Surfcaster's Journal 13

A

Surfcaster’s Paradise...

Located 12 miles off the Massachusetts coast.

1 hour boat trip from historic New Bedford MA.

Open

May Until EarlyOctober Mid

Since

1864 For reservations or brochures call

508-992-5585

Or visit us online at cuttyhunkfishingclub-bb.com

..of all the liars among mankind, the

e fisherman is the most trustworthy. ~William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954

WE HAVE BEEN MAKING SOME STUFF IN HOPES THAT YOU WILL BUY IT

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Surfcaster’ s Journal Issue #13 May 2012 12-Geared Up 25-Beach To Table - Chase 35-Plugaholics Anonymous - Anderson 45-The Rod Corner - Caruso 55-Rollin’With The Rock - Paoline 63-Transitions - McKenna 83-Fly Fishing Update - Papciak 91-Norman Oldfield - Pintauro/Dennison 100-Block Island - Start To Finish - Coleman 121-This Old Shop - McSharry 137-Reel Talk-Penn Interview 147-The Rhythm Of The Surf - Jaccino 157-Lost And Found - Berberian 166-Contributors editor in chief head photographer/hater magnet: Zeno Hromin art director/beach cred dept: Tommy Corrigan head copy editor: Roger Martin boss of the head copy editor: Marie Martin rod guru: Lou Caruso executive chef: Andrew Chase plug guru: Dave Anderson fly guru: John Papciak 4x4 guru/enforcer: Russell Paoline the new guy: Steve McKenna cover photo: Zeno Hromin

This Issue is dedicated to Tim Coleman.

advertising and other inquiries info@surfcastersjournal.com Surfcaster's Journal is published bi-monthly by Surfcasting LLC. Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising submitted for publication. Surfcasting LLC and Surfcaster's Journal assume no responsibility for errors made except to republish in future issue any advertisement having an error.

Use of this material without express written permission of Surfcasting LLC and Surfcaster's Journal is strictly prohibited.

choopy [choop-ee]

noun 1. Handcrafted wooden lures built with the best components for fresh and saltwater species 2. Crafted. Fished. Proven.

3. See www.choopylures.com

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME! • needlefish • darters • swimmers • poppers

Our Surfcaster’s Journal facebook page is like a wild party.

TM

Not as great as this party.

Actually, its not anywhere near as great as this party.

like us.

AOK T-HEX The first time we were introduced to AOK T-HEX lures, we thought of them as novelty items. This was a classic rookie mistake on our part. We did not open our minds to consider things we were not familiar with. We felt the same way about bottledarters and we were proven wrong there too.

However, we reserve the right to continue to be skeptical of people who cut their metal lip swimmers in half and add a giant curly tail on the back. But that is a story for another day. Let’s focus on the task at hand, namely AOK T-HEX lures.

Here is the deal. We, like many of you, grew up tossing Kastmasters, Hopkins and Charlie Graves lures. We expect our tins to be slender, long, and well, boring. Then these T-HEX lures started to show up everywhere we fished but they were different. They had recessed 3D eyes, Stainless steel rings and good hooks, something we wish more tin manufacturers would use on their wares.

The multi-faceted body reflects more of the sun's rays off the lure, making it sparkle under the water. They have great movement with only a simple straight retrieve and they cast like a bullet.

Last year, Steve Adams (or Papa Bear as we like to call him) had a hard time keeping up with orders. They came rushing in late in the season during what can only be called an insane sand eel bite in New Jersey. We like the fact that Steve added Tube Tails to his lineup to better imitate sand eels. We also like the Spro Power swivels and we always like a product that is locally made and yet comparable in price with stuff made overseas. Steve does little things right, like using bucktail hooks instead of plain ones and not skimping on quality. No wonder he could not keep up with orders last year.

INFO

ROCKHOPPER BELT CLIPS There are fishing accessories that need extensive testing. We've used some lures over the years that were awful. In fact, they were so bad Ron Popeil would probably turn down the opportunity to sell them on a 3 AM infomercial. And then there is gear you just look at, you hold in your hand for a second and you say, "This is the bomb! I need to get this, today�. That is how we felt when we first received the Rockhopper Belt Clip made by Barry Kronberg and his company, Rock Hopper Fishing. There are other carabineers on the market, but trust us on this, the one made by Rockhopper is the one we would buy first. It's not only that the quality of the product is evident as soon as you hold this sucker in your hand, but its simplicity alone is worth its weight in gold.

Let's start from beginning. First, all metal parts are 316 stainless steel, Tig Welded and the wire gated 1/4 inch harness clip is welded with stainless steel rod in two places. This is all fantastic as is the fact that is made right here is the USA. But what we absolutely, unequivocally loved is the fact that this belt clip comes without screws, without the need to drill your belt to attach it. Instead, you simply insert any 2 inch belt through the Belt Slide (which BTW is made out of 18 gauge Stainless Steel and completely welded) and presto, you are done! Not only that but now you can slide your belt clip up and down the belt to place it exactly where you need it. Why belt clip and not a D-ring?

D-rings are good for one thing, placing your rod through them when you are wetsuiting or needing a spare hand. Other than that, they are mostly useless without adding the giant split rings. And these Belt clips? You can attach ANYTHING to them: water bottle, boga, lanyard from your pliers, eel bag, stringer, your lucky rabbit’s foot, anything.

No more fumbling in the dark trying to remove something from your belt. No more heartache trying to open a split ring in the middle of the night. And no more inability to add another thing to your belt because you already welded another clip to your belt. This product is easy to review, because something this simple should have been on the market a long time ago. It's something every surfcaster should have on his belt. Attach anything, remove it with one hand, no rust stainless steel construction and made in the USA. And it costs less than that "custom" plug you bought at this winter show from a guy who has been making lures for about three days. No brainer if you ask us.

INFO

SKINNER ON BUCKTAILS Things are often not what they seem at first glance. If you ever met John Skinner on a jetty in the middle of the night, you would never know that the man has written the best darn book on fishing with bucktails ever written. If there ever was an author who preferred to stay in the shadows, John is it. Thankfully for all of us he decided to follow up on his wildly popular book, A Season on the Edge, with another classic. His new book, Fishing the Bucktail, Strategies for Surf and Boat, was like his first book, born out of experience. Some authors like to regurgitate common themes and well-known facts to make their book thicker and make themselves feel more important. John on the other hand is a scientist by profession. He will give you what you need to know and explain it to you in a way that you can understand. If you are proficient with a bucktail, this book will improve your skills, if bucktails are on your "to-learn" list we suggest you get off that proverbial fence and get to reading Fishing The Bucktail.

