When I was working on the story on UNIMOG last year with Lou Derricco, the owner of the beast, his biggest concern was the reaction the readers will have. I understand many of you don’t know Lou but to understand his concern it helps to know the guy. So let me paint you a picture.

One of the moist thoughtful, friendliest, generous people you will ever come across in your life. One of the better surfcasters of this generation who travels extensively in the search of better opportunities than he might find closer to home. Someone who takes the sport very seriously yet manages to enjoy every moment with the friends.

Why am I telling you this? Because Lou’s primary concern was that the UNIMOG be featured as the fishing vehicle. Meaning that all the features were installed and added to assist in either catching fish or making life more comfortable while on the beach. This rig is definitely not made over the top with spinning disco ball and fuzzy dice hanging on the mirror. It’s a lean, mean fishing machine that tops out at …..50 mph ! 🙂

I think we accomplished our mission but there is no better way to learn about a subject then to listen to them talk to you direct.

So here it is, Lou talking about the UNIMOG

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KidKt5LGc6I[/youtube]

I think it’s time we do a giveaway…you know, the ones where people who don’t want to read type “I am in” 🙂

I know , I know…..but am fried from serious talk, seminars, mag and videoS. Maybe I’ll even enter the contest, I am feeling lucky…  🙂

Kevin from Sharp Eye lures shoved this lure in my hand at Berkley on Sunday and said “This is for your readers”. He makes some really cool stuff by hand at Greenpoint Tackle (www.greenpointtackle.com).

Check out their whole line, I just looked at it and was surprised to find such a wide selection to be honest.  

 Good luck to all, it’s almost weekend…Thank God

I hope you guys are enjoying the new issues of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. We really busted our butts last week and I want to again that all the contributors for their contributions and especially Tommy for really turning it up the notch with a design. He never ceases to amaze me with his talents.

I on the other hand have no talents, I am just as persistent as a Dalmatian donkey. What I lack in skills I make up in effort. To show you just how insane last two weeks have been, we got a Mac almost a week and a half ago and I managed to sit down in 10 days exactly once to push the power button. This is why I offered to someone to come over and go over this thing  for me…I know they have classes at the store I just don’t have time to schedule something

Then yesterday, for some inexplicable reason, just as we finished uploading the magazine more than 600 old emails, some as old as 6 months ago came rushing in my mailbox….WTF…I called Optimum and all they can tell me there was no problem on their end and to try disable leaving the copy of the email on their server…by the time I got home yesterday I got overt 1700 old emails on my PC and of course same 1700 on my  Droid…you want to deal with 3400 emails and make sure you don’t miss any important ones? On a day our new issue debuts? Holy crap what a disaster…but by afternoon they stopped…do you think other publications are attacking us, trying to drown us in emails?…..lmao…just kidding

 On the way to seminar, tonight I will sit down and just enjoy listening to Manny Moreno talks. The dude is without-a-doubt in my opinion the best surfcaster I fish alongside…ever….Sorry, I don’t mean to put anyone down, I have a lot of respect for many people I fished with over the years…but that is my opinion and has been my opinion for a long time…and you know what they say about the opinions…:-)

For Christ sake when we go places we look at rocks in the middle of a freaking ocean and we say “that’s Manny’s” rock. Continue reading →

We are proud to announce that issue # 6 is now live at https://surfcastersjournal.com/

You will also find two new videos by clicking on a YouTube button in the story, one on a Unimog and one on how to clean and cook a skate with Chef Andrew.

Enjoy the read and remember, next issue is only 8 weeks away 🙂

btw…that issue will be nothing like you’ve ever seen before in a magazine

I bow my head once again to incredibly talented Art Director Tommy “YoDude” Corrigan …special thanks to and Charlie Sheen for inspiration

Good Monday..if there is such a thing

Then again, any day you wake up it’s a great day. How many of you are taking a peak at www.surfcastersjournal.com to see if new issue is up ? C’mon, you can admit it 🙂

Sometimes in the next 24 or so hours baring any major screw ups.

I took my son with me at the Berkley show yesterday. After worrying about waking him up so early and driving  for 2 hours to Tom’s River he was remarkably into it. In fact he asked if he can come again, something that melts the heart of this old geezer who always feels like time spent with kids is insufficient.

He got a kick out of taking a picture with NJ Custom Lure Builder Russ “Big Rock” Pauline. If you remember, we profiled Big Rock in our first issue.

The show attendance was down as it is with every show in last year or two. I feel the economy has a great deal to do with this. I just don’t think people have money to spend on hobbies, Not when you paying a $3.80 for gas and as of this morning a oil is up another $2 to $106 a barrel. You should see gas at $4.00 a gallon in few days.

