Today we are going to have a special giveaway.

I don’t think we ever gave away a plug like this before but today is a good day to start.

Our friend Al Lemire makes some great lures under the name Lemire’s Plugworks, you should definitely check them out at http://www.lemiresplugworks.com/

He makes great needles, pencil poppers, poppers and all kind of good stuff but this plug is truly different than what most builders make today.

The 5 inch, 3 ounce Sea Fly

Designed after the old freshwater classic this plug will throw water like nobody’s business. You put this puppy into a boulder field and hold on to your rod. That is if you can get yourself to cast one. This thing is stunning in design, paint and hardware.

In order to be eligible to win, you must tell us where would you use it. No, no secret spots needed, just general location will do

Unlike in past years I am having a hard time sitting down and putting my thoughts in any type of coherent manner. In the past years, when I was so swamped with responsibilities, the fishing really was secondary. Yeah, I would get out halfheartedly but it wasn’t like it use to be

What did it used to be like?

Exactly what is it now. Checking winds velocity and direction twenty times a day. Constantly going through my Tide app checking tides at different locations. Many of them I know I probably won’t fish but just in case my plan A,B and C do not pan out. Constantly thinking about fish, from the moment I wake up till I go to bed and then dream about it too. Yeah, it’s been few years since I felt this way.

Last year if I had an hour to kill I’d probably put on a Mets game even thou they stink. This year, unless Harvey is pitching I am shooting down the highway even if it’s only for an hour.

It helps that I got a cortisone shot two weeks ago. OMG it’s like #%*! heaven in a needle. I am just hoping it works this time around. Believe it or not and have YET to cast a wood or plastic or metal lure this spring yet I caught so many fish. For my standards that is which are not that high. Since I been fishing with a 7 foot rod I been going to back of the inlets with a  handful of bucktails in the Tactical Anglers pouch. I should be making my first cast with a  plug this weekend but to be honest, I probably could fish with a a bucktail and nothing else for the rest of my life and not complain. Didn’t someone wrote a book about fishing bucktails recently?

Oh yeah, the great John Skinner 🙂

I suggest you get it if you have not read it already. Really cool stuff. And check out John’s videos on YouTube too.

The winner of new Hansom is DK-6 Stainless Steel Dive Knife

is Lscott411@gmail.com

you have 5 day to email us with your shipping address at info@surfcastersjournal.com and we will forward it to Hansom Tackle. Check out the knives online or at your favorite Hansom retailer.

Btw

This is NOT our esteemed columnist and blog contributor Roger Martin. I just used the picture to illustrate his blog post because he does not have any pictures since all his Poloroids are all in the box in the closet

the young fellow in the picture is his youngest son, Skippy Jr

ok, now I am just busting chops. But Roger, now that you are a blogger you are “cool” again. And you were worried about your street cred

and in closing

Go get them..there are some fish around regardless where you live…unless this stupid  storm this weekend puts a major hurting on a bite and our beaches . But I don’t think it will

Roger Martin

As the resident “Old Geezer” on the staff of the Surfcaster’s Journal, I suppose some folks expect that I have tons of wisdom and experience to share with our readers that will make them better surf fishers. Well, it appears that I am clueless. This past week, I spent most every day on my hands and knees pulling weeds, planting flowers, painting the red wood furniture, cutting up branches left over from Super Storm Sandy and thinking seriously about cleaning up the garage. This is not stuff that a 75 year old resident “Geezer” should be doing, especially as the fishing season heats up. He should be out fishing!

Every bone and muscle in my body ached. My back was killing me and my right shoulder hurt when I tried to drag myself up from the ground. I thought about our fearless leader, poor Zeno, whose shoulder has been hurting him so badly that he has not been able to cast. The last time I saw him, he was also limping badly.

I checked my e-mails and discovered that a buddy had found some decent size bluefish and was inviting me to the party. I had caught a few bass two weeks ago but I love how a big blue fights. The Jeep was all packed so all I had to do was grab the rod out of the garage and go. I ignored the mess in the garage. After all………the blues were in!

