I was at the Canal Thursday. The results were atypical for a famous “breaking tide”. There were the expected pods of breaking fish, the expected reports of a few big fish landed, the expected schools of mackerel hugging the banks—but there was no consistency to the bite, no pushes of bass traveling through. Some isolated pockets of fast action did make a few anglers’ days though.

One such angler was a guy that I would guess was in his early 20s, someone who is most definitely in the early stages of his love for our sport. There were two nice fish displayed on the access road, a 36-pounder for an older guy nearby and a 28-pounder for this younger guy I stopped to talk with.

He told me that the fish had taken an SP Minnow thrown among a large school of macks. He added that it was his first good fish and he was very excited about it. You can’t blame him for that, 28 pounds is a nice fish for sure. We compared notes on the action throughout the morning, my results of five fish from a schoolie to a 22-pounder matched up roughly with his, although his fish was bigger than my biggest. I showed him the mackerel-colored Guppy Pencil that took all but one of my fish. He told me that he’d never been able to get a fish to hit a topwater plug. We talked about that for a bit and shook hands, but as he was walking away he said something that stuck in my mind.

“Well, now I have to go home and YouTube how to cook this thing!”

I offered up a basic recipe for my favorite way to eat the few bass I keep each year. In case you’re wondering, battered and fried bass makes great fish tacos with the right fixings. I was quick to add that a 28-pounder would make enough tacos for his entire neighborhood, but I don’t think my words landed where I hoped they would.

I don’t fault anyone for keeping a fish, I do it now and then and think that it’s a practice that should always be a part of our sport. But taking a fish just to take one is not a good practice. I would obviously give this guy a free pass, he was fired up—and I wouldn’t want to take that away from him, I only use this example because it’s fresh in my mind. But, if you don’t even know what you’re going to do with it when you get home, you should really release the fish. If you’ve ever thrown a fish into a dumpster after killing it you should feel bad about it. I hope that my new friend from the Canal had a great dinner with family and friends that night and I hope he a gets a 38 tomorrow. But what I hope above all else is that he realized that a fish of that size is enough to feed a family function and that the mythical 38 I just hooked him up with in the near future is much more valuable alive.

As the tides we’ve come to rely on become less and less consistent, it is going to become increasingly important that we all harvest with extreme care. People make the argument for ‘gamefish status’ but I have to wonder if a no-harvest fishery would hurt or help the sport overall. Personally, it wouldn’t stop me from fishing, but I think a large percentage of the people that can’t fish four nights (or more) per week like I usually can, depend on taking a fish for the table as the justification for the expenditure of their precious time and money.

Of course, this is abused as well. Striped bass just doesn’t belong in your freezer, unless you’re very good about how you care for it and you make sure that you eat it within six months of the catch. Some of my friends that are charter captains tell me that they hear the same line laughed over and over from their patrons, “Now we can throw away the fish from last year!” That’s every bit as bad as the dumpster crew. The striped bass shoulders a huge amount of the recreational fishing load here in the Northeast, it’s high time that we get our heads on straight.

If you haven’t watched part 1 and 2 you should

[youtube]https://youtu.be/SlYN_cfpVtE[/youtube]

I would like to thank again all the sponsors and participants of the SJ Spring Striperthon 2015. We are glad you all had fun and won some awesome prizes from our sponsons,

Our sincerest thanks goes to the sponsors for making this possible, PENN Fishing,Lou Caruso, StormR, Guppy Lures, Super Strike lures and Spiderwire. We are really lucky to have such great sponsors and readers who share out belief that in the days when there is a drastic reduction in numbers of striped bass, we should be supporting and promoting catch and release.

Again, congratulations to all winners.

The winning fish came from New Jersey where Ryan Sherwood feed a Super Strike Darter to this 47.5 lb cow.

Let’s do it again in the fall !

The winner of a full day, 6 hours guided trip with NY Surf Fishing Gide extraordinary Bill Wetzel is Dan Radman…danielradman@optonline.net

trip is for one or two casters for a full 6 hour trip. Giveaway excludes trophy trips. Trip must be booked on or before 5/15/16. Winner should contact Bill Wetzel at 631-987-6919 and mention SJ giveaway.

