I apologize if we have been a little quiet but we have been as busy as we can be, working on creating a better Surfcaster’s Journal magazine.

You’ve seen our new platform with a past issue. We can now embed videos into the pages, flash or animation, we can do other creative stuff we are still learning. One disappointing thing, that has nothing to do with software but more with the way the world works….our landscape layout. What we did not realized was that regardless which platform we use to publish our magazine, you just can’t fit two landscape pictures side to side a create a “flip” viewer. Not unless you are going to make a font so small you won’t be able to see it at al. So we decided that as of January issue, we are going to switch to vertical format. Tommy is super excited by the challenge which is a good thing because he is the dude that makes magic happens in the magazine.

That is only one of the changes. You’ve already seen the video but you have no idea what is coming your way in 2013…more on that in a minute. I do not want to forget to mention of addition of our great friend Al Albano who is our new beach columnist and we are lucky and proud to have him. Big Rock is still around, writing on plugs from plug builders frame of mind which I find to be very interesting and refreshing. I always loved stories..I guess that is why I wrote HOOKED?  Sorry, just could not resist. 🙂

Blog will look a bit different after New Year but that is something we have not wrapped our heads around yet. Lots of things are still up in the air. But there are changes coming for sure. There should also be some key new people involved with SJ in the 2013.  I sincerely hope that all our plans come to fruition because if they do, you will love your SJ Magazine even more. The small fortune I spent on camera equipment and what we spent on the new platform should really pay dividends in next year. I got to see the first sample of SJ in vertical format on my IPad last night and it made me smile. That for the first time we have e a true flip viewer on IPAD. Yes, there is the other side of this which is the cost. We are seriously taking advice many of you have given us over the years about initiating a  small subscription fee for the magazine. Maybe $20 a year to offset some of the cost.

I know some of us at SJ are excited about this or that, we all have our own favorite corner of the world where we like to hide with doors closed. In recent years my interests have veer from photography into the video. I don’t know why , and I might be wrong but to my video is something that is still unexplored and underused in the publishing. Why? Probably because its expensive as hell to do it right, its mind numbing time consuming and most people do not want to change the way they do things. They are happy to just plug in their columns in the little boxes, ad few shots and call it a day. After all, their interest lies in how many people they can sign up so they can charge more for ads. We on the other hand are more interested if you say “wow” after you read the Journal. And we got some wow’s coming in the upcoming issues.

I manually we have a exclusive, no-question-unasked interview with legendary builder Donny Musso. You want to know what was the first plug he had carved in the crawlspace of his house in 1961? It’s in there. You want to know what plug he loves to fish with? That is there too. How about that notion that it was him who came up with a design for a lure we call Danny today? Yup, in there, the whole story. As are his reasons for breaking up with Danny Pichney ( it’s not the Danny plug and it might be one of the most heartbreaking plug story you’ve ever  read), first lures he sold on his own, his groundbreaking needlefish design in wood and then plastic, testing darters, catching largemouth’s, military service and just about everything you wanted to know. Yes, even including Campo, his crew and jointed bottle plug. Stay tuned..

Next, we are planning two exclusive how-to video series that will appear only in the pages of SJ. We have not wrapped this up yet so I will leave you a little short on details for now. I hate to make promises and then have to apologize later.

I have dropped some hints this fall about the film project I been working on. Yesterday I filmed my last interview so now I am a little more confident that this will be what I envisioned it to be. My original idea was to create a documentary on the history of surf fishing at Montauk Point, NY. Yup, I realize that Montauk Rocks film by Richard Siberry just came out for holidays. I knew it was coming but I wanted to do something different. My idea was to take you along on a ride from post WWII Montauk to today, a story told by those who walked the walk. Ambitious? Sure. Am I competent enough to pull this off? Hell no, but that never stopped me before…ha-ha

After some soul searching and a lot of advice from my Art Director Yo Dude I decided to alter my plans for this project and you, the readers of the SJ will be the beneficiates of Tommy’s wisdom.

