Recently I had a pleasure of tangling with few bluefish that pulled my boga down to 16 pound mark. Unfortunately tossing pencil poppers that morning also screwed up my elbow where now I sit here in an excruciating pain with my fall looking like it’s going to be spent as an observer instead of participant.

Somehow I managed to break off my last new 3.5 ounce Yo-Zuri Surface cruiser that I just took out of the box that morning. It was sickening watching that thing sail toward Bermuda

As I checked my stock of old, chewed up Surface Cruisers in my box my tackle tote I started to think, what in the world will I replace them with? I mean, there will come a day when I will have none left. It’s the law of the averages. The more you use them, the more of a chance you will lose one.

There are a lot of good pencil poppers on the market but most I am not familiar with. For one reason, there was no need to get familiar with another pencil popper while Yo-Zuri was around and affordable…now neither of those things are true.

Regardless of what the replacement I choose to stick with its going to suck. It’s like losing a good soldier on the field. Heck, it’s like losing a whole combat unit. But I was in the way preparing myself for this day…they are solid pencil poppers out there from Gibbs (although my experience has been that they get waterlogged) Al Gag made a good one and true to his tradition the finish fell off almost as soon as the fish looked at it but they catch…lol.. Guides Choice makes a good one, Tactical Anglers and many more. There are others, I was told Don from Afterhours makes a dynamite one but I never tried it and I make a point not to talk about things I never tried. Because some of you think every word I write is a gospel…by the way, this is Jennie Hromin. My husband Zeno is in Montauk for a week and gave me his password to the blog and asked me to fill in  for him.

Just bustin..ha

So what did I settled on as a replacement for my beloved Yo-Zuri? I am fishing big Guppy Lure Co pencils more and more. They cast well, maybe even better than Yo-Zuri. They are easy to work (big thing for us old farts) and they stay true on the cast. None of that wobble crap that some pencil poppers exhibit.

I gave one to our Rod Guru Lou Caruso on Saturday evening at False Bar in Montauk to try for few casts. I was in flip flops, he was dressed to the hilt. After few casts he said “the only way you are getting it back is if you wade here to pry it out of my hands”

I let him have it and drove home. I am glad I am not the only one that thinks that they are good plugs.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-fiyMJPpis[/youtube]

feel free to share what is your number one. God knows we can only try few each year

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Sometimes the internet is not the best medium to convey how you feel. You write a short blurb and people fill in the gaps with their own thoughts. …. what they think you are saying

Hang on, I am getting to it

I wrote  “so far, so good” on the fall run. Has this fall run been good? Great? Above average? Not even close. It’s a same old crap of mullet (and now this year peanut bunker) traveling along the beach unmolested. Where are the stripers ? I think we ate most of them to be honest with you. What I meant to say, that after last fall, that for me personally was the worst I have ever seen, seeing some fish on night tides in Montauk, hearing about fish from south shore beaches was at least encouraging…of course the bite that use to last for a week, now last a day or so. Why? Probably because there are a lot less fish involved. Why? Because we ate most of them.

I am tired of hearing about high water temperatures, bait holding offshore, water pollution. You got everything you ever needed, ton of bait, right time of the year, right water temps, right winds and fishing is still off…way off.

Maybe you missed this post by Lou Derricco, a fellow who I consider much better (and observant angler ) that I will ever be

Are you going out to Montauk again this weekend? I actually went out late Saturday night and fished Sunday morning. Guess I missed you. Wasn’t too happy with the results. I had heard that there had been some fish over the past few days, but not for me on Sunday. Just a short pick. Also, didn’t see any anchovies, False Albicore or bass on the surface. I spoke to a fellow that was on The Viking on Saturday night. He said that there were 60 passengers and only two keepers taken. That is scary. It also doesn’t seem like there are many bass by us at home……… One of my friends, who happens to be a very experienced surfcaster, fished south shore over the weekend. He said that there were all the mullet and peanuts you wanted, but he could only manage small bluefish. I am starting to become very worried. I guess I am not starting to become worried. I have been worried and have been crying about this for at least five years. Patterns are changing, or there are just not as many
fish. Also, I am not hearing anything about sand eels. The sand eels are what saved me and many others over the past two years…………….I am really NOT feeling like this fall run is “so far, so good”. I hope I am wrong………….

Louis J. DeRicco

Hmm, does not sound too promising, does it? Where are all those schools of bass that are usually out of the casting range in Montauk? With birds and boats all over them? I have not seen one in last two extended weekends there. And how about the resident bass in the white water on the south side? Hell, you can catch those buggers at will as long as there is some white water, right? At least you used to…but not any longer. I watched many go down to Browns, Kings, Rat Hole and get nothing to show for their efforts.