I hope you guys are catching fish, I hope the have stripes, God knows this is the worst spring I have ever fished through in my life. But if you live and fish the Canal or RI you are probably having a decent spring. If you fishing NJ, you had a really, really good run in April/May. If you fish LI and you had an awesome spring with bass, my hat is off to you. Since I decided to kind of pull the throttle back a little to give myself more time for family and to fish, I fished and fished and fished. In fact, I might have fished more in last month and a half than in last two years combined. You have to understand that between writting the blog, contests,, giveaway, FB and twitter page, advertising sales, billing, video and God know what else, it does not leave a lot of time to do what i like most…fish. And I am glad Dave Anderson is stepping to the plate with his weekly contribution

bad elbow gave me the excuse not to fish last two years but now i am thankfully feeling better and fishing like I used to….however I am not catching like i used to !

haha

but tomorrow is another tide…and I am psyched ..because just a thought of casting a plug in those legendary waters gives me the chills.

But more about that next time

Have fun, catch them up and have a great spring

Zeno

After another successful Striperthon it seems like the right time to talk about the evolution of the striper tournament. The phrase “no kill” is often used to emphasize the fact that most (if not all) of the fish entered into one of these tournaments will be released. It’s a concept I really believe in, some of you may know that I run GoTight.Net which is the online home of a very successful season-long catch and release surfcasting tournament.

There has been plenty of debate about the likelihood of survival for fish that are brought to shore for photographic documentation and, when done carelessly, I would agree that survival rates are below what any of us would prefer. But, when done correctly the fish are really not kept out of the water any longer than they are during a normal shore landing.

The right way to compete in one of these tournaments is to prepare to measure your fish before making your first cast. I compete in my own tournament but, of course, I can’t win anything I just enjoy the camaraderie that comes with playing the game every week. When I arrive at my spot of choice, I start by finding a good place to document my catch. The best places are flat areas of smooth gravel, flat boulders or, best of all, patches of wet weeds uncovered by the tide. When I find a suitable spot, I unfold and lay out my measuring device (in my case it’s a fiberglass folding ruler) and then make sure I have my tag and camera in an easily accessible spot before I make my first cast (I also make sure the flash is turned on). One of the big no-no’s of competing in these C&R events is recording your fish on dry sand, if your fish looks like a cinnamon doughnut when you go to release it, no matter how fast you are, it’s not going to do well. Sand in their slime, gills and eyes can cause infection and can be very hard for them to rid themselves of, if you fish the open beach you should document on hard, wet sand or bring a small tarp or towel to take your photos on.

From the moment you hook up, you should be thinking about the documentation process and hear a clock ticking in your head. Try to get the fish in as quickly as possible, I prefer to unhook the fish right when I catch it and then bring it over to the ruler. Lay the fish down near the ruler, move the ruler (not the fish) to line up with the tip of the tail and take the photo, pick the fish up for a quick selfie and the documentation process is done. Now I usually set a rock on the tag so it doesn’t blow away, I stuff my camera in my jacket or the neck of my wetsuit and then I hurry the fish back to the water where I will take whatever time is necessary (as I always do) to revive it. Written out, this sounds like it takes a long time, but I can usually document a fish and have it back in the water for revival in less than 30 seconds.

When you catch a big fish, there is a little more to the process. Bigger fish are usually on the line longer and have fought pretty hard. If I had to run a 30 yard dash and then go hold my breath underwater for 30 to 60 seconds I don’t think I’d be feeling too great by the end of my swim. The accepted process is to land the fish, remove the hook and then spend a minute or two reviving the fish on a Boga Grip or other lip-gripper tool before taking it to shore. After that short time in the water, I bring the fish in and go about the documentation process as I would for any other fish. This same basic process is used for any fish caught wetsuiting that has to be swum back to shore, keep the fish on the gripper and in the water until the last possible second before quickly documenting and releasing the fish.

Is this a perfect process? No. Is there a measure of release mortality? Yes. But, when done properly, I doubt very much that it’s any higher than regular fishing practices. One thing you can guarantee is that the mortality rate for every conventional “weigh-in” style striper tournament is 100%. If you compete with swift and proper release in mind, you should not have any problem safely releasing all of your fish. Just remember that being quick while the fish are out of the water and taking ample time for revival and release are the two major keys to release success—whether you’re in competition or not.

SJ SPRING STRIPERTHON Final Standings

All winners,  please email us your shipping address to info@surfcastersjournal.com

Zeno

Ryan Sherwood 48 inches

Jerry Audet 45 inch

Brett Rainer 41 inhes

Steven Seeberger 40 inches

Chris Neves 39 inches

Dominic Rosello 39 inches

Michael Carr 39 inches

Frank Murphy 38 inches

now that is one impressive fish !!!

