of surf fishing at Montauk Point. I’ve spent some time interviewing  fellows that were not part of Montauk Rocks Film. Guys like Fred Schwab, Vito Orlando, Manny Moreno or the Hardest Working Guide in the Business, Mr. Bill Wetzel. I know it’s going to take me a year or two to put the whole thing together and I am aware of my limitations too. It will never be as polished as Mr. Siberry film. Just like anything I do, it will have plenty of Zenoisams. But I think I can handle making 10 to 20 minutes “episodes” for each issue of the Journal. Look for this series to debut in the March issue of the SJ. I am hoping to have a trailer for you shortly, kind of see what it is all about. Not so much about the place as it is about the people and how fishing was in the 50’s trough today. Stay tuned for that

Btw thank you for the kind works regarding the SJ Holiday Video the other day. I watched my daughter play that song the other night at concert, the Carol of the Bells and it’s so powerful. Once I got home I started to work with a concept and hours and hours latter it was a almost a 2 minute video. Yeah, I suck at this.

We are also working on two how-to series and possibly adding a third one which will appear also exclusively in the pages of SJ. None of these videos will be on YouTube or another site. There are few more announcements, some that will surprise you, and some that will delight you, but I will save those for few more days as I have to still make sure we are all on the same page.

I am not going to bore you with details of what and why. I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of our supporters who advertised here on the blog and in the magazine. They made this dream of ours a reality. But after 20k or so of unpaid bills we have decided that we cant to this anymore. My dream has always been to have this grandiose publication that people are going to love and that will be about the sport that they love. That it would be the best, the longest, the most gorgeous thing you can think of. And I think we did that for the most parts but it’s time for me to throw in a towel in more ways than one (more one that latter). We decided that in order to keep peace at home, to pay the writers, the platform, the new servers for mag and blog (notice how this thing does not crash after we moved it from godaddy), more cameras and more content, we are going to make SJ magazine a publication for subscribers only for what we feel is very reasonable twenty dollar a year subscription. So now you are not only getting the magazine but exclusive content like how-to videos and original series. And yes, we are already thinking about another original project just for you.

I do want to say one thing in closing of today’s blog. In a lot of ways, the SJ is made for you guys here on this blog. I appreciate all the support from Facebook fans and people that stop by once in awhile to enter a giveaway. But to me, you guys on this blog are the reason why we do this. I was actually considering closing down the blog as of new year but believe it or not, our advertisers here were not happy with my idea. They felt that this is the best and most desirable group of surfcasters they want to reach. Which is very flattering. And it should be to you too. So like I have always done in the past, when I found a fork in the road and I had a choice to either fold or stay the course I did the third thing. Yeah, there is a third thing and its called making it better. Look for the news of expanding of our blog in near future too. And the blog will remain where it is, outside of the publication.

Anyway, that is enough typing for tonight. My elbow is barking and yes, after 3 months of pain that would not go away I am now in physical therapy 3 times a week trying to get rid of this pain before spring. Because on the end of the day, all I ever wanted to do is fish

Which is why you are here too

and in case you are jonesing for some “action” check out this sick video of GT rushing a school of bait. If stripers moved at this speed I think I would fish in Kevlar waders!!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/r4mA6WsFJQE[/youtube]