Surfcaster’s Journal is proud to announce that each issue of our magazine in 2013, starting probably with March issue, will feature original video series on history of surf fishing at Montauk Point. In each issue, there will be an imbedded short film aprox 10 to 20 minutes, by yours truly on history of surf fishing in Montauk Point. Who are the stars of this non-chic flick? 🙂

The people most of us want to be when we grow up.  Or at least I can say that about myself. Legendary surfcaster Fred Schwab who was Jack ” The Professor” Frech fishing partner in Montauk surf  in the 60’s and one of the first to wear a wetsuit there. Richie Gerbe has been fishing Montauk beaches since 50’s. Donny Musso needs no introduction as his lures are the only lures some guys use in Montauk. Vito Orlando is another caster who needs no introduction and neither does Jack Yee. Will Young is another who agreed to sit in front of the camera as did, yup, Charlie Ruger. For those of you who never met Joe Bragan you are in for a treat. Not many guys have a rock in Montauk named after them, but Joe does and you will hear why so many hold him in such a high regard. I didn’t think that this would be a complete project without bringing in some of more younger regulars, those who have left their mark on surf fishing in the Mecca even if they hung up their rods today. Bill Wetzel is the one and elusive Manny “The Surf Ghost” Moreno is another. And to my surprise, I even managed to make a man everyone knows only as “Foul Mouth Bob” tongue tied. Camera does strange things to people.

So there you have it, the first original programming created for Surfcaster’s Journal is coming your way in few months. I told you we are different and that we will stop at nothing to make SJ even better than it already is.

I better get my ass back to editing room.

The winner of the Montauk Rocks giveaway is michael6064@gmail.com

Please send us your shipping address within 5 days to info@surfcastersjournal.com

We are going to make someone’s Christmas List a little shorter today by giving you a chance to win a copy of the Montauk Rocks, a Film by Richard Siberry. This giveaway  is a courtesy of Oscail Films.

And we will toss is 2 Montauk Rocks stickers so you can let everyone know that you watched it 🙂

“For decades professional filmmakers and television producers, from Van Campen Heilner to Jose Wejebe, have tried to capture the action, the culture and the aura of surfcasting in Montauk. But nobody has managed to do it as comprehensively or with such insight as Richard Siberry has done with “Montauk Rocks”
– Michael Wright, The East Hampton Press.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/lWw_atk4ZW8?hd=1[/youtube]

you can find it at

Amazon.com

Surfcaster’s Journal Online Store

Fisherman’s Headquarters Ship Bottom NJ

Saltwaters Tackle West Islip NY

Paulie’s Tackle Montauk NY

East End Bait and Tackle Hampton Bays NY

River’s End Old Saybrook CT

Causeway Bait and Tackle Wantagh NY

J&J Sports Patchogue NY

J&H Oakdale NY

Capital Tackle NYC

Terminal Tackle Kings Park NY

LI Outdoorsman Rockville Centre NY

Camp Site Sports Huntington NY

Cow Harbor Bait and Tackle Northport NY

The Surfcaster Stratford CT

Saltwater Edge Middletown RI

Ramsey Outdoors Paramus NJ

Fisherman’s Supply Point Pleasant NJ

L&H Woods & Water Belmar NJ

Harry’s Army Navy Robbinsville NJ

Fisherman’s Line , MA

Red Top, Buzzards Bay MA

I been working like madman last week or so, every time I come up for air, I get pushed back down. I am not complaining however, this is the season..for us to work so they can spend:-)

But I been thinking about things I would like Santa to leave me under the tree. First on my wish would be a ZeeBaaS reel. I feel in love with that reel last few years. Next would be a pair of waders that don’t leak. I know ,wishful thinking. Some Guppy pencils would be nice, maybe get restocked on TA clips . I am definitely buying few more Super Strike Heavy Poppers, very impressed with them this fall. The rest of my “wish list” is filled with stuff none of you care about like ND filters, Final Cut plug-ins and lenses and lenses. But after spending my son’s communion money on camera gear this spring for a project that I might have to abandon, wife said that I was over my limit 🙂

So, while I browse in the B&H Photo catalog and drool, tell me what you are hoping to find under the tree or what you are buying this winter

BTW..I’ve seen this on surfrats so I figured to pass it along

Speaking of shopping

East End Bait & Tackle’s Annual End of the Season Sale.
The entire month of December.
Save 20%-50% on most everything in the shop.
check outtheir website for more info. www.eastendbaitandtackle.com

East End Bait & Tackle 170 East Montauk Hwy. Hampton Bays, NY 11946 631-728-1744

Wow, this was like a mini vacation , we should do this more often :-). Ok, not really. I just got my check in the mail and was trying to figure out why I only got paid for 4 days, then I remembered that it was Veterans day. And this week only three days…but I always counted with joy days I am not working. Who wants to be the richest dude in the commentary anyway?