Will

Here it is SJ SPRING 2015 STRIPERTHON CONTEST TAG

You MUST have this tag in the picture along with fish and measurement. Of course, the fish must be released unharmed as this is a catch and Release contest. Please read the whole rules before entering fish.

Good luck to all of you and please, if you are not familiar with rules click on 2015 STRIPERTHON brought to you by PENN button above for all the rules

give us nice CLEAR picture with measuring tape on the SIDE of the fish, not over or on it

Good luck to all

Zeno

Ok, we are two days away from SJ STRIPERTHON 2015 sponsored by PENN, STORMR, Guppy Lures,Super Strike Lures, Spiderwire and SJ. Our sincerest thanks to all STRIPERTHON 2015 sponsors

The tag will be posted here Friday at 5 PM. Print it, have fun and be careful. Remember that we are ultimate judges when it comes to quality of your picture and being able to correctly measure it

No kinked measuring tapes and yes, we are aware that measuring fish on the rock is almost impossible in a  wetsuit. But we rather you just release the fish in good condition instead hurting it by taking too long trying to take the picture

Click on STRIPERTHON blog button for all the rules please…and mist importantly have fun

Here is list of prizes SPRING 2015 STRIPERTHON

First Place PENN Torque Spinning Reel + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Second Place StormR Surf Top and Gloves + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Third Place PENN 706Z reel + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Fourth Place Sabre 11′ one piece rod by Lou Caruso + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Fifth Place PENN Spinfisher reel + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Sixth Place Set of Lures from Super Strike + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Seventh Place Set of Lures from Guppy Lures + 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

Eight Place SJ Gear package (SJ hoodie, shirt and hat)+ 300 yard of Spiderwire Braid

When I first started getting really into surfcasting, I can remember reading stories about big fish pushing big baits; mackerel, sea herring, hickory shad and, of course, bunker were the big names I read over and over. I also remember thinking that those baitfish seemed to be curiously absent from the menu in the local wash. There could be a million reasons for this, perhaps the most likely is that I just didn’t know what I was really looking for—but there was enough outcry on the message boards to “save the bait” to make me believe that they just weren’t around in any real numbers.

I was working in a coastal Massachusetts town at the time called Mattapoisett and I used to drive down to the pier every day at lunch to absorb some of that feeling only the ocean can give you. As is typical of most piers in the fall, there always seemed to be someone looking for snapper blues there. One day I was just sitting there eating my lunch and I could hear some grunts of frustration as one of these snapper chasers was casting to a particularly animated school but the fish wouldn’t eat his fly and float combo. I walked over and could see with my polarized sunglasses on that these were bigger than your typical snapper and they were swimming in a large tornado pattern with those at the top of the school splashing on the surface.

As always, I had a rod in the car and I grabbed a tin with a treble hook on it, cast it over the school and snagged one, lo and behold, it was a sizeable bunker, probably close to two pounds. I let it swim around out there with an 8/0 octopus hook in its nose for another 20 minutes but no one was home—this was my first experience with bunker.

As I was driving home that day my mind reached back to a story I read about a Columbus Day Blitz on Martha’s Vineyard back in the early 1980’s. This event lasted, as I recall, almost an entire day as giant bass into the 50-pound class pushed bunker up onto the sand. Needless to say it was hard to win the daily in the Derby that day!

A few weeks later I was exploring a deep spot I spied on a map. I walked out onto a shallow flat, casting a Bomber in the late morning sunlight. My first cast was followed by at least five small bass, my next cast was eaten by one of them and then my third cast was eaten as well—the fish were cookie cutters, 26 inches or so. I got the idea that if I was catching small fish on plugs that I might get a bigger one on an eel, so I re-rigged and gave it a shot. My first cast was inhaled by a 20-pounder! A few casts later I had another! As I walked out further, I hit back-to-back 26-pounders and several others between 18 and 22. As I was skirting the edge of the drop, something odd caught my eye—flashes with repetitive motion. My eyes wouldn’t focus on the motion, it was almost as if whatever it was, was reflecting the bottom coloration back at me. Then, finally, my eyes focused and I saw a small pod of bunker—no more than 30 of them. But it was immediately apparent why all these fish were eating under a bright sun in this little deep pocket!

