As much as it pains me to pick one winner out of 800 plus entries, I must. But I chickened out on actual act of number picking and let my wonderful daughter select the  winner’s name randomly using a random number generator..but first thing first.

We want to thank the crew from Edge Angling  at http://www.edgeangling.com/  for making this possible. It was they who came up with the idea, it was them who approached us, it was them who hold you, SJ Blog readers in such a high regard.

And I also would  like to thank Henderson Company for supplying the StormR Typhoon Jacket. We are very honored

Ok, so the winner is Continue reading →

750+ entries for the Henderson StormR Typhoon jacket, courtesy of the Saltwater Edge, huh? I am sure that it has nothing to do with email sent out by EdgeAngling.com…lol

In any event, winner for a jacket will be announced on Thursday.

Btw..since many of you have visited this blog for the first time, you might think this is all what we do. Nope
This is what we do…the most creative surf fishing publication on the face of this earth…click on it, you got a lot of reading to catch up on
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No, I am not in hiding. Instead I been banned by Da Wife from staring at the PC while fighting a 102/103 fever since Sunday morning. Holy crap, I remember my kids being lifeless with a high temperature, no I know WHY? Every joint in my body feels like it’s ready for a replacement. Thankfully I made it through a day at work somehow today. So, no , I am not ignoring you 🙂

The worst part is the eyes. Oh Lord, do they hurt when trying to look sideways. Which got me thinking. The darn eyes are underrated. Not only do they keep us out of trouble (you guys with dirty minds might feel different) but they help us in so many ways. The eyes are where it all starts, you see a fish breaking, your eyes send that information to the brain, you arms cast. You are about to trip over a rock on the dark night, the eyes senses that, again brain sends info to legs, you lift it and avoid a broken limb. You see a nice girl, the eyes send info to the brain which alerts …never mind you dirty old bastard, you get my drift.
So if the eyes are IT why are you carrying a $1000 reel, $500 rod and $19.99 Mickey Mouse shades from Wal-Mart? Don’t your eyes deserve better?

First of all, I now wear a reading glasses which I don’t mind as some people tell me I look “scholarly”. Seriously, me, scholarly? The guy that wrote this blog with 25 spelling errors? Unless they teach Zenoisam at some college I don’t know….

I wear a safety glasses on a construction site. For years I wore a throwaways $0.50 cheapies my company supplied but no more. My eyes deserve better so I got a decent pair of 3M Safety shades.
But for every day use, you still need a good pair of shades. The cheap plastic crap will ruin your eyes, at least that is what my grandmother use to say. Polarization is a must for us fisherman. You have no idea how many times I spotted a deep depression on a sandy beach with my shades, yet my friends could not see it….and they were wondering why I was catching fish and they did not. But when I took my shades off I realized why they weren’t seeing it. They didn’t have polarized shades. There is also matter of comfort. Cheap shades will get old in no time as they start digging into your nose or falling apart first time you drop them. And there is something to be said about the strength of the lens, just in case the lure with trebles happens to fly into your face.

There are a lot of good shades out there , Maui Jim, Costa, Smith’s and other. Some are more expensive than others, some are glass and some are plastic, it depends what you like.
I been wearing Wiley X P 17 shades for about three years now. Liked them so much got a spare pair and some for my wife too. I find polarization to be second to none. The fact that their primary business is making great shads for our military boys and girls should tell you about quality of construction and strength of the lens. And I like the style, which on the end of the day is important too. And I like that I don’t have to spend a week’s pay to buy a pair

I will give away a pair of my own, Wiley X Silk shades, in the box, with a carrying case and cleaning cloth. Why am I giving away a pair of my own shades? Because I can. You guys have been great to me over the years, buying books, coming to the seminars, listening to my nonsense. This is just from me to you. One of you will be styling this summer with this pair of Wiley X

Even if you are like me, at home wrapped in a blanket with an onset of a cold and feeling miserable, you know that the game is on. I’ve read comments like “best mackerel fishing in 40 years”. And you know what comes on the tail of mackerel…yes, bluefish.

