Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families

First i stuffed myself to guys with awesome food my sister in law made, and now its 5 AM and I am trying to get y but to the beach.

Below is a video , First Look at Tsunami Shield 600 reel

Here are the specs..

Retail: $99.99-$109.99

Size Range: 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000

Body Construction: Diacast Aluminum

Rotor Constriction: Stamped Aluminum

Side plate Construction: machined aluminum (screw on)

Drag material: Carbon Fiber (CF3)

Max Drag: 3000-4000: 20lbs 5000-6000: 30lbs

Can be changed from left to right side

Number of seals: 3000-4000 (10)  5000-6000 (13)

Gear Material: Zinc

Pinion Gear: Brass

Today’s giveaway is a for a product that I have grown to love over the years, In fact, I have no idea how did I do without it.

Trailhead Tire Deflators

You pull up to the beach, screw them in and presto, air comes out to exactly to the tire pressure you set your Trailhead Tire Deflators previously. No standing on your knees in mud and rain, no drooling while you hold a flashlight in your mouth. Just screw it in a and forget it. TRAILHEAD Automatic Tire Deflators will automatically reduce the air pressure in a tire to a predetermined level and stop, preventing any further loss of air from the tire. They will function properly whether your vehicle is stationary or traveling at speeds of 20 mph or less.

Not a good product, a GREAT product for everyone that puts their truck on sand , regardless if its 1 time or a 100 times a year.

Visit their website for more information at http://trailheaddeflators.com/product.htm

To enter the giveaway, please enter your email in the box bellow

The app will notify the winner upon contest completion

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bunch of new videos included in the new issue # 40

Here is one just published to public for the first time (it was previously published in SJ magazine)

Lou Caruso on Montauk Rods

Log into your Surfcaster’s Journal Online magazine account and enjoy the magazine in is entirety

http://www.surfcastersjournal.com/

We are hoping to have new issue of the Surfcaster’s Journal Online Magazine # 40 (can you believe # 40!!!!!) up within next 24 hours. Trust me, its worth a wait. Here is a new trailer of short film by Stephen Gallant and  Brian O’Connor -One Trick Ponies

A full length of his short film in its entirety will be shown elusively for the first time at Striper Day 2017 which will take place at Hofstra University on January 14th

For all information about the show, please visit http://www.striperday.com/

Lou Caruso

Wasn’t going to write this blog but I’m troubled by what I am seeing out there. It used to be that a rod builder was an artist and would read all he could before starting the process of wrapping rods. In those books besides instructions on how to wrap guides, you also got information on blanks and how to set up guide layout and why. Although those books are outdated, they gave anyone who read them a solid foundation into roadbuilding. Today anyone can go to youtube and become a pro. Now don’t get me wrong, I see some pretty looking rods out there. The troubling part is there are many “assemblers” out there. These folks do not have the mechanics and working knowledge or nuances of different blanks, and Lord knows there are a ton of those blanks around.  I see guys paying top dollar for rods in both the “L” and “M” powers with the same guide layout. This is disturbing because both those blanks react differently under load and should be laid out differently at least in the tip section.

Twice this week, I come to find out two people I know paid top dollar and then some for rods and may have gotten “a factory” layout on them.  Are you kidding me ????????  At least the rods had fancy wraps on them so that should help.

Factory layouts are used on rods where multiple reels running all sizes might be used. This is usually a compromise and does not show the fullest potential of a blank. What I have seen in the past is a rod builder contacts the manufacturer and gets the guide layout from the tip down and doesn’t take into account the reel location. This leads to a rod that is not being built correctly if the reel seats are in different locations and again not building the best rod for the customer.

One of the rods I saw, none of the guides aligned with each other. Also, the guide train was incorrect to the point an incorrect guide was used. The line had to rise half way down the blank and drop to the next guide causing inconsistent line flow.

Few things you as the customer might want to check with your rod builder;

1 – Sight down the rod. Those guides should be straight. This is really basic roadbuilding….

2 – If you sight down the guides looking through them, you should also get a bullseye down the middle of the guides. If concept, this will be down to the chock guide.

3 – Looks are nice but make sure your rod was built using solid roadbuilding mechanics and techniques, meaning did the builder build it with you in mind, your casting style, what reel are you using, reel position ect.

4 – Find out what layout they will be using, meaning NGC, Modified NGC, COF or modified COF. This could have an effect on performance for you.

