Battered and bruised by Sandy, we are getting back to business. One thing that was pushed back because of the storm is our “Send a picture, win a PENN SPINFISHER V REEL” contest.

The good folks at PENN reels who have made a remarkable investment into the sport of surf fishing in recent years, by not only introducing the Torque, SPINFISHER V and slew of other products, but have also supported Surfcaster’s Journal, Stripers On Line and many other websites and publications. For that I admire them. This sport has been ignored for way too long and I truly like the direction in which PENN reels are going.

Ok, without further mumbling by yours truly, let’s get to business. We asked you to send us any fishing related pictures from this fall, and you did. We did not alter these pictures in anyway. As you sent them, that is what you see. We picked 5 pictures and you guys will get to vote. The top vote getter will receive brand new SPINFISHER V from folks at PENN Reels.

Rules. You have to be a blog subscriber to vote . No, not you cannot get your wife, your girlfriend and your mistress to all vote for you, pick one :-). You can only vote for one picture, your favorite. In case of a tie, whichever picture was submitted to us first by date will win. Good luck to all, thank you for participating and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all of us at SJ!

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I honestly do not remember the last time I put up a new video on YouTube

I am getting a little rusty

as always, we recommend that you watch all our videos at 1080 P resolution….because if you don’t, I just spent a kids’ college fund for apparently, no reason 🙂

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I been using Princeton Rage lights for years. They are decent lights, you get a lot of bang for your buck. They don’t fall apart as soon as they see the water like many others. Yes, after awhile trying to turn them to put them on becomes a real pain in the ass. But other than that they are serviceable.

Few years ago in a pinch I walked into Causeway Bait and Tackle in Wantagh NY looking for a flashlight. The only decent looking thing they had in stock was a Pelican Tracker little yellow light. It’s been few years since then and I went through a dozen other flashlights, yet my little yellow Tracker is still around my neck every night. Sometimes it’s my primary, sometimes a secondary, depending on conditions (I always wear two lights, just a habit). But it’s always there.

Not too many things in this sport can you count on to take a licking and keep on ticking but products from Pelican fit the bill. Subsequently I bough waterproof cases from them for my camera and more lights and I never regretted any purchase. So when they gave me a Pelican light to try this fall I said “This is going to our blog readers”.

Why I didn’t keep it for myself ?

I honestly expect my Pelican little Tracker to last forever..

So boys and girls, courtesy of Pelican Lights, one of you will be a proud winner of this new Pelican Head Lamp

2720 LED Headlight            • Gesture Activation Control • Variable Light Output • Dual Red LED Night Vision Gloved hands, wet hands or oily hands are not an issue when using the 2720 with Gesture Activation Control technology. Turn on the light with a wave of a hand. Additional features include: Low level red light that preserves night vision, for nighttime applications. Signaling red (S.O.S) beacon light. Optical 4x magnification allows for a wide or penetrating beam,. Including a variable light output from 100%-10%.

Yesterday morning I got up at 4 am on my day off, got caffeinated, drove to Montauk, did some camera work and drove back home. I left the rod at home, so the fish were safe but I could not believe what the north side looked like! Holy crap, you could fit a hundred trucks between get-on and false bar. And Jones reef? Whatever little bluff we had is gone. Whoa, I wish I took few shots but I did not, even while having four cameras on the front seat. No one was fishing although there were few trucks on North bar, few in Hero lot and that was about it.

On the way back I stooped at East End bait and tackle where Scott informed me that both side of Shinecock inlet are open and today the Dune Road was reopened . On the way home I stopped at Saltwaters tackle and they filled me on opening of Capteee and Jones Beach field 2. If you are dying to wet a line, you have options. Life is slowly returning to some sense of normalcy. Even for us that did not hit hard, seeing all the trees down, all the ripped up sidewalks, you get an idea this recovery will take a long time. We can only imagine how do those on barrier beach feel like with onset of winter.

I was thrilled when I heard that Fisherman’s Headquarter is Ship Bottom in NJ is back to on their feet. Fisherman Supply took some water on but they were trying to make things as normal as possible and are back up and running. We wish our friends at Grumpys a fast recovery and access to their store

In other news , I fired up my Mac after a month’s hiatus and opened video editing program. But when I realized how much work is waiting for me I shut it down and ran away from it like a little scared girl. I mean holy crap. I could sit here for 5 days straight and not even make a dent. Hey, I never said I was brave, just persistent. Besides, that is why they make a winter months…

I will try to fill you in what is going on at SJ and what is new (and coming up) in upcoming days. I also have a very special giveaway, courtesy of dudes from Pelican who make the sickest flashlight and are my favorite

But for now enjoy the trailer from Montauk Rocks, the Film released recently. Not sure what shops you can find it , off the top of my head, I know few that have it including Fisherman’s Headquarters, LH Water, , Harry’s Army Navy, Fisherman Supply, LI Outdoorsman, Causeway Bait and Tackle, Saltwaters Tackle, Camp Site, Cow Harbor, East End Tackle, Paulie’s, River’s End Tackle, The Surfcasters, Saltwater Edge , Surfcaster’s Journal Store and Amazon.