Only few tables were crowded, nothing like the old days of plug insanity but still noticeable more crowded than any others. RM Smith was definitely feeling love of the crowd. The remarkable thing was that Ryan walked around the room, never spending a moment behind the table. Jig Man , East end Lou and the rest of the crew took care of customers. It was good to see so many guys, Charlie at Choopy, Billy at RuRu, Don at Afterhours, Guppy Lures boys, Kevin from Greenpoint, Larry from North Bar and many more. Seeing fly fishing great Bob Popovics and chatting with his is a special treat. Having him tell us that he is so proud what we have done with a magazine was a cherry on the top of the cake..

All in all a good day…next week Tommy and I will be at Asbury but right now, trying to make sure the issue #6 of the most awesome publication in universe is ready to go, all 200 plus pages. Tommy got few surprises for you, can’t WAIT till you guys lay your eyes on some special pages

Hope you guys are enjoying the weekend…when it comes the time for Asbury and Berkley shows, you know spring is just around the corner…

I will be at Berkley tomorrow while Tommy will join me next weekend at Asbury. More than anything I am looking forwards to seeing many of my friends. Stop by the table and say hi.

Unfortunately, the MAC has been sitting at my desk all week, never even had a chance to power it up. Today was my first chance, Darn, this is going to take some time. Any of our readers familiar with final cut express? I’d gladly pay for a tutorial….I am not the type to watch tutorials on YouTube

Tommy has been burning the midnight oil putting finishing touches on Issue #6 of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. With all the hours that dude put in the dark…Charlie Sheen would be proud.

Few more days, we are just coming trough it for some last minute adjustment. I like it a lot, it has a little bit for everyone, fly fisherman, plug ho, beach buggy, food and yes, even some timely spring advice. Here is a list of contributors: John Skinner, Bill Wetzel, Manny Moreno, Dennis Zombratta, John Papciak, Lou Caruso, Dave Anderson, Andrew Chase, Kevin and Keith White, Nicola Zingarelli, Pat Abate, Gary Soldati, Don Giumelli, Russ “Big Rock” Paoline, Paul Apostolides (also known at Paulie’s of Montauk..lol), Toby Lapinski, DJ Muller, William “Doc’ Muller, Dave Dennison, Steve McKenna…(are you dizzy yet)…but there is more…Janet Massineo, Rich Troxler, Bob Popovics and Flip Pallot…yes, that Flip Pallot 🙂

all put together by the incredibly talented dude, our Art Director Tommy “Yo Dude” Corrigan,

Speaking of whom…we had a contest the other day where we asked you to try to guess Tommy’s favotite picture. It turns out thathios chaoice was same as mine few weeks ago..page 32

the first dude that guessed page 32 was…. RGugs87 rgugs83@aol.com

Congrats pal

Send us your mailing address

Those of you that attended the seminars know just what a pleasure it was to listen to legendary creator of Super Strike lures, Mr. Don Musso.

For those of you who are out of the area or could not attend, we made a short video clip so you can benefit from Don’s experience.

Enjoy your Friday everyone…next issue of Surfcaster’s Journal is coming up in few days

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqQ2HMwEZck&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Article by Surfcaster’s Journal Blog reader  Jason Gribschaw

Obviously any guest opinions expressed here are their own

…we thought you’d enjoy it

What Are We Doing To Our Fisheries? 

By Jason Gribschaw

We all know I know next to nothing, if that, about fresh water fishing, but this video moved me. 

At one point a Native American mentioned stories of being able to walk across the backs of the salmon, being able to hear the salmon coming and how things have changed. 

http://www.fishingfury.com/20101220/the-greatest-migration/

Now I am always skeptical at the figures, but it is still shocking that these fish could be at .08% of what they were not that long ago.  That got me thinking about our own fisheries.  Having learned a great deal about the striped bass, I wonder how low our stocks are. 

Some say striped bass stocks are high, others say they are low.  I guess it all boils down to the all mighty dollar to make a stand.  As a kid everything was hard to come by.  The work put in to catch bait, go fishing, clamming and crabbing somehow necessitated putting food on the table.  We didn’t do it because we were poor, we did it because it was passed down from my grandfather to grandson and the little time shared was priceless. 

The stories my grandfather told were not as historic as the Native Americans, but they were of good fishing in bad times.  Form living in Philadelphia as an immigrant family, joining the forestry, and finally settling back in NY he had photos of lots of fish (if only I knew where those pictures are today). 

Go further back in time to our colonial days and the stories were even better.  The pilgrims feasted on striped bass.  The fish was so plentiful that it is said you could walk across the Chesapeake on Continue reading →

We do a superstrike give away where you have to pick a page in the magazine and actually type the numbers in your response.

But as we suspected some of you see “give away” in the post title and don’t even bother reading (what takes “z” 4 hours of spell check to type).

Shout out to everyone who actually cares to read our stuff!

And to the others…