Except they are already cutting lines up and down New Jersey coast with their razor sharp teeth. Crazy if you ask me… The clam bite in NJ is very good and inlets on Long Island are giving fish..again, nutty. Especially when you consider that east end bays are already loaded with adult bunker. So go out and fish, you might be pleasantly surprised for a change.

I’d like to welcome another sponsor to SJ Blog, Barry Kronberg who makes some good looking gear for surfcasters. His website is http://rockhopperfishing.com/ We are looking forward to trying his clips this spring. You can also click on his banner on the left hand side of the blog.

I wish I could have attended the River’s End annual Surf Day, I heard that a good time was had by all. But I already had a previous commitment on a new project I am starting to work on. Just like the books and SJ, it is nerve-racking to try something new.

And for today’s special treat, here is a 22 minute interview with none other than William “Doc” Muller. Doc has authored many surf fishing bestsellers including the Fishing with Experts, Secrets of Surf Fishing at Night, Fishing the bucktails and of course, his newest book, SURFCASTER.

Pour a cup of coffee and enjoy..we know many of you cant get to seminars to meet your favorite authors. We try to bring them into your house

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

As I always said, it our job to bring you the content no one else will. Becouse you guya are worth it.

Thank is it for me, I am wrapping myself back in the blanket and see if I can shake this thing off at least a little by this evening..I did promised Da Wife that I will take her out to dinner to celebrate 23 years since the first date. Feeling a little old writing that but it’s all good, these were all great years.

You can find Doc’s new book SURFCASTER here in the online store and at your neighborhood retailers and Amazon.

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Sometimes a product comes along that makes you stop and pause. To this day I am still hopeful that Dri-Core will make a comeback although I am not holding my breath. But there is something new out there, from people I have tremendous respect for. Henderson makes wetsuits we all want to have. They are synonymous  with quality and innovation

But wait, what does this have to do with jackets? I am glad you asked. Henderson just debuted a StormR Typhoon jacket. I haven’t got my hand on one…yet. In fact one of you will before I do :-)…..but just reading the description below from Saltwater Edge site makes me drool. Wetsuit for land??? Nice description.

So when folks from Saltwater Edge in RI aka Edge Angling (http://www.edgeangling.com) and Henderson offered Surfcaster’s Journal Blog readers a chance to win one, we were very pleased. I will always have a soft spot for crew at Saltwater Edge. They have supported me from a day one when I wrote my first book and trough the years have been a great friends. Today they support SJ via Red Gill you see in the magazine. Truly a first class operation, from top to bottom, and wonderful people I am honored to call friends.

So what is the deal?

Saltwater Edge is making this possible, for one of you lucky dogs to win a new Henderson StormR Typhoon Jacket in your choice of size and color!!!

From Saltwater Edge Website (http://www.edgeangling.com/Fishing-Tackle.html#/?filter.brand=Stormr)

Features:
ABOUT THE STORMR TYPHOON

The STORMR® TYPHOON is an adaptation of the wetsuit for land. Its Neoprene Core Technology provides huge thermal benefits in a thin, soft, flexible, windproof and waterproof shell. The STORMR® TYPHOON is made to withstand the harshest of elements while providing comfort and maneuverability unlike most foul weather gear
.
The STORMR TYPHOON is lined with a soft, comfortable micro-fleece material which traps warm air between your body and the shell. All seams on the STORMR® TYPHOON are glued, stitched and then coated with an exterior liquid tape, just like wetsuits for surfing and diving. This construction, although significantly more complicated than construction techniques employed on common outerwear, ensures the STORMR remains waterproof and windproof even in high winds, driving rain and freezing precipitation.

The hazards involved in aquatic activities are real and when the temperatures drop, one mistake can prove to be life-threatening. The STORMR® TYPHOON is a not a Coast Guard approved flotation device but its Neoprene Core Technology offers nearly 5 pounds of positive buoyancy. The STORMR® TYPHOON’s warmth, comfort and safety features give you the edge you need to DEFY THE ELEMENTS.