Vito Orlando, to whom a last chapter of my new book is dedicated, particularly a story about catching 59 stripers by 9 am and calling it a day while he stayed and went well over 100 that day…Vito is not feeling great these days so he is limited to fishing two hours or so a day on his beloved south side. Last time I talked to him he counted 20 or so bass that he caught in 7 days. He used to catch more on a September morning before sun would come up on most days!

And yes, although Vito, I and many others have been harping on this over the years, some people have either refused to believe that is as bad as we think or just held out hope that we were wrong. But you know that tide is turning when Montauk Guide Bill Wetzel wrote in his last report that he is now convinced that something is terribly wrong with the striped bass fishery.

So, yeah, I wrote so far, so good because for two or three days according to reports I got, it was decent in compassion to last year. Then again, if I hooked a used condom  it would have to be an improvement from last year. Too graphic? Maybe but I am afraid that you are going to wish to hook something, anything in few years.

I sincerely hope that the SJ type catch and release contests become not an exception , but something other will follow. You know my feelings on keeping fish, if its legal and you caught it, enjoy it with your family. I have no issues with that (although I do with legal minimums but that is conversation for another day).

I sincerely hope I am wrong. I hope your fall be full of blitzing bass and leaping baitfish. I hope you land them by hundreds and hook the fish of your dreams. But just like we say about patterns…it’s a pattern until its broken. Right now the striper fishery for surfcasters still looks to me to be on downward trajectory. Regardless of few good days here and there

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Fish can be almost a brain dead activity. Find a blitz, cast anything that wiggles, catch a fish. And then there are times that even the smartest scientist would scratch his head trying to figure out how he only caught one fish a tide while everyone few hundred yards away had fish on every cast all tide. And yes, he was in the traditionally “right spot” according to win and tide. It’s crazy..but that is exactly what happened this weekend at Montauk…and last weekend too.

If you fished the night tides from the Get on to one direction you had a fish on every cast. If you did in the other direction you picked few…remarkable, yet totally opposite of last weekend location. The daytime blitzes at dusk with fish not showing but hitting pencil poppers was awesome. The huge waves that came out of nowhere yesterday made for some great filming. No, I did not made a cast in three days although I’ve got few hundred fish on the camera. I said to myself this weekend is just camera, no rods although I did have to get suited up once…to go into the water with a camera…lol

There were some nice fish being caught with a 40 something leading both contest. Ton of teen stripers feasting on mullet, peanuts and snappers…and pencil poppers but that is  mostly at dusk. Who knows what will happen now that wind has shifted from NE to SE yesterday and NW today but NE sure makes for some fun pictures.

From all chatter i got, south shore of Long Island and some places in Rhode Island had a very good action this past week. I hope its good in your neck of the woods

there was a dude with a Mullet Wig…from NJ , where else ? 🙂

lots of whitewater

lots of driving under the waves

and people?..holy crap there was lot of them..but the good time was had by all

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I am going to make this short and sweet because if you see a thousand guys into a blitz and one dude with a camera running like chicken without head..you found me 🙂

The winner of GT Swimmer by Lemire’s plugworks is …CT Matt

Please email me your shipping address at info@surfcastersjournal.com

The MTK LTD shirt…whatever is left is in online store. Very limited in quantities, some sizes only one of two. First come, first served. I figured i’d let you guys know about it first

Please be advised that all your orders will be shipped on Sunday and not the same day as you are used to. Because I have to play sometimes too 🙂

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Not every day in surfcaster’s life has to be …how should I say “hardcore”? 🙂

Sometimes you just got to take it out and wiggle it

no , not that !!!

Your new Super Strike Heavy Popper…

Life is too short not to have a little fun with a video…see you tonight

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBK3eQxysXw[/youtube]

btw..just off the press last night a short run of Limited Edition tshirts just for the show tonight. If any left we’ll put them in the online store on the weekend

See you tonight

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We have not have a giveaway in awhile so why not have one today?

This plug might come in handy in the upcoming weeks when big bait it present.

A stunning 8.5 inches, 4 ounce GT Prowler metal lip swimmer by Lemire’s Plugworks. You can see Al’s whole line at http://www.lemiresplugworks.com/

Good luck to all and stop by and say hi at the Fisherman Surf Show tomorrow night. We should have few Special Limited Edition show tshirts for you atending..more details on that tomorrow

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Took a ride with Silver Fox to Montauk on Thursday night. We got there around 11, just in time to see two fellows bring two nice bass to their trucks in the lot. We suited up and had a ball with bass for about two hours. A shout out to Larry at Big Fish Lures, his Prey swimmer was my go to plug this night. Flat water and last half of the outgoing got the fish feeding on the surface. There were so many splashes around our rocks, it was crazy.