When I got to the “spot” there was nobody else there. Oh well, it was early in the afternoon and it was a work day. I discovered that putting on a pair of waders when you are sore all over can be quite a trick. Trying to climb the new sand dune that blocked the route to the water was also a challenge. When I finally reached the surf line huffing and puffing, I put on a Hopkins and began casting and walking. On about my fifth cast, I felt a hit but did not hook the fish. A few more casts and I got another bump. There was life out there! On the next cast, I hooked a fish but there was no fight, just a slight wiggle indicating that I had hooked something alive and not a plastic bag. It was a bass that was about eight inches long.  As I released it, I warned the bass to find another beach. There were fierce, hungry bluefish around here that would love to eat a small striper.

It struck me that those missed bumps I had been feeling may have been hits from small bass like the one I hooked. I decided to head for a nearby jetty in the hope of finding some blues. As I neared the jetty I had a hit at the end of my cast. Fish on! It turned out to be a three pound blue. I assumed that the fish were out further than I was casting. I wound up and threw myself into the cast trying to reach the fish. I felt something bad happen in my right shoulder and I let out a shout from the pain. It felt like something tore.  I left the beach feeling sorry for myself. What if I can’t fish the spring run? We’ve rented a cottage on Martha’s Vineyard in June. What if the shoulder is still bothering me then?

There is a lesson here somewhere. Don’t force the cast. Let the rod do the work. Don’t sit around all winter doing nothing. Get in shape so a little yard work won’t knock you out. Hey Zeno, move over. You got company!

Part 1

[youtube]http://youtu.be/UWJsfYKY87I[/youtube]

PART 2

[youtube]http://youtu.be/I4-axkVRg3U[/youtube]

Today’s blog will be in a video form. Sometimes you have the stuff in front of your nose, and you never know. Like I when I had this Pelican 2720 LED light in the box in my basement for a whole winter. And then I opened the box and went WTF?

What can I tell you, if I could read English better I would have stayed and finished high school. I realize I did not pick a winner of Tsunami lure package yet so let’s get to it. The winner is joelkess@verizon.net. You have 5 days to contact me at info@surfastersjournal.com and I will get this out to you.

In other news, its 4 am and I am barely functioning. My thumb is chewed up, I lost most of my bucktails..again. And I fought and landed what I thought was going to be the biggest fish ever…that is coming up this weekend. Right now I need to get my ass to LIRR and to work

Have a great weekend.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/oMLsy6r8woU[/youtube]

I have been dealing with some personal demons this year and have had a hard time getting myself motivated to fish. On top of that I have not done well when getting out to fish.  A while back Zeno had done a blog column on a catch and release contest run by our own Dave Anderson. http://www.gotight.net/index.html  I believe in conservation and only take the occasional fish for the family and in-laws. I read up on the contest and liked the way Dave set it up. So I contacted a friend who is also very conservation minded and asked if he would be interested in joining. His response was “sure lets give it a shot”. We paid the entry fee and signed up. Then I looked at all the heavy hitters that signed up and said “what the hell did I get us into?” The Surfcasters Classic is comprised of 15 weekend contests throughout spring and summer leading up to a playoff in the fall.

I found myself with renewed vigor looking forward to the contest. With high anticipation we set a game plan. First weekend out we managed to take 5^th place (no thanks to me with a 16” & 18” fish), but that was just enough to even get us some bonus points. You just never know.

Anyway, here we are in week 2, and I have a chance to head out east and maybe get in on a bite and get some early points. A friend was taking the trip out and asked if I wanted to go. I never miss the chance to fish with the master bucktailer so off we went. We were heading out for a day bite. The lure of choice would be bucktails.

I would finally be putting the Fiberstar Montauk Maurder to the test. (I’ll have a review in a few weeks after some more testing.)  Here it is with a feisty 12 pound bass. I let a friend try the rod. First cast and he’s into this fish..

