I hate when it happens but we have to be fair. We allow you 5 days to get in touch with us after you win something. If you haven’t, well, then you forfeit the prize. Seems like no one claimed BigFish Mackerel Prey swimmer from BigFishBaitCo. So we will give you another crack at it…AND THEN SOME

I turned down few gifts from manufactures this week…not because I don’t want you guys to win them, but for another reason. Hear me out, it’s not out of spite or because I don’t get to keep any…haha

I am afraid that if all we do here is give stuff away or talk about products, we turn into some subconscious product selling machine and we can’t have any of that. That why we labor making videos, coming up with the contest, interviewing interesting people. To keep it interesting. I just came across the blog this evening while doing some research and the blogger had nothing on the blog but product review after product review. How much shit do I really need to buy ???

You know what I am saying.,. it’s about catching fish, then all the other stuff. I am going to try to wrap Paulie Part 2 this weekend and upload it to youtube

So today we will have a big contest to win 5 prizes

Prize number 1 Big Fish Bait Co Prey Swimmer in Mackerel

Prize number 2 BigFishBaitCo authentic very cool hat

Prize number 3 Line Stretcher Lure

Prize number 4 Lure Tubes tube

Prize number 5 Bio Edge Scent

How do you win? Instead of 1 guy guessing my favorite picture in the issue #10 of the SJ Magazine, I picked my favorite 5 pictures in the order from picture  1 being my favorite, 2 second choice and so on. You get only one guess to pick one out of my fave 5. First 5 that pick the correct 5 page numbers the pictures are located wins a corresponding prize. Easy enough. We do this because some of you said that we should do something more challenging then just give away stuff. I tell you what, its challenging to type this at 4 am…I think next week we are going back to a regular giveaway…haha

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Many of you going to find this amusing…last night was first night I went fishing with no camera of any kind. My Olympus is giving me shits, the rest I left at home. For one night this year, I will be fishing unencumbered by gear. It felt good. For the first time this year I could actually concentrate on fishing, I forgot how this felt…why?

here is the example of my typical “fishing trip”

I drove to Montauk last Friday after work, arriving around 5 pm on the north side. Yet again, it was a “working” trip. I don’t consider these things “fun” neither do I enjoy them. I can’t rely on other people to provide pictures, or video so its “work”

I grabbed my  DSLR and my Panasonic camcorder and headed under the light. I wasn’t worried about the rain as it was only drizzling till then…after getting about half a dozen video clips the heavens opened up. I ran back to the truck in vain, by the time I got there, I was totally soaked, pants, sweatshirt, even my underwear, soaked. I managed to keep my cameras dry by sticking them under my sweatshirt.

The problem was I had only one change of clothes in the car, as I planned to head back home in the morning. You might say, what’s the big deal? Well, the big deal was that I have leaky waders. So I crashed in the truck and got up at 1 am, suited up and made some casts from Jones Reef to Scotts. Had few bumps but was back in my sleeping bag within an hour. I was in no mood to wade out and have water rush in my waders. In the morning I got up, walked directly to the light and hanged there with the camera for an hour. By eleven AM I was home , working on the videos on the MAC.  Aint “work” a bitch? I get a lot of emails saying “I wish I can go to Montauk as often as you do”. I would estimate that I spend 95% of my fall with camera there and 5 percent fishing. Which is fine, I am not complaing. But that’s why last night was different….

I’ll make a long story short. We fished the spot which I knew was a “live eel” spot for reason I cannot divulge. My buddy hooks up on a second cast with a mid thirty pound cow. I am sucking wind with a rigged eel so he gives me a hook and a live eel. After more than 5 years,  maybe even closer to 10 I had a live eel attached to my line. It was the weirdest thing I experienced in a long time. I don’t remember when was the last time I felt so incompetent…lol

His fish was so gorgeous, the scenery was second to none…and tonight, more than any other night. I wish I HAD camera…Damned Murphy’s Law..

Does live eel beats rigged eel all the time? Not necessary but there are many occasions one will work better than another. And live eels catch big fish. How big?

How about this 50 pounder that John Bruno landed in Montauk rocks last night and weighted in at Paulie’s? Big enough for you ?

Congrats to Mr. Bruno

 picture courtesy of Paulie’s Tackle

The winners of ComboLock are

Robdog130@aol.com and  thirteenfoxtrot@msn.com

Please send us your shipping address to info@surfcastersjournal.com and we will get this out to you.

