While we are waiting for Tommy to finish the new issue # 42 of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine,here is Surf Fishing 101 Episode # 21 with Crazy Alberto Knie.
in the March Issue we have three new Surf Fishing 101 videos
Episode 27 Bill Wetzel on needlefish
Episode 28 Bill Jakob on Night Time Plugs for Montauk
Episode 29 Lou Caruso on reel seat for your rods
We are interrupting your regular scheduled programing to bring you a …….Giveaway, what else?
We have been traveling all over doing shows and we are thrilled to be back and working on our next issue (about a week late)
While we wait for Tommy to get that done…lets have a giveaway
Today giveaway is a Savage Gear USA long shirt with a Striped bass logo
Two winners picked at random, each will receive a long sleeve Striped Bass Shirt from Savage Gear
The Midnight Rambler
John Papciak
Ritual de lo habitual
(To surfcasters, at this time of year, that means permits)
I don’t need to look at the calendar. I simply know that about 60 days after the winter solstice, I’m feeling the urge to get my fishing permits. The sun stays up a little longer, and by then Mother Nature usually delivers that first tease with a spring-like day. That’s exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago in Montauk. The afternoon temps nudged up to almost 60, and a little voice in my head told me, ‘it’s time.’
My native Long Island offers some of the best 4×4 access south of Cape Cod. Miles and miles of beautiful soft sand to fry your transmission on. I’m not being sarcastic here at all. Years ago the sand of Long Island, especially Smith Point and East Hampton, proved a little too tough for the transmission of my old Ford Explorer.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I aired down and all of that. But just be be sure, I decided to run a scientific experiment – I put in another transmission (actually my mechanic did), and sure enough, I did it all over again… about two years later.
Ok, I’m lying about the experiment part.
So if the fun part is driving miles of beaches looking for structure and birds, the not so fun part is running all over creation, and digging deep into your wallet to get the required permits before the issuing authorities cut you off.
In my case, those authorities would be the State of New York, the County of Suffolk and the Town of East Hampton. I’ve been known to get a number of other permits over the years, but I’d rather not get into it here and mention any smaller places. No sense in getting accused of spot burning and all of that.
The State permits are the ones you need to listen up on here. The main state 4×4 permit allows you to drive on the beach in a limited number of locations, but it doubles as a night fishing permit. In years past they, they used to sell it until April 31, but now I’m told they promise to stop selling them at the end of March. Remember.. these are FISHING permits, and you can get a fine or have your permit taken away if you are not “fishing.”
That typically means you can’t let your soccer mom wife take your rig to the beach with the kids, armed only with beach chairs. You’ll need fishing equipment, …ahem… but Snoopy rods will do. I can’t tell you how many soccer moms I’ve dug out over the years. So please fellas, if she is gonna fish, teach her about airing down!
But this year, when I went for my permits at Montauk Downs, dear Ms. Carol (who also works at the lighthouse lot) the thought she had me stumped.
“Ok , now I also need to see your Marine Registry Fishing Permit,” she announced.
I did get a little nervous there for a second, but luckily I had a copy in my Jeep! Not so fast, not this time, Carol.
So I got the NY State Permit… and the Empire Passport… and the Camp Hero Permit.
I will admit, it’s a bit silly that I actually need three separate permits to fish/drive/park in the same one square mile of state land at Montauk Point 24/7/365. Luckily I visit enough that I actually think it’s almost worth it. Almost.
The Camp Hero Permit brings back some memories. Used to be that they only issued a limited number of permits, and you had to show up in person at the lighthouse parking lot on April 1 to be assured a Permit… and a key to the locked gate.
How many readers remember sleeping in your truck in the parking lot on the last Saturday of March, and then lining up for permits at 8am?
I remember the BBQs in the lighthouse lot the night before… and fishing stories that usually went on way past midnight. To be honest, it was usually a bit rough for me getting up for that Permit, but I remember pounding on the windows of a couple of Surfcasters, telling them they were going to miss their chance if they didn’t get up pronto.
Once we had permits in hand, we usually went to John’s Pancake in town to tell more stories before scattered to the west.
Anyway, I got my permits now, except for the Suffolk Permit. I will get that when they open that office – April 1 I’m told.
And now begins the ‘way too early but what the hell’ false-hope fishing excursions.
