[youtube width=”625″ height=”468″]http://youtu.be/z5t1vYC7Xfc[/youtube]

You like this  picture ? I bet you do.

This winter I told you that Tsunami Airwave Elite will be coming out with few new moderately priced hi-performance models this spring as Lou and I were shown some prototypes this winter at River’s End. I just got one, 10 6 and rated from 1 to 3 1/2 ounces. Unfortunately I am working seven days a week right now. And on top of that, I also have some family time away scheduled. So either I am at work or away last few weeks and new few weeks too. Time to hit the beach just was not there.

I did desperately wanted to try this new Tsunami Airwave Elite model in the daytime. You know how it is, every lure looks like it’s  going a mile in the dark. So last night I went to the local beach in a pouring rainstorm and wicked in-your-face wind. Wife said “aren’t you too old for this shit?”

I said “Are you kidding, I am a guppy. Now Vito, he is ancient and he is STILL fishing”. You can never be too old to have fun. And Vito, I am just kidding. We all can only wish to have Vito’s spirit and drive!

This was a result of a first cast with new Tsunami Elite.

Yup. It that wild water the beast kicked my ass pretty good

I am in no way ready to dispense advice or opinion on these rods. I prefer to test the rods on multiple occasions under different scenarios to see how they perform. Only someone like the Rod Guru Lou Caruso can shake the rod in his back yard for a second a tell you what  it what. I have no such skills. This rod, unlike previous rods in the Elite Series is thin, reaaaaaly thin and light. Super light..as is the price of under $200..

More details coming  after some further testing, I just wanted to let you know that they are here. My thoughts on the rod will have to wait a little until more testing is done. First impression was  positive. Not sure where you can see one in person but I assume they are trickling into stores as we speak

The components are all below on the list

Here are some details

Lighter – Stronger – More Powerful
High Fiber Density Blank Construction
Increased Sensitivity
Super Fast Shock Recovery for Improved Casting
Fuji® Concept “K” Series Alconite Tangle Free Guides
Titanium Frame, Braid Proof Silicon Carbide Ring
Fuji® Graphite and Stainless Steel Reel Seat

One of our blog reader recently lamented that he is not subscriber to the SJ magazine because we only feature positive reviews. I have no idea how he knows this if he is not a subscriber? Clairvoyant? I think not.

But he got me thinking. Yeah, he is right for the most part. I’ve had guys send me plugs for a review (unsolicited) that looked like a 5 years old made them. Would they catch fish? Probably. Would they last more than a fish or two? It sure did not look like it to me. But I am not about to write a review, embarrassing this builder and calling his manhood in question either. What would be the point in that?

We all know that few years ago Korkers made a stupid, awful pair or wading boots that fell apart in saltwater. We also know that before that Korkers made a pair of stupid, awful replaceable soles that keep falling out of the shoes. And no one can deny that to this day they make stupid, awful soles on which studs fall out like crazy. You see a pattern here? Thankfully their new Chrome boots have been solid because they sure had a lot of product misses over the years.

Which brings me to meat and potatoes of today’s post, Olympus TG 820

I bought this camera a year ago and I have to say not only pictures but video quality is outstanding. I expected this from Olympus as I used their cameras over the years. Unlike my previous Olympus SW which were usually encased in the salt because they never left the pouch on my surf belt, this one had a little easier life. Because of tendinitis I did not fish much last year so I used the camera maybe dozen times. It still looks like is new.

I think I paid about $400 or so at Best Buy in Westbury last summer. 1080p was a big plus for me although I knew that auto focusing will be a  suspect. Which it was. No big deal, I expected that. Use you $2000 DSLR with a $10 000 lens and you will get the same crappy autofocus. It’s the nature of the beast. But DSLR does have manual option which Olympus Tough does not…but I am drifting away from the subject.

Ok, my previous camera was Olympus SW . I liked the fact that on the back they had a set of buttons for changing setting and another for playback and another for zoom.

When I bought the new TG stylus 820 that is the first thing I noticed. They eliminated all the buttons, zoom, setting, playback and replaced them all with a single toggle button. You try to change a setting with cold hands in November going through the menu after menu…But strangely enough I got used to it. I don’t like it but I did get used to it.