STORMR DETAILS:

The zipper on the STORMR is also waterproof and is covered with an exterior storm flap to ensure waterproof integrity.

The non-corrosive metal zipper slider ensures years of use in the most brutal conditions.

Interior zippered pocket is spacious for keeping personal items safe and secure.

The attached hood is easily adjusted for a perfect fit and can be worn over other hats or head gear, alone or not at all.

Wrists are adjustable for use over gloves and layering.

Zippered outer front pockets are perfect for keeping hands warm on chilly days, or storing personal items securely.

The STORMR provides a full, relaxed fit with plenty of room for layering, allowing you to perfectly achieve your thermal balance.

##########################################

Like I said, you lucky dogs 🙂

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 STRIPER SURF DAY ..This weekend at River’s End Tackle
March 24th, 2012 10-4
It won’t be long, the first migrating schoolies will be at the wall 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, barely edible food and good friends.
FEATURED SPEAKERS, John Skinner – Fishing the Bucktail. John just wrote the definitive book on how to fish one of the deadliest striper lures.
Tony Stetzko – Reading the Beach. Tony will show you how to determine what’s going on under the surf
Steve McKenna – will demonstrate Slug go rigging. Steve has mastered the rigging and fishing of this “must have” in your bag.

One of the reasons I liked Dennis’ video  was that he talked about one of my favorite things…and color wasn’t it.

I am talking about a needlefish. It has become one of my favorite lures which is kind of silly thing to say. Because at different point during the tide, even in the same location, different plugs are my “favorite”. But needlefish gave me  fits much longer than most lures. I just could not “feel” if I was doing it right. Until I realized there really was no wrong way to work a needlefish Just compensate for current speed and most retrieves work. Twitch? Yes. Straight? Yes. Pump and reel in an sweep? Yes. Fascinating lure and besides a darter, probably have caught me most fish in last five years. In fact, it comes out of my bag at night usually first these days. Which ones? Super Strike most of the time. Many wood guys make great needlefish these days but I been partial to Choopy lately because of its thin profile and loads of sand eels in our waters. Charlie makes great needlefish. Lots of time you might want a wood because of slower sink rate over the boulders or shallow sandy beach. Choppy needle fits the bill nicely

And color? Continue reading →

First, I’d like to welcome new supporter to the Surfcaster’s Journal Blog, crew from The Surfcaster. You will notice (and can click on ) their banner on the right hand side. I must say I was pleasantly surprised when I received my  Surfcaster catalog this year. I missed it for the time they did not make it for few years. It’s something special as it takes me back to days when I got started and my wife would call on the phone (this is pre-internet kids) and spoke to a nice lady (was it Barbara or something like that) and surprised me with some stuff on special occasions. And I always admired some of the original stuff they carry, particularly their roof racks, sand spikes and bags. So join me in welcoming Doug and a crew to the Surfcaster’s Journal Blog

Its said that world is paved with good intentions… I am tell you from  a personal experience that it’s a true statement. I tried to make a Montauk blitz video to fit the Crazy Train by Ozzy. Unfortunately after uploading multiple versions with different versions of Ozzy’s song, and having them all blocked by YouTube on copyright grounds, I gave up. Not that is anything wrong with what YouTube is doing, not at all.

But I kind of lost my mojo to redo it. It took me an hours upon hours of building each clip to fit the beat so after halfheartedly trying few different tunes and realizing I would have to re-do the whole thing over, I added some ZZ Top and went to bed..then changed it over to AC/DC,,then back to ZZ then back again..you got the point …… The intentions were good…enjoy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv8HXFJDX2g[/youtube]

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Did you ever think about how some plugs got their names? Not in a sense of who named them first , although I think that is cool, but names like Block Island green needlefish. Why green and why so bright? You would assume it would have something to do with maybe …mackerel?…and you’d be so wrong.