These begin as a stroll the tidal creeks in the waders, and always end up making at least a hundred casts. I usually surprise myself and hook, perhaps a herring, or a shad, or maybe even a short bass. Thus continues the ritual.
Lets have a nice giveaway today courtesy of Ray from Line Stretcher Tackle. You can see Ray and his lovely wife at RISAA show in providence. His makes of the furthest casting lures in the universe and even better, he is a hell of a nice guy and someone I am glad to call a friend.
One winner will walk away with :
1 Size L Line Stretcher shirt
1 Line Stretcher Cap
1 green Line Stretcher Lure
enter below in Rafflecopter SJ ad box
We usually do not feature content on SJ blog that originates somewhere else but you know that i feels the Richard Troxler is not only one of the best writers we have ever featured in pages of SJ magazine, but he is also a “thinking” man surfcaster. His videos on how, why and what are must-watch and his new one is no exception
I never did finish my series on Mexico..the last part was left out, about a guide
The Guide
Really, the lowly guide? What can be so special about a guide you might ask?
Aha, I thought you’d never ask. Now I am sure some of your you are familiar with these ” recoil” guides but I am convinced that most surfcasters are not. These guides are made out of titanium and don’t have ceramic inserts that can crack or chip and ruin your trip. Not only that, but you can literally bend them 90 degrees flush against the rod and they will “recoil” back into their original shape! Brilliant if you ask me, as you don’t need to worry about your guides ruining your trip ever again.
Is there downsides?
Well, now sure if I would call them downsides but it’s something you should be aware. First, I was told that hey are much more expensive then most guides on the market today, and number 2 , they are a little “noisier” when you cast or retrieve a line. Nothing great, but noting is as smooth as ceramic guides when it comes to line running thought the guides.
Something else I should mention..and I’ll do this in the context of the trip. The two weeks prior to our arrival, fishing was not great but it was solid. Each crew had few jacks each day and at least a rooster or two. On one particular day, they had a crazy good day with giant rooster but for the most part it was a solid pick in the morning. I now have a better understanding that your best shot at landing one of these things is from just before dawn till about nine or ten o’clock. After that’s it’s a crapshoot. In addition, the wind will kick up around noon each day making for much shorter casts and different water condition, wave action and clarity.
I should also mention that the waves can be GYNORMOUS!!! !…..one second you are standing in rolling surf, less then five seconds later you might be staring into a 9 to 15 foot sweet ready to pummel you. And if it does, a) you will NOT outrun it and b) you will regret coming to Mexico. I am going to stress this again, these waves are no joke even when they break 15 yards ahead of you and with great force push onto the beach for 50 yards or more!
Anyway, for Ryan and I, the trip went downhill after the second day as fish developed either a lockjaw or completely disappeared. Where we seen bait and small jacks, Sierra mackerel and other species all over the place the first two days, now the bait and fish completely disappeared. It was quite disappointing after few days when your expectations deflate but we still got the up every morning with renewed enthusiasm, knowing this could be the day when fishing lights up. We used all kinds of poppers from custom jobs, Line Stretcher lures to Super strike and everything in between.
And yes, in the morning , particularly from the hours of darkness and into dawn I was tossing Sebille sticks.
I returned to NY with blisters on my hands from reeling poppers all day ling at high speed AND in a hundred degree heat, yet every single fish I caught came on Sebile stick shads. I know it’s weird and I do know it does not mean nothing to you but it does to me. Particularly to my confidence level when it comes to using these , to me, new lures. I am really looking forward to putting stick shads though a whole season on Long Island
And yeah, even this cover shot ate a small stick shad
Traveling around with my daughter doing music college auditions is sucking the life out of me, like this weekend drive around the storm to Rochester, NY. But seeing her not only nail the darn thing but get professors excited about having her as student is gratifying (and humbling)
Here is a simple video, about things that we all know but sometimes we don’t follow up on it.