In twelve years since that day, bunker have made a dramatic comeback. Regulations on commercial harvest have really helped bring these protein-packed baitfish back to the menu in the surf. The downside to their return is that there are too many inexperienced fishermen using them for bait and causing true harm to fish that they intend to release. To be clear, I’m not faulting them for being inexperienced; I’m faulting a lack of information on how to catch fish on live bunker.

A couple years ago I was at the Canal with my usual fishing partner and a friend of ours. The fishing was good, but not “all out”. It was late in the tide but about 300 yards up-current of us there were a couple guys who kept catching big fish when no one else was even really casting. They were too far away for me to be sure what they were using, but they caught some big fish! Then, like a lit fuse, more anglers began hooking and the bent rods were getting closer and closer. Right in tight to the shore we saw a massive bulge streaking toward us… it was a speeding school of bunker being chased by some very big bass!

I don’t usually carry a snag hook and today was no different, but I quickly snapped a needlefish on and let it sink to the bottom right where I expected them to come through. They came by fast, a pod of at least 300—when they covered my needle I hauled back viciously and snagged one. These were pound and a half bunker and our friend looked at me and asked “What are you going to do with THAT!?”

“Just watch this,” was all I said.

I pulled an eel rig out of my pouch, cut the hook off and snapped it right to my snap. Then I threaded the hook through its nostrils and lobbed it out into the current. The bunker was in the water maybe 30 seconds before we saw a large swirl open up near the bait and then a wide wake fell into place behind the terrified bunker. My bunker made one half-assed attempt at jumping but just kind of rolled over on its side and then I felt the “tick” as the fish engulfed the bunker.

I had the line off the rolled on my Van Staal and I let that fish take line for about two seconds, maybe three. Then I hooked the line on the roller and gave two short but powerful tugs to sink the hook. The fish was very heavy and unfortunately, won the battle when she dove over the ledge, buried her face in the rocks and cut my 80-pound leader.

But it’s not the catching of the fish that’s the important part of this story it’s the feel and the timing. Sometimes bass will play with your bunker—most of the time this is a small fish, but it might also be the condition of your bait that’s keeping a big fish from eating it. The hit, in my experience, is not usually a smash, it’s usually a soft ‘tick’ like the first tap on a live eel. But no matter if it’s a light tick or a heart-stopping smash, the fish should not be allowed to swim off for 30 seconds; it should be allowed to swim for no more than FIVE seconds that’s all you need to hook a good one. If you pull the bait out of its mouth, odds are it was a small fish that couldn’t choke the bunker down.

I’m sure there are several people scoffing at me right now, but this is fact as I’ve come to know it. Releasing a fish that’s pouring blood out of both gills is no different than throwing it up into the rocks to rot. The fish you really want to catch is going to get that bunker down fast, because it is feeding competitively, and swimming around with half a bunker sticking out of its mouth is an invitation to have it stolen! When you get into a snag-and-drop situation, feel the hit and count to three (or five if you have to), you might miss a few small ones but your release mortality will go way down and that’s really what’s most important. A bloody bass is a dead bass—think about that—is it worth it?

Today we have a special giveaway for you but first lets pick a winner of the last week GRS Big Water Pike giveaway. The winner is Karl karl@xelallc.com

Congrats you have 5 days to email us your shipping address at info@surfcastersjournal.com

Today giveaway is very special and something that we do once a year

A full day, 6 hours guided trip with NY Surf Fishing Gide extraordinary Bill Wetzel.
The trip is for one or two casters for a full 6 hour trip. Giveaway excludes trophy trips. Trip must be booked on or before 5/15/16. Winner should contact Bill Wetzel at 631-987-6919

Bill runs an awesome site and forum at www.surfratsball.com and in our opinion is one of the best fishing websites on the internet. You get forum with some great advice and conversation but you also get something that you will not find anywhere on the internet.
Every time Bill goes out fishing which is just about every day he posts a log for his subscriber detailing the trip, conditions and catches. Its like fishing next to him every day.