I always felt that best answer are given by those who knows what they are talking about. Instead of guys like me that are guessing half of the time.

I found this video in my files, recorded two years ago at Block Island. Rhode Island sharpie Dennis Zambrotta talks about his days at Block Island. I sure hope Dennis gets his book into the print this year..I will be the first guy in the line to get it

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfCFaUi86n0[/youtube]

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We got two winners who will each receive three packs of new Spro Split Snaps. They have 5 days to contact us with their shipping address at info@surfcastersjournal.com

Jim B jbraack@yahoo.com

Robert Y Robdog130@aol.com

We spoke about Cuttyhunk at length last year. I don’t know what is about the place that I can’t wait to get there. Maybe its because its always been so good to me. Maybe I stepped into crap on few magical nights when fish were large and plentiful. Yes, there has been trips, on prime tides too, where I never got a touch for days at the time too…it’s all part of the game. Continue reading →

I been thinking a lot lately about how the sport (and life in general ) has changed. When I grew up, there was no “sport” in fishing, it was just fishing. Anything caught it was eaten, from a bergal to the biggest fish. We are paying a price for it today , not only where I grew up but all around the world. But this really wasn’t a malicious raping of the ocean, it was just a means of survival
But I can go back only few decades…and I have seen the world change tremendously. I see changes in myself, the way I look at the fisheries, the way I see surfcasting now as just a pure enjoyment. Not that I am saying you should never take a fish home to eat. I do and I will on occasions..it’s not about that
For me it’s about the history, about those who fished with oil skins and linen lines, those who drove the first jeeps on the beach, those who camped with their families in the cramped Volkswagen little buggies for days at the time..
With all the lures at our disposal today , and more new ones appearing daily, I often wonder how would it be to walk a beach with only lures you make at home.? I am sure that I would have a hell of a time mastering the conventional rod the way old-timers did. Imagine if every guy in a Montauk blitz, hundreds of them lined up side to side used a conventional reels? Now that would be a sight to see.
Or if you walked the beach at night and were not allowed to put on a flashlight. No, not because someone would get mad at you, or some other surfcaster would see you, but because German U-boats would have reference where the shore was. This was a reality at one time for the pioneers.
Here is legendary angler, Fred Schwab, called the world most decorated surfcaster by many, tireless worker in Albany and Washington in protecting striped bass over his illustrious career ,talking how he got started. I can listed to this man for hours and never get bored. One of the primary reasons why I joined High Hill Striper Club

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=104YMF1klVg[/youtube]
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I know if I post the link to the article, 90% of you won’t click on it so instead I copied and pasted this article from High Hill Striper Club website…there are more wonderful articles by Fred and you can read about the club rich history …there was a time when High Hill WAS Montauk surf. The club has a insanely rich heritage and tradition.

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Wetsuits in Montauk Surf “The Early years “   By Fred Schwab