See you guys at Surf Day this weekend
It is nice to see Musso’s are getting a lot of love, particularly that guys are recognizing Steve Musso’s painting ability. I did not know until about a week ago that he painted SO MANY patterns. I honestly do not pay attention to collecting world. I like what I like, very rarely change plug colors in my bag, and most are yellow anyway. But then I looked at pricing on ebay for stuff Steve painted as Lure of The Month or for special occasions like our Striper Day I said holly shit !!! The fact that SS moved from basement into an actual shop last year, that move was delayed by permits and other things, while his demand exploded did not help. In order to try to catch up, Steve temporarily cut down on number of lure patterns he will be paining for this year. That gave another jolt to the market and suddenly if you have a black over orange that is not being painted in 2017 , its getting traded on fb or ebay for stupid money. I am not going to complain about it as I auctioned off few of my SS plugs last week and donated quite a bit of money to Heros on the Water and St Jude Children Hospital. Over the years we all have accumulated a lot of SS plugs and i was glad to let some go for charity. And yeah, as much as I am tickled pink Steve painting skills are getting recognized and his brand recognition is reaching another level, I am flustered by the fact that the plastic is selling for more $ than his dad’s wood stuff. That I cant understand for the life of me, and its making me think that maybe we went a little too far with SS obsession. Time will tell, and lots of lures will be produced but i doubt there will ever come a day when you find me on the beach without a SS lure in my bag.
Again, my apologies for not being aware of this secondary market in Super Strike being so hot. Between my regular job, magazine, shows and family i barely have time to come up for air, never mind go on fb or ebay and browse for plugs I am not going to buy. I guess now i understand the puzzled looks when at FINS few months ago i was crushing fish and people did not believe me that i was using a SS Calamari darter. I also used all my offbeat colors, like these Tutti Fruity darter and bottle . Feed them to blues too and caught plenty, while people cringed. PC , i am not.
This blue over purple popper was a killer for me over the years at night. Would have Blurple work just as well? Probably
I will readily admit that I never knew there were so many guys collecting SS plastics. And now that some colors will be discontinued , they are getting bid up to silly prices. Then they are those who are looking for ,lets say , pre-rattle bottle plugs and yet others who want a piece of Steve Campo’s legacy.
Put them all together and sprinkle winter, boredom, and NO FISH and you will get people to bid crazy amount on plugs and patterns that will probably be available one again when Super Strike catches up to tackle orders. I will tell you there is one really bad thing (imho) that comes out as a result of this. In past years Musso’s would gladly sign your plug at shows and you had a piece of surf fishing history for keeps. But now that people tell them they want to pass it onto their kids while they are signing it yet the plug is on ebay before that day show is over, they will probably be hesitant to sign it in future, which is a shame for the rest of is
Some people will say that a regular non collecting fisherman is getting screwed by these prices but I would disagree and only for one reason. There is not a day or place whee I feel that with a yellow ss needle, bottle, darter or popper I won’t be able to catch a fish. And those colors are wildly available. And if you believe that you need a Lure of the Month Snapper darter to imitate snappers there is nothing i can tell you otherwise.
Tomorrow is SJ Flea Market at Hofstra University sponsored by Tsunami, Ottter tails and Costa Del Mar. I thought I’d use this occasion to put together a list of all the shows where SJ crew will be this winter. We are looking forward to seeing our readers and shooting a breeze. That can only mean that bass should be making their way back soon
Tomorrows flea market features two free seminars, one by John Skinner and the other by Lou Caruso. Sitting is limited to 50 people and all the info about the show is at www.lifishingshow.com
Costa Del Mar giveaway every hour plus other prizes
First 400 attendees receive door prize from Tsunami and Otter Tails
Next 200 get a book
Free raffles every hour of the show include glasses, nautical charts, reels, pliers
All info at http://
Admission $10 kids under 12 free
March 4th 2017
5th annual Ward Melville H.S. Fishing Club Expo / Fundraiser
Ward Melville High School
380 Old Town Rd, Setauket, New York 11733
8-4 pm
Mar.
5
2017
Berkeley Striper Club 22nd Annual
Type of Event: Fisherman’s Flea Market
Event Date(s): 03/05/2017
Event Time(s): 9am – 2 pm
Admission: $4 / Children under 10 FREE
Location: Toms River Intermediate School North
Address: 150 Intermediate North Way
Toms River, NJ 08753
Contact: Steve George
Email: nightstrikes@comcast.net
Phone:
Website: http://www.berkeleystriperclub.org
March 10/11/12 2017
RISAA Providence
Rhode Island Saltwawater Anglers Association
Mar.
