First, the winner of SJ Mega Giveaway

The winner is  tarpon.master@gmail.com

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

Second, I just got back from a visit to Penn State with my son. Those of you that are alumni’s, I can see why you loved it there so much. That was impressive.

And three, it has come to my attention that our Rod Guru Lou Caruso is holding a special series of rod building classes.

Here is all the info

And last but not least, Happy Easter to all

From the Log of  Bill Wetzel

Report Date: 5/18 SUNDAY COW TIME!

Fishing Report: MONTAUK
I had a 2am charter this morning that did not show. Did not even call to let me know he wasn’t showing. Well I of course went fishing anyway. Light NE winds made for cold fingers at 3am. I started by making a few casts at Shag. Kind of weedy there, so I took a shot at the harbor to see if there were any stripers up on the flats. Nothing there. I decided to catch a solid thirty minutes of beach buggy shuteye, then get up and fish deeeeeeeep on the south side at dawn. On my rock infested walk in I considered fishing the first point I came across, as the ocean was rolling around her and pushing whatever it wanted into a deep water cove. The other point (my favorite) also looked good, with four to five foot sets rolling over its rocks, and clean white water just about everywhere. It just didn’t look as good as the first point. I scaled down my bucktail size to ¾ oz. so I could really work it slow. I had to pick my casts, or the waves would do what they want with the bucktail. I made about 30 casts and found no fish. I took a walk back to the point I passed up. In about 10 minutes I was into a nice 26 lb. bass. I almost did not get her in as the hook on the bucktail was mangled. A few casts late a screamer took off to china and spit my hook. Then a couple of schoolies. Then another screamer. I loosened my drag a bit in fear that she would mangle the hook. After about 15 minutes she decided to go for a rock. I managed to horse her away from near disaster, and eventually got her up to my rock. “Forty?” I thought as I bent down from my rocky perch and grabbed her mouth. My boga grip scale goes up to 30 lbs. and bottoms out at 35lb. She bottomed out the scale! I’ll call her 35lbs, but she may have been closer to 40. I’m heading to my mother’s today, and I considered keeping her to feed the entire family. In fact I was just getting down from my rock, and she made a U turn with her tail and slipped from my grasp. I could have reached down and picked her back up, but I thought it was just meant to be that way. There are obviously some cows around feeding off shad. A slow roll is key to success. Stay tuned—

I was reading a few of my logs in the Surf Rats Ball and a few things came to mind while reading this one. As my wife reminds me, “everything happens for a reason”. Had my charter not cancelled I may have not had the morning I had. Had I not made the second effort of getting up instead of sleeping through, it would have been a morning gone forever. Had that fish not turned it would have been dinner. Today, I am happy it was not. I believe that our sport of surf casting has its own laws of nature. It will do very strange things to mind and body. For those that are diligent, passionate, and as wild Bill Dickenson likes to tell me have “eternal vigilance” your rewards will come. I hope I will always keep this in mind.

So those were my initial thoughts, but digging a little deeper I think we can take a little more from this log entry. “I scaled down my bucktail size to ¾ oz. so I could really work it slow”. Why would I scale down with 3-5’ sets rolling in? During that time of year the water temperatures are typically around 51-52 degrees. At that water temperature larger stripers are very lethargic. Scaling down from a heavier weight to ¾ oz. enabled me to slow the bucktail way down and let the current take it over the rocky bottom without hanging up. Had I went up in bucktail weight my retrieve speed would have needed to faster. The higher the weight the faster the retrieve needed.  These larger chilled fish just are not going to chase a faster moving target. Put a slow moving target with the right profile in front of their nose and it is game on.