Ok, let’s get down to business. The winner of Pelican light is joegp17@optonline.net . Please email me at info@surfcastersjournal.com and include your shipping address.

Business number two, the winner of PENN SPINFISHER V contest is Steve Jaccino. Steve , please email me your shipping address and I will forward this to the folks at PENN. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the PENN REEL company for making this possible.

If and when we fold, we will never be able to say that Pure Fishing, which includes PENN, Berkley, Stren, Sebile, Abu and on and on, have not been supportive of SJ. They have went above and beyond what I expected, which is a lot more than I can say for some others…on to better and more interesting things. I told you that we will have some announcements in the future and we will also try to keep you up as with what is coming up in the future

Next at bat, in the January issue of the SJ Magazine, exclusive in-depth interview with Don Musso, the founder of Super Strike Lures. From the days he started fishing for striped bass,to hand carving lures, to his lure partnership with Dan Pichney, reasons behind their break up, to his favorite lures, birth of a needlefish as we know it and much more. Really looking forward to this myself.

Here is a short sneak peak at the upcoming interview with Don

[youtube width=”535″ height=”400″]http://youtu.be/gYzL-15_gY4?hd=1[/youtube]

Battered and bruised by Sandy, we are getting back to business. One thing that was pushed back because of the storm is our “Send a picture, win a PENN SPINFISHER V REEL” contest.

The good folks at PENN reels who have made a remarkable investment into the sport of surf fishing in recent years, by not only introducing the Torque, SPINFISHER V and slew of other products, but have also supported Surfcaster’s Journal, Stripers On Line and many other websites and publications. For that I admire them. This sport has been ignored for way too long and I truly like the direction in which PENN reels are going.

Ok, without further mumbling by yours truly, let’s get to business. We asked you to send us any fishing related pictures from this fall, and you did. We did not alter these pictures in anyway. As you sent them, that is what you see. We picked 5 pictures and you guys will get to vote. The top vote getter will receive brand new SPINFISHER V from folks at PENN Reels.

Rules. You have to be a blog subscriber to vote . No, not you cannot get your wife, your girlfriend and your mistress to all vote for you, pick one :-). You can only vote for one picture, your favorite. In case of a tie, whichever picture was submitted to us first by date will win. Good luck to all, thank you for participating and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all of us at SJ!

Continue reading →

I honestly do not remember the last time I put up a new video on YouTube

I am getting a little rusty

as always, we recommend that you watch all our videos at 1080 P resolution….because if you don’t, I just spent a kids’ college fund for apparently, no reason 🙂

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Cc8bCOOfFs4?hd=1[/youtube]

I been using Princeton Rage lights for years. They are decent lights, you get a lot of bang for your buck. They don’t fall apart as soon as they see the water like many others. Yes, after awhile trying to turn them to put them on becomes a real pain in the ass. But other than that they are serviceable.

Few years ago in a pinch I walked into Causeway Bait and Tackle in Wantagh NY looking for a flashlight. The only decent looking thing they had in stock was a Pelican Tracker little yellow light. It’s been few years since then and I went through a dozen other flashlights, yet my little yellow Tracker is still around my neck every night. Sometimes it’s my primary, sometimes a secondary, depending on conditions (I always wear two lights, just a habit). But it’s always there.

Not too many things in this sport can you count on to take a licking and keep on ticking but products from Pelican fit the bill. Subsequently I bough waterproof cases from them for my camera and more lights and I never regretted any purchase. So when they gave me a Pelican light to try this fall I said “This is going to our blog readers”.

Why I didn’t keep it for myself ?

I honestly expect my Pelican little Tracker to last forever..

So boys and girls, courtesy of Pelican Lights, one of you will be a proud winner of this new Pelican Head Lamp

2720 LED Headlight            • Gesture Activation Control • Variable Light Output • Dual Red LED Night Vision Gloved hands, wet hands or oily hands are not an issue when using the 2720 with Gesture Activation Control technology. Turn on the light with a wave of a hand. Additional features include: Low level red light that preserves night vision, for nighttime applications. Signaling red (S.O.S) beacon light. Optical 4x magnification allows for a wide or penetrating beam,. Including a variable light output from 100%-10%.

