Since I am still trying to unbury myself from avalanche of mail and emails from vacation, you will have to excuse me for maybe bringing “old” stuff.

I read with amusement Fred Golofaro’s article about spring, not fall, giving you a best chance to hook into a larger fish. Funny, some schmuck wrote an article “is spring new fall?” few years ago and they almost laughed him out of town. Very amusing stuff

I for one will keep my subscription to the Fisherman as long as Fred is around. I love that man. Honesty, integrity, compassion, reasonable..the dude is an epitome of a great man and a hell of a surfcaster. I also like that he can see through bullshit when he sees it. Like in recent letters to the editor reply. Glad Fred seen right trough it…and very diplomatic about it, skill I obviously lack

Back to big fish and spring….where will your best shot come?

Depends where you are. Jersey boys will be licking their chops and dreaming about big bass pushing  bunker into the jetties. Canal Rats will be dreaming about herring or mackerel being slapped around in the Big Ditch. And I am sure Montauk, Block or Cutty crews will get their share of slobs by swimming to outer rocks. But very of these few spots are a “sure thing”. Nothing is a sure thing in life other than a fact that your wife will spend at least twice as much as she “estimated”.

There is one spot that coughs up more cows with regularity than any other type of structure, every year, every decade, every generation. With consistency. But it’s not an easy place to fish or learn. But once you get a knock for it, you will keep coming back for more…

I am talking about inlets that dot Northeast barrier beaches and inland. River mouths, canals, anywhere were wicked currents are formed and baitfish travels to and from back bays to the ocean. But don’t take my word for it. I am just a dude behind a keyboard.

Here is the Master speaking of his craft

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYQ1p_7vWiA[/youtube]

Since now I am officially been christened with powers of moving plug sales across eastern seaboard (still one of the nuttiest things I’ve ever heard!) let’s see if I can do the same for the stick makers :-)…lmao

How important is to have “your own” rod builder?

If you are into custom rods? Extremely. And even if you are buying a store rod they can help. How? They know their stuff and the rod builders I deal with will be able to tell you good, bad or ugly about any rod, not only the ones they build.

Take Lou Caruso, aka redhawk (http://louscustomrods.com/ )        as he is known on many websites. Not only is he our rod guru Continue reading →

you know what they say, you can lead a horse to the water but you can make them drink….

Many people feel that polarized glasses are unnecessary .

I don’t understand why all sunglasses are not polarized. Really, this puzzles me. I not only use a polarizing shades but I also screw a polarizing filter on my Nikon dslr and another on my Panasonic hd camera too.

Polarizing filters and sunglasses cut on the glare and allow you to see under the surface.They protect your eyes from the sun. I have been in love with my WileyX since I took them to Europe two years ago. I have two pairs, just got one for my son and now after visiting FL, my wife wants a pair too. The difference in wearing a polarized shads and not when looking at the Florida flats can only be described as heaven and earth. I’d be yelling , “redfish at 2 o’clock” or “manatee to the right” while my wife and daughter would helplessly stare in the water, the suns glare precluding them to see what I was seeing.

I could see the fish race towards my wife’s jigs and would tell her to slow down her retrieve….until she took my shades away and used them…such is life 🙂

What about looking for deep holes on the beaches you fish with your shades? The polarized pair will make a world of difference,. Sight casting on the flats for bass? Yup, tremendous help there too. Looking atop the cliffs at Montauk for fish gathering under surface before exploding or for sign of bait? Check….

I am going to make one lucky Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine Easter week a little more festive by awarding them this brand spanking new Flare  WileyX shades Continue reading →

I would like to wish all our readers and friends Happy Easter.

I hope you guys and dolls have a great day with your families. I just returned from a family trip, will fill you in during the week.

Catching small fish got me thinking.

 I forgot how much fun was to catch a small fish on light tackle.

 I never considered myself a big fish hunter. I’ve caught my share although not nearly as many as some other people that targeted big fish exclusively. And I am ok with that. Watching my son catch a three pound fish is much more satisfying then some forty plus pound stripers I caught  last year. Don’t get me wrong, there is no way to equate them but I guess I always felt that I have a whole life to do what I want to do, but time with kids is a wasting asset, getting shorter and shorter by a minute.

How big of an importance do you put on a size of the fish you catch….

This is some interesting stuff.

http://afewlinesaboutline.blogspot.com/

Specifically the bootfoot category:

What do you wear? What do you like?

I have personally gone through 5 pairs of orvis tailwaters xt’s. Great fit and great boots but they were not designed for rough saltwater use. So I was on the quest for a rugged pair of bootfoots . I had a pair of sno-bee breatheables and they lasted a few seasons but I can find them anywhere. Recently I plunked down $60 bucks on the cabelas waders. I have a feeling come summer they will be a sweat pool.

What do you like?

-Tommy

It made me think though. Admittedly, I am a late comer when it comes to bullet myself. I always owned a few but will admit that I sparingly used them. Just like many of you who carry lures that are tucked in the corner of your bags. They do come out in play but if fish does not respond immediately they quickly get replaced by “go-to” lure.