“Picking casts” is another item in this entry that caught my attention. I will say one word, contact, contact, contact! Having contact with your lure at all times is surfcasting 101. As I tell my charters, “no contact no fish”. Picking your casts to get your lure behind a wave, and letting it ride the draft of a wave (if there is such a thing as a draft) will in turn allow you to present the lure any way you please. I watch some inexperienced casters in big water casting into some great looking water, but never catch anything. The reason is that they are casting blind, by not picking their casts. Most of the time the waves are taking their lure causing them to have no contact with the lure throughout the retrieve. Sometimes I will be in the middle of my retrieve and will see a huge rouge wave barreling in at me. After asking God for the wave to spare my live, I will quickly reel in to get my lure behind that particular wave. Waves like that are special. Getting you’re offering behind one of them and having it in the white water when it breaks at times can make your entire year. Here is a video of one of my customers picking his casts.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzLM4mOyP9Q[/youtube]

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 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 www.surfratsball.com

I must have answered 50 to a 100 emails this week, all dealing with lost password, username or “why I cant view the journal past subscription page” question. And I answered every single one. Spent a good half hour on a phone with a fellow who needed a little extra help. It’s cool, that is why we are here for. But when people post on other sites that they are getting no response to multiple emails…I get very annoyed. Because you know me. Those of you who contact me can expect email back within 10 minutes. Now if you call me and leave a voicemail I it might be a week till I get back to you.

Dave suggested we do this so let’s get to it

Blog and Magazine, two separate entities.

Blog free. You can read, you can be amused, you can win stuff

Magazine $20. You can read more, you can be amused more. You can win more including a CTS rod. You might get a date with Kate Upton.

Just because you been on the blog for a long time it does not entitles you the access to the magazine. You have to subscribe by clicking here https://surfcastersjournal.com/amember/signup  if you want a full accesses to new issue and all the old issues.

So here we go, simple stuff

You MUST Log In order to read the mag. The way you log in is to click on MAGAZINE tab on top right then LOGIN. Then enter your username and password. Or you can click on this link and bookmark it https://surfcastersjournal.com/amember/login

Do not remember your password? You see the box that says “lost password”? Put your email you registered with and it will send you new password to THAT email address. Remember, we are not talking about the info you registered with on the blog, we are talking the email you used when you paid and created account with SJ. If you signed up at the shows, we sent you an email with your login/password the day after. 99% of people that contacted me and said “I don’t have it, you never sent it” were very surprised to find it in their SPAM/JUNK folder. If you have a Google Gmail account I can almost guaranty it’s in your SPAM folder. Look, it’s not a big deal to me to point this out but I figured I let you know before you send an email for help.

I understand that after two months some have forgot email, usernames or whatever. We can help. Shot an email to info@surfcastersjournal.com and tell us your email you registered with, or your full name and we will help you out. That is why we are here for.

Those of you that extended your subscription at the shows, you can log in, click on Main Page Button  and see that your subscription expires in 2015, two years from a date you originally signed up . We don’t send a special email for renewal to those who did it at shows. We just hook you up. Go check.

So, no , blog and magazine are not the same, they have different subscribers. Blog is free , magazine is not. To subscribe to the magazine and have access to all 18 issues and all the videos click here. https://surfcastersjournal.com/amember/signup

Use the password retrieval tool before you contact us. Because we are going to do the same thing after you contact us. There is no Wizard of Oz here..

You must, must  Log In first in order to view whole magazine. If you are using password retrieval tool, check your spam folders, you new password might be there.

If you contact us, we can reset your password manually. Just keep in mind that this will cut into our court mandated porn viewing therapy …Just saying..

If you subscribed at the shows and never got your log in info, please, contact us asap. We already set up all the accounts the day after the show. It’s possible we entered the wrong letter when typing your email and sent your activation email to abyss. We do speak Cringlish here, you know?

Anyway, that is it. Go hug your kid, watch a little March madness, wet a line in the salt. Whatever rocks your boat. I am going painting..can you say major brownie points?

You can never have too many of those

Over the weekend I will try to gather my thoughts about something that drove me nuts this week. Lost passwords, inability to remember usernames, inability to distinguish between Blog and Magazine, Kate Upton bra size…but today is a Friday and I will make it extra special.

This giveaway is open to subscribers of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine only. If you are not subscriber please do not enter and save me a headache of deleting your entry

We can call this a Mega Giveaway, more than a dozen lures, all going to one lucky dude (or dudete)

Maybe you’ll catch your personal best on it ? Hey, you got to be in it to win it. I have a feeling this is going to be a year of a lot of big fish being caught.