The next weekend contest started Thursday morning… We get out there and I start banging fish. I’m like a little kid giggling, taking pictures and releasing fish. After a while I’m actually culling with larger fish. Now mind you the fish are only up to 26″ but were on the board and we have all weekend to cull. I end up with 7 fish to enter into the contest. On the way home I call my partner to let him know the good news. We can get out there the rest of the weekend and hunt large. At that point we were really stoked….About a half hour later I realize, I never put the official place card in any of the pictures as required !!!!! None of the fish counted and we struck out the rest of the weekend… What an ass I am !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We would have got our butts kicked anyway. Those guys up north are doing a bang up job on some really good fish right now….Hopefully, we get a shot soon … Heard the bigguns were in Jersey last week so who knows.

There is still time so sign up and get in on the action. Go to the website and check it out.

By Bill Wetzel

The quiet serene sanctity of the Back Bay drained its ebbing tide along the spring cord grass, as the arc of the rod and the draw of the line put the fly in position for dorsal fins to rise and bring the morning to its completion. Give me a break. I just can’t take the sissy wand and all the bologna that goes with it. I know some of you are already thinking that I am a snobby prick that does not know his ass from his elbow.  I will not confirm or deny, but I will have some fun here. Can someone tell how a fly reel can be six or seven hundred bucks, when it basically consists of nothing? Take a walk into Poorvis. I have never seen more overpriced fishing equipment in my life. If you want to get poor quick, have some expensive scotch, a fine cigar, and wear a dorky looking vest, then break out the overpriced sissy stick and go catch some schoolies.  Be my guest!  Actually that doesn’t sound too bad. I have been down that road once or twice and kind of liked it. Back to getting to my point! I have a few friends that are exceptionally good with the sissy stick, and back when we had time to fish with them I think I was only out fished by the sissy sticks on one occasion. Despite getting their rear end kicked on every trip, these guys would stick with their wands of glory. Sometimes we would have a strong NW in our face with waves beating on our chest, and out would come the sissy wand. There I was with my face in the wind casting loaded needle fish through a 20 knot North West, and my buddy would be facing the other way casting ass backwards, and catching nothing by the way. Eventually I was given a four weight, convinced to join a fly rodders club and headed to the west branch of the Delaware, to build ramps for the handicap, catch some trout, and eat some good food. Those were some good times. Once again I need to stick to my point!  I mean come on, cigars, quaint little fly rod shops, with tooth pick rods that look like I could break them after falling on my first rock of the night. You can’t even use the damn things as a walking stick.  Good lord, set the sissy stickers free!  Give them real rods that they can go out in a wild nor’east surf, with white water and wind eating them alive.

Every fall there is a group of sissy stickers that come to my home waters of Montauk  to fish  the daytime white bait blitzes. I have this little spot that I like to fish on flood water, and for most of the season I have it to myself.  It never fails that this group will come into this spot and shut it down to all other fisherman who might like to have a crack at it. Because I can be a pain in the ass on occassion I have worked my way in the spot despite the presence of guys smoking cigars with fly vests in the Montauk surf. Sounds like an oxymoron does it not? I have left on more than one occasion when they were mohaking the bass on flies, and I could not get so much of a touch. This would usually occur in flat gin clear water conditions. However  there has been times out of the corner of my eye  that I watched their frustration as I took bass after bass to their zero. What a warm fuzzy feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that gave me.  A few times when I was able to school the boys using wood plugs I would scream at the top of my lungs “Bob Hahn!”, as I threw Mr, Hahns metal lip to fish on nearly every cast. I tell my wife these stories and she will remind me that “all you fisherman are nuts.”  I think there is more to it than that. In front of the word fisherman she should put surf, because I do believe that most of us surf guys and gals are pretty nutty. Not me though. I am straight as an arrow, my cheese is on my cracker, and the train is on the track!

