Stuff part 2

I’ve used pliers from Hansom tackle since last fall and will  continue to do so. I have been using VS ones for years and both of these pliers will not cut a hook. Hansom will cut the braid much cleaner than VS but VS are stronger when you have to put leverage on the hook to pop it. But then again, you can get 5 pairs of Hansom for one pair of VS and you are not gaining much with VS for the difference in price

I’ve carried a scale with me since I joined the club in 1995. Big part of being a member is the annual competing. Yes, it’s based on the honor system but I am cool with that. I went through my insanely competitive stage where I thought I had to show everyone just how good of a fisherman I thought I was. Only to find out there is always a better fisherman out there. With more ink in his pen. I will never live down the guilt of what I put my wife trough when my son was just born. So I am debating, after years on my belt, should I lose my Boga grip? Yes, it does help with releasing fish a great deal and that alone I find it to be invaluable tool. But there are plastic gripers out there that do even better job of that, for less money. They don’t fill with sand and they don’t need to be rinsed. Besides, who cares if fish is 22 lb, or 29lb? It doesn’t make any difference to me anymore. I use the Boga as a tool for landing fish, I never actually look the scale any more

I had a Hunter belt so few years now. I really like it although I am not sure you will find one for sale. It is very simple yet effective. Some of my friends got  MAK belts and I was impressed with a  design. What’s on my belt? Boga, pliers, Olympus camera and hook dislodger. Lure bag? Last year I used Ebb Point bag with removable pouch. It was a great bag that I could recommend every day of the week and three times on Sunday. This year I fished all year with Commando three tube bag with a pouch. I could recommend that bag every day of the week and three times on Sunday too. It’s a matter of what you like, design and any custom features you’d like to have. I won’t tell you about the bags I haven’t fished with because…well, I haven’t fished with. From what I can gather there is very little complains coming from those that bought either MAK bags or top of the line Aquazkins

When it comes to reels, I love them all. VS is built like  tank, ZeeBaas might be the finest reel I ever owned and Penn Torque is giving them both a run for their money. You just can’t go wrong by buying any of them.

I wore fishing gloves or I should say ,glove, for years. I only wore right one for casting. After few years I ended up with a dozen brand new left gloves. I never, ever fished without a glove. Ever. The glove is a part of my bag, it goes were my bag goes…so much so that I became a joke on the beach as my friends would call me the Michael Jackson of surfcasting. You know what, I am tired of the glove too. So all of them went into the garbage this spring. Instead I bought three rolls of hokey tape. I am kind of tired of seeing gloves fall apart in the middle of the night…they are great when landing fish, that I must admit but hey , I did fine the first 35 years without them…

Plugs? I am not touching that one with a ten foot pole. I am not giving every Tom, Dick and Harry and excuse to rip me to shreds because I never mentioned their stuff. There are plugs I recommended in my book that are good fish catchers that I don’t use anymore  for personal reasons. Does that mean you shouldn’t too? Hell no, you should use whatever you think will catch fish.

There are very few things out there that won’t catch fish, when the fish are active. But every year you find some new products that you end up liking so here are few. Gulp rubber is insane. For fluke, porgy, groupers in costa rica,anything that swims. Sick. Got Styper rubber is something new I tried this year. Liked it a lot. Guides Choice Old School Swimmer got PB for chef Andrew at Cutty. Nice plug. I also came to like some plastic stuff that I haven’t used before. Daiwa SP minnow, Rapal x-rap. On the end of the day, most of the plugs in my bag have Super Strike written on them. Their new heavy needlefish line has been one of my best plugs this year. There are lot more plugs that I use like Yo-Zuri mag darter and surface cruisers, Lordship a40, ri popper pike, Choopy small darters and many more. But on the end of the day, if you put a gun to my head and tell me you can only pick one plug for daytime and one for night I had to pick SS Little Neck popper and SS Darter…after a bucktail of course

btw

SJ SuPeRcOmPuTeR spit out # 146 as the winner of John Skinner book, Fishing with Bucktails

the winner is Cowcovedhm@comcast.net   …you git 5 days to contact us as info@surfcastersjournal.com

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