Before I continue some thoughts on Sebastian Inlet in Florida, few announcements.

First, SJ will be at this weekend Connecticut Surfcasters Show in Clinton CT .

If you are attending, make sure you stop by out table and say hi. You can renew your subscription, get some free SJ stuff and just shot chitt. We are looking forward to it

FOURTH ANNUAL

CONNECTICUT SURFCASTERS

SURF EXTRAVAGANZA AND SALE

January 24, 2015

10:30 AM to 2:30 PM

Clinton CT Town Hall

54 East Main St. (Rt.1)

Clinton CT

The Connecticut Surfcasters Association is pleased to announce the fourth annual CSA Surf Extravaganza and Sale. The location is the same as last year but with more space reserved for vendors and demonstrations. The facility is located on the Indian River in Clinton and may provide for some outdoor demonstrations.
A five dollar suggested donation to the CSA will be collected at the door. Lunch consisting of our chili selection, along with hot dogs and soft drinks and coffee will be available for purchase. We will have plenty of both new and used tackle of all kinds for sale or trade.JoeBaggs Bucktails

Tank Surfcasting

Couch’s Cedar Works

Van Staal

Fluke Skywalker Fishing Arts

The Surfcaster

24/7 Lures

Al Gag

Guppy Lures

Big Water Lures

Surf Asylum Lures

Tsunami Fishing

New England Dive Center

Goo Goo Man Lures

Rayzor Baits

Otter Tubes, Tails and Spoons

FiberStar Composites

Harris Outdoors

ZeeBaas Reels

Surfcasters Journal

Century Rods

Gear Up Surfcasting

CTS Rods

Magic Tails Bucktails

Salty’s Lures

ComboLock

1:00 AM – 11:30 AM: CSA Member Joe D’Agostino – Rigging Eels & Soft Plastics on Jigheads

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM: CSA Member Matt LeJeune – How to Finish a Plug Kit

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM: CSA Member Pat Vogt – Weakfish Tactics

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: Dave Anderson – Plug Fishing Logic

1:45 PM – 2:15 PM: CSA Member Ian Skillings – Installing Grip Studs in Wading Boots

CSA club members Mike Mullen and Billy DeLizio will be doing ongoing demos throughout the day at their table regarding different techniques for crafting wooden fishing lures on a lathe.

CSA club members Bill and Debbie Goeben will be doing ongoing demos throughout the day on the finer points of saltwater fly tying.

Two, the winner of this awesome Guppy Custom SJ pencil power announced in the next blog post.

And last thing, if any one has issues logging in or needs password reset or forgot username feel free to contact us at info@surfcastersjournal.com and we will take care of it for you. If you have no access to SJ because you credit card on file has changed over last year like so many with Target debacle last year, log into your account and click on Add/renew subscription if expired or just update your cc info if your account is still active

So there I am, standing on the tip of the pier and shooting bull with a SJ fans who are hooked up onto giant reds. I am saying to myself how in the world will I land the fish if I hook one? I am twenty feet above water level. Then I watch guys lower a giant net in the water and slide fish on top of it, then hoist the fish up. Go ahead, make a cast they urge me, someone will help you.

But making a cast is not as simple as making a cast and retrieving, no Sir. You have to go thirty yards back, make  cast then jig and walk towards the tip in rotation with everyone else. Imagine 50 anglers with all kind of rods and reels walking instep and jigging. Its Crazy!

Once you get to the tip, retrieve  your line and go back thirty yards and do it again. They use synthetic  bucktails, the kind we use for parachute jigs, ones with synthetic hair with red hair blended into it. I took out my regular buck tail, added strip of pork rind and made a cast into the madness of birds and breaking fish. The outgoing current is ripping and I am having a hard time feeling bottom. For a second I am thinking I am hanged up when suddenly the bottom moves.  Mother of God , I can only describe the feeling to one being hooked to a freight train. If these fish were hooked tail to tail to a same size striper the striper would have no tail . My muscles were burning up, partially from not fishing for weeks and partially by awesome strength of the fish. I worked my way to the tip where along with few other anglers I tried to get the fish under control with very little luck. While we were fighting the fish the rotation just kept going around us. I finally made some headway and brought the fish under the pier, just enough time to see its massive shape before I pulled the hook.

You know what, I was not upset about it all. If you know me, I am not much of a “take a picture of me with a fish”  kind of a guy anyway. My son hooked into one but came unbuttoned fast. I have to ad that PENN prototype rods we were using preformed admirably. I said to my son , do you want to try the south side where there was no people?

Yes, the bite is probably not that great there but we’d be alone. He said sure but of course by the time we got into car and on the other side, it was starting to get crowded too. However, within and hour after dark most people left.