Enjoy the trailer and football too

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/53217771[/vimeo]

I will fill you in on all the crazy things going on at SJ but right now, I just want you to go and enjoy reading the new issue. Enjoy

https://surfcastersjournal.com/

You never know how to value something ..till you lose it. Admittedly, I rarely watch TV and I never use a home phone but being without both, and internet was…painful. Almost starting to feel a little Amish..ha
All of you that are still suffering with outages, no service, power, water, you have my sympathies. These have been trying weeks for many to say the least. I did manage to get to the beach in Jones Inlet on the weekend. The parking situation is ridiculous but if you are willing to walk a block or two, it’s really not that hard…in the daytime that is. Nighttime is a whole other story. Glad to see that Montauk 4×4 is open, Smith Point lot is open and both sides of Shinny.
Our friends at Fisherman Headquarters who took a big hit during the storm in Ship Bottom, NJ are up and running and reporting lots of fish being caught. So it’s not over yet by a long shot.
We finished up the new issue but we ran into unexpected problems trying to get it up so please bare with us, we are almost there. What you will see now with this issue is just a temporary home of SJ, the big redesign will take a place starting with January issue. We are even toying with the idea of vertical instead of landscape version for multitude of reasons . We got even more columnists, more content and more ideas too.
We are sad that our regular contributor and one of our most popular writers Frank Pintauro passed away recently quite suddenly., His articles on the old time lures and makers were to me always what made SJ authentic and different than other publications. He will be sorely missed.
The winner of the Giant Lemire’s Plug works Pencil Popper Giveaway is Bob B barnegatrob@comcast.net
Please email us your shipping address and we will get it to you asap.

Glad I have the internet and TV back (I could do without a phone). Glad to be back on line and I hope many of you are too. We have so much work ahead of us to get ready for January that is daunting but I am sure that in the end, all will work itself out. We just got to remember why we started this in the first place, to give our sport a voice of our own. To have something special, to have something of our own, to be different and yet refreshing, current and nostalgic, all at the same time. This is just a beginning of another chapter in existence of SJ.
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Just a shout to all of you ,letting you know that we are still alive.

It’s been trying few weeks for most of you, I am sure. I got my power back on Thursday night but unfortunately during the nor’easter the FIOS went down so I am without TV, internet of phone service. And according to FIOS I will not be getting it any time soon. It sucks but it’s nothing in comparison what some of you have went trough.

Tommy is putting finishing touches on the new issue of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. As I have mentioned previously, we are switching over to another platform from issuu and please give us some slack if we screw things up here or there while we learn this thing. One of the neat things will be that we will be able to customize our page and insert videos right into the pages of the magazine so we no longer have to send you to YouTube to watch them. We have , how do I say this properly, well, there really is no better word then , shitload of ideas and plans for videos that will be embedded into the magazine in 2013 including something very, very special. But just like many of you, our lives have been turned upside down by Sandy.

I hope that all of you are doing well, I hope Verizon shows up in my neighborhood one of these days to fix the FIOS lines on the ground and I hope to hear from many of you soon. Right now, all I can do is hang in the Starbucks and type on laptop…the neighbors already kicked me out…haha

Also a quick note on Richard Siberry Film, Montauk Rocks

The 1 hour 20 minute movie, 5 years in the making is in our online store (just click on dvd image) and Amazon. It should be trickling into your local tackle stores in the next few weeks. About time we got something that we can call our own..I love fly fishing films but there is no reason there are 64 987 of those and none on surfcasting 🙂

More info on the film to come when we get back up to speed.

If you are a retailer and reading this and want some for your store, please contact me and I will give you info. Like I said, I am unable to use my email address list from my computer so I am doing this at Starbucks with my wife’s laptop.

But it’s not right that you guys suffer with us, you went through so much already so today we will give away this special, Giant 10 inch, 4 ounce Pencil Popper from our friends at Lemire’s Plugworks. This thing is sweeeet! Bag not included 🙂

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Day 9 and still no power and no LIPA truck in sight…

I hope most of our readers have got their juice back and are starting to put their lives back together. I’ve heard that my kids will go to school tomorrow. That is cool, some sense of normalcy. My son is already stressing about missing out on school work…who am I kidding. He has been stressing out since the day one. Must have got his smarts from his mother.

