Before I continue some thoughts on Sebastian Inlet in Florida, few announcements.
First, SJ will be at this weekend Connecticut Surfcasters Show in Clinton CT .
If you are attending, make sure you stop by out table and say hi. You can renew your subscription, get some free SJ stuff and just shot chitt. We are looking forward to it
FOURTH ANNUAL
CONNECTICUT SURFCASTERS
SURF EXTRAVAGANZA AND SALE
January 24, 2015
10:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Clinton CT Town Hall
54 East Main St. (Rt.1)
Clinton CT
The Connecticut Surfcasters Association is pleased to announce the fourth annual CSA Surf Extravaganza and Sale. The location is the same as last year but with more space reserved for vendors and demonstrations. The facility is located on the Indian River in Clinton and may provide for some outdoor demonstrations.
A five dollar suggested donation to the CSA will be collected at the door. Lunch consisting of our chili selection, along with hot dogs and soft drinks and coffee will be available for purchase. We will have plenty of both new and used tackle of all kinds for sale or trade.JoeBaggs Bucktails
Tank Surfcasting
Couch’s Cedar Works
Van Staal
Fluke Skywalker Fishing Arts
The Surfcaster
24/7 Lures
Al Gag
Guppy Lures
Big Water Lures
Surf Asylum Lures
Tsunami Fishing
New England Dive Center
Goo Goo Man Lures
Rayzor Baits
Otter Tubes, Tails and Spoons
FiberStar Composites
Harris Outdoors
ZeeBaas Reels
Surfcasters Journal
Century Rods
Gear Up Surfcasting
CTS Rods
Magic Tails Bucktails
Salty’s Lures
ComboLock
1:00 AM – 11:30 AM: CSA Member Joe D’Agostino – Rigging Eels & Soft Plastics on Jigheads
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM: CSA Member Matt LeJeune – How to Finish a Plug Kit
12:00 PM – 12:30 PM: CSA Member Pat Vogt – Weakfish Tactics
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: Dave Anderson – Plug Fishing Logic
1:45 PM – 2:15 PM: CSA Member Ian Skillings – Installing Grip Studs in Wading Boots
CSA club members Mike Mullen and Billy DeLizio will be doing ongoing demos throughout the day at their table regarding different techniques for crafting wooden fishing lures on a lathe.
CSA club members Bill and Debbie Goeben will be doing ongoing demos throughout the day on the finer points of saltwater fly tying.
Two, the winner of this awesome Guppy Custom SJ pencil power announced in the next blog post.
And last thing, if any one has issues logging in or needs password reset or forgot username feel free to contact us at info@surfcastersjournal.com and we will take care of it for you. If you have no access to SJ because you credit card on file has changed over last year like so many with Target debacle last year, log into your account and click on Add/renew subscription if expired or just update your cc info if your account is still active
So there I am, standing on the tip of the pier and shooting bull with a SJ fans who are hooked up onto giant reds. I am saying to myself how in the world will I land the fish if I hook one? I am twenty feet above water level. Then I watch guys lower a giant net in the water and slide fish on top of it, then hoist the fish up. Go ahead, make a cast they urge me, someone will help you.
But making a cast is not as simple as making a cast and retrieving, no Sir. You have to go thirty yards back, make cast then jig and walk towards the tip in rotation with everyone else. Imagine 50 anglers with all kind of rods and reels walking instep and jigging. Its Crazy!
Once you get to the tip, retrieve your line and go back thirty yards and do it again. They use synthetic bucktails, the kind we use for parachute jigs, ones with synthetic hair with red hair blended into it. I took out my regular buck tail, added strip of pork rind and made a cast into the madness of birds and breaking fish. The outgoing current is ripping and I am having a hard time feeling bottom. For a second I am thinking I am hanged up when suddenly the bottom moves. Mother of God , I can only describe the feeling to one being hooked to a freight train. If these fish were hooked tail to tail to a same size striper the striper would have no tail . My muscles were burning up, partially from not fishing for weeks and partially by awesome strength of the fish. I worked my way to the tip where along with few other anglers I tried to get the fish under control with very little luck. While we were fighting the fish the rotation just kept going around us. I finally made some headway and brought the fish under the pier, just enough time to see its massive shape before I pulled the hook.
You know what, I was not upset about it all. If you know me, I am not much of a “take a picture of me with a fish” kind of a guy anyway. My son hooked into one but came unbuttoned fast. I have to ad that PENN prototype rods we were using preformed admirably. I said to my son , do you want to try the south side where there was no people?
Yes, the bite is probably not that great there but we’d be alone. He said sure but of course by the time we got into car and on the other side, it was starting to get crowded too. However, within and hour after dark most people left.
Now you’d think south side is a similar type of fishing and you’d be wrong, very wrong. Its another “new” way of fishing that often can have you ask question : are you doing what you are doing right or you are just an idiot on the shore casting into the ocean? Because difference is not always evident.
On this side you cast plugs into the inlet. Darters, bottle plugs, swimmers, you name it. You cast it out then you “feed” your line into the current for a hundred yards or so. Only then you engage your lure and start a slow retrieve against the current by moving on the jetty tip in rotation. But you have no benefit of a flat footing on pier here, its coral rocks that will cut you up like a knife if you God forbid take a wrong step. Fortunately my son and I were alone. I casted and feed the line and then passed it to him to retrieve as he would give me his rod to cast and feed the line. Once he was done I’d give him the second rod and i casted again and feed the line. I really was not interested in catching fish myself. I wanted him to hopefully hook up into something.
By the way, many of you will probably asking what is “something”. How big is your imagination?
Giant snook, big shark, giant tarpon you have no chance of ever landing, big jacks, red fish, small bluefish,and host of other species that will kick your ass in short order. A guy on a pier had a 15 pound snook on and while he was lowering the net a 300 pound goliath grouper that calls the pier its home came from under and took his fish…in a flash
We were using Super Strike Bottle plugs this night and my son hooked into fish that was smoking his drag. But after few minutes it was evident that something is not quite right. There is a boat drifting in a darkness and he is yelling towards us. I grabbed the rod and from the angle of his line I could see that is running towards the boat. I am thinking the dude on the boat is hooked up to same fish, or one of them is hooked and the other crossed. He is asking me to give him slack but I am saying hell no, you give slack. After all its my kid that is hooked up. This goes on for 10 minutes and I was pretty darn proud of my kid and knots I tied..haha
Eventually I did relent as i could see the fish trashing by the boat a hundred yards away and I gave him slack. He netted the fish and yes, he gave me back my bottle plug intact, something that would never happen in NY. Who actually hooked the fish? We will never know
Here is a picture of Matt DiCostanzo whose proud dad Ron is a manager at ZeeBaas with a nice redfish . Photo Credit goes to Lyd Le’Ng
More to come including fishing with great Patrik Sebile from Sebile Lures