Ya know, for all this ranting and raving here I almost secretly carry a nine weight at all times in between my wheel well and bedroom quarters in the back of my buggy. I will joking tell my customers that “I have the sissy wand in the back if you want to take a shot with it for any thing in tight” Then I tell them not to tell anyone. So my point is that I think I need medication.

Editor’s note;

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/

Do you carry a knife when surf fishing? On the belt, in the bag or anywhere else? I never really thought about this much until the other night when my feet got tangled up in a braid on a jetty someone carelessly discarded. It took me a long time to get it off my boots. Thank God there were no waves coming as they usually do in that spot, because it would honestly been a hairy situation. Stabbing in the dark with my pliers trying to free my boots was not fun.

I know some of you like the fanciest toys. The best trucks, the most sophisticated reels, the highest performance rods. I’ve talked to guys who seem more passionate about discussing the newest gear item they purchased like a $200 blunt diving knife then they are about actual fishing. Whatever rocks your boat but when it comes to my gear I don’t only want it dependable but affordable too.

Recently Hanson Tackle, the makers of popular Hansom Saltwater Pliers introduced a small stainless steel diving knife. It has a 2 1/2 inch blade with one side smooth and the other serrated. Blunt tip so you don’t accidentally poke yourself in your buttocks while on your belt or in water and a line cutter that can but used to cut braid. It’s a neat little item that gives you few different options of mounting the knife on your belt, bag or even bag strap. Last but not least, the knife does have an innovative locking design and it will lock into the sheath when not in use. You can dismount the knife from its locked position with one hand by pushing on a release button. The cost ?

$29.99 available at most retailers and Surfcaster’s Journal Sponsors like Cow Harbor, The Surfcaster, The Edge and I am sure others. I have not got a chance to use mine yet but I will give one blog reader a chance to win one today, courtesy of Hansom Tackle

Good luck boys and girls

I know, I know, you waited long time for this weekend and now this weather is kicking you ass. It sure kicked mine last night.

You can head over to our Facebook page and post any surf fishing picture for a chance to win one of three PENN Prevail surf rods we are giving away in conjunction with PENN Fishing. Winners picked randomly next week.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Surfcasters-Journal-Online-Magazine/365270663420

Edge Angling also has a special you might be interested in. If you buy any Surfcaster’s Journal t-shirt this weekend you will receive a free bone Redfin C10 lure. That is some deal.

here is the link

http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5ff5a6d67e95690cceca58143&id=aa47735279&e=ca6cfa1b52

And now for the Weird But True segment of your day

A German fisherman and his group were just about to give up after a slow and unproductive day of fishing off the Norwegian island of Soroya when a huge, world-record fish changed their plans.

Michael Eisele of Kiel, Germany, hooked into a monster Atlantic cod that had his knees shaking when the fish breached the surface after having battled it for more than 30 minutes.

So big was the fish, two of Eisele’s friends kept ahold of him for fear he’d be pulled overboard. The fisherman also needed help from the two to heave the behemoth fish onto the boat.

The fish was 5 feet long and weighed a whopping 103 pounds, making it the biggest cod ever landed by a recreational angler. If approved by the International Game Fish Association as a world record, the fish would supplant the current world record of 98 pounds, 12 ounces, caught 44 years ago off New Hampshire.

“It was an indescribable feeling,” Eisele told the UK Daily Mail. “It was a fish of a lifetime. I am a little proud to have the record.”

To give an idea how impressive the catch was, consider that the record for the biggest cod caught in British waters is 58 pounds.

The UK Telegraph reported that an owner of two fish-and-chip shops calculated that a fish the size of Eisele’s record fish would provide 200 portions of the iconic British meal.

But the fish won’t be headed to anybody’s plate. Eisele is donating the cod to the Norwegian Fisheries Museum in Bergen where it will be stuffed and mounted for all the world to see

Begrudgingly she came in, not before giving it one more spirited run. Waiting for the right moment, just as waves were about to rush in, I turned her head and she planed on top of the wave between the rocks. Twenty two pounds read my Boga! Man, that feel good, the fish, the rod, the whole night. After getting skunked the night before this was satisfying.

