Took a ride with Silver Fox to Montauk on Thursday night. We got there around 11, just in time to see two fellows bring two nice bass to their trucks in the lot. We suited up and had a ball with bass for about two hours. A shout out to Larry at Big Fish Lures, his Prey swimmer was my go to plug this night. Flat water and last half of the outgoing got the fish feeding on the surface. There were so many splashes around our rocks, it was crazy.

The next night was the same. Tommy drove from home for a tide and took a best fish on a super Strike darter at about 20 pounds of so. I stayed with two plugs, Big Fish Prey and Afterhours 2 ounce needlefish. The hits were so numerous that I started counting as I could not hook a fish. By the end of the night, I counted 55 hits and only 15 fish landed.

The daytime action was nonexistent other that some sporadic action under the light. Which is not surprisingly, considering the condition, flat north and south side, no white water and no wind…and sunny and 85 degrees. Great tanning weather. I managed to do on camera interview for my project  and left Saturday morning.

When you walk off the rocks on the north side at night, if you put your light on, you will be amazed by the numbers of baby snappers milling amongst the rocks. I even snagged a 6 inch one on the back of the Afterhours needlefish.

there was other things that happened like four pounds of General Tso striped bass, the best damn striped bass I ever had.

And there are so many fish in Montauk, they are beaching themselves….literally 🙂

this was a freaky thing considering this bass came out of nowhere. No one cought fish that day, no blitzes, nothing, just  bass laying on  rock

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpWifups4Jo[/youtube]

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I have to do a mea culpa of sorts…I wrote in the spring that I hated the new Olympus Tough 8000 digital camera. Not for pictures, Olympus always made a camera that took good shots. Good focus, solidly made and good user interface.

Until they decided to put a stupid toggle switch in the back this year. Which makes going from menu to menu very hard if you are all thumbs like me…or really easy if you are a boy wonder Iphone user. But I can live with this. It’s my waterproof camera that is on automatic most of the time. One of those things that is great to have in a jiffy

I do like the newly resigned cover plate for SD card and battery. Double locking mechanism, and PLASTIC! The original ones I always owned were made out of metal which was a salt magnet. The whole camera would be in a great shape but the cover for battery and card, the most important thing would be caked with salt. Yeah, the mechanical shutter that closes and protects the lens is neat…till you get some sand in., Then it’s a nightmare. It’s something I could live without it.

So what exactly is my mea culpa?

Video

I bought this camera because it had a 1080P video capability. I like GoPro but there are no adjustments on GoPro, it takes a lot of room and it has no flash to use at night. I tried the video function this spring at sunset while fishing with a Silver Fox. It was awful. Try as it might, the Tough camera kept going in and out of focus. Could not figure out what exactly to focus on, Silver Fox, sun, trees, water. The footage was unusable junk. So I said a lesson learned and used it just for stills.

Then last weekend the wife asked to be taken to Cedar beach in FI. While there, we played around with Super Strike heavy popper and ZeeBaaS reel. First, I wanted to get some additional footage for Mr. Musso I could use in his video. Two, I had a camera in the truck, my GoPro was at home. Since this was really unplanned and my son was bored out of his mind, hey, why not try it.

Let me tell you something, this camera is GOOD. Not only it takes good footage of video in the daytime but its crystal clear. Take a look of this shot of a popper taken off the video as a single frame. It’s clear as bell.  It’s not as fast to focus as GoPro but that is because of different lenses. The GoPro has distortion and although it can also take still shots I find the ease of use and switching between video and stills about as easy as telling the truth for a politician…from either party.

Why was I wrong? Because Olympus still sucks in low light condition and you should use it as a still camera at that time. But with ample light from the above, I think you will be stunned by the 1080 images that come out of this camera

sometimes you have to admit that you are wrong…this is one of those times

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I been away for few days and of course all the s!$# hits the fan as soon as I get on the road. I do have to tell you one thing, something that I will elaborate in the future….recently, some emails that I received, posts on some sites and personal conversations I had in Montauk last few days make me seriously reconsider writing this blog at all. There is so much negativity out there, directed towards people, products, places that I find very disturbing.