Now you’d think south side is a similar type of fishing and you’d be wrong, very wrong. Its another “new” way of fishing that often can have you ask question : are you doing what you are doing right or you are just an idiot on the shore casting into the ocean? Because difference is not always evident.

On this side you cast plugs into the inlet. Darters, bottle plugs, swimmers, you name it. You cast it out then you “feed” your line into the current for a hundred yards or so. Only then you engage your lure and start a slow retrieve against the current by moving on the jetty tip in rotation. But you have no benefit of a flat footing on pier here, its coral rocks that will cut you up like a knife if you God forbid take a wrong step. Fortunately my son and I were alone. I casted and feed the line and then passed it to him to retrieve as he would give me his rod to cast and feed the line. Once he was done I’d give him the second rod and i casted again and feed the line. I really was not interested in catching fish myself. I wanted him to hopefully hook up into something.

By the way, many of you will probably asking what is “something”. How big is your imagination?

Giant snook, big shark, giant tarpon you have no chance of ever landing, big jacks, red fish, small bluefish,and host of other species that will kick your ass in short order. A guy on a pier had a 15 pound snook on and while he was lowering the net a 300 pound goliath grouper that calls the pier its home came from under and took his fish…in a flash

We were using Super Strike Bottle plugs this night and my son hooked into fish that was smoking his drag. But after few minutes it was evident that something is not quite right. There is a boat drifting in a darkness and he is yelling towards us. I grabbed the rod and from the angle of his line I could see that is running towards the boat. I am thinking the dude on the boat is hooked up to same fish, or one of them is hooked and the other crossed. He is asking me to give him slack but I am saying hell no, you give slack. After all its my kid that is hooked up. This goes on for 10 minutes and I was pretty darn proud of my kid and knots I tied..haha

Eventually I  did relent as i could see the fish trashing by the boat a hundred yards away and I gave him slack. He netted the fish and yes, he gave me back my bottle plug intact, something that would never happen in NY. Who actually hooked the fish? We will never know

Here is a picture of Matt DiCostanzo whose proud dad Ron is a manager at ZeeBaas with a nice redfish . Photo Credit goes to Lyd Le’Ng

More to come including fishing with great Patrik Sebile from Sebile Lures

There is an SJTV button in upper right hand side. Click on it and log in and watch the full 25 minute episode. You must be a subscriber in order to view it. Then tell us here what you think

[youtube]http://youtu.be/smv6ISt7u5k[/youtube]

Many of you will probably disagree with me on this but I find the most gratifying part of fishing finding out how LITTLE do I know about fishing. Not so much about striper fishing although I feel I have just scratched the surface there too. But when traveling to places unfamiliar I try to soak up all the local information that I could.

Having said that, if you are a proficient striper hunter you can easily apply that knowledge to any place in the world you visit. But many of times I have traveled to places feeling good about what I know and how to put in practice only to leave them with a tail between my legs.

Another maddening thing about learning new places, especially ones you have to take the airplane to get to, is that by the time you kind of “get it”, by the time you take the local customs and then apply the way you fish to them so you can fish the way you want, you have to leave. More time then not, its just about when you start catching fish your way.

Why not just fish the way the locals do?

That is easier said than done

I took my son down to Sebastian Inlet in Florida last week. Before you accuse me of being a snob, hear me out. I have never fished on a pier in my life. I don’t own a net or a gaff. I did some venturing on local bridges on Long Island but I always fished from the side, never from the top. Sebastian pier on the north side of the inlet is one loooooong  pier. You’ll find more carts loaded with rods here than in any place I have ever seen. There are guys tossing all kind of setups from 6 to 11 feet, some tossing cut bait, live bait, shrimp and more shrimp, plugs, spoons and yes, bucktials.

Did I go there to specifically fish the pier? No. But I surely wanted to check it out. The bite was hot on the outgoing at dusk when my son and I arrived one day. Giant pelicans were bombing the water and water off the tip was itself boiling with fish. Quite a few guys were hooked up to the birds instead of the fish. I never expected to make a cast but did walk towards the tip to check the action.

Now, when you stand a hundred yards away and look at the craziness on the tip, you say this is the craziest thing I have EVER seen. It appears there are hundred guys standing so close to each other casting that they cant even raise their hands to make a cast. But looks can be deceiving. There is actually a method to this madness that is called a “rotation”. You cant see it from a far and really, you cant honestly experience it unless you take part in it.

What kind of fish were blitzing?

Bull redfish, and I have not seen a single one that was smaller than 25 pounds. I hooked one, three days latter my arm is still sore but that is the story for during the week. I just got up and went to get a coffee and nearly killed myself on a thin layer of ice in my driveway

Welcome to NY

More stuff to come including fishing few nights with legendary Patrik Sebile from Sebile Lures, Ron D from ZeeBaaS reels and even many Montauk locals shrimping on the catwalk

Its a Crazy Place and I cant wait to get back

We are going to have a special giveaway today for our readers while you are all hopefully enjoying reading and watching videos in the issue #29 of the Surfcaster’s Journal  Magazine.