The “new and improved” zoom toggle is now a plain stick of plastic on top of the camera replacing elegant electronic zoom they always had. Now they stuck a black piece of plastic  into the camera and you move it left to right to zoom or go wide.

Guess what, it’s a piece of stupid plastic. Mine jams all the time and then it crashes the camera. The camera will go black and wont function at all. You can toggle the zoom button all you want but only when it decides it want to work, it works. Most of the time it will be jammed to one side or another

Basically I now own  a 400 dollars piece of garbage camera on which warranty is expired. I’ve always been a been a fan of Olympus but I might look into another brand for my next camera purchase. Which won’t be for awhile since this TG820 is just about new and I can’t just piss another four hundred dollars away.

So if you see me at Montauk slamming the camera with a  rock, you will know why.

I like Olympus but I would not recommend that you purchase any camera they make with this kind of zoom toggle. It’s an outdated design and quite embarrassing to be featured in their lineup.

So there you go.. a review that is telling you what not to buy

How does this makes me feel ?

It is our pleasure to announce the four winners of PENN Fishing Prevail rods giveaway, generously donated by PENN Fishing

The winners are

Mike   D Mdolan@woods.org

Robert Mirynowski  Sbass50@aol.com

Sioca  sioca21@hotmail.com

Mike   Taylor Finkployd@hotmail.com

You must email us asap at info@surfcastersjournal.com with your full name and shipping address. We will then forward this to PENN Fishing who will ship these rods right to your house.

In case you are wondering how we pick our winners, here is the link to our number generator that picks winning entries. http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html

You can use it for Keno or your weekly senior citizen Bingo games 🙂

And stay tuned for another giveaway…Why? Because we love our readers.

.From where I am sitting I see more innovation and support for surfcasting community from PENN than any other major manufacturer. They are a major supporter of SOL, their upcoming reintroduction of 706z needs no explanation. The PENN Torque reel was a major winner and will probably be looked upon as a very important moment in PENN Reels history. Not only that but their new Spinfisher V and upcoming Spinfisher V bailless shows yet again their commitment to the surf fishing sport. And they have more stuff in the pipeline for next year, which I am not at liberty to discuss now. But yeah, you can’t possibly say that they do not try.

After this sport being basically ignored for years, it’s nice to see a major manufacturer shower it with attention. The cynical part of your brain might say “hey, the only reason you wrote nice thing about them is because they are a SJ sponsor” but you’d be wrong. Again. We do not have a relationship with them other that on a friendly basis. They offered our readers a chance to win these rods and we jumped on the offer with both feet.

Which brings me to something else, Saltwater Gulp baits, in particular 3 and 4 inch Swimming Mullet. Ok, I knew they were good and yes, I knew that they caught fluke but I did not know they were THIS GOOD. Has any of you watched  SJ columnist John Skinner’s fluke videos? Have you seen what he does to the fluke population by using noting but a bucktail and two Gulp Swimming Mullets? Mother of God, that is insane. I tried this myself this year by following his example and I have to say that I was a skeptic at first but now…..I might not buy another piece of bait for fluke fishing ever!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Hp6JVqETqOg[/youtube]

John Skinner has a many videos on his YouTube channel which you can view by clicking here. Most of them have tens of thousands of views and most of them that are related to fluke fishing are done with Gulp baits. Including some real cool underwater footage. If you have not read John Skinner’s book, Fishing the Bucktail,  give yourself ten lashes on your bare behind. Then go read it. Trust me, not EVERTHING is on the internet already. It will change the way you are looking at these deadly lures

Once in awhile, we will make the videos that we make exclusively for the subscribers of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine public . So you can see what are you missing if you are not a subscriber. And if you are, you might have glanced over the page this video appeared originally and never went back to check it out. Or if you are aged enough, you did not know that magazines can have videos embedded into them. Ok, I am kidding about that but if you are still fishing with a Harnel and a Squider, it might be time to come into the 21st century. You do know that Woolworth is closed right?