Yesterday morning I got up at 4 am on my day off, got caffeinated, drove to Montauk, did some camera work and drove back home. I left the rod at home, so the fish were safe but I could not believe what the north side looked like! Holy crap, you could fit a hundred trucks between get-on and false bar. And Jones reef? Whatever little bluff we had is gone. Whoa, I wish I took few shots but I did not, even while having four cameras on the front seat. No one was fishing although there were few trucks on North bar, few in Hero lot and that was about it.

On the way back I stooped at East End bait and tackle where Scott informed me that both side of Shinecock inlet are open and today the Dune Road was reopened . On the way home I stopped at Saltwaters tackle and they filled me on opening of Capteee and Jones Beach field 2. If you are dying to wet a line, you have options. Life is slowly returning to some sense of normalcy. Even for us that did not hit hard, seeing all the trees down, all the ripped up sidewalks, you get an idea this recovery will take a long time. We can only imagine how do those on barrier beach feel like with onset of winter.

I was thrilled when I heard that Fisherman’s Headquarter is Ship Bottom in NJ is back to on their feet. Fisherman Supply took some water on but they were trying to make things as normal as possible and are back up and running. We wish our friends at Grumpys a fast recovery and access to their store

In other news , I fired up my Mac after a month’s hiatus and opened video editing program. But when I realized how much work is waiting for me I shut it down and ran away from it like a little scared girl. I mean holy crap. I could sit here for 5 days straight and not even make a dent. Hey, I never said I was brave, just persistent. Besides, that is why they make a winter months…

I will try to fill you in what is going on at SJ and what is new (and coming up) in upcoming days. I also have a very special giveaway, courtesy of dudes from Pelican who make the sickest flashlight and are my favorite

But for now enjoy the trailer from Montauk Rocks, the Film released recently. Not sure what shops you can find it , off the top of my head, I know few that have it including Fisherman’s Headquarters, LH Water, , Harry’s Army Navy, Fisherman Supply, LI Outdoorsman, Causeway Bait and Tackle, Saltwaters Tackle, Camp Site, Cow Harbor, East End Tackle, Paulie’s, River’s End Tackle, The Surfcasters, Saltwater Edge , Surfcaster’s Journal Store and Amazon.

Enjoy the trailer and football too

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/53217771[/vimeo]

I will fill you in on all the crazy things going on at SJ but right now, I just want you to go and enjoy reading the new issue. Enjoy

https://surfcastersjournal.com/

You never know how to value something ..till you lose it. Admittedly, I rarely watch TV and I never use a home phone but being without both, and internet was…painful. Almost starting to feel a little Amish..ha
All of you that are still suffering with outages, no service, power, water, you have my sympathies. These have been trying weeks for many to say the least. I did manage to get to the beach in Jones Inlet on the weekend. The parking situation is ridiculous but if you are willing to walk a block or two, it’s really not that hard…in the daytime that is. Nighttime is a whole other story. Glad to see that Montauk 4×4 is open, Smith Point lot is open and both sides of Shinny.
Our friends at Fisherman Headquarters who took a big hit during the storm in Ship Bottom, NJ are up and running and reporting lots of fish being caught. So it’s not over yet by a long shot.
We finished up the new issue but we ran into unexpected problems trying to get it up so please bare with us, we are almost there. What you will see now with this issue is just a temporary home of SJ, the big redesign will take a place starting with January issue. We are even toying with the idea of vertical instead of landscape version for multitude of reasons . We got even more columnists, more content and more ideas too.
We are sad that our regular contributor and one of our most popular writers Frank Pintauro passed away recently quite suddenly., His articles on the old time lures and makers were to me always what made SJ authentic and different than other publications. He will be sorely missed.
The winner of the Giant Lemire’s Plug works Pencil Popper Giveaway is Bob B barnegatrob@comcast.net
Please email us your shipping address and we will get it to you asap.

Glad I have the internet and TV back (I could do without a phone). Glad to be back on line and I hope many of you are too. We have so much work ahead of us to get ready for January that is daunting but I am sure that in the end, all will work itself out. We just got to remember why we started this in the first place, to give our sport a voice of our own. To have something special, to have something of our own, to be different and yet refreshing, current and nostalgic, all at the same time. This is just a beginning of another chapter in existence of SJ.
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