Two things jumped out at me while fishing Thursday and particularly Friday in what was probably the craziest weather ever. Not being able to lift your head to see where your bucktail lands because rain driven by 50 mph wind gusts made your face feel like pin cushion
One
Most of you know Craig VanShtalmo aka Craig Cantelmo, the Super rep for Van Staal Reels. I know Craig for awhile now but I never had a pleasure of fishing with him although I’ve seen his truck in MTK all the time AND he owes me a sight fishing trip I won on a website that doesn’t even exist anymore..haha
Craig is well known as a sight casting captain extraordinare in Peconics and as a magician with a sissy stick aka fly rod. But although I have heard him talk about surf fishing I never fished with him to actually have an opinion on his skills. Lets be honest, any “pro” or “rep “I ever fished with exception of Roy Leyva and few others i find to be , lets just say “less then impressive” surfcasters
I got a chance to watch Craig fish in a shoulder to shoulder line up on Jones Reef on Thursday where about the only way you could have fit into that lineup would be if you jumped on someones shoulders. Did I mentioned that the conditions were a “little” crazy AND that Jones Reef is probably the most difficult place to fish on the whole north side of Montauk Point? I wont get into a detail explanation why but I can guarantee that you will be humbled here with any strong surf running
I tell you what, that dude CAN fish and he’s got a cahones of steel to boot! The fish were not big this day but he put on a absolute clinic and outfished everyone by at least 3 to1. And pushed farther than most were willing to go…
Here is a short video of him hooking and landing a bass[youtube]https://youtu.be/8umx7BUn_sU[/youtube]
the second thing…many of you know that I lost better parts of last two years to elbow tendinitis. One thing I backed off was using a lot of pencil poppers unless brutally necessary (which happened to me last night). The second thing I changed was switching to a 10 foot rod instead of an 11. But which rod, there are so many of them? In search of answers I went to SJ Lou Caruso this spring and he recommended a new Century Noreaster Kevlar rod. Now you should know that I would trust Lou with my life and my kids so when this is what he recommended, i gave him a go ahead to build it. Yeah, I been loving every minute of using it
BUT
If you told me few years ago that I was going to fish in the 40mph gusts like I did on Friday with a 10 foot rod and NOT lose any distance compared to those around me carrying bigger sticks I would tell you that you are insane! Just the fact that you would even mentioned to me using a 10 foot rod in a Noreaster to punch a 2 ounce bucktail into the wind would get you unfriended on FB..ok, I am just kidding but the elbow issues have made me change my gear a little.
And the fact that this rod has a sensitivity and yet balls to control the fish in that crazy sweep and rough water ..I just had to publicly thank Lou for recommendation and a fine build. The man has built every rod I fished for the last few years and this is why. He listened to what I was saying, he knew the action in rod I preferred, he recommended a rod that greatly exceed my expectations
We are lucky to have Lou
It’s nice to see someone use everything
That I taught him , now if he only wore
A wet suit hood – he wouldn’t waste all that
Time keep they VS hat on ! Lol
Thanks for the Nice video clip
↓Bill Jakob
haha
↓Nice video !!!
↓Z, a slight correction: It’s “COJONES”
Cahones (cajones) are a wooden boxes, Ha,ha,haa!!!
in English maybe but I no speak tat
↓lol
That rod is a beast for sure… I was getting my canal plugging stick rebuilt so I was using that there, and despite the tip bending down and touching the water, I was able to land several fish in max current up to 25lbs or so… It would not be my first pick for 5+ knot current, but certainly can handle itself… Casting was an absolute breeze as well… Almost effortless…
↓he must have some kind of waterproof reel…. : )
↓Zeno, I was driving down the hill to meet a friend at False Bar as Craig was coming out on Friday. He stopped to tell me to get my butt over to the bluff people are catching 20″s! Cool man, how ya been, ok, you? Great, thanks for the heads up. Didn’t want to drive around the corner, so I parked and took the walk. That’s when I bumped into you taking a coffee break on the tailgate. Of course, I got there as it was wrapping up. Still. some of the wildest conditions I’ve ever fished. My eyes looked like 2 pissholes in the snow after that wind and rain beat into them all day. Not a lot of fish, but at least there were some. Which these days is rare. A slow pick is better than no pick at all. Back out there this weekend.
↓Forgot the subject of my report. Craig is a true gentleman. Van Staal is lucky to have him as their rep. He’ll stop on the beach and ask you if you’re having issues, and help you out from the back of the van if he can. Not that I’ve had issues, they make a great product. He’s one of the good guys for sure.
↓What kind of stick was Graig using looks longer than a 10 footer
↓Lou is a great builder, I could not be more impressed with his work.
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