Access…there is still a lot of fishing left according to…well ,me. There are fish still up in Cape Cod Canal, still in Montauk rips. But if you are living on Long Island or New Jersey you will have a hard time getting to the water to cast you line. These areas have been particularly hard hit, in some places water has breached the barrier islands, in other case the strict curfew is in place to guard against looters. Yes, it will be hard but not impossible. With a  little research, you can still find a place to wet a line. For those of you interested in such things, I understand that Montauk 4×4 road has been reopened.

Let me get this out of the way. The winner of our last two giveaways, another thing Sandy precluded us from finishing on time.

First, winner of Super Strike Super Sick darter is greggmarwin@aol.com

Please email me your shipping address and I will pass on to Mr. Musso

Second ,winner of my new book HOOKED is daniel_blanchard9@hotmail.com

You too please email me your shipping address at info@surfcastersjournal.com

I sent the book to Saltwater Edge, LI Outdoorsman, River’s End, Saltwaters Tackle, Fisherman’s Line and Surfland via UPS yesterday. I assume, they should have it today. It is also in our online store and Amazon. We will do something special to help out those in need in few days but first I need to get my juice back…and get the furnace going. This burning shit in fireplace to get warm is getting old…although I have no lack of books to burn 🙂

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Tommy and I  were bouncing around ideas this morning of how to help …but there are so many to help!!!

We as surfcaster’s are of course sympathetic to other surfcasters than most other people. And in some ways, we would like to personally help them. But like I found out this morning in a conversation, that is not as easy as it seems. You see fundraisers for people who have lost it all. A surfcasters whose family needs everything…then you find out that four of your friends have also lost everything. All the barrier islands, people in NY and particularly in NJ, they been hit so damned hard. On the end of the day, you realize that you can help in other ways, sending your unneeded clothes to those who need, some water or food from your pantry. I know  the easiest thing to do is to send some funds and in my mind, for me personally, the Red Cross is the place.

A friend of mine got evacuated from Long Beach, NY and he is with his wife in a  shelter at the local college. I went to see him, if for no other reason than to offer support and company. I was shocked to find the place staffed with Red Cross volunteers…from Wisconsin, Louisiana, ambulance drivers from Iowa. Wow, I am in owe of those people! God Bless them and their families. We will come up with something in few days, I am still waiting for power come back on and can only get on the net sporadically.

We still have to draw a winner of Super Strike sick darter and a book giveaway, we’ll get to that too. Unfortunately my mind in not on fishing but where to get more gas as LIPA informed us that it will few more days before they get power back on line here.

You ever listened to the stories of how fishing was back in the day? Before this or that bridge was built? When a storm made an inlet in the place that does not exists? In some way, you will now be able to tell the new generation of surfcasters years from now what have you experienced as a lot of structure along the oceanfront has been altered. Some temporarily, some forever. It is silly to even think that our bankrupt government will be able to fund all the things that need to be done. So for awhile we will have to, just like your parents did, find ways to get to certain places to fish. Tin boats, kayaks and even wetsuits in places no one used them before.

I have also heard of a lot of dead fish in the back bays that were tossed around by a surge. This is unconfirmed, just a rumor. Which made me think about something. What does our beloved striped bass things about Sandy? Were their migration interrupted? Are they hungry and searching for food too? Someone should send Geraldo Rivera to ask them in person… 🙂

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I sincerely don’t know what to write..the scope of the destruction is beyond my comprehension. All I can tell you is that all SJ crew members came trought ok, some better than others but none with catastrophic loses that we see on TV. Right now, in damp, cold and in many cases flooded houses the fishing is the last thing on minds of many. Where to get a gas for a generator, when is the power coming back on, when can many of us return to work. Unfortunately, the bills do not stop coming in the mail for anyone.

Our sincerest condolences go to any of our readers that suffered a loss during this time and our thoughts and prayers are with all our readers, especially the ones that have suffered damages that are almost hard to imagine. I am hesitant to even mention fishing but we will get through this. We got trough 9/11, we got trough hurricane Irene, we got trough a lot of stuff…together.

Yes, fishing in grand scheme of things seems like an unimportant hobby right now, when we are struggling to rebuild our families, to help our neighbors, to rebuild our communities. But fishing is what keeps many of us sane in this crazy world. And I know that I am looking forward to walking the beach again and tossing my offering into the surf.

See you at the beach

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