John shares everything he learned over the years while fishing with bucktails and his knowledge is extensive. Not many people have his record of catching big fish in inlets using bucktails. These lures are the most versatile lures known to man. It is our opinion that if you master bucktails you will be much more proficient with all your other lures. So pick up a copy of John's new book and immerse yourself in knowledge being shared by a true surf sharpie. We just wish John would write a new book every year. Or every month! Hell, we like his writing so much, we wish he had his own magazine. Skinner on Fishing magazine...yeah, that would be jigolicious.

INFO

VMC HOOKS Let's talk about hooks. Not just any hooks, but giant, “I-am-going-to-catch-a-giant-striper” hooks. You know, like the ones you would use for rigged eels. We grew up using Siwash Mustads for rigging eels and they still are decent hooks although they are hard to sharpen and they don't hold the point for long. Few years ago we made a switch to Siwash VMC 9170 PS permasteel hooks and we never looked back. They are sharp as a tack out of the box, they are strong like a bull and they don't rust like our old Mustads. The only thing we weren't crazy about was that they only came in an "open-eye' configuration. If you ever rigged an eel you know that the eyes have to be closed and tight. For some of us, the process of closing an eye on a giant 8/0 or 9/0 hook is more difficult than the actual process of rigging an eel. Well, they say that good things come to those who wait. We might be last to find out but we are tickled pink that VMC makes 9170 PS hooks in closed-eye version. No more giant channel locks, no more vice and hooks flying all over the basement. Now we can rig an eel right out of the box.

These are the strongest, sharpest hooks we’ve ever had the pleasure of sticking a giant bass with. The best part is that the barbs are large enough that we almost never drop a fish.

INFO

TFO LEFTY KREH SIGNATURE SERIES There was a time when a quality fly rod, backed by a lifetime warranty, would set you back at least $500, usually much more. Then something unusual happened. Companies like Redington came onto the scene and introduced rods that looked and felt as good as the big boys' product, but at something like half the price. Alas, fly fishing purchasing decisions, like those for many consumer products, are often based on perception, brand and image. The importance of image can best be illustrated by my wife pointing out the sheer volume of knockoff Louis Vuitton handbags that are bopping around the streets of Manhattan these days.

Wait, are we suggesting that fly fishermen are as fickle and image-conscious as some female "fashionista?" Um, to a certain degree, unfortunately, yes.

Enter Temple Fork Outfitters, a moderately priced rod company, touting excellent value at affordable prices. TFO got past the image thing early on by bringing in a “who's who� of the fly fishing circuit: Kreh, Curcione, Clouser, Teeny, Loomis and the list goes on. Pffft, instant brand recognition and credibility. And the rods aren't bad. No, in fact, they appear very well made and cast as well as the higher priced stuff, at least in our humble opinion.

So how much do you now need to spend to get a really good salt water rod that casts well? Answer: One Ben Franklin. We've been casting rods on beaches and at shows for a looong time now. A couple of years ago we first picked up the Lefty Kreh Signature Series rod at one of the fly fishing shows. We casted it, we flexed it, we held it side by side with a number of other rods that listed for much more. At least one of us here at SJ did not need yet another rod, but at $100 (or there abouts), why not? We got the 2-pc 10-wt. So now we sit here with the opposite of buyer's remorse wondering why we had not done the deal years earlier.

TFO calls this a medium-fast action rod, and Lefty Kreh is quoted on the TFO website as saying: "Not too long ago this incredibly smooth two-piece rod would have cost several times as much." No kidding. We cast this rod side by side with one of our old favorites: the Sage RPLX 10-wt. It appears as if this TFO can do everything the old standard can do, at least with our casting style.

Coincidentally, way back when we got that RPLX rod, Lefty was touting the RPLX while working at Sage.

INFO

POP Arguably the "largest Pencil Popper" around, this plug has accounted for dozens of "personal best" catches. Many Bass over 40lbs and Tuna around the world can't resist the "slashing" back and forth action. Use with a traditional rod shaking (push and pull) and reeling retrieve to mimic big Bunker.

8-1⁄2 inches • Stainless Ste • Heavy Duty • VMC® 3X Str • WolverineTM • Extra loud ra • Tough 3X cle

PPA PENCIL

s, 3 oz. (90 grams) eel through-wired hangers rong PermaSteel Rust-Resistant Hooks M Triple Row split rings (270 LB Test) attles to entice strikes from wary fish ear coat finish

road food

At Home Base Fishing season is almost upon us and my gear’s not even back in the truck yet. That familiar feeling of not having enough hours in the day is only going to get worse. From now until sometime in late fall, I’m going to be in a perpetual rush.

Getting out of the house quickly, whether to work or to fish, is a lot easier when there’s something fast, nutritious and mobile at hand. Pop-Tarts won’t cut it! They’re fast and mobile but nutritious they aren’t. Empty calories like highly processed starch and sugar make you sleepy soon after eating them. As much as I like “junk-food”, I just don’t find it that useful for powering me through a fishing trip or a normal work-day.

One of my all-time favorite light meals is a smoothie made with low-fat cottage cheese (don’t stop reading, I swear you’ll like this!) fresh fruit and wheat germ. Low-fat cottage cheese is a great source of protein and it’s easy to keep stocked in your fridge. Adding fruit and grains makes for a fairly complete and satisfying breakfast. Also, the clean-up is a breeze and that’s important.

Another item I keep around is Swiss Muesli which is a delicious and filling cereal. If you like oatmeal, you’ve got to give this stuff a try! It’s made from whole grains, dried fruit and nuts to which you add grated apple and liquid (milk, water or juice). You can either make your own mix or just buy a pre-packaged one to which you only have to add liquid.

Prepare it far enough in advance so that it’s totally hydrated by the time you want to eat it. If you mix up a quart of it at a time and leave it in the fridge, it will always be ready so you can have it at a moment’s notice. This is a very convenient food to bring on extended fishing trips.

Going Mobile If I’m fishing after work, I’m busy right up until the moment I get in my truck. More often than not, I won’t have made time to eat or to prepare anything to bring with me. Climbing on rocks, scrambling under cyclone fences or just plain beach-walking can burn a lot of calories! Keeping some provisions stocked in your truck means you’re one step closer to being ready for anything.

Water. Some of it in bottles you can carry on a hike.

Tuna. Individual size cans w/pop-tops. Great source of protein.

Dried fruit and nuts.

Energy bars.

Other ideas could include vacuum-packed beef jerky or protein bars.

Even if you have just water and any one of the food items listed above, you can fish all night.

If you’re fishing away from your truck, I definitely recommend bringing water and at least one energy or protein bar. The bars are sealed so you can wade deep or even swim with them and it’s easy to stash the empty wrapper in your waders or wetsuit.

Even if you don’t think you’ll be walking far, plans can change quickly when you’re fishing so it’s wise to be prepared. A little extra fuel can make a big difference when you need to go further or stay somewhere longer.