I released her in the water and climbed back up onto a dry rock and made another cast.

BAM!

Jesus, this fish felt the same as the last one. After (this time very timidly sliding down the rocks) I landed the fish and had a hell of a time getting a bucktail from its mouth. It swallowed the whole bucktail so deep I struggled to get it out. I knew after spending way too much time trying to pop it out that the fish might not make it. If I toss it off the rock, and she goes belly up, I can’t retrieve it. Besides, I wanted a fish for a table . So I decided to keep it for dinner.

After stashing a fish I checked my leader. Frayed . Ok, it’s a good time to change. Then it hit me.

Because I did not have a Surf Bag with me, I did not have my leader wallet !!!

I left it in the truck .@*$@#^$%^&/*

I cut back on my leader but after 3 more fish I hung the bucktail on the rock and broke it off. Now what? Go back to the truck and waste half an hour of the best fishing I’ve seen in this spot in years or fish without a leader? Smart man would chose number two. I never said I was smart.

I texted my buddy with numbers after weighing few fish, and then again and again. I must have texted him ten times… But he was tied up at the function and could not get out of it.

I stood at water’s edge, not waiting to climb up on the rocks, down the rocks, every few casts. It was just easier if I stood on a slimy rock as long as I did not make any sudden movements. I kept banging fish every few casts, not one under 15 pounds. Crap, in this spot I call every buddy I know when I catch a 14 pound bass! Where do they all come from? Maybe a fresh school of fish came off the ocean? What were they feeding on ? I had no idea.

How did I land fish with no leader? Oh brother…. I couldn’t grab it with my bare hand so I would position the fish in front of my rock in a specific spot and when the wave would rise I would “plane” the fish onto the rocks. And I kept retying and retying and retying the bucktails. Funny thing was I did not lost a single fish to broken line. Yet when I have all the stuff, Korkers, leaders, when I am ready for war, then I lose half of the fish I try to land!

The St Croix Avid preformed absolutely flawless as did a drag on zb. About two hours into this madness the fished moved about twenty yards down current and I moved with them. The problem was there was a pile of rocks further down current jutting into the inlet. The current at this point was running hard. And every fish I hooked wanted to take me around those rocks and break me off. I could not get to that point in my waders, I had to hold my ground where I was. So I tightened up on my drag and leaned into the fish with an Avid to prevent it from turning a corner. At some times I thought the rod would explode under pressure but sure enough, every fish eventually gave up and started to move towards me. The largest fish that was twenty seven pounds on my Boga. I was sure she was going to bust my rod yet the Avid held its ground.

Not only that but the most remarkable thing was that St Croix Avid never “spun”. I don’t expect rod to spin the top section under normal circumstances but I would sure understand if it did that night. For Christ sake I was holding rod parallel to water, almost pointing at the water while the fish was twenty yards down current trying to cut me off. If the rod spun its top section, even if it broke, I would have understood because at times I was sure that it was bent to its max. Yet neither of those things happened

I know it’s only one trip but the damage was close to 30 fish, with ten fish going over eighteen pounds. I did not even bother weighing teen fish after an hour or so. It was a night that I will not forget for a long time. I lost all my bucktails but one by hanging them on the riffraff on the bottom. I lost the top of my pork rind bottle and all the pork rind in it, but I was a happy (and lucky man).

And the elbow?

What about the elbow??? I was so full of adrenaline I forgot all about it. Only when I would straighten my arm to land a fish would I be reminded that I am not well.

To be honest writing this 2500 word blog hurts more than all the fish that night.

Go get them boys because in the words of immortal Vito Orlando “If Z is catching, they must be thick”

God knows I needed a night like that…back to popping Alive

Of course we went back the next three nights, with Korkers, leaders, long rods and every bucktail we owned. We managed few fish, but nothing, nothing like that crazy night

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good