After Silver Fox spanked me under the lighthouse in the wee hours of the morning, by catching about 40 stripers, we went back to the lot to get some sleep. He said the only reason he spanked me was becouse i played the cameraman, but we know better. Dude was on fire! We slept for an hour upon arriving at midnight the night before. It’s amazing how good one hour of sleep can feel…but by 8 am we were shot. Silver Fox was spread in his spacious Quigley while I stretched in my Suburban. After about an hour of trying to fall asleep , I got up at 9 and went to town. I never was able to sleep in daytime…
After devouring The Barge breakfast sandwich at Ronnie’s Deli (you don’t need a vivid imagination to figure out the size of this sucker) I went to Paulie’s Bait and Tackle and chilled with Paul and crew till noon. As I was heading back to the point, Silver Fox called. He was up and wondering what I was doing. I told him I will meet him in the lot in 5 minutes but first I wanted to stop by Camp Hero and take a peek.
After arriving on top of the cliffs of Camp Hero and taking a glance westward I immediately reached for my phone. There was a massive black stain in area called Sewer Pipe, thousand upon thousands of stripers ready to explode on the surface. I called him but as usual, the phone reception sucks there and I left a message.
Then I texted him to get his ass down here as I drove to a lower area for parking. I grabbed my Panasonic HD camcorder and my Nikon DSLR. I left my rod and plugs in the truck. Getting some good footage was more of an interest right now…
As I walked to the edge of the water , the bowl erupted as bass were pushing white bait to the surface and bird were picking them off from above. I moved around guys casting into the melee trying to get different angles. Mr. Ruger was there pinhooking. Mr. Musso of Super Strike fame was there tossing his supersecretmetallipswimmer. Except, not too many fish were landed. The water was flat and gin clear and as its often the case with lack of white water and small, ample bait, fish were ignoring everything. Even the flies from fly fisherman, and small bucktails, teasers, tins, poppers, you name it, they ignored it.
Silver Fox arrived and managed a fish or two but considering the amount of fish in the bowl feeding heavily, no one could have called this a good bite. As the fish moved in and out the only people who were hooking up were two wetsuiters on the outer rocks in the middle of the cove. With my camcorder 
zoomed in I followed their metal lip swimmers, trying to catch the explosions as the stripers attacked them. The rest of about a dozen anglers were casting halfheartedly into the ocean with not much to show for it. And many of them casting metal lip swimmers too. After about an hour of watching these two guys catch fish I left my cameras with Silver Fox and walked back to my truck.
I grabbed one plug, still in package and my rod and walked back to the water. In jeans and sneakers I cast the metal lip into the water. Within two cranks I was hooked up. I managed to land 4 fish in the row while the other anglers looked at me with a sense of curiosity. What the hell is he throwing to catch four fish on four casts ?…all in due time my friends.
On the fifth cast, for still unexplained reason my line snapped and my metal lip sailed toward Bermuda. !$#*(@!!&…..but wait, there is hope. A fellow next to me cast in vicinity of my plug and manages to snag my line and retrieve my plug. After I profusely thanked him, I retied, cast and caught a fish. Ok, I had enough of this. Five fish on five casts was good enough for me. I took the plug off and gave it to Silver Fox who was fishing a white Danny. I told him, you cast this and I will follow it with camera . I want to catch the explosions on this metal lip. The insane trashing fish put up was too tempting not to record.
Of course Silver Fox was happy to oblige. First cast he got a swipe but did not hook up. Second case was a mirror image of fist. Third cast he retrieved the lure unmolested. In next half dozen cast he might have gotten a look or two. I knew he wasn’t familiar with this plug. I could see on camera that his VS200 was cranking too fast and lure was under the surface and not on the top. It was only an inch below but I knew that was enough. The wetsuiters were still hooking up so I knew the fish were still in the area but maybe they moved off further out where only they can reach it. After holding video 
camera for a dozen casts I got tired of inactivity, put the camera down and grabbed my rod. I walked over to Silver Fox and asked for my plug back. He pleaded for one more cast . Go ahead I said. But not even last cast produced anything. He gave me back the plug and I attached to the clip. It took less than three cranks of my Penn Torque for fish to start trashing wildly on the surface as it engulfed the metal lip swimmer. Now Silver Fox was hearing it from Musso and his crew. To add insult to injury on the next five casts I landed five fish, never missing a beat.
Why is this? Silver Fox is a hell of a surfcaster, an accomplished angler who knew his stuff. He loves his Danny and caught many fish on it over the years. So it definitely wasn’t his skills. It was probably his unfamiliarity with a lure.
This metal lip did not have a “z” lip like a Danny or Atom40 but instead had a cupped, Surfster lip. You have to work this damn thing like it is the extension of your hand, feeling every single rise in the water, compensation for every small wave. You want to reel just fast enough so that the head is buried in the water and the tail is slapping the surface , almost like a pencil popper. Granted, when the fish are active, you don’t need to be as precised but on this day, they wanted nothing less than a perfect retrieve.
Who made this magic lure?