We recently had a chance to do something very cool. We were invited to tour Zee Bass facility in Stratford , Connecticut and see how their reels are made. There are a lot of changes going on at Zee Bass under a watchful eye of Ron DiCostazo. Many of you will be happy to hear that there are no changes coming with regards to reel design. The changes I am talking about have to do with quality control, in house manufacturing and making sure that no reel leaves a factory, new or serviced, in nothing less than perfect working order.

They recently brought most of their production back to the USA. If you seen the manufacturing capabilities they have to make anything they might need, it would blow your mind. I have never seen more machinery in one place in my life! Granted, most of this equipment is there to create cutting edge metal work for airspace and medical use. In fact, the products that they make will be included in the new Mars Rover! The point is, if they need to make something that they need, they can. From what we were told and shown, most of the reel is manufactured by the suppliers in USA. There are no two pieces that come preassembled to Connecticut. They painstakingly build your reel one piece at the time in the factory in Stratford.

We were very impressed with the fact that every reel is pressure tested before it leaves the factory. As a person with two left feet and all thumbs, I was a bit taken aback with just how easy is to service these reels. In less than 15 minutes Ron striped the whole reel apart, lubed in and put it back together. We did a little video just to show you the process.

Ron also told us that they are working on the new self-service kit that will be very affordable and will include all the things you need to self service your reel.

I don’t get impressed that easy but this trip was a real eye opener. So much so that another fellow who came with us on the trip called me a day latter and said, “I am buying this reel”.  And yes, as you’ve seen it by yesterday post of Gary Soldati monster bass, they make a lefty reels now too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLVoS3EmGa8[/youtube]

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 They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

Few nights ago, our friend Gary Soldati, maker of Big Water Lures got his personal best. Those of you who know him, know he only fishes his own lures, primarily giant pikes. Two nights ago, in a pouring rain and a wild surf of RI Gary landed 51 pound beauty on his signature 8 inch, 4 ounce pike in some very tough conditions. Another thing of note was that this was the absolute first fish Gary landed on his new zeebass lefty reel, one of the first ever made.

Congrats to a  fantastic angler, builder and friend on joining the exclusive 50 pounder club. You can see Gary’s lures at Big Water Lures

 
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As you can imagine, we are neck deep into working on the issue # 10 of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine due in few weeks. It is hard to believe that it has been two years since we started this…What do we have in store for you for our next issue?

Lots of stuff that is for sure

A story from Eric Burnley..you probably grew up reading his books
Lou Tabory, the legendary fly fishing impresario, the author of Inshore Fly Fishing, one of the most definitive book on shore fishing ever written
John Skinner has a excerpt from his upcoming book “Fishing the Bucktail” you just wait till you get your hands on his new book…
Dave Anderson on plugs, Andrew Chase on food, John Papciak on the surf flies, Lou “redhawk” Caruso on rods, Russ ” Big Rock” Paoline on beach buggies,
Steve McKenna chimes in on a lure
Frank Pintauro has a story on a man we all wish we knew personally
Interview with the reel makers…..we got to tour the place where they are made…very cool stuff

I do appreciate all the emails asking for more videos, and I am doing the best that I can, but please understand that videos are very time consuming. We do it for one single reason, to educate, entertain and enlighten our readers and to promote the magazine. But they take a LOT of time. Even a 5 minute clips can take an hour or more to put together. You can only imagine Interview with Paulie which is now over 30 minutes long and growing. So be patient ..besides, its time to fish, we got all  winter to watch the videos 🙂

A friend of mine is looking for a graphic designer for a project. Someone who can do something similar what Tommy does for SJ. Drop me a line at zhromin@optonline.net if you are interested. I have few things in my head that never went past “thinking” stage, to run by the right person too.

The guys from Saltwater Edge and Red Gill are bringing you a contest. They had an idea where they wanted to do something to not only demonstrate the support from Saltwater Edge and Red Gill for Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine but they also wanted to have a contest that supports the efforts of Surfcaster’s Journal staffers. And we are very thankful that they think so much of us and our efforts. Hey, maybe we can fix that Panasonic camera LCD screen we busted by falling on it in Montauk last week 🙂 Continue reading →

Let’s get the winners of the last week contests out of the way

The winner of BigFish Prey Swimmer who guessed first that Larry’s favorite picture was on page 151 is matty1516@gmail.com

you need to get us your mailing address within 5 days and Larry will mail you the lure

The winner of Wolverine Split Rings is jnasokushner@yahoo.com

You also need to drop us a line at info@surfcastersjournal.com with your mailing address
Continue reading →