The next night was the same. Tommy drove from home for a tide and took a best fish on a super Strike darter at about 20 pounds of so. I stayed with two plugs, Big Fish Prey and Afterhours 2 ounce needlefish. The hits were so numerous that I started counting as I could not hook a fish. By the end of the night, I counted 55 hits and only 15 fish landed.

The daytime action was nonexistent other that some sporadic action under the light. Which is not surprisingly, considering the condition, flat north and south side, no white water and no wind…and sunny and 85 degrees. Great tanning weather. I managed to do on camera interview for my project  and left Saturday morning.

When you walk off the rocks on the north side at night, if you put your light on, you will be amazed by the numbers of baby snappers milling amongst the rocks. I even snagged a 6 inch one on the back of the Afterhours needlefish.

there was other things that happened like four pounds of General Tso striped bass, the best damn striped bass I ever had.

And there are so many fish in Montauk, they are beaching themselves….literally 🙂

this was a freaky thing considering this bass came out of nowhere. No one cought fish that day, no blitzes, nothing, just  bass laying on  rock

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpWifups4Jo[/youtube]

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I have to do a mea culpa of sorts…I wrote in the spring that I hated the new Olympus Tough 8000 digital camera. Not for pictures, Olympus always made a camera that took good shots. Good focus, solidly made and good user interface.

Until they decided to put a stupid toggle switch in the back this year. Which makes going from menu to menu very hard if you are all thumbs like me…or really easy if you are a boy wonder Iphone user. But I can live with this. It’s my waterproof camera that is on automatic most of the time. One of those things that is great to have in a jiffy

I do like the newly resigned cover plate for SD card and battery. Double locking mechanism, and PLASTIC! The original ones I always owned were made out of metal which was a salt magnet. The whole camera would be in a great shape but the cover for battery and card, the most important thing would be caked with salt. Yeah, the mechanical shutter that closes and protects the lens is neat…till you get some sand in., Then it’s a nightmare. It’s something I could live without it.

So what exactly is my mea culpa?

Video

I bought this camera because it had a 1080P video capability. I like GoPro but there are no adjustments on GoPro, it takes a lot of room and it has no flash to use at night. I tried the video function this spring at sunset while fishing with a Silver Fox. It was awful. Try as it might, the Tough camera kept going in and out of focus. Could not figure out what exactly to focus on, Silver Fox, sun, trees, water. The footage was unusable junk. So I said a lesson learned and used it just for stills.

Then last weekend the wife asked to be taken to Cedar beach in FI. While there, we played around with Super Strike heavy popper and ZeeBaaS reel. First, I wanted to get some additional footage for Mr. Musso I could use in his video. Two, I had a camera in the truck, my GoPro was at home. Since this was really unplanned and my son was bored out of his mind, hey, why not try it.

Let me tell you something, this camera is GOOD. Not only it takes good footage of video in the daytime but its crystal clear. Take a look of this shot of a popper taken off the video as a single frame. It’s clear as bell.  It’s not as fast to focus as GoPro but that is because of different lenses. The GoPro has distortion and although it can also take still shots I find the ease of use and switching between video and stills about as easy as telling the truth for a politician…from either party.

Why was I wrong? Because Olympus still sucks in low light condition and you should use it as a still camera at that time. But with ample light from the above, I think you will be stunned by the 1080 images that come out of this camera

sometimes you have to admit that you are wrong…this is one of those times

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I been away for few days and of course all the s!$# hits the fan as soon as I get on the road. I do have to tell you one thing, something that I will elaborate in the future….recently, some emails that I received, posts on some sites and personal conversations I had in Montauk last few days make me seriously reconsider writing this blog at all. There is so much negativity out there, directed towards people, products, places that I find very disturbing.

The mag was down for only 20 minutes on Thursday night while I was traveling. Thankfully I was able to talk my son via phone on how to upload the corrected issue. I love that kid…

Anyway Montauk was ok, one night I had 55 hits but only landed 15 fish whish goes to show that that so called “pros” are more like googans in disguise than anything else. That was a first night of fishing since Cuttyhunk were I actually fished first and worried about pictures, video and mag. Just fishing…forgot what that felt like.

We are going to be at the Fisherman show in Huntington on Wednesday, if you are there stop by and say hi

I know many of you are making the plans for the Fisherman Classic this weekend. Paulie is also running a contest this same weekend .So you have two to choose from .

And of course there is SJ All Island STRIPED BASS Cup…you can still get a t-shirt by registering here

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There is really not much to say about this video. We buried a new ZeeBaaS reel, the same way we did Van Staal and Penn Torque. The results (considering the misinformation on the net about all these reels) were surprising, even to me .

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5slfPYpV0[/youtube]

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