Few weeks ago i received this am lure in the mail from makers of Guppy Lures (www.guppylure.com) and I was just left with a mouth open and a drool pouring out of it.

Today, I will give one of you a chance to win one. Guys behind Guppy Lures will be at many shows this winter I am sure. I know I often see them at Surf Day NJ, Berkeley, RISAA and River’s End and considering growing popularity of their lures they probably they added few more shows this winter.

So one winner will get this sweet Guppy Pencil Popper

I still have a ton of footage that we captured while doing interview in their shop last spring. Hopefully I can get to it soon. This is a small snippets

 [youtube]http://youtu.be/5JY9ByDGn9c[/youtube]

And yes, first 25 minute episode of SJTV is coming your way in about a week if you are a subscriber. Here is a preview

 [youtube]http://youtu.be/smv6ISt7u5k[/youtube]

its up, enjoy the read

www.surfcastersjournal.com

This is the time of the year when many of us have had enough celebrating, overeating and Gas X. What we need is a fishing fix. But unless you got some time off from work, expandable income and a desire to jump on a plane for a trip to warmer locales, you are probably doing a lot of YouTube searching for something to feed your need.

I know these crazy dudes are not in USA but not only are they insane (I would not advise ANYONE to attempt this without protection as you can see in the first video) but they also have great editing skills in telling these stories

Morning Tide

First video is a Wash Off…kind of Montauk on Steroids

[youtube]http://youtu.be/KUn5vCb89W0[/youtube]

Second is The Fish of a Lifetime

[youtube]http://youtu.be/OlSbJyes-pw[/youtube]

And last, the one that started the whole insanity..Only a Fisherman Knows the Feeling

[youtube]http://youtu.be/ob5l1lkV-pg[/youtube]

And on a serious note…message from Ross Squire FROM 1@32 about very important meeting for striped bass in nY

2015 NY Striped Bass Regulations

NY Marine Resource Advisory Council Meeting (MRAC) – IMPORTANT

The next meeting of MRAC is on Tuesday, January 13th at 2:00PM. The meeting will be held at the DEC offices located at 205 Belle Meade Road in East Setauket, NY. MRAC advises the NY Dept of Environmental Conservation on “issues pertaining to New York’s living marine resources and the fisheries these resources sustain.”

The bottom line is that while the DEC is not obligated to act consistent with MRAC, the council does have influence over their decisions.

***** THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MEETING TO ATTEND *****

At the last meeting, MRAC voted to investigate a 2 fish bag limit for the party boat/for-hire sector AND a 2 fish bag limit for rest of the recreational sector. I attended this meeting and the audience consisted almost exclusively of people aligned with the commercial sector and the party boat sector.

Given the make-up of MRAC, the great majority of recreational anglers are not represented proportionally and what was very clear during that meeting was that the ASMFC public comments were not fully recognized and represented. Charlie Witek and Bob Danielson did their best to represent and support the 1 fish bag limit that was favored by the great majority of the public comments received. However, they were drowned out and over-ruled by the other council members.

So while we may not sway the ultimate recommendations that MRAC makes to the DEC, a strong showing will remind the DEC members and leadership attending the meeting of the public comments and the overwhelming support for a 1 fish bag limit. It is the cover the DEC may need in order to enact 2015 regulations that are different from what MRAC advises.

I recognize that 2:00 in the afternoon is a difficult time for many. I requested having the meeting moved to the evening however MRAC was unable to gain a quorum for an evening meeting.

Your attendance, if at all possible, is important and is needed. Hope to see you there.

Ross Squire

As promised, we are going to start a 2015 with a very special giveaway from our columnist Crazy Alberto Knie.

There has ben a lot of fighting and jockeying for positions between user groups when it comes to who gets what allocation of striped bass harvest. But many of times, when tempers flare up, we forget that the only thing that really maters is What’s The Best For Striped Bass. I don’t think bass care if you hook it with treble, gaff it or nail it with bunker snag. I do think they care that there is enough of them still around to continue to spawn and be a premier inshore species in  the Northeast. Crazy Alberto created these posters to raise awareness of the plight of the striped bass. The first winner will get to pick one of these two prints while the second winner will receive the other one. Prints will be signed and embossed and shipped by Crazy Al to the winners.

Good luck to all who enter and I urge you to keep on fighting for the future of this most important species for us surfcasters.