Our thanks for being subscribers to the Surfcaster’s Journal  Magazine. And if you are not a subscriber, you can become one by following this link  https://surfcastersjournal.com/amember/signup

Good luck

I hope you guys are enjoying the new issue. Every time we do this it’s like welcoming another member into our family. When Dave mentioned to me that he wants to interview all the fellows that landed fish over 50 pounds from the surf last year, I was a bit surprised as I never really seen that angle to the story. And I must say he hit the ball out of the park.

Ok, first, the winner of this Lemire Plug Works mint Goo Goo Eyes swimmer is akrispoli@cox.net

You have 5 days to email us at info@surfcastersjournal.com or you forfeit your prize.

Two, I am going to keep saying this because I am getting a lot of emails about it. Anyone who has access issues to the journal, we are here to help. Usually it’s a forgotten password, or username but we are here to help. We have not have any issues with the journal itself but I can understand how you forget your username after two months. Before you email us, try the password retrieval tool on Log In screen. If you are a Gmail dude I can ALMOST guarantee that your password will be in SPAM/JUNK folder. Anyway, feel free to shot us an email. Same email address above.

Three, this weekend on tap is Surf Day at River’s End Bait and Tackle at Old Saybrook CT. We hope to see you there,

Four, we would like to welcome Century Rods at http://www.advancedfishing-usa.com/ and Edge Angling at http://www.edgeangling.com  as new supporters of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. We used Century rods in the past and were very impressed by them and the Edge? Who has not shopped there? They are class operation all the way

STRIPER SURF DAY

March 23th, 2013

It won’t be long, the first migrating schoolies will here and the long wait will be over.  Until then join us in celebration of surf fishing. It’s a great day to hang out, take in a seminar and just get reacquainted with some old and new surf rats. We’ll have great speakers, demonstrations, factory reps, sales, door prizes, gourmet road kill and good friends.

                      FEATURED SURFCASTERS

Dave Anderson – conducting a seminar “ Six Steps to Your Next Personal Best Striper”

Tony Stetzko – demonstrating St.Croix Rods

Steve McKenna – will demonstrate how to weight Red Fins and make them more productive.

Dennis Zambrotta – will be signing “Surfcasting Around the Block”

Adam Romagna – is displaying antique striper plugs

We’ll also have reps from CTS Rods, Van Staal, Commando Surfcasting, Super Strike, Zee Baas, Line Stretcher, Tsunami,

Lunker City, Pure Fishing and more. It’s free, just show up.

back to magazine…this is just a short preview . The full 31 minutes interview can be found in the subscriber section of the new issue of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. See you in CT

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

To say that I am proud of what the issue #18 is all about would be a understatement. This is the first issue Dave put together with minimal input from me.

His article on all the surf caught 50’s in 2012 is worth a year’s subscription alone. And the way Tommy laid it out, I just kept going back to those pictures over and over and over.

 There is a video by Lou Caruso on how to correct that dreaded line lay on your Van Staal. Lordship Lures Ron DiCostanzo shares his wood sealing methods. There is an 30 minute video interview with Dennis Zambrotta about golden days of Block Island and giant stripers. And the Part I of the documentary on history of surf fishing at Montauk Point.

But that is just scratching the surface. Columns by John Skinner ,Steve McKenna, Andrew Chase, John Papciak, John Skinner, Lou Caruso, Russ “Big Rock” Paoline, Roger Martin and Al Albano

A feature by veteran Charlie Soares, Will Sirotnak writes on wetsuits, Jock Holt on fishing Nicaragua, late Frank Pintauro interviews legendary Stan Gibbs

174 pages of pure surf fishing heaven…and the best part I have not read most of it yet!

So go read…its waiting for you. Log into your account, click on CURRENT ISSUE and enjoy. And if you are not subscriber yet, what are you waiting for?

you can watch the preview like this

[youtube]http://youtu.be/6O5aXOSjdhQ[/youtube]

or you can get accses the the whole shebang

https://surfcastersjournal.com/

Why is it when you are working on something, like removing a rod rack off your truck…you take all the screws off with no problems. But then you strip a last one and a 10 minute project turns into a 2 hour job? This happens to me all the time , to the point where I think that it WILL happen ! Its maddening I tell you.