12,
2017
Asbury Park Fishing Club’s
Type of Event: Fishing Flea Market
Event Date(s): Mar. 12, 2017
Event Time(s): 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Admission: $3.00 (Children under 12 yrs – free)
Location: Convention Hall
Address: Asbury Park Boardwalk
1300 Ocean Avenue
(Ocean and Sunset Avenue)
Asbury Park, NJ 07712
Contact: Joseph Pallotto
Phone: 732.988.0121
Website: http://www.asburyparkfishingclub.com/
April 2 2017
ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE
Type of Event: Patchogue Fishing Flea Market
Event Date(s): Sun. Apr. 2, 2017
Event Time(s): 9:00am to 3:00pm
Admission: $5.00 – Kids 12 and under Free
Location: JOHN A. DANZI ATHLETIC CENTER
155 WEST ROE BLVD
Custom Plugs Part One
(Editors note…last night we moved SJ site to another server but in process we lost the Custom Lures part I blog. Our apologies for this inconvenience )
I am having a hard time understanding what is going on in the plug world. Actually I do understand it perfectly but only because I am not all there, because normal person would say wtf..but lets start from the start
Yesterday a store owner emailed me, asking me for advice which wooden lure builder he should contact to sell lures in his shop. He said he contacted Super Strike but they are not adding dealers (that story coming up) at this time.
I said why do you think any lure builder worth his salt would want to sell his lures in your store?
1. Lure builders are mostly small operations, with guys building on the side and only in off season. They are fisherman first.
2. Once they figured out they can sell their stuff on FB without fees AND keep the whole amount, they pulled their stuff out of the stores and told them “they cant make enough” to justify being in the store.
3. The stores really did not treat plug builders well even when their stuff was hot. When they sold like hot cakes (ask BM, late JHabs family or even RM Smith) they wanted more, more and they kept raising the prices. But when lure builder asked for more than $10 per plugs that were selling in stores for $20 and secondary market for $40 they told them “You are lucky I carry your plugs”. Guess what, the stores are left with almost no wooden plugs on shelfs.
Custom plugs are really a supply and demand story in every sense. The builders keep raising prices but they make limited quantities and the demand is still higher than supply and they are managing it pretty darn good. From what I see, they are getting compensated well, the buyers and flippers are not bitching too much either. Right now, kind of a funky equilibrium exists in the custom plug world. I really do not have some great insight of why, how and when someone’s plugs will be hot.
My bag is 99% plastic with few swimmers at night and some Guppy Pencils in daytime. Hell, even the ubiquitous SP Minnow (in my opinion the most overhyped plug in history of fishing) rarely gets into my bag. But I get why custom plugs are getting premium. Have you seen some of the recent work?
Forget for a minute that you want to argue that fancy colors and patterns do not catch fish. They are not designed to catch a fish but a fisherman instead and they are doing a hell of a job. Some of the stuff is an art masterpieces that I would only hang on a wall. And then, when you get a guy who NEVER paints a plug the same way twice and he does it well, of course his prices are going to be though the roof. Some of you have no problems paying thousands of dollars for someone to paint your kids room or spending a small fortune on a fine wood cabinet your wife has had an eye on. But you hate on people who wants to treat themselves to a piece of fishing art. Don’t. Respect the craft and move on. Although the artist will swear he painted it to catch a fish, at $75 there are probably better and more affordable option to do that. But to hang it on a wall, I tell you want, I am starting to dig it and the only collection i have is shit load of old Danny’s and few Musso’s in my basement. …btw I LOVE fishing my Musso’s Torpedo’s but i cringe every time i get a hit..does that make me weird 🙂
I do feel that some builders are not getting the love they deserve. No one will ever accuse Beachmaster of making the plugs for collectors only. Yes, they made few oddball colors by request over the years but on the end of the day they crank out quality at very reasonable price. Considering the sheer number of plugs they produced over the years and styles, and never really made a dud (because of Bobby’s relentless testing before selling anything, no doubt) they should be held in higher regard. And i think they will be back in vogue before long.
No one puts that kind of a quality on consistent basis and does not get rewarded. But currently, yes, they are getting overshadowed by some really, really cool paint jobs. Hey, we are all humans, we like to look at pretty stuff too…thats why there is a screen shot of Kate Upton on my Mac….. when my wife is not home.
So don’t be a hater. If fancy plugs are not your thing, just get some Super Strike Lures
Oh shit !!!
Did you see the recent prices on second hand Super Strike plugs ?
more on SS and another level of craziness in part II