I’ve included a recipe for a basic granola/energy bar. You can use this template to add in whatever else you may want, including protein powder. A food sealer will make your bars water-proof but a simple zip-loc bag will do for many applications.

One other note, I almost always keep some fresh fruit like apples in the truck. It’s a great snack and it’s also a nice thing to have around to share with others.

What to Bring on Extended Trips The bottom line is that this depends on where you’re going, who you’re going with, how long you’re going for and how you’re going to spend your time. If you’re doing a commando trip with your best pal and he’s a fishing maniac too, you may want nothing more than tuna sandwiches, some apples and coffee.

If there is going to be a more social aspect to your trip, like the yearly outing with your fishing club, you’ll probably want to plan some meals that are a little more elaborate.

I think it’s important to agree with whomever you’re going with on what you want to eat and drink while you’re away, then decide who will bring what. This seems elementary, and is...until you get to Cuttyhunk and find out that no one brought coffee.

If you are going somewhere like Cutty where you need to bring everything with you because you can’t buy it there, it helps to make menus for each day and then to break down each dish’s ingredients right down to the salt, pepper and cooking oil you’ll need to produce them. Don’t count on anything being left in the cupboards by the last shift of guys who were there.

Those tuna sandwiches are sounding better now, aren’t they?

Breakfast Smoothie This is a great blender breakfast that's healthy and fast. Don't be scared of the cottage cheese as it is blended into perfectly smooth creaminess and is a good source of protein. Try the amounts I listed here to start and then you can just eyeball it in the future.

3/4 cup no-fat or 1% cottage cheese 1 cup ice cubes 1/4 cup cold water (just enough to cover blender blades) 1 piece or approx. 1 cup ripe juicy fruit, ie melon, a peach, a pear (if you choose berries, which are very tart, you may want a small spoon of some type of sweetener like jam) 1/2 ripe banana Blend until totally smooth, no bits of ice should remain. Pour into a glass and stir in 1-2 tablespoons wheat-germ.

Basic Granola Bar I adapted this recipe from the King Arthur Flour people. I cut back on sugar and butter and removed the corn-syrup. You can vary these bars pretty much infinitely by changing up the fruit/nut/grain add-ins and the type of honey and sugar you use.

It’s important to pack your mix tightly into the baking dish before and after baking to insure that your bars hold together after they cool.

12/3 cups quick rolled oats 1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed until finely ground in a food processor or blender) 1/3 cup sugar (brown or white) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) 3 cups mixed dried fruits, nuts and grains* (I used almonds, apricots, raisins, pumpkin seeds and wheat-germ) 1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter 4 tablespoons butter, melted 1/3 cup honey (or brown rice syrup) 2 tablespoons water *customize with whatever you want: coconut flakes, sesame seeds, chocolate chips, etc.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8”x10” baking dish. If you line the dish with baking paper it’s much easier to remove the bars.

In a medium mixing bowl stir together the dry ingredients including the fruit/nut add-ins. In a smaller bowl mix together the remaining ingredients then add them to the dry mix and combine well. Scrape the mix into your prepared pan and press it down tightly and evenly with the back of a rubber spatula or spoon.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until the top of the bars are light golden.

Take the bars out of the oven, pack them down well with your spatula and let them cool. Remove the bars from the pan and cut them into whatever size portions you’d like. Wrap individually with plastic film or a food sealer.

cafekatja.com

G e t O u t T h e r e a n d F i s h !

d e n i h c a m n o i s i c e r P , s s a r b d i l o s m o r f . d e t a l p e m o r h nc e h t T S A C T U O l l i w s e r u l r u O H C T A C T U O d n a . g a b r u o y n i n i t y n a

AOKT ACKLE. COM

PLUGAHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Dave Anderson

BIG GIRLS

ON TOP

What’s the most exciting way to catch a big striper? Yeah, let’s say it together, ready? 1… 2… 3…topwater! Topwater fishing is definitely the most exciting and a close second might be rigged eels. But most of us who throw splashy lures fish them like trained monkeys! There’s no variation from one cast to the next or from one guy to the next. It’s often an automatic routine, like the ticking of a clock.Some folks, mostly from the video game generation, try to make it into a secret code of jerks and jogs. I still remember the “blood code” from the original Mortal Kombat (Down, Up, Left, Left, A, Right, Down)… but fishing doesn’t work that way!

Being able to watch your lure out in the water is exciting and it can teach you a lot about what works and what doesn’t, but unfortunately it too can ruin what should be a great day of fishing. Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where Jerry shaves his chest? He says he noticed an asymmetry in his chest hair, tried to compensate by shaving it and the next thing you know, it’s all gone. This is precisely what happens to so many of us when we’re fishing topwater plugs. You’re looking at the plug doing it’s thing in the water and suddenly you become part choreographer and part interpretive artist—a little extra jiggle here a little extra splash there—and you’ve turned your retrieve into a game of Simon Says! Being human, we LOVE patterns, rhythm and symmetry (Jerry!) and fun little dance routines amuse our simple minds—but it has to stop!

Nature spins clockwork pa in synch with on trying to fi stupid. It’s ha against us ju bad.

s in the exact opposite direction. Nothing in nature moves with symmetry or follows a attern. Look at tree branches, watch a bird fly, watch a fish swim—it’s all random and it’s all h their surroundings. Alive is the name of the game and I waste a lot of valuable brain power ind ways to mask my human tendencies. Don’t get me wrong, I know fish are pretty much ard to refute that when you realize their brains are about the size of lentils, but that can work ust as much as it can work in our favor. In other words sometimes having a big brain is just as

Pretty much all species of predatory fish are instinctual feeders. This is something that you can take to the bank and something that can be exploited. I believe that bigger bass develop instincts that come from bad experiences. I don’t believe they have a memory, it’s more of a loose association, an ability to detect when something about your plug is just not right. These are the times when you see evidence of interest, in the form of boils, bumps or swirls, but can’t seem to close the deal.

I’ve read all kinds of witch-doctory stuff about “special” maneuvers or routines that will convert a cautious swirl into a ferocious strike—but guess what? Yeah, that’s right, there is no magic bullet! Imagine that! So get that out of your mind, just like the rest of the parts of being a competent surfcaster, converting from ‘might’ to ‘strike’ requires just as much hard work and concentration as the rest of what we do.

Now we get to the head games, I hate to complicate a simple thing, but you’re going to be most successful when you give yourself to this mindset and have the confidence to stick with it. Fish have three instincts that we can exploit to make ourselves better topwater anglers. The first is the ability to recognize and hone in on baitfish in distress.