If these things are followed your rod builder should be able to squeeze the most performance out of the custom rod you are paying a lot of money for.….

http://www.lifishingshow.com/

I meant to do this for few weeks now but today I finally had some time to run to Jones Inlet to do a quick underwater video. Those off you that fish Jones will recognize ..the lettuce

I fully intend to make a video about “castabilty” of this large 2 ounce 6.5 inch YoZuri Darter but that is a project for another day. This was a one man production…having said that between driving, filming and editing I spent more than 4 hours to make a 3 minute video. Is that insane or what ? You’d think I’d get better at this #@#$%^ after few years? I guess not

So in this video we are strictly going to look at the “action” of this larger YoZuri darter in comparison to original smaller version. Nothing more , nothing less. I am not sure if hooks that came with my sample are going to included in final version that will hit stores, but I am expecting and hoping they are. They are solid hooks instead of POS stuff that you get with SP Minnow.

For whatever reason I always had this desire to fish in tropical locations. Most people think it’s the hot weather, even hotter women and cold beer, but I am not sure that is it. I have a very good looking wife, I don’t particularly like heat and I  drink less than six pack a year (or so I claim). Then it must be the lure of tropical species ! The speed to which roosters and other warm water species attack is mind boggling. But on the end of the day, the reason is…….people

I come from a very simple background , we never bought a tomato, we only ate it in season when we grew it. And you know what it tasted like (something I then took for granted) ? Like a tomato, something many of you born in USA will never know what it should taste like. You will  either have to plant your own or buy organic. My point is, all these places remind me of my childhood. The food tastes like food should taste, very little if any preservatives. And  people are still friendly and kind. They live very simple lives, they look our for each other and yes, they still communicate via verbal world instead of Google emojis. In such an unspoiled version of my world, add some very powerful and colorful fish and I am ready to go any time my friends can put a trip together…which is not often.

So when Ryan White from Advance Fishing /  Century Rods told me he has room in the trip he is planing I was in within three minutes ( 2 1/2 minutes to ask my wife if it’s ok with it, another half a minute to stop uncontrollable laughter of joy). Well, out of our party of 4,  two guys canceled a week of the departure leaving only a Ryan and I. We were both psyched until hurricane Matthew threw wrench into our plans as Ryan was flying from Virginia. Until the morning of our trip we did not know if we would go or cancel the trip. Finally on Saturday the 8th at 1 37 AM I got a text from Ryan that he was on the way to airport in VA.

For this trip Ryan built three special travel rods for everyone in the crew, which now meant him and I. A five piece 12′ 6″ rocket launcher with titanium guides, a 9 footer lighter action and even a 6 ‘ for boat jiggin. More on this later…

I got to tell you, I was just psyched to be in the air as I am writing this from Amercian Airline flight 22 from Dallas Fort Worth to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Now into second leg of our  flight and about hour from Mexico, I need a cold beer..I think my six-pack-a-beer-a-year habit is about to be broken.

I am not sure if some of you can visualize the a place so remote where no one has ever needed or had a use for a mailman or post office. The number of dogs and chickens probably outnumbers people 10 to 1. There is no supermarkets here, not Chinese food of pizza. Having said that, there is no lack of places to eat and not only that they will serve you insanely good food, but also at prices you will have to do a double take when you get a bill.

One day, five of us fished together and decided to stop by a restaurant right on the beach. Once we got up a steep stairway, we had breathtaking views and even a pool if we wanted to jump in and cool off. Five guys with three large appetizers, five lunches ( my shrimp diablo was insane!) and about 10 beers. The cost for the whole thing?

600 Mexican pesos

Sounds like a lot until you converted to US dollars

600 pesos =about $35

And this was a fancier restaurant then most in this area!

More to come as I can hopefully find time to sit down and write between tides.

Unique tournament coming this weekend on LI

As many of you know, sometimes during this summer we made a decision that we would no longer promote tournaments after this fall with exception of this one which we already committed to mentioning last winter. That’s part of the reason why we did not mentioned The Fisherman Montauk or South Shore Clasic or other tournaments that supported very worth causes

You can get the info  about it right here

https://m.facebook.com/896689870388874/photos/a.897202263670968.1073741828.896689870388874/1315705365153987/?type=3&source=48

From what we have been told there will be weight masters positioned at key points so that the fish can be weighted on the beach and released if the angler choses to do so.

New video in our Tip of the Week series

Hook Sharpening with Dave Anderson

Obviously sharpening hooks is probably done best at home with a good sharpening tool but Dave has a suggestion how to touch them up quickly on the beach