I had a good success with them over the years, but again, I never used them enough to become a “mojo” lure. Then few years ago, during my one and only year of guiding, I found myself at Montauk more times then I wish I would be, casting the lures of its legendary rocks…and catching nothing.

The sand behind the town was hot. Very hot. Everyone and their mother was there throwing tins during the day and needles at night. But my customers wanted to fish rocks and nothing else.

 Some nights were better then others but it was really difficult to catch few fish here and there while you knew that bass were stacked up on sand like cordwood and rocks were giving up few fish.

 I plodded ahead and tossed same lures that have been good to me over the years looking for bigger fish. Lordship A40, Super Strike Darters, Danny metal lips, rigged eels, all were mostly ignored. Continue reading →

Last evening I found myself casting a fly rod in the Eisenhower park with my buddy Vin who is trying to teach me. Two middle aged dudes playing with sissy sticks on grass surrounded by dozens soccer playing also way-past-their-prime players. 🙂

This is going to be much harder then I thought. My mind wants to let the rod cast the line but my body wanted to put some oomph in it..got to start somewhere. Although catching a striper on a fly must be a very rewarding experience it really does not interest me that much. I would like to get myself to the point where I could sight cast to the fish on the flats in Florida or off the boat. Maybe even freshwater.

For some reason surfcasters don’t like the world change. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me “you are the metal lip guy” or “you fish Montauk a lot”…I’d have quite a few dollars. The truth is that I went to Montauk twice last year and never made a cast. Few shots with camera and I was back home. And metal lip swimmers I use today are totally different then ones I used when I wrote my fist book. Montauk is a wonderful place to fish I just wasn’t into it last year.

What is my point ?

I’ve meet many of surfcasters who refuse to change at all. Yeah, they got better reels and plugs and waders over the years but in their hearts, things are still always the same. They fish the same spots in spring, you know the inlets you’ll find them in summer and you can tell which rock in Montauk they will be standing on the last of incoming in the fall. And that is cool. I am just not one of those guys.

I am sure my current rigged eel kick will be replaced by another soon. Will I think that rigged eels are less effective when I move on to other things? Not any more then eel skins which were my favorite few years ago. Who knows what the future holds, only one thing is certain, don’t let this feel like a chore. Or a job ….oh wait, for some us it is.:-) although for how long is a big question.

Hopefully soon I will have something written for you guys that will make you look much differently on certain people in this sport, what are they doing to try to shut down SJ . I can see you purging lures of your surf bags for life……but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

 Hope you guys have a nice weekend. I am looking forward to Easter break and spending some time with kids . Somewhere warmer then here would be nice although the weather looks to be improving.

I remember April 15th of the past, catching 30 pound stripers in Manhasset bay on chunks at will. So much it was actually boring. For those of you that are new to the sport and are looking for  big fish this early don’t fish up front with bait or in the back with plugs. The one way to big fish (and they are there, you’ll have to trust me on this one) is with a live, snagged or chunked bunker in the back.

However, this will change in a hurry so don’t expect the bite to last for weeks. This time of the season, change progresses quickly. I would say in two weeks time we should be inundated with bluefish. Which would be cool, I missed those little devils.

No, not me…the STRIPERTHON contest

but first

the winner of Guppy Pencil popper is  Brian  … surfishingfool@gmail.com

please furnish your shipping address to info@surfcastersjournal.com

For those of you who are antsy for the official start of the season in NY and are looking for fresh bunker, Mike at Saltwater’s Tackle in West Islip has it. How does he keep it so fresh and slimy is anyone guess but the dude has some of the best fresh bait around.

Some of you asked whose lure was that in the Tuning the Metal Lip Swimmer video…it was lure that is made 515 Engendered Lures from NJ …His website is http://www.515lures.com/index.html

He gave me two plugs at one if the NJ shows few weeks ago, I thought it was a nice color for contrasting against water on video. That was the first time I used it..or I should say seen it as Lou Caruso aka the Rod Gure was the one that actually did the casting

Some of you have emailed us asking if we will do another catch, photo and release contest this year. I am happy to tell you that STRIPERTHON 2011 will make a  debut with our next issue. I know, I know, the first thing we are going to hear is you should have started early, we been catching fish already. Look, I got barely time to pee between my regular job, cook, chauffeur, writer, etc..you don’t need me naming  them all. You all do these same things with your families….so you know the deal

We thought that contest was great idea, we just needed a little time to catch a breath after last winter voting… Great sponsors like St Croix Rods, Penn Reels, Hansom pliers, Commando Custom bags, Guides Choice lures, Super Strike Lures, Tsunami Lures, Line Stretcher Lures, Wiley X polarized shades also showed their commitment to conservation and promotion of catch and release within ten minutes of being contacted. Sorry, you not getting that gorgeous Toyota Tundra 🙂

So, yes, we will do this once again this year so charge your camera batteries and sharpen up your hooks

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf7OQmfOkxU[/youtube]

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