      One cannot explore the history of High Hill Striper Club and not speak of Montauk at great lenght,the two go together. High Hill, thru the 1970’s had always had at least a few Montauk “regulars”. In terms of surf clubs High Hill was the most dominant from Shagwong to the Fort during much of the 60’s and into the 70’s. A small club with a large presence.       I don’t know who was the first to apply a wetsuit to fishing in the surf , but I’m certain that the birth of it’s use was at Montauk, and that it’s use was finally honed there.  From a club standpoint High Hill did the honing.      When I obtained my first suit in 1965, I knew of only 4 guys that already had them.  Jack Frech, George Jones, “Tin Cans” Beckmann and Whitey Pawelski and it’s been said that Joe “The Pro” Rohan also had one. The first guy that I ever saw using one was George Jones, fishing from a small table Bar at Overlook, probably in 1961, you could only get to that Bar by swimming.  That was also the year that Frech “The Professor” began wearing the suit.  I “think” at first Jones and Pawelski used the suits at Montauk principally to dive for lobsters and some daytime plugging from offshore rocks.  While Frech and his partner in the early 60’s, George Pavis (62-63), swam to rocks along the north shore and Montauk mostly to plug bluefish during the day. With respect to “Tin Cans”, he “may” have been the first.  He is one of those individuals whose nickname came from the use of out of the ordinary gear.  Instead of a plug bag his lures were carried in a sizable number of metal tubes affixed to his waist belt and I never saw him with the standard brass or stainless steel fish chain, he seemed to prefer a stout piece of rope with a small block of wood at the end.  In addition, he wore a rain top and slicker pants over his wetsuit. While I fished along side of him on several occasions, particularly on the Reef at night, I never really got to know him.  He was a loner but a hell of a good fisherman.  When Frech and I fished together we were secretive as hell and we took great pains to conceal our movements, but “Tin Cans” seemed, at least to me, to have the ability to become invisible. The first time I actually met “Tin Cans” was on a pitch black night while fishing under rather nasty conditions on the Reef.  Frech and I were alone and had missed one or two hits.  Out wades “Tin Cans” who immediately begins taking bass in the 20’s.  We eventually took one or two fish each, but “Tin Cans” really did a number.  At that point in time, about 1967 he was mostly fishing the Block Island surf,…he said Montauk had become too crowded!        But regardless of who was the first, it was Frech who on an individual basis was the first to fully exploit the use of the wetsuit in the surf.  Without question he was a hard fisherman and deserving of being called a Montauk sharpshooter.  During the 2 or 3 years that we partnered together, mostly at Montauk in the fall I, 20 years younger, found Jack’s stamina and determination equal and on some nights, superior to mine. In the early 60’s most guys could not afford, or were hesitant to lay out the bucks required to purchase a four-wheel drive vehicle.  By “about” 1963 the first Volkswagon Bus appeared on the beach.  With deflated oversized tires, the weight of the engine in the rear and it’s driver making sure to stay in the track as much as possible the VW could grind along on most beaches.  But you held your breath when negotiating the slightest grade or jumping the track where the sand was soft.  In terms of soft sand the stretch from Oyster Pond to Shagwong Point usually had a few tricky spots and the beach from Gilgo coast Guard Station to Cedar was often very difficult to travel on (in those days there were no restrictions on the use of two-wheel drives on the beaches).        In 1964 fellow club members Artie Glass, Adam Miechowski and I negotiated a reasonable price with a dealer for 3 brand new VW’s, paying about  $2,100 dollars apiece complete with oversized tires. We insulated them, built slide-out bunks, cabinets, hinged tables on the side doors, incorporated a large combination food and fish ice box and added a large removable box on the rear bumper for storage of waders, other fishing gear and miscellaneous stuff.  Rod racks were mounted on the roof and rod holders on the front bumper. I believe that Artie, as was the case with most who had a family in excess of four, added a clamshell bed to the roof.  The floor, which was corrugated, was leveled out with a flexible rubberized cement and covered with linoleum.  When finished, there was a space for everything, it was not cluttered.  (In 1972 I purchase a 4/wheel drive Chevy pickup and 10’ slide on camper, we’d outgrown the VW.  That camper had all the conveniences, but we had a lot more fun roughing it in our little VW).       Within a year or two at least 10 members of High Hill were running the sand in VW’s.Those VW’s became not just beach transportation but, with a few scattered exceptions, Long Island’s first family beach camper vehicles. Not only did they increase the comradery among a segment of the club membership but they brought their families closer together.  From 1965 into the early 70’s during summer months, from Friday evening through much of Sunday one could find anywhere from 4 to as many as 10 High Hill families on the beach from North Bar through Shagwong.Regular High Hill weekenders were the Glass, Hausler, Ottesen, Schwab, Pawelski, Murray (64-70), Hasenzahl and Knowles families and always there, but in jeeps, were the SanFratello’s and the Gerbe’s (62-67).  Some 4 or 5 other High Hill families showed up on a less frequent basis .
Adopted  from a book  “The Complete History of the High Hill Striper Club ” by Fred Schwab

 

 

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