Many of you know that we have been at the shows these past few weekends. This is the first weekend when I got up at my leisure in more than 5 weeks. Between fishing shows and taking my son to colleges it’s been crazy. One result of all of us not being around is that the new issue if few days late. Have no fear, its finally here but being away definely took a lot from all of us. Because we do this after our regular jobs and weekends are a big part of it.

I knew when I started to inquire (you can read beg instead of inquire) within the Montauk surfcasting legends circles about sitting down on camera that this is going to be multi-year project. And I also knew I was over my head. Shooting video is one thing, but trying to put it together so it actually resembles something decent and holds your attention is a whole other thing. Anyone can splice few minutes of blitz footage together. Heck, even I have successfully done this once or twice.

But my problem is I really, really, really like all of these dudes. Jack Yee, Joe Bragan, Bill Wetzel, Manny Moreno, Vito Orlando, Willy Young….I can listen for hours and hours when Fred Schwab talks and never get bored. I don’t need no stinking b-roll overlay footage or fancy graphics, I just like Fred for Fred. In fact, every time I do a cutaway from Fred I feel like I am cheating him. To listed to these guys talk about competitiveness, to hear them describe what they thought first time they seen a wetsuit wearing angler. Or who was the best. Or listen to Willy Young talk about taking a train in 1944 to Montauk to go fishing is crazy. I am glad that I did the interviews, I am glad that there will be some record of what these guys have been trough over the years. But I could never do a justice to a project like this. There has to be at least 40 hours of just interviews and to me leaving anything out seems like injustice. Maybe because a part of me want to capture it all, the people, the places, who was considered best, which plugs why, who brought the first bucktail, who tossed the first needle, who skished 40 years before all the johhnycomelately did

But I cant for obvious reasons include it all. And I have done a great job avoiding doing this in last few weeks and I used that as a reason why…haha…finally I sat don’t on Friday and started to work on Part I. Do I start from 1944, or from today’s blitzes, sneakiness, competitiveness, darter, eels, wetsuit, people, north vs. south…oh brother!

Finally I decided to kind of blend two subject which I thought were connected, competitiveness and wetsuits. After all, using a wetsuit grew in large part because of competiveness. So after about 10 to 12 hours of editing I had about 16 minute thing done. Am I happy with it? I would say I need at least 5  more years and few years of camera schooling to make something that would make me happy but I tried my best. My intent always was to try to capture the history in the words of those who lived through it. I would hope that the final version of this project down the line would be more polished and with lots and lots and lots more overlay footage. But on the end of the day, this is about people, and their experiences

At 16 minutes and 3.5 GB  at 1080 P it took 6 and a half hour to upload to YouTube…..only to be told at 6 hour and 31 minute that it failed to upload.Its telling me is “too long”. Huh? I just uploaded 31 minute interview with Dennis Z the other day????  Did I tell you how even the simple things lately turn to shit? :-)..So here I am again, uploading it to YouTube this time at 720 P.     This time only took one hour. but it failed again.And again.and again.. Oh brother…now what ? The only thing I can think of is to cut it down in two pieces of about 7 minutes each and do it that way. So I did, Part 1 took about an hour and it was fine. Great, not what I planned  but sometimes YouTube can be maddening. Part two was next. After an hour it told me it was “too long” and it failed to upload. WTF? Two more tries with same results. Oh my God, I thought of taking the biggest hammer I got and smashing the Mac. Finally I give up after 14 hours at 10 pm.