This is a full length Episode One of the Montauk Time and Tide series

That appeared originally in the March 2013 (issue #18) of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine.  To get immediate access to all our original videos, all articles and yes, all past issues click here.. https://surfcastersjournal.com/amember/signup

Enjoy

[youtube]http://youtu.be/KlxrnG3FgWc[/youtube]

A contribution from the Surfcaster’s Journal reader

Earning Your Stripes

By Matt Handelsman

Fishing was always my first love.  My family owned a lake house in the Catskills, specifically in Roscoe, New York.  Yup, that’s the same exit as the famous Roscoe Diner; home to the best short stack of pancakes along the route 17 corridor.  Every Friday night during the summer my parents would load up our station wagon after work and brave the throughway traffic and make the two and half hour trip up to the country with my sister and me.  The house was charming with no frills, perfect for escaping the mayhem of the city work week.  Highlighting the front yard was an old dock which jutted out about fifteen feet into the water.  The dock was tired and between its instability, and the growing amount of white paint peeling away from its surface, it noticeably showed its age.

I spent hours sitting on the edge of that dock with my parents, skipping rocks and staring at our reflections in the glass like water.  That dock edge also would later play host to the start of my love affair with rod and reel.  I was about two years old when my dad introduced me to the sport.  He would cast and I would reel in, over and over again for hours.  Between the jarring strike and radiant green hues along the flanks of that first largemouth bass I caught; I was hooked for life, pardon the pun.  It’s funny, I’m now thirty two years old with a son of my own, but I still vividly recall landing that first fish from the rickety dock nearly thirty years ago with my dad both acting as both cheerleader and coach.  After that first catch, fishing quickly became an obsession.  Sunday morning television went from being Nickelodeon to ESPN Outdoors with Bill Dance and Roland Martin.  Roland Martin’s enthusiasm for the sport was contagious, signifying every hook up by emphatically yelling “Oh Son, this is a big one!”

I quickly graduated from that wobbly dock, and it wasn’t long before I was out stalking the shallow flats and lily pads of the lake in the family canoe.  After a couple of summers filled with paddling and an incident in which I accidentally sank the canoe, my parents were gracious and forgiving enough to purchase me a small fiberglass skiff along with a four horsepower Yamaha outboard.  The first time I pulled away from the dock manning that boat I was all smiles, I felt as if I was driving the Cadillac of angling machines.  I remember thinking to myself; watch out Roland Martin, there’s a new captain in town!  That boat enabled me to learn every nook and cranny of Tennanah Lake, and there wasn’t a cove, rock pile, or drop off that I didn’t know about.  Not many ten year olds have the opportunity to say they have their own boat, and while I may not have appreciated my parent’s generosity enough at the time, I certainly do now looking back in retrospect.  The skill set I honed while plying the lake shoreline is the same skill set I apply to my fishing exploits today, a true gift my folks inadvertently bestowed upon me and one that will be sure to last a lifetime.

The summer of 1991 was first time my family made the trip out to Montauk.  At the urging of some close family friends my parents decided to change things up and in essence traded in the lake for the ocean.  Driving along the Napeague stretch between Amagansett and Montauk the subtle salty aroma of the beach crept through the open windows of the car.  It was impossible not to be intrigued of what lied east.  It wasn’t as if we had never been to the beach before, as we often took day trips to Atlantic Beach and spent some time vacationing in Florida, but this was something entirely different.  Our first glimpse of the ocean came atop a crest on old Montauk Highway in front of Gurneys; it was a view reminiscent of a postcard.  My mind instantly switched to fishing and I pondered what game fish could be lurking beneath the surface of that cobalt blue water.

Shortly after arriving in town my father and I found ourselves at Freddy’s Bait and Tackle on Edgemere Street.  I’m not sure if it was the assortment of colorful hand turned wooden plugs hanging from the walls of the shop, or the countless pictures of surf casters proudly hoisting their catch on the shops front steps, but while standing inside that shop I couldn’t wait to tackle surfcasting.  The green hues of the largemouth bass from upstate were now a distant memory, as all I could think about was the beautiful silver and purple shades highlighted by horizontal dark stripes making up the massive body of the striped bass.