If anyone is interested in purchasing these prints, please contact Crazy Al at alknie@gmail.com

And if you need to be visually stimulated on this New Year’s Day…because you have not fished yet this year ….here is another short film by crazy dudes from Morning Tides to get you in the mood

[youtube]http://youtu.be/9B4ZoCqdchQ[/youtube]

Whoa..did that suck! The server went down and our web designer ,one of the most capable  people i have ever met was in …..…wait for it….Antartica on his honeymoon!!! There are no towns in Antartica , never mind internet. He fixed the issue in five minutes yesterday morning with promise to make provisions that this never happens again if he is not around. We sincerely apologize to all of our readers for this inconvenience around the holidays. I think my wife would give me a stare colder than anything in Antartica if i suggested we go there on honeymoon. Heck I remember spending part of my honeymoon twenty years ago in Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada. You have to understand this was way before Mr. Gore invented internet and there was a word “Lodge” in the name. Until the moment we arrived there she had reservations. …..been trying to get back there for twenty years now, but $500 a night for that place is never in a budget…

Anyway, we are glad to be back, tomorrow we will have a prints from Crazy Alberto for a giveaway so check in here

and today we will announce the winner of the RockHopper Surf Belt giveaway. The winner is Edward..

surehooked@gmail.com

You have 5 days to email us your shipping address to info@surfcastersjournal.com

Tommy is working on a new issue which should be coming your way in about two weeks. What do we have for you?

Obviously great new articles by the best writers and SJ columnists

We got another episode of Montauk Time and Tide ready to roll in January

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGa0z1uD3Y[/youtube]

Full version of this interview with John Skinner, author of this holiday bestseller Striper Pursuit (the video version coming at a later date)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYMo4wYyFog[/youtube]

Video column by our Rod Guru Lou Caruso

and yes, even I have an article in this issue. Its been awhile since i wrote anything..haha

And of course, for those of you that are subscribers, the first 25 minute episode of SJ TV should be coming your way on January 20th

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smv6ISt7u5k[/youtube]

Happy New Year everyone!!!

We wish you all good health, happiness and continued success in the surf

I want to wish all our readers and their families a joyous, happy and Merry Christmas. I hope Santa took care of all the items on your wish list. And even if he forgot a thing or two, take a look around and see those happy faces around you, on your kids and loved ones. That is why we live for

I am often asked where I find the time to do all the things. My answer is simple, I find a time because you, our readers , are worth the extra effort. Its a two way street. We try our best to give you as much of ourselves as we can without encroaching on any family time which always comes first. You in turn tell us that you appreciate it. Which makes us want to work even harder…its a vicious cycle

But its one I would  trade for anything in this world. Ok, I would probably dump you all for a date with Ms. Upton but that is not happening so we are kind of stuck together. Seriously, during this season where many of us are reflecting on our lives, and looking back on our year, I am most thankful for my supportive family, my friends and you guys that support us and make all the hard work worth the effort. So thank you again for being a part of what we do and we wish you all continued success in the surf and life in 2015.

Tune in on the blog tomorrow for a print giveaway from our friend Crazy Alberto and winner of Rock hopper Surf Belt.

I am not sure if I ever wrote a blog that is this kind of personal and almost (only almost because everything i do is SJ related) unrelated to SJ but here it goes. Maybe all these holiday lovey-dovey is getting to me?

Are any of our readers or subscribers either from Vero Beach/Sebastian Inlet area or do they fish these areas frequently and have some knowledge about them? Feel free to drop me a line at zhromin@verizon.net

I need to pick someones brain about a possible trip to sunshine state. Hit me up if you got time.

Number two..anyone has issues with entering the giveaways? Someone emailed me that they have to keep putting their email every time. Obviously i cant know of any issues unless you tell me so feel free to chime in. if you have any issues with blog or giveaways, we need to know so we can fix it, even if it is just an annoyance to you.

Number three is even more personal but hey, with, mights as well toss it out there too. You have to understand that I never went to college ( I did go to HS or more accurately AROUND HS for the most part……lol) never mind interviews or internships. I am like a bull, you give me a task, i complete it. Not very refined in any way

I lift thing up, then I put them down (as that commercial goes)

I got a kid who is freshman at StonyBrook University. Kid is obsessed with Wall Street, economics,semiconductors, Fed and God knows what else related to economy (and politics but thats a whole other story!!!). Not many kids get up at 5 AM before high school to read WSJ every morning . I didn’t say he wasn’t quirky…….

Anyway, kid is looking for an internship in the city or LI for summer so if someone has a suggestion or advice, feel free to drop me a line at zhromin@verizon.net  Obviously I am aware that internship for freshman are not very common in financial field but the kid is obsessed with financial industry and that makes him special..…or just plain weird!!!..and unlike his dad he can actually write in English and no, he does not speak Cringlish. He is the black sheep in the family when it comes to that…haha

So stay tuned for Crazy Al Print Giveaway and also a very special Guppy Lures giveaway, new issue in few weeks and SJ TV

Merry Christmas Everyone ..thank you all for you support and as long as you guys will have us, we will try to make SJ better