Bill also runs of the largest surf fishing month long tournament on the east cost which is absolutely free to all subscribers to the www.surfratsball.com

Just look at this list of prizes and if that is not enough, this is followed up with a awards shindig at
1st Place-SRB TROPHY, Van Staal BX250, FSC Marauder 1329 11′ heavy.
2nd Place- Pelican 64 quart cooler
3rd Place- Stormr- Surf Top

then you got all these donations to be raffled off at shindig after the tournrey in July and raise money for www.kidsneedmore.org to help kids life threatening illness

Contact Bill today to subscribe at billwetzel50@aol.com

Donations

1. Chunks Custom Rods Nick Meola- Rod to be announced www.chunkzcustoms.com
2. Pelican- www.pelican.com – Micro cases,Reel cases, IPhone cases,Heads up lamps – Head lamp, Water proof flash lights,Cooler- 65qt
3.Campsite Sport Shop- www.campsitesportshop.com -products TBA
4. Steve Knapik- www.tiderunner.com – 2 Ultimate Surf Belts and 5 Cree flashlights.
5.Vito Orlando- $50 gift certificate to Johnny’s B&T and plugs.
6.Annonymous Donation… $500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7.Keep Em Bent custom Rods– https://www.facebook.com/keepembent.customrods Rod to be announced.
8. Charles Deverna- $50 donation
9. Matt Ianotti- Super Strike Plugs
10. Fish Till Death- http://davincitattoo.com/ 100$ Gift Certificate toward a Fishing related TATTOO done at Davinci Tattoo in Wantagh
11. VAN STAAL- www.vanstaal.com VS250BX!!!
12.LIFISHVT- Custom plugs
13.DT Lures- http://www.dtlures.com/ – plug
14. Flatlander Surfcasters– https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flat…19461?ref=br_tf – To be announced
15.Bill Wetzel- Six Hour Guided trip for two
16. Guppy Lure company: http://www.guppylure.com/ – Fine custom plugs
17 Big Water Lures aka GRS– http://www.bigwaterlures.com/ – Fine custom plugs
18. FSC Rods– http://www.fiberstarcomposites.com/about.html Marauder 1329 11′ heavy.
19. Surf Casters Lures: www.surfcasterslures.com – fine wood plugs.
20. www.louscustomrods.com : Rod to be announced from the man who builds all my rods Lou Caruso.
21. Jeff the Chef- Our officail cook that brings most of the food! Thank ya!
22. Super Strike- www.superstrikelures.com – Plugs
23. Guys American Kitchen- http://guysamerican.com/ – The famous ribs from Rich P. YUM!!
24. Mike Handlesman- Beach Permits T- shirts, and Plugs
25. Snow Flake Ice Cream. www.snowflakeicecream.com – One again providing us with the best homemade ice cream on the planet!
26. Charlie Graves tins by Ralph Votta- http://charliegraves.com/
27. The Fisherman magazine- Prints and Subscriptions-http://www.thefisherman.com/
28. SS Bucktails – www.ssbucktails.com – well… bucktails.
29. Aquaskinz- www.aquaskinz.com- to be announced

30 Cow Harbor B&T- http://www.cowharbortackle.com/

31. Causeway B&T- www.causewaybaitandtacle.com – $50 Gift certificate

32. Stormr- http://stormrusa.com/product/surf-top/ – Surf Top!!

33. Ru Ru Lures by Billy Wriker- http://rurulures.com/

34. Northbar Tackle– http://northbartackle.com/

35. Smith PointB&T- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smit…116604591732887 – Plugs

36. Johnnys B&T – Montauk NY- To be announce

37. J&H B&T- http://www.jandh.com/ – To Be announced

38. Tom P. aka Lordhelment– Plugs and teasers.

39- Twisted Plugs by Scotty Lehman– YUM!

40. Beinlich Custom Lures – By Jim Beinlich

41- Century Rods- http://advancedfishing-usa.com/

42. Rock Sand Reds- 2 5ft all aluminum sand spikes made by myself, 1.5″x1.5″x3/16″ 6061 aluminum

43. LI Surfcaster aka Nick B. – Custom Darters. The kid can build!

43. DeanoNYC-hats, hoodies, and guides secret lures

44. Montauk Surfcasters Assoc. http://www.surfcasters.org/ – Hoodie and two hats.
__________________

You may know that I am a needlefish fanatic and you also may know that I love the color ‘parrot’; it’s a confidence thing. The rational part of my mind knows that the bass can’t be that “into” these two fluorescent colors—but the superstitious crazy old man in me believes in the color, so I use it a lot. I had been looking for a parrot colored Beachmaster Wadd for quite a while, but I could never get my hands on one. Well my good friend Keith came to my rescue last fall when he handed me a parrot Wadd and asked for nothing in return—yeah he’s a nice guy.