Today I wanted so badly to take a day off and work on this but “working” is basically waiting to see if YouTube will accept it. I have no idea why, maybe I have a corrupt file. Like I said, I am much better of wrapping duct than this shit. But I knew my boss will throw a shitfit if i take a day off. We are so understaffed at work and so many jobs are buried already..so I took an early day to try to work on this. And I am still getting nowhere. The magazine is done, Tommy was waiting for me to upload this last video. The new issue will be  up in the next 24 hours, video or not. My time is up..not sure if I bit more than I can chew with making videos. It sure seems that way..stay tunned

Surf Fishing for False Albacore with SJ columnist John Skinner

Helps chase the winter blues away 🙂

[youtube]http://youtu.be/o9fB4vC4ciE[/youtube]

Bill Wetzel

I pretty much eat sleep and dream surf fishing. Just last night I had a dream that it was early season and I found some casters poaching a few of my Montauk rocks. Yeah I said MY rocks! With that said there isn’t much I dislike or especially hate about surf fishing, but I have to tell you that I can’t stand the New Jersey death machines, aka pencil poppers. Take a fall trip to Montauk. Go to Camp hero during a daytime bite. Watch a zillion guys throwing the same plug and catching stripers like crazy. Then ask them “where ya from”? After you get your answer you will know why I call them NJ death machines. I guess I will not mention how the NJ boys kick ass with these plugs during their prized bunker blitzes that have been taking place over the past 10 years or so. Just think about how silly it is working this plug. An eleven foot rod locked in-between a grown man’s legs, while the grown man takes the rod with one hand and bounce’s it back and forth, not side to side mind you, and reels it at crawl( if worked properly) with the other hand. It’s almost like an extension of ego, or perhaps the super ego if you’re into Freud. So now you have about fifty or sixty grown men with wet suites in three feet of water violently stroking their super egos. Makes me want to hurl! I will rarely join the crowd, but when I do I will throw something else just to show my New Jersey buddies that stripers also like bucktails. However when I am somewhere deeeeeeeep on Montauks south side and no one is looking I will secretly whip out my New Jersey death machine and watch it zig and zag until a wonderful being with stripes on its side engulfs this weird looking piece of wood ,putting a smile on my face that lasts right through the winter.

Here is my personal theory on why the NJ death machine is such a kick ass plug, that I can’t stand. I have had many conversation and heard of many baits that the plug imitates, but ya know what? I don’t think it imitates anything. I mean have you ever in your life seen a bait fish swim or look like a pencil popper? If you have I want to hear about it, because I have not.  A striper will hit this plug almost any time of year.  What that tells me is that if the bait is big or small, the water hot or cool, Mr. or Mrs. Striped bass will pounce on this piece of wood, but why? I really believe that the plug just pisses them off. Yep, pretty much as simple as that. Think about a large school or white bait (bay anchovies) that have been pushed in a small area. It probably took a lot of work for a striper school to push this bait, and here comes a three ounce piece of wood causing all kinds of havoc, thereby dispersing the bait. The next thing you may see is that wood knocked up about five feet in the air by one pissed off striper. You rarely will see any other plug get hit like that.  And, yes. I am in the mind of a striper and I know damn well what they are thinking! Believe me, they love to screw with the surf guys. Do you want another example of how this death machine pisses them off? How about the times you are throwing everything in the bag into the froth. You know the stripers are there, but why are they not hitting? Many times stripers are there, but I believe to be at a resting state. This is typically at a time when the tide is not optimal. Along comes the death machine and its game on. Did it piss them off? I think so. Do me a favor. If you see me throwing one of these things, don’t tell anyone. Thanks!

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 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 www.surfratsball.com

Today we are going to have a very sweet giveaway courtesy of Al Lemire from Lemire’s Plugworks.

Dude has the sickest plug videos around.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/TnM1vcZn368[/youtube]

Just one note about subscription..AGAIN…because this is my Achilles heel. If you do not have your activation from Surfcaster’s Journal in your email box,  check your SPAM AND JUNK folders. I am telling you it’s there with penal enlargement emails. And if you renewed , you are not getting another email. Log into your account, click on the MAIN PAGE button and check date. If your subscription says 2015 then you are all set for two years. Your subscription was extended a year from a date you first signed up, not from show date. Just so we are clear.

Anyway, let’s do this. One lucky dude will win the Lemire’s Plugworks 8 inch, 3 ounce GooGoo Eyes metal lip swimmer.

This giveaway is open to Surfcasterls Journal MAGAZINE subscribers only. Good luck