Equipped with a handful of tins and bucktails we headed out with hopes of adding our picture to the ranks in the shop.  Before heading for the sand we chatted with a couple of old timers on the front steps of Freddy’s, their eyes tired and faces weathered.  Salt and pepper stubble from not shaving rounded out the quintessential fisherman look.  It was evident that these guys had paid their dues and knew their craft.  These surf rats, while intimidating, turned out to be real gentlemen with a wealth of knowledge.  They supplied us with some basic tide information, and pointed us in the direction of the Town Beach adjacent to the shop.

With a borrowed surf rod and our new arsenal of lures we walked to the beach.  My dad fired off a cast and handed the rod to me for the retrieve, the same tactic we employed years earlier on that old rickety dock.  Wielding an eleven foot surf stick while dodging walls of water is no easy task, let alone for a scrawny ten year old kid, hence our teamwork type approach.   We quickly realized we were a long way from that sleepy little country lake, and after about an hour of mere casting practice we walked back to town with nothing to show for our efforts.  After an early dinner we again geared up to hit the beach. “Persistence pays off,” my dad preached to me as we walked along the crushed shell path over the dunes to the beach.  The weather had turned slightly and the wind was now blowing at decent clip creating tumultuous surf.  The stiff wind pelted us with a mix of sand and sea spray, but it was going to take more than some stinging sand to break our spirit.

I was about three cranks of the reel handle into my retrieve when the rod suddenly doubled over.  The power of this fish was like nothing I had ever experienced before, and I instantly had visions of a trophy striper on the other end of my line just like the ones in Freddy’s.  “Nice and easy, don’t horse him in,” my dad coached while standing behind me ensuring that the fish didn’t take me for a swim.  The fish took off west before abruptly turning and charging toward the beach.  I reeled at a feverish pace in an attempt to keep the line tight and prevent the fish from spitting the hook.  What seemed like an eternity were probably only a couple of minutes, but finally an incoming wave left our fish high and dry on the sand in front of us.  At about twenty inches this striper was far from a trophy, but it didn’t matter to us as we had landed our first ever striped bass.  We gently placed her back in the water and with a swift kick of her broom like tail she was on her way.

A lot has changed over the last twenty two years.  I now have a four month old son, my wife and I’s first child.  The old quaint Lakeside on Edgemere Street is now the trendy Surf Lodge, and there is a Seven Eleven on Old Montauk Highway.  Surf fishing has also become a full blown addiction for me since that first striper.  The most used app on my iPhone is one that calculates tides, and Freddy’s is now Paulie’s.  That first trip to Montauk with my family not only provided me with a lot of exceptional memories, but helped me carve out a true passion in surf casting.  That old shaky dock may be a thing of the past as my old man and I have long since traded it in for the unforgiving slippery rocks under the Montauk lighthouse, but that dock and the time spent chasing elusive stripers under harsh conditions has solidified a bond between us, one that my little guy can be a part of in the years to come.  May that bond continue to be filled with health, laughs and of course lots of stripes!

By Bill Wetzel

I cannot ever remember having some type of fishing twisting and turning in my head like a screw waiting to drive through a piece of lumber. It is beyond my comprehension of how these thoughts continue from my first thoughts until this day when most of my other thoughts have come and went. My Grandfather who we affectionately called “Gug” was a well know trapper in Ohio, and also was known in smaller circles about his ability to catch fish. My “Grandpaw” Wetzel was not much of a hunter, but lived out in the country and grew up farming. Dad was never much of a fisherman, but loved small game hunting. I remember as a kid crashing though thickets as his dog when we hunted bunnies. I would stay up all night because I was so excited to go hunting with Dad I just couldn’t sleep. We would wake at first light, and head over to “Ma Homes” for the best home fries on the planet. I still can taste the home fries, and smell the breakfast, and hear the chatter of knives and forks hitting plates as other hunters dug in.