The mag was down for only 20 minutes on Thursday night while I was traveling. Thankfully I was able to talk my son via phone on how to upload the corrected issue. I love that kid…

Anyway Montauk was ok, one night I had 55 hits but only landed 15 fish whish goes to show that that so called “pros” are more like googans in disguise than anything else. That was a first night of fishing since Cuttyhunk were I actually fished first and worried about pictures, video and mag. Just fishing…forgot what that felt like.

We are going to be at the Fisherman show in Huntington on Wednesday, if you are there stop by and say hi

I know many of you are making the plans for the Fisherman Classic this weekend. Paulie is also running a contest this same weekend .So you have two to choose from .

And of course there is SJ All Island STRIPED BASS Cup…you can still get a t-shirt by registering here

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There is really not much to say about this video. We buried a new ZeeBaaS reel, the same way we did Van Staal and Penn Torque. The results (considering the misinformation on the net about all these reels) were surprising, even to me .

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5slfPYpV0[/youtube]

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go read

We decided to put together a first of its kind catch and release weekend tournament for few reasons. First, we feel that catch and release is important part of what many of us do today, and yet it is almost an afterthought in the tournaments. Second, there are many of you who urged us to do this to increase the awareness about importance of catch and release, about increasing awareness of dwindling stocks of striped bass, about camaraderie during the tournament without guilt of having a hang a fish on the scale. And last but not least, all net proceeds will go to new SJ Junior Angler Program. More on that in the future

I am sure we are going to have a lot of discussions on this for next few weeks but the reason for putting this up today is simple. The first 150 who register online or at Saltwaters Tackle (combined) will be receiving a free t-shirt. We wanted to give you guys heads up before the info appears in the next issue on Monday. So that way if you want, you can register over the weekend and claim your t-shirt.

I am going to try to keep this short, we’ll have more time to go over the details

For all rules for tournament go here or click on SJ ALL ISLAND STRIPED BASS CUP link on the top of the blog

To register click here or follow links on info page

The rules are simple, catch a fish, take a picture of the fish by putting a SJ supplied measuring tape alongside of the fish. Have a witness who is in the tournament sign your slip. Bring your camera, I phone, droid, whatever to the Saltwaters tackle on that weekend.

Few notes because I know that it does not matter how much I try to explain things,  some will be confused

You can register on our blog or at Saltwaters Tackle until 10/27. If you are one of the first 150 that register you will receive a shirt. The shirt will not be ready to pick up until the tournament weekend. No specific sizes, we will do our best to make them in variety of sizes, first come first serve.

This is a big one. You must come to Saltwaters Tackle after 12 PM on October 26th or any time after that to receive your SJ measuring tape and entry card. Sorry but if we gave the measuring tape ahead of the contest some would be tempted to take pictures with their camera before the contest. We are trying to make this as fair as we can.

You can fish anywhere on Long Island, but you can only enter the fish by coming to Saltwaters Tackle. Please let’s not hear “it’s too far, it’s too long”. I know many who drove dead slobs for a hundred miles to enter it into contest. It is what it is. No, you can’t email us the picture from your home. You have to bring it…just like you would have to weigh the fish in.

Phew, that was a lot of words.. 🙂

Ok, I sincerely hope that many of you guys will support us in trying to make a difference in the way the tournaments are held in the future. We would love to say that after it’s all said and done,  the response was overwhelmingly in favor of doing this again or expanding it to other locations. We can only do so much. We hope to see many of you fishing that weekend, we hope many of you bring us the pictures and we know that one of you will walk away with SJ ALL ISLAND STRIPER CUP and a brand spanking new ZeeBaaS reel. Not only that but there is a St Croix Legend to be won, a crazy good bag from Commando Surfcasting ,twelve lures from Super Strike, $150 gift certificate from Saltwaters Tackle and Pliers and Sheath from Hansom Tackle.