It’s an animal thing like Pavlov’s dogs with the bell or your cat when you open a can of food. When you send the right signals predators will come running. This is where your ability to blur your own human tendencies will pay off in spades. I know this sounds totally hormonal or like I’ve been smoking your uncle’s “handmade” cigarettes, but I try to think about the emotions that must be going through the pea-brain of a wounded bunker when it realizes it can’t swim properly anymore. There’s panic, there’s exhaustion and there’s that ingrained instinct that every living creature has: the will to live. So then I think about what it feels like to be exhausted and I try to inject some of that panic you feel when you have one of those nightmares where you’re trying to escape a gorilla with a horse’s head or a zombie lunch lady (or whatever…. you know what I

mean) and when you try to run it feels like you’re trying to run through quicksand!

The horror! Anyway, panic and exhaustion play themselves out in a broken retrieve that has frantic and frustrated bursts of action, followed by periods of rest—catching breath so to speak. The best plug for this is a large spook and it has to be one that floats level when at rest!

We can count on the other two instincts to work together to make it a lot easier to seal the deal when they’re done right. Boy does it make fishing on top fun! The first instinct fits in with the will to live. When you see that boil behind your offering, your only priority should be to make your plug react. Think like that wounded bunker you’re trying to represent. Realize that it just saw that predator come up and make an attempt to eat it and its flight instinct takes over. No matter how far gone a wounded baitfish might be, if it has any energy left it will expend it when trying to save its life.

On the other side of this coin are the opportunistic instincts of the predator. If you’ve ever watched those old Banjo Minnow commercials then you’ve heard good old Wayne Hockmeyer say over and over that predatory fish are genetically programmed to eat a wounded or dying baitfish; this is where the ability to mask your ingrained tendency to add a pattern to your retrieve in favor of making your lure react to being pursued comes into play. It’s all about presenting an attractive opportunity and then selling it by being one step ahead of the fish you’re trying to catch. When that fish comes up and rolls behind the plug, she’s interested but not totally convinced, she’s testing things out, she’s curious about what she’s seeing. If you have the patience and presence of mind to make the lure react in a familiar way you’ll close the window of doubt and most times she’ll commit to the strike.

So what does this reaction look like? The best way to get the image right in your head is to draw from past experience. If you have fished with live herring or bunker then you’ve undoubtedly seen your hooked bait being chased on the surface and watched as your poor herring tried to zig-zag, roll over and even leap to freedom until… slurp. I remember a few years ago I was snagging and dropping bunker in the early spring. There weren’t many big fish around yet, but being patient was paying off about every hour when we’d catch something over 20 pounds. My bait was way out there when all of a sudden it jumped at least a foot clear of the surface!

Within a millisecond it was veering around all over the place and then finally started to swim slowly on its side in a wide semicircle, exhausted from the chase. In the last moments before being eaten, my bunker made a few half-leaps and then‌ it was game over.

If you haven’t seen these types of things pan out, you can go back further in your mind and think about the days soaking a live shiner under a bobber.

When that big old largemouth or pickerel came calling, watching that shiner tow the bobber as it tried mightily to escape was almost as exciting as setting the hook.

Yes, this means you have to essentially try and take the plug away from the fish. But I want her to eat it! I know, I know, but sometimes a little teasing is all it takes. It’s counterintuitive. I’m aware of that!

But ask yourself how many times you’ve gotten that big boil and gone into panic mode? I know what you do—you freeze! You bend a little at the waist, you lower your rod tip a little—it’s like you’re trying to give the lure back to the fish and THAT’S THE WRONG ANSWER! After all we’ve talked about, it should now be obvious that turning your fake bunker into a lifeless floating log is the exact opposite of what a living creature does when its life is being threatened.

However stopping the plug is not always a bad idea. The time to stop the plug dead in the heat of hot striper pursuit is when the fish has viciously struck the plug a few times and not felt the hook. This may be an attempt to stun the prey and when this happens stopping the plug and imparting light vibrational movements will usually draw an unceremonious slurp-like hit and they just about never miss. And in my experience when you get those kinds of vicious hits that knock the plug three feet out of the water repeatedly—it’s a big fish.

Spook-style plugs are not the only ones that can offer the versatility to sell this method and mindset. I put the same principles to work when I’m fishing a Pencil Popper, chugging a Super Strike Popper or even fishing large, unweighted soft plastics—Hogy Double-Wides and 12-inch Slug-Go’s are two of my favorites for this. With the softies you will not always be able to see the bait, but as I said earlier, being able to see it is often detrimental to your “sales pitch”. If I thought I could get you to do it, I’d recommend fishing topwater plugs with a blindfold on, but someone would probably end up injured… because fishermen seem to like to throw things at weird people. Giving this method a try will make you a better plug fisherman. You’re already asking the fish to eat something that’s not real and because of this it’s wholly necessary to do everything you can to swing that fish’s decision in the ‘eat’ direction. A natural and familiar reaction does that.

the

ultimat e surf r od Lou Caruso

There is no such animal but if there were, what components would it contain?

Let’s take a look at the blanks.

The blank would be used for a wide range of circumstances. I’d want something somewhat parabolic, a moderate action with a moderate tip. This would provide me with durability, while allowing for good distance on the cast and good fish fighting abilities. I would want something in the 10-11 foot range. Some possibilities might be the Lamiglas GSB series, St Croix Mojo or Legend, CTS Vapor Trail or Plug & Jetty series, Century Stealth or SlingShot series. Notice there are a lot to choose from here. There are others out there but these are ones I have fished and find them to be acceptable. Most of these blanks can be purchased as Factory, Factory Custom or Straight Custom rods. Notice, I did not list the faster action blanks here.

They have their place on the open beach but are not as durable for fishing rocks, jetties and inlets. That’s not to say they can’t be fished in these locations. They are all the time. They’re just not the optimum locations for that type of rod.

Next on the list is the handle system.

This is a very personal choice. You can go with cork tape, the old standby.

If you do a lot of pencil popping you might want to shy away from cork. It does a hell of a job wearing a hole in your waders in pretty short order. You can go with X-Flocks. This is what you find on the St Croix Mojo. Good grip capabilities and it cleans up easily. You can also go with shrink-wrap over cord. The cord can be spun 2 ways. Either with X’s as you see on the St Croix legend, or spiraled down the blank. By spiraling it you do not get the high points as on the X wraps. One less potential wear point on the waders! Then you have plain shrink-wrap. This can become somewhat slippery when wet. Another option is hypolon. I have built a few rods using it, but it kind of defeats the purpose of keeping the rod as light as possible.

Now on to reel seats.

You can go with the standard reel seat. I use reel seats on all my personal rods as I like the ability to take my reel off for servicing without much hassle. Another option is the plate reel seat. These can be tied in to make a permanent mount. Then there’s taping on the reel seat. All three of these options work. It’s just a matter of personal preference. A lot of guys used to say they taped their reels on so they could change the reel location during the season. If the rod is wrapped Concept, THIS IS NOT AN OPTION. That rod is set up with the guides set to a specific location in relation to the reel location.