Sitting here at a desk writing on a computer sometimes almost does not seem real to me, especially when thinking back on a time that seems like it was not that long ago. Around the time I was the dog for the bunny hunts, I remember, if I was not hunting, fishing, or watching fishing shows I was out playing football, baseball, or guns. It was not for an hour or two, on a play date. It was all day, until Mom would yell “Billy, time for dinner”. I remember being so obsessed with fishing that I would take a stick and tie a leaf to it to fish in mud puddles after a soaking rain. I always liked the dirty mud puddles because most of the fishing I did at the time was done in muddy rivers like the little Portage that runs through Oak Harbor Ohio. I swore to my buddy Donnie that I was going to catch something in those puddles. I never did. With so many things that have changed throughout my life one of the things I know for sure that has remained constant is the love I have for fishing. Why is that? I do not know, but thank you Lord for keeping it in my soul.

Bill Wetzel is what we like to call “The Hardest Working Guide in the Surf”. A quintessential Montauk Regular Bill works hard at teaching his clients the secrets of Montauk coves and consistently puts them on the fish. No wonder most of his customers come back for more year after year. Bill also runs a Surf Rats ball, Subscribers only forum at http://www.surfratsball.com/There he exchanges ideas with his subscribers and of course, logs each and every one of his trips for all to read. Check it out at http://www.surfratsball.com/

The Ninja Wetsuiter

By Lou “The Rod Guru” Caruso

I was hell bent on fishing the new moon somewhere last weekend. The problem is that the south shore has been really void of life unless you are in the right place at the right time. Tried dealing with the crowd Wed. night at Demo for no fish and lots of aggravation. People partying all over the place and many did not even have a permit, or if they did they did not have any fishing equipment with them. There was no way I was heading to the Montauk zoo on the 4^th of July weekend after that.

 Wound up waiting until Monday night to head out there. It was a beautiful night even with the high temps and oppressive humidity. Once we got there we had a slight breeze which made things bearable. We hit the south side, walking and casting as the sun went down. Some white water and a slow pick of schoolie bass to boot. Not a bad start to the night. As we worked our way to a spot that has been productive this time of the year in the past, I remarked on how we did not see another soul fishing and had the place to ourselves.

It was dark when we got to the spot and we set up about 50’ apart. We had a beautiful sweep into some nice deep water and actually started to pick away at some fish. Out of the corner of my eye I see I light about a half mile away. I keep fishing and lose the track of the light. Meanwhile I’m having a blast still catching schoolies. You know how you get the feeling someone is watching you? I have been in this spot before and have had deer come up behind me and check me out. Scares the crap out of me every time !!!!!!

I turned and didn’t see anything. I took another cast and caught movement behind me. Whipped my head around and there he is. The Ninja Wetsuiter, just standing there watching us. I see him walk back to my right some and he is doing something with his light on. I go back to fishing and a few minutes later this clown comes walking right between my partner and I, walks to the water and starts fishing. Are you effing kidding me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This clown cut off my presentation as the swing was from his direction. I said screw this and just kept fishing. I don’t know how ,but we never tangled lines. Now the tide had changed and the water was pounding again. This guy was getting beat to crap over there. I hooked up with another fish and I see him hook up. We both bring in our fish and he runs right back into the water like he has an appointment…

After about 10 minutes of him getting pounded he gets out of the water and heads down the beach… I see him on a rock for a while and then he’s gone! As the tide recedes I said to my partner why don’t we try this other spot further down  where we sometimes do well on the drop.

We pull a few fish and I said to him I’m going to head back to the original spot for a few more casts in the deep water. As I’m walking back I see the wetsuiter right back in the spot we were originally fishing. Walked past him and fished further down, then left.

What the hell happened to common courtesy? I have been in elbow to elbow combat fishing and the people were better behaved. Why crowd others when you literally have miles of beach to fish. I’m sure we were in “his spot” when he got there but really? I can see why people sometimes get a bad taste in their mouth about surfcasters.

To top off the night I’m heading back towards town behind a guy who was scared to death of driving at night. Doing 25-30 in a 50 MPH zone. Mind you I only do 40 in this area having a deer hit my truck 2 years ago. All of a sudden I see red flashing lights behind me. I pull over thinking he’s wanting to pass me and he pulls up behind me. What the hell ??????

He gets out, walks up and asks me to shut the truck off. Now I’m wondering what is going on. He asks us what we were doing? I tell him fishing, he takes one look in the back and sees the poles and all our equipment. I asked why he pulled us over and he said, “he was looking for poachers”

A little surprised but glad he was doing his job. Asked us how we did, wished us a good night and off we went..