REGISTER FOR SJ ALL ISLAND STRIPED BASS CUP HERE

We usually do not dedicate the blog post to an individual but today we will make an exception.

Many of you know Dennis Zambrotta from either attending his seminars, fishing alongside of him at Block Island or Rhode Island, from working at Edge Angling or from the internet. Many of you also know that he has written a book about the way things were at Block Island during one of the most remarkable period in the surf fishing history. When landing a striper over 50 pounds in one night was not such a big news. Dennis even landed two over 50 in one tide and other have done even better.

Today, his long anticipated book SURFCASTING AROUND THE BLOCK has been published. You can just click on this book picture and it will take you to Edge Angling where you can get more information on the book, its content and pricing. Congratulation Dennis and don’t forget to send Stacey a signed copy 🙂

For those of you that are out of loop, Stacey is a graphic designer who not only designed all my books but I also referred Dennis to her and Sherwood Lincoln with his book, Striperman. She is a busy bee:-) This week she is putting finishing touches on my new book HOOKED….or should I call it The Adventures of the Googan? More on that in few weeks

http://www.edgeangling.com/DZ-Surfcasting-Around-the-Block.html

What else is new? We are going to announce a major catch and release tournament that will encompass all the shoreline of Long Island, NY and which will take a place the weekend of the  October 26th trough October 28th. For the first time, all of you that hold catch and release near and dear to your hearts will be able to compete in a tournament with a clear conscience. Not that is anything wrong in eating fish, God knows I’d eat it every day if I could. But I know that many won’t enter tournaments as matter of principal if you  have to kill a fish in order to win. The rules and all the registration details will be posted shortly. For now I will only tell you that ZeeBaaS, St Croix, Commando Surfcasting, Super Strike Lures, Saltwaters Tackle and Hansom Pliers makers are sponsors. I hope you guys are going to get as excited about this idea as we are. And I hope you guys support it. All net proceeded (if any) will go to the new SJ Junior Angler program. We got a start somewhere to turn this tide of ourselves, not boaters or charter guys, or super sharpies, or pin hookers, ourselves, regular Joe’s killing fish for tournament sake. There is nothing wrong with a fine striper meal. heck, we have a regular column devoted to cooking with our Chef Andrew. But I think this fall will be a wakeup call to many on just how bad the stocks of striped bass are. I hope I am wrong….. We have to try to educate, excite and keep promoting catch and release. There is no reason our freshwater cousins, and even ones in southern states that fish saltwater that make us look like cavemen when it comes to making sure the resource is protected first, before recreational and commercial interests. But that is what you get when you have these organizations that masquerade as a “recreational” representatives but all they give a shit for is how many fish can their customers kill. I hope I am wrong and I am wishing for a really, really good fall run

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I know that my posts can be full of Zenoisam’s, written in Cringlish (mixture of Croatian and English) but darn it, they are not in Swahili

So lets to this again. You want to win a Penn Spinnfisher V from folks at Penn? Great. It’s easy. I swear. Send us any picture you think it’s a great representation of the fall run. A picture that is taken THIS YEAR. THIS FALL RUN! LIKE 2012 !

Capish? One picture from THIS FALL RUN will win the reel. Picture that you will be taking from today till November. This can’t be that complicated. And to the “I am in” crowd….I am speechless

CT Matt is taking issue that the blog is in his words “quiet”. Hmmm, let me see. We have new issue coming up momentarily. Tommy is hacking up brown shit from his lungs and probably still pulling all nighter trying to finish FREE publication on time. And then there is that pesky thing of new platform, meeting with web designers, Mac crashing, first week of school for kids and yes, that little thing called job. But don’t worry Matt, we’ll increase our productivity……………after the fall run. Sometimes we forget that the blog is not even suppose to exist other then announce the appearance of new issue.