I know these plugs are considered collectible and that there are plenty of people who would have bagged that baby up and stored it for a future trade or just to look at—not me, I fished it that night. Much to my dismay, the plug began to split at the belly hole after only one or two trips! Let me set the record straight on something here; wooden plugs sometimes split—it doesn’t matter if it was made by a hobbyist, a small-time guy or a major manufacturer, odds are that someday they will have one come back cracked. I’ve heard stories from plug maker friends telling of irate customers spitting nails over a plug that split—even after a no-charge replacement was promised. The bottom line is that wood is just not all that stable and not every piece is the same; this means that they might have tiny growth cracks hidden within, certain pieces might not absorb the sealer as well as others, some might be extra dry or extra wet—these variables raise the risk of failure by a lot.

When a plug I use starts to crack, unless it practically splits in half (which I’ve only seen once), I will usually just fix it myself. I would say that about 99 times out of 100 the cause of the splitting is that the sealer is compromised. If you’re not familiar with how a plug is sealed, the basics are that the builder immerses the raw wood body in a bath of some kind of solvent-based sealer. The product is fluid enough to flow through the holes in the body and leave behind an impermeable coating that usually eliminates water intrusion which protects against splitting and keeps the wood from becoming waterlogged. Sometimes the barrier created by the sealer is broken accidentally during the assembly process and since the breach is inside the plug, the builder has no way of knowing. When the plug begins to take on water, certain woods swell which cracks the finish and sometimes the wood as well, it’s unfortunate, but not a reason to get your blood boiling. Here’s how I fix the problem.

First and foremost your plug needs to have plenty of time to dry out; I’m going to say a minimum of two weeks, hung up to dry somewhere (not in your plug bag!). You will need a few simple things to perform the repair: wire cutters, pliers, some epoxy, a pipe cleaner a small disposable cup and a small stick of wood—a coffee stirrer or a skewer will work fine.

Step one is to remove the thru-wire. Simply cut the tail loop, straighten the end of the wire and pull it out. Then remove any grommets and the swivel. Now inspect the belly hole for a sealer breach, you can see in the photo of my plug that the grommet compromised the sealer. The next step sometimes requires a little finesse. You have to find a way to feed the piper cleaner all the way through the plug, sometimes you can just slide it right through, other times you might have to slide the thru-wire back into place and use it to pull the pipe cleaner through, you want to be able to grab both ends of it while it’s inside the bait.

Now you have to mix up a small amount of epoxy, I would strongly recommend using a clear coat epoxy instead of two-ton epoxy and I wouldn’t even try using five minute. The reason is the viscosity, you want to use an epoxy that flows easily and that will stay liquid for more than a few minutes, once it starts to set up, it becomes very hard to work with. I used regular old Envirotex bar top epoxy for this example. Start by putting on a pair of disposable nitrile gloves and mix the epoxy well, then pour it into the belly hole, fill it up at least halfway. Now work the pipe cleaner back and forth inside the plug body, you’ll notice that the epoxy will start to seep down and out of the belly hole. Keep working it for 15 to 30 seconds until most of the epoxy has drained into the thru-wire hole, now pull it out slowly through the tail of the plug. You’ve now coated all or most of the inside of the plug with epoxy and after that cures, no water will get into that wood. Now use the small stick to slather the inside of the hook hole with a little more epoxy and press the belly grommet back in while the epoxy is still wet. The last step is to dip your gloved finger into a little more epoxy and then work it into the surface cracks. Depending on the severity of the cracks you might have to do this several times to get the epoxy to flow in and fill the cracks. If the splitting is really bad you may want to use a vise or clamp to squeeze the cracks shut while the epoxy cures—the epoxy will double as glue to hold things together.

When you feel that you’ve worked the epoxy into the cracks thoroughly, hang the plug up for at least a few hours and watch the tail end of the plug for drips, if you see one, remove it with a paper towel. After a minimum of 24 hours, you should be able to handle the plug without sticking to it. Unfortunately you won’t be able to recycle the thru-wire so you’ll have to go online and order some pre-bent wires (look up plug building supplies online). Thread the wire back through the components you removed, twist a new tail loop and you’re ready to reattach your hooks and go fishing. The average cost of a wooden plug these days is about $25, this repair will cost you next to nothing; the smallest epoxy kits cost about $10 and you’ll have enough there to repair more than 20 plugs. The stuff also comes in handy for clear-coating beat up plugs or reinforcing your mojo wood plugs—but that’s a subject for another story. Rescue your $25 and save your frustration, this is easy stuff.