CANT MAKE THIS STUFF UP …….

I hope you guys are dealing with this heat better that I’ve been last few days. Worked Friday night Saturday and today too and I think there was a weekend in there somewhere but I have sure not seen it.

The winner of a Sebile Giant Magic Swimmer is  Charles Oat

You have 5 days to email us at info@surfcastersjournal.com. Please be advised that I won’t be around much this week so if I do not get a chance to ship it right away it will have to wait till I get back.

Also, if you have not, you can still enter in the great PENN prevail rod giveaway. We are giving away four rods to four lucky SJ Blog readers, from 8 to 12 feet.

Enter by clicking here  https://surfcastersjournal.com/win-one-of-4-prevail-surf-rods-from-penn-fishing/

We will draw a winners in about a week

We did try to fish last week after dark, Silver Fox and I. Big mistake. We donned waders and walked up to water’s edge in Jones Inlet back on Tuesday…and then the wind died. In about fifteen minutes we were completely soaked in sweat and bugs were going to have a field day feasting on us. So we hightailed out of there and poured some cold water on our heads. That was brutal. Not as brutal as crawling in City Hall attic  on my knees all week ,rolling in fiberglass with no AC. It’s truly the nastiest construction job I have ever seen. Maybe ever. And no, Mayor Bloomberg did not stop by with a Giant Big Gulp.

I have some blog post lined up for this week. One by Matt Handelsman, or CT Matt as you know him, and one by our Rod Guru Lou Caruso who when he is not dispensing advice on which rod to get is  seemingly getting mugged on Montauk rocks in the middle of the summer.

Speaking of advice. I can’t say that anything I’ve done, written, said, recorded has ever been as satisfying as hearing some of you say that something  I’ve done or said have inspired you. I was surprised when some of you told me that I was your inspiration for picking up DSLR or this plug or that. Or making you maiden voyage to Cuttyhunk, or Montauk or trying to rig an eel. I really never thought that anything I had to say would  ever inspire someone in any way. But I guess I was wrong.  I do love hearing that kind of stuff because I never want anything I do to be about me. It should be about you, the reader.

Some of you told me and I quote” I buy everything you guys recommend”. Duuuuude, you need to step back.  If I bought everything we talk about I would be broke. Seriously, I know that we are a bit different. That we insist on testing (at least to some extent) everything we write about. Yeah, even that Toyota Tundra (I still dream about that truck). But we bring you these things as stuff you MIGHT be interested of knowing about and then you should do some more research on your own. Not as a gospel. You know what I mean?

[youtube]http://youtu.be/NgFhJN4H0T0[/youtube]

Because if you keep telling me that,  then that will only make me want to do less product reviews. The last thing I need is having your wife showing up on my doorstep to berate me over your fishing spending habits. My wife already does splendid job of hammering me on my habits. Capish?

We are going to do something special today to celebrate the launch of issue #20 of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. In conjunction with PENN Fishing, we are going to make four, yes 4, Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine fans very happy by sending them each one PENN Prevail rod, courtesy of PENN Fishing.

This giveaway is open to all our fans. All you have to do to enter is enter “I want the Prevail rod” in the comment box and post it. In few days, we will use random number generator to pick four lucky winners. Each winner will receive one rod of our choice. We have an 8 footer, 9, 11 and a 12 foot Prevail rod for a winners in this giveaway and PENN Fishing will ship it right to your doorstep. Each winner will receive one rod out of these four, length of our choice.

Thank you PENN Fishing for making this possible and remember to subscribe to the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine at www.surfcastersjournal.com

The best surf fishing publication in the universe

Description from PENN website

It’s not often you can find everything you want in a high end surf rod at half the price. The Prevail™ provides strength and performance with a two-piece graphite composite rod blank. Stainless steel frames with aluminum oxide inserts create a light weight and durable guide perfect for fishing mono or braid.

The rubber shrink tube handle design provides a secure grip whether wet or dry.

The Prevail is a perfect match for PENN Sargus®, Fierce® or Pursuit® spinning reels or Squall star drag conventional reels. Check out the rod to reels combination chart to find suggested reel to rod combinations.