A friend of the Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine from day 1, Larry Wentworth, maker of lures under the by name Big Fish Bait Co. This particular lure is called Prey Swimmer and has been very good to me over the years in many places. Does it cast like a wet rag (or should I say like a metal lip)? Yup. Does it drive fish insane? Yup. Metal lips are not for everyone, and not all lures are good for all conditions. But sometimes, in the hands of someone who knows their strenghts and weaknesses ,they can be deadly.
So what’s our lesson of the day boys and girls? The fish must be really thick If Z is catching them (this quote courtesy of immortal Vito Orlando). Mr. .Musso does indeed have supersecretmetallipswimmer. The Surfster type lures have their place and time. Glassy, flat surf and fish feeding on small bait is often a recipe for frustration? And then they ask me why I spend so much time obsessing about white water…if we had white water you could have caught fish on ever cast, all day long
Today I will give you a chance to win one of these Prey Swimmers, courtesy of Larry from Big Fish Bait Co.
But there is a catch
Larry picked one picture from issue #9 of the Surfcaster’s Journal current issue as his favorite. You have to guess which page is it on. First guy that does not read this and says, “I am in”instead, has to post 5 times ” I am lazy” here on the blog before he is eligible to win anything…ever
You can visit his website at Big Fish Bait Co
It will be a mackerel one like the one in this picture
here is the issue
[issuu width=550 height=213 showHtmlLink=false proSidebarEnabled=true backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=110909055811-4b5c375cab104e5195026dfe8d489310 name=issue9 username=surfcasters_journal tag=fishing unit=px id=54f2a2a6-526b-0113-c7be-f957283b1fce v=2]
pg. 77
↓pg. 107
↓thanks for the chance
i am….. going to guess its page 39?
↓p. 115 Thanks.
Did you ever find out what the two guys out on the rocks who were catching were throwing?
↓35. Thanks
↓FRont cover
↓page 176
↓Z great write, I’m sure we’ve all been there where those around us are hooking up and we get nothing until we figure out what is being down. I’m also sure we’ve been the one hooking up and others around us get nothing. It’s part of the fun.
↓pg 123. lots of energy in that photo
↓Pg. 173
↓122
↓im liking 139
↓I`am in! Thanks Z, SJ
↓Pg 71
I’m thinking #184
↓I’m in how about #102
↓Page 186
↓I’m in I guss #151 thanks
↓Page 133
↓I’M IN
↓I’M LAZY
↓I’M LAZY
I’M LAZY
I’M LAZY
I’M LAZY!
page 126… love the mack paint Larry
↓p127, thanks.
↓pg 79 Thanks
↓133
↓Page 61, thanks
↓Page 123 Thanks
↓Page 1 ..the cover
↓35 (Ditch shot)
↓53…. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
↓page 39
↓Page #110
↓Lee S
Z great write
↓Page 77 , thank you
↓I learned alot from this post. I was having a similarly frustrating time this past weekend and was wondering why, so thanks to Z and SJ (not Steve Jobs) I think I am better prepared for next week =). My wife managed a nice 33inch bass on a white pencil popper, and I think it was because she worked that sucker slow.
↓186…thx
↓I’m in thank you.I think split rings do help the action on most plugs
↓Page 93. Thanks again!
↓Page 77 thanks.
↓philly al says i go pats and page 77 a real man fishing with a 14 foot rod.
↓Hey Z,
↓got to say page 35
page 87 is my choice,
thanks Z
↓pg107. Thanks again.
↓pg 118. thanks
↓page105 thanks
↓page 184 thanks
↓page 120 thanks z.
↓I’m guessing Page 77.
↓Thanks for the chance.
GM
p 151 thanks for the shot
↓I’m going to say page 186
↓page 184
↓I am going to say Page 61 Because it happens to all of us
↓13
↓Pg 165
↓I’m….guessing 176
↓Im in
↓Im in P61
↓Darn late to the 176 band….can I guess again?
↓Back cover
I am guessing Page 40 with the lure bag in the fore ground and the fisherman in background
↓I am guessing page 123 with fiherman in the wave
↓page 67 Thanks for the chance
↓page 48-looks good to me–im in thank ya z
↓57
↓I’m guessing p 85
↓I’m saying 103 thanks
↓pg 152
↓Front cover
↓pg. 112
↓Page 128
↓Thx!
page 63.
↓Page 22
↓page 122. thanks.
↓I’ll go with page 83, if you haven’t been there you ain’t been fishin’ Thanks
↓page 110.
Thanks
↓47, thanks
↓page 119
↓Page 46… thanks for the chance
↓I think 179.
↓page 72 Legendary Al Bentsen with his monster fish.
↓page 69
↓Page 154.
↓Staying with my favorite, page 130.
↓35
↓I am in page 186 Thanks
↓The cover, always is nice makes you want to read.
↓So yes THE COVER
page 107
↓page 3
↓Page 89
↓page 79… a timeless, legendary shot
↓Page 39 “if only i could just one my plug in my bag”
↓oops, meant 151, not 152
↓I say page 115
↓I go with page 107. Thanks for the chance Z.
↓Page 127. Thanks for the chance!
↓