Went to the inlet last night, one more shot of weakfish I told myself. Scaled the seawall(no flip-flops this time) with a 7 foot Legend only to find a BIG surf crashing in the rocks. No way I could have landed the fish and stayed dry considering I was in jeans. Must be from the hurricane Leslie. Not fun. So I ran back home to watch the rest of the Giants game…neither of these two events were fun.

Btw…I need a favor. Anyone has a picture of a striped bass with a measuring tape alongside of the fish? You know on sand, or rock or whatever ? Can you send it to me at zhromin@verizon.net? I desperately needed a shot for something I am working on

Ok, its 4 am , time to hit this pesky thing called a job.

I’ll leave you with the words of Crazy One from a new video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1-K-M7yPWc[/youtube]

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Let’s get to picking winners of Guppy Lure Co 3 ounce Popper and T-shirt giveaway. We have two winners, each one will receive a popper and a shirt directly from the Hess brothers at Guppy Lures.

You can visit Guppy Lure Co at http://www.guppylure.com/ to see their entire line of lures

The winners are

Robert K audio1fx@optonline.net

and

Rob L robert.lombardi@hotmail.com

You both have 5 days to email us your mailing address at info@surfcastersjournal.com.

All I can say is that you guys, the readers of SJ Magazine and Blog are a lucky bunch. You should make sure your digital camera, your Iphone, Droid or  Polaroid 🙂 is in the tip top shape because we, along with some great sponsors, will make this fall memorable one.

Yes, you will have a chance to win a ZeeBaaS reel. The details will be announced in this upcoming issue of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. Not only a ZeeBaaS reel but a new Legend from St Croix, a custom bag from Commando Surfcasting, pliers and sheath from Hansom Tackle and more…Tommy is putting finishing touches on it. So for that you will have to wait. There is something else brewing, probably the most rewarding thing we have ever been part of and involves our Veterans and your chance to thank one for his or her service by nominating them for a prize of a lifetime. More on that coming up soon….

But first, you know that PENN Reel Co is coming out with a new sealed Spinfisher V reel. It is expected in the stores in October. You can win one right here on the blog, courtesy of fine folks from Penn. You will get to pick your own model although the live liners are not expected for few months. How do you win this new, sealed Spinfisher V?

Glad you asked

Here is a deal. As of today, you can send your best fall run picture to info@surfcastersjournal.com . Please put SPINFISHER V Photo contest in the email heading. You can email us your pictures until the first week of November. We will then pick our favorite 5 and let our blog readers pick one that is their favorite and award that person a brand spanking new SPINFISHER V from PENN Reels.

What kind of picture? Anything goes EXCEPT pictures of DEAD FISH. Do not send us those, save them for Facebook. Scenery, people, blitzes, fish, catches, casting, sleeping, farting, eating…you get my drift.

Anything that has anything to do with surf fishing except pictures of dead slobs. Grab your camera and go shot something

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I had a pleasure of playing with new Super Strike “Heavy” Little Neck swimmers last few weeks. Steve Musso and I did some video off the dock few months ago but my Mac has been crashing so much I really lost interest in trying to repair it. Got back on the horse this weekend and managed to finish new version of the video, between twenty crashes. I must have the only Mac that the damned ball spins and spins and spins. Never thought I would say that Windows Vista gave me less headache than this…

but I regress

What about Super Strike Heavy poppers?

They obviously cast very well, actually better that original sinking version which is just about everyone favorite lure. I would expect somewhere between ten and thirty yards on your cast, depending on your casting style.

The most remarkable part is that you would expect this plug to sink faster, because it heavier? This would make it harder to pop, right?

WRONG

The heavy popper is actually easier to bring out on the surface and pop. It is easier to keep it up there. But don’t take my word for it, you will see it for yourself soon enough when you cast one. And the most remarkable attribute of this (and all other SS Little Neck Swimmers) is the way it swims on a straight retrieve

Winner of Guppy popper and t-shirt tomorrow. Now, enjoy the video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy2lqdLWywk[/youtube]

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