Which brings us to guides.

We have gone from huge wire guides, to big heavy hardloy guides, to big but lighter alconite guides to smaller lighter alconite in just a few years. We have gone from the theory that you need just a few large wire guides, to thinking that a few hardloys set up, cone of flight, are the best, Lately the New Guide Concept or NGC has become popular. I have to tell you, each one of these guide systems has worked over the years. I still build an occasional rod, cone of flight, if the customer demands, but these builds are rare for me these days. Even if I do I will usually start with a smaller stripper guide as long as the customer is using braid. This lightens the overall build. In the picture attached you see an array of guides. They have different shapes but any of these guides can be laid out using either cone of flight or NGC. It’s the layout, not the guides, which dictates what type of rod it will be. There are still the occasional builds where durability is more important than casting distance such as when building a rod that will be used to swim out to rocks. In these cases I actually still use hardloy guides and set up the rod cone of flight. The rod takes a beating when you try to climb up on a rock. I feel the hardloys, although heavier than alconites, are somewhat more durable. There is nothing worse then trying to retie after a break-off while perched on an uneven rock, getting pounded by waves. Five guides reducing to a size 12 or even 16 with a 16 tip still works here.

The last item on the rod is the lowly butt cap A lot of folks think of them as a decorative item. If you are fishing rocky areas such as Montauk, or areas of Block, the Cape or even jetties you want a butt cap that’s going to give protection to the bottom of your rod. You would want a rubber cap type. If you are strictly fishing open beaches and never use your rod as a walking stick, you can get away with the vinyl sleeve or the plastic cap that comes on some rods.

Hope this gets you thinking when you are ready for your next rod purchase.

Tight lines, Lou louscustomrods. .com

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Hello there my fellow sand rats!

Spring is in the air and fish are showing in the surf and once again it’s time to load up the buggies and head out to the salt. A large part of a productive beach fishing trip is not only loading all the necessary gear AND getting it to fit, but storing it in a way as to be able to access what you need when you need it without excessive moving of other items. There are numerous tackle storage options from simple milk crates to elaborate tackle storage lockers to custom

ROLLIN’ WITH

THE ROCK RUSS “BIG ROCK” PAOLINE

built cabinets. Obviously all options are not possible to use in every type of vehicle.

SUV's and vans have different requirements than pick-up trucks, especially when it comes to safely transporting long one piece rods.

I have never been an advocate of traveling with rods in a standard cooler rack on the front of the truck, although these types of racks are an essential tool for beach fishing. Driving at highway speeds with eleven foot surf rods sticking straight up in the air is a recipe for disaster, kicked up debris from the road, bugs, birds, trees and bridge overpasses are just some of the hazards. Some type of horizontal roof mounted rod rack is a far safer option, unless you have room inside your vehicle to hang an eleven foot or longer rod. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a roof rack made by The Surfcaster, a locking rack that can hold six surf sized rods and reel combo's safely on the roof of your vehicle. A padlock of your choice not only locks in the rods on the front rack, but also can be hooked through a rubber coated bar that locks in place over the reel seats. A would be thief would literally have to remove the whole rack off the truck with the rods still inside it in order to get away.

Unfortunately this rack is no longer available, however many have replaced this type of rack with ski racks. Ski racks hold rods horizontally on top of your vehicle and also come with locking racks for security. Most do not however hold rods in separate tubes, so care must be taken in positioning your rods prior to locking it down, and there are no guides that trap the reel seat and prevent the reels from swinging side to side, so spacing is critical. Of course with the advent of modern high end two piece rods, such as those offered by CTS, many of these problems have gone away. Having two five and one half foot pieces rather than one eleven foot piece has opened so many possibilities for surf casters.

Tackle storage comes in many forms, from tossing a few Plano boxes of lures into a milk crate to custom made tackle cabinets built right into the vehicle. I have used many different systems, and I have found that more important than how much you can bring, is having what you need AND being able to access it easily. Nothing can put a damper on a trip than realizing you have forgotten your sand spike or left your sinkers home, or forgot to bring leader material. Even worse is having a huge school of fish pin a school of bunker against the jetty, and the bass are readily taking white metal lipped swimmers, and you know you have one in your truck, but where? Tossing boxes and bags around the back of your truck, cursing every piece of junk in your way, till finally you find it in the bottom of your bait bucket with both trebles tangled in your hand towel. By the time you get it free, get it tied on, and exhaust your cache of expletives, the fish are gone. Sometimes you have a one to three minute window, how do you want to spend it? I personally have a cabinet built to fit in the back of my Dodge pick-up, it fits the length of my eight foot bed and is internally divided into two four foot sections. The front section has four drawers, each four feet deep with assorted compartments for assorted tackle and gear. The rear section has doors on top and boasts one large compartment, holding my plug box, tackle packs, tools, permit and towing gear, and my bait fishing gear. There is also one long rear compartment that holds sand spikes, full length shovel, long crow bar, and other assorted gear. This system allows me not only to know what I have but know where it is. I can run to my truck, grab a three ounce A.O.K T-Hex metal and be casting it as fast as I can get back to the water.

Aside from fishing tackle, comfort items are a must. A change of clothes for that sudden unexpected dip in the ocean, along with a clean bath towel and some Q-Tips to save your hearing can prevent a trip cut short. A cooler with drinks and snacks can keep you on the beach when the action is hit and miss. Chap stick, sunscreen, bug spray, pain relievers, upset stomach aids, toilet paper, tissues, moist hand cleaning towels, etc. can all make your trip more comfortable. I always keep an overnight bag in my buggy, you never know what may come up. I always keep water, meal replacement bars, assorted snacks, and my most favorite these days, allergy medicines. It seems the older I get the worse they get and easy breathing goes a long way to making an enjoyable trip.

A good yet small tool kit is a wise addition. Not a kit large enough to open a garage on the beach but what you need to fix common problems on your specific vehicle. Items such as a small socket set, a few combination wrenches, a Phillips and slotted screwdriver, and the kings of all repairs: duct tape and zip ties. I also carry a tire repair kit, which includes a valve stem tool, hole plugging kit, sidewall repair patches and good vulcanizing cement, which I check every month to ensure it hasn't dried up. These will keep me rollin'. A way to inflate your tires is a huge plus, whatever works for you, a portable compressor, a Power Tank CO2 inflator (my personal choice), or an on board built in air pump from ARB can save your day, especially if you drive off the beach late and find out some fool broke the air hose fitting at the air station and you have no option.

Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance, the seven P's!

This formula applies to beach buggy fishing, and a little planning and thought will go a long way toward helping you enjoy your time on the sand. Till next time...Tight Lines!!

PROPER PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE bigrockcustomlures.com

Steve McKenna

Transition #1 I remember it like it was yesterday! It was a mid-April day in 1973. I was standing on the West Wall in Narragansett, Rhode Island trying to catch my first striped bass ever. The day was cold with a strong southwest wind blowing directly in my face making it extremely difficult to cast my little ½ oz.

Upperman bucktail jig. There was another fisherman on the wall that late afternoon and I watched him intently in between my casts. Closely watching to see what he was doing. I was a “wet behind the ears” rookie who wanted to see if he was doing everything right. I had a lot of experience freshwater fishing but saltwater surf casting was a totally new experience. About a half an hour into this trip I felt a hard strike and instinctively set up hard. I was on!

I still remember the adrenaline rush as I quickly forgot about the wind, my cold fingers and the other fisherman as all my focus was now on fighting the fish. The bass (I hoped) made a few short bursts and the strain became obvious on my freshwater tackle. I was using my trusty freshwater outfit which consisted of a 6 foot Abu Garcia spinning rod with a Mitchel 300 reel bulging with 12 pound test Stren mono. After a short battle I crawled down on the lower jetty rocks and grabbed a schoolie about 16 inches long (a “keeper� back then). I was ecstatic and hoisted the little bass for all to see. Little did I know that this event would be a life changing experience.

Fishing for and catching that small striper was the beginning of one of the greatest transitions in my fishing and in my entire life. As I unhooked the fish I gave it a kiss then tossed it gently back into the sea. I crawled back to my perch thinking how much fun this was and how I couldn’t wait to make another cast and catch another fish. Unfortunately, though only a few more small fish were landed that afternoon before dark but I didn’t catch another one. However, while I was walking off the wall I was already planning my next trip.

I thought about how great it was catching that bass and how wonderful the entire surfcasting experience was. On the ride home I dreamed about catching another striper and wondered what it would be like to catch a lot of them at one time.

Transition #2 It was only a short time after my initial surfcasting trip. I was back on the same breakwater fishing the same Upperman bucktail with the red and white head without a trailer, by the way. Back then surf guys didn’t use lead heads with any kind of pork rind or rubber twister tail trailers. Pretty strange but we caught a lot of spring time schoolies on the bare bucktail jig. I can’t remember when it happened but sometime shortly thereafter we started putting a white rubber twisty tail grub on the back of our white jigs. It made a lot of sense because it added action and produced all sized bass consistently throughout the season. We added Uncle Josh’s pork rinds to our bigger jigs too. They came in real glass jars back then and the caps rusted quickly. This afternoon was a lot like my maiden voyage in that it was a cold, late April afternoon with a humping southwest wind. Strangely, I was the only surfcaster on the wall that day, It wasn’t long before I was hooking small bass on every cast. My excitement was not enough to deter me from counting every single striper that memorable day with my final tally reaching 47 fish by the time it got dark. I rushed home to tell my wife. She asked me if I maybe I had caught the same fish more than once. I quickly dismissed her claim and basked in the glory of my personal all time record for numbers of bass in one trip.

Transition #3 I was getting pretty good at this striper catching thing. I was so happy that I was going fishing pretty much when I wanted and pretty much forgot about everything else in my life. I ate, drank and slept surfcasting for bass and voraciously devoured everything I could that that might help me enjoy this sport of ours. I met several older, more experienced surf fishermen back then but my earliest mentors were Frank Benassi and Oliver “Gil” Gliottone. Both men taught me plenty and much of the way I surf cast today is due primarily to their tutelage. I was extremely lucky because back then information on stripers was top secret and you would be hard pressed to get any real pertinent info from anyone. Believe me, it was a lot different than today. Frank and Gilly were very forth coming with all the information that I could digest. We fished together and talked. I learned about the best spots in ‘Gansett and even the secret spots to fish in faraway lands like Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I learned about the Atom 40 (Frank had a strong Italian accent and called them “Aaa-dam 40s), rigged eels, live eels, eel skin plugs and 5 inch Rebels. We caught fish, a lot of fish but no real big fish. Both Frank and Gil only used artificial lures. They were older gentleman and both had a lot of “time in grade”. I guess they had reached a level of surf casting that I did not realize because I was still a neophyte. I used to ask them about catching big stripers and they both told me the same thing. Use live eels at night!!!!

I broke away from them eventually mainly because they fished dusk and dawn and I couldn’t really fish at those times. My job hours then were from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00p.m. (I know, great hours for a surf fisherman!) and I hated getting up well before dawn to fish that magic hour of first light.

So I struck out on my own after dark with my eel bucket in hand. By then I had a very nice surf outfit. The 6 foot freshwater, bass rod and Mitchell 300 were gone. I now fished with a custom 10 foot Lamiglas fashioned by local rod guru Joe Mollica. All the sharpies went to Joe for their surf sticks. I wanted to become a sharpie so I did the same. My Mollica special was specifically made to fling live eels. I remember I bought a Penn 706 to put on it. I paid 49.95 for it at Elmwood Sport shop. Another early mentor, Pat Abate, had recommended this bailless reel and I figured out the no-bail system quickly. The rod and reel lived up to their hype and I fished live snakes every time out. I used to carry a few plugs though “just in case”.

It was a cold, mid-October eve in 1980. My partner, Art Lavallee (oh yes, I picked up a great fishing partner along the way) and I decided to try a new spot in Narragansett. Art had fished this place with his late father some years ago and did well during the fall run. We arrived at “the World Series Hole” at about high water just after dark. I recall that I almost cancelled this trip because I was tired from a recent Martha’s Vineyard surfcasting trip with Art and besides the first playoff game was on. We set up on two good looking rocks and cast our eels into a wind whipped sea.

About five minutes into the trip I felt the sharp hit and dropped my rod and let the fish run off line. 1 count, 2 count, 3 count (Cuttyhunk guide live eel method as taught to myself and Art by guide Roland Coloumbe) and then set up hard. I felt pressure then nothing for about a second. Then, the fish realized what was going on, I guess, and made a run so strong it nearly pulled me off my perch. As I reared back on the rod keeping constant pressure on the fish, I thought to myself that I had never felt a fish as strong as this one. I got a little un-nerved and said to myself “don’t lose this one”! About 5 minutes after the hookup, the neck lights went on and Art went down in the wash to grab my fish. I remember I couldn’t believe the size of the fish when it finally came into view. When we put it on the Manley 50 pound scaled, I strained to lift the big bass off the ground high enough to get an accurate reading. The needle bounced around the 45 pound reading. Art tried it and got the same thing. We were both in a surf fishing club which had a yearly contest for the largest striper. It was a big deal back then so I decided to keep the big striper and weigh it in on the certified club scale the next morning. Boy was I excited. My first “40”! I didn’t sleep much that evening and rushed down to “Top of the Dock” bait shop early the next morning. I proudly lifted the fish out of my car’s trunk with all the regulars looking on. The scale was readied and I lifted the bass on the meat hook. 45 pound 12 oz. Wow, my heart pounded as I shook hands and recounted the night before.

Transitions #4 and #5 Several years later and with hundreds of surf casting trips under my belt I was extremely fortunate to experience something that most striper fisherman don’t get a chance to do.

Actually two things! It was the fall of 1982 and I made my first trip to Block Island. The word got out to a few of us in Narragansett that the “Island” was the place to fish if we really wanted to catch some serious bass. The late Andy Lemar, who I was lucky enough to meet and who I consider one of my mentors along with Gilly and Frank, made the initial BI trip with another Gansett sharpie, John Snow, and came back with stories of big bass and a lot of them. That’s all we had to hear and Art was on the phone booking vehicle reservations on the Block Island ferry. All the information that Andy supplied was correct. The first spot we tried at Southwest point, I had several bass in the 20’s and one around 30 pounds. Art did about the same. We did all the damage with weighted 7 inch Redfins. These plastic plugs were hollow and some smart New Yorker decided they would work better if they were weighted with 10 ccs of water. Art and I went halves on a case of them and I spent all my spare time weighting them.

This BI experience was really different for us. We were catching good sized bass on artificial lures.

We had brought a bucket of live eels with us but that evening was windy and casting eels into it was uncomfortable. The Redfin was much easier to fish and worked like a charm. I think it worked so well because it was a dead ringer for the large sand eel bait fish that all the bass were keying on. I remember they were so thick that they would bump into your waders when you walked into the water. Also, both Art and I had never seen sand eels that large.

We made several trips that first year and over the next winter planned our attack for the next fall.

While we were over there though we hooked up with a few other anglers and all of us ended up renting a beautiful house right at southeast light the following autumn. The “Curtis” house was quite a place. Each of us had our own room, the home had several bathrooms and it even had color TV. The fridge and pantry was always well stocked with food. It was more than a great place to crash after a hard night of surf casting. We ended up renting the Curtis House for the next five or six consecutive falls. Luckily, the bass fishing at the island held up for that long. It was amazing!

Every October, during that five year period the big bass would stack up around the Island and were easy pickings until early December. As you might assume we tried to get over there every chance we got but it’s not that easy getting there even though we lived close in mainland Rhode Island and Connecticut. I remember I used to get so frustrated that I couldn’t get over there when I wanted. I would hear of big catches and I would day dream of taking the ferry or flying over from Westerly. It was tough though to take time out of my busy schedule. I was juggling a good job and a young family. My wife understood but she got tired of me taking off at a moment’s notice. I ended up fishing Block enough and caught striped bass that I had only dreamt about.

Really, the fishing out there was really something that most surf casters can only fantasize about.

One night I had four 40 pound fish all on the same battered RedFin. On another marathon evening, Art and I had fifteen stripers apiece all weighing 30 pounds or better with a few in the mid to upper 40s. I do recall that one of those bass was” only” 22 pounds and all the guys back at the house laughed at me wondering how a fish that small ended up in the catch. And, on a November 30th eve in 1985, when we flew over from the mainland for that “one last trip”, I had the surf casting trip of a lifetime.

Using a new, proto type, wire thru Gibbs needlefish plug I landed bass of 51, 48, 45 and 38 pounds. My first fifty!!!! I couldn’t fish right after I landed it. I kept looking back at the beach again and again. Trying to see through the pitch black, staring at the large form lying on the shore trying to convince myself I had indeed caught a fifty pounder. Everyone in my fishing party assured me it was fifty but I would not rest until the fish was hooked on a certified scale. I remember a great feeling of relief and joy when we finally tracked down that “club” scale at Andy Lemar’s Block Island place. It was about 2:30 AM when we got to Andy’s rental and I remember we had to wake him up. The great fish tipped the scale at just a tick under 51. I literally jumped with joy and let out more than a few screams. For the next two weeks I was on such a high. It is a moment I will never forget. I feel very, very fortunate to have reached such a milestone in striper fishing.

Transitions #6 and #7 I don’t know if it was just boredom with fishing the same old way all the time or a legitimate interest in catching fish on very light tackle. Sometime in the early 90s I first picked up a salt water fly rod. I had a lot of previous experience with freshwater (trout) fly fishing. My dad taught me how to fly fish at a very young age. I can even remember tying flies every evening along with him and my older brother while we watched television. So, saltwater fly casting didn’t seem like such a drastic transition for me. I bought a lot of stuff, spent a lot of money and tied a lot of flies. I read everything I could on the subject which was limited back then, and set out one night to give it “a go” as my Irish grandmother used to say. It went OK but I soon learned that it was difficult and could be extremely frustrating at times. I had to deal with surf casting conditions at a different level than if I was fishing with more conventional surf tackle. Wind, waves and current get amplified when you fly fish the surf and it can be downright impossible at times. As a result, I would always bring a spinning set up with me just in case the wind was screaming or the seas were huge. I probably ended up using the spinner 75% of the time. I recall the frustration and anger, when I’d be using the “long wand” while others around me were spin casting. Those guys would be tonging the bass and I would be untangling fly line in my stripping basket or losing flies on back casts. I wanted to throw the fly rod into the water! I did stick with it for a while and did all right catching mostly schoolies. I did end up breaking the 20 pound mark while fishing the new cut at Chatham (Cape Cod) but that was after many frustrating fly trips. I soon realized that salt water fly fishing for stripers was probably the “purest” form of striper fishing however it was not THE best way to catch a striped bass. I ended up giving away or selling all of my expensive fly gear and vowed never again to pick up a fly rod unless I was going fishing for trout or bonefish.

Transition #8 After my fly fishing experiment I resumed chasing bass with more conventional methods, particularly casting live eels. I also gave rigged eels a try and fell in love with them. I think I fished strictly riggies for the next few years. Then, two of my Block Island friends brought to my attention the 9 inch Slug-go produced by Lunker City based in Meridan, Ct. They touted the Slug-go’s effectiveness on stripers of all sizes and encouraged me to give it a try. That was in 2003. I was extremely skeptical but bought a few and tried them. I was immediately impressed with the Slug-go and continued to tinker around with color, hook configuration and weighting them so as to make them a better surf casting tool. I ended up rigging them with two 7/0 hooks (I borrowed the rigged eel technique) and placed four Lunker City insert weights in them to make them easier to cast. I used the finished product exclusively then and caught a lot of stripers of all sizes. The best thing that I found about the rigged and weighted black Slug-go is that it worked on bigger fish consistently. I found no other artificial lure that would produce like this modified Sluggo. I also discovered that it worked almost as well on bass as a live eel and firmly believe that it will go toe to toe with a rigged eel. I continued to use the Slug-go and have racked up some impressive scores over the last 9 years. Last November (2011), I landed my sixth 40 pound plus fish on one. I will probably never use a live or rigged eel again.

Transition #9 This April, and I have just started my 39th season in the surf, I plan on fishing as much as I can for the striped bass. I still have a burning desire to go down to the shore and cast for striped bass. It will probably be just with artificial lures and I will continue to release everything, even trophies. I still get the same excitement when I walk to the edge of the sea and make a cast. I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance at interacting with nature this way and the opportunity to fish for such a great game fish. I don’t know where the next few years of angling will take me but I only hope that I will be able to do the thing I love for a long, long time. I also hope that fishing gets a little better down the road. Right now, things don’t look as rosy as some would lead us to believe. I know that I don’t catch nearly as many bass as I used to catch just a few short years ago. There seems to be plenty of big bass around but they are only available for boat guys. Smaller bass and 30 pound plus stripers pretty much disappear along the shoreline for most of the season these days.

Transition #10 ?????

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WHERE THE FISH ARE One of the biggest drawbacks to fly fishing the surf is that this "gear" is not always capable of getting a fly to the strike zone. I am referring to limitations in both distance and depth.

In this issue, I want to share a couple of very simple, but very effective tools that have stood the test of time for me. Both help me get to where the fish are.

The first is a fly - the weighted bendback.

Sorry, I never coined a fancy name for this. Maybe there is still time to call this the "Lead Belly?"

The need for this fly can be traced back to March of 1995, when I was fishing outflows on the North Shore of Long Island. In the early part of the season, the fish would literally hug the bottom. Spin fishermen were having minimal success with plugs, but small bucktails and whiptails were doing serious damage. Only a heavier shooting head in the 350 to 550 grain range had a prayer of keeping my fly down in the strike zone in the swift current. But the rocky/sticky bottom meant that I was hanging up or damaging deceivers and clousers, one after the other. After a great deal of trial and error, I ended up with a bendback that incorporated a number of turns of .035 lead wire around the shank. This gave me a fly that rode point up, was practially "weedless", and most importantly, was much less prone to hanging up.

There is little doubt that certain game fish spend a considerable amount of time in the lowest segment of the water column, and I am certain that in faster current, fish use the drag of the bottom, with obstructions in water flow, as they lie in wait for their next meal. My theory might make perfect sense, but be hard to prove. Significant time bucktailing cuts, outflows and inlets has me convinced of the importance of working the bottom, especially in fast currents.

Quite a lot has changed for me in the last fifteen years, most notably my understanding of surfcasting and fly fishing, but I can happily report that the "weighted bendback" is still very much an integral tool in my bag of tricks. In fact, the basic design, with the standard variations on size, color, and materials, has not really changed at all. A broad assortment of sizes, widths and colors, using any desired of materials, all seem to work.

My favorite version uses 4 to 8 thin sections of schlappen as the body material, with some flash, and bucktail at the head. A high-quality hook is given a slight bend in the vice, and then a few turns of lead are applied just below the bend, and kept in place with a few turns of thread and then glued in place (I happen to prefer epoxy). The lead is less for weighing the fly down. Its main purpose is to ensure that the fly rides point up, even in

fast or turbulent water. The sinking line - or better yet, a fast sinking shooting head - is the key for keeping the fly in the strike zone. This is all about keeping a fly near the bottom where the fish are. In certain instances, if you are not feeling the bottom every now and then, you'll need a heavier head.

The other "tool" worth mention here concerns a certain style of stripping basket.

When the fish don't come to you, there is sometimes an opportunity to swim to them. I'll admit, I like to wetsuit, and that includes wetsuiting with a fly rod.

If you've actually tried to swim with even a plug bag, you'd wonder how in the world it is feasible to drag along a “dish pan" style stripping basket. Oh, I've tried! It only takes one wave to end up with two gallons of water tugging at your waist! Then the party is over. Over the years I've experimented with a succession of mesh-style baskets. Most failed in the durability department, which meant they lost shape and/or fell apart after a few good smacks from a wave.

Then I took an active interest in shopping baskets. My wife thought it was comical (ok, actually she used the word "weird") at how I would study the basket dimensions, web configuration and plastic compositions, of the various baskets shoved under the counter at the checkout line of each grocery store.

In the end, I liberated one particular basket from a local grocery store, a model that looks very similar to one I later found on the web. Don't worry, I quickly got over the guilt of my transgression once saw how much we had spent!

Next came a couple of very simple modifications.

The first was the installment of some heavy-duty wire ties to keep the line in place and limit potential tangles.

The second modification was some rolled foam material, fastened with electrical tape at the point where a clip belt was to be inserted. After some trial and error, I realized this stress point needed reinforcement, if I expected this basket to hold up to swimming and wave action.

Both modifications took me (and will take you) a whopping 20 minutes, and I can happily report that this particular basket shown here has served me well for close to ten years of wetsuiting, and counting!

I simply clip the basket and then turn ii behind me while swimming. “Swimming� here is a slow free style but keeping my head above the water with the rod in my teeth. I turn it back facing forward when it's time to strip and cast. It should come as no surprise that I seldom find the need for a long cast, not out on a rock anyway. I’ve taken quite a few fish at times turning back and casting back in toward shore. I tend to leave the belt on the loose side so that I can flip the basket to my side with my elbow while I am fighting a fish.

? s ’ o t o h p d l o t Go

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NORMAN OLDFIELD and theFLAPALURE Mullet have never been popular as natural or live bait used by striper fisherman. They are difficult to catch because they are so fast.

They are equally difficult to catch by the slower moving striped bass who prefer to take up positions around a structure and wait for mullet to come by.

Right after World War II, stripers made one of their cyclical comebacks, and the September mullet migration in New York and New Jersey produced blitz conditions for fisherman using metal squids. But these squids caught mostly schoolie bass; and big stripers ignored them, frustrating the surf casters.

Oldfield with a slaptail caught cow bass. Norman and his brothers loved to fish Rhode Island’s rocky shoreline.

But in 1945, an angler fishing the jetties off Long Beach, New York, decided to try a Heddon flaptail during one of the fall runs. At that time, Heddon made two different sized flaptails: a small one for freshwater bass fishing and a larger one for muskies. Though he could not hold any of the big fish he hooked on the musky sized lure, he did manage to catch many medium sized fish.

Regardless, fisherman took notice. Soon flaptails were being made larger and heavier with stronger hardware and hooks to hold up in the saltwater environment. New York luremakers led the way; and guys like Jerry Ferrone, Charlie Russo, Roy Whitehead, and Frank Romanek were some of the high-profile guys who pioneered the flaptail design for saltwater use.

One of only two Oldfield boxes known, along with his calling card.

Like many early lure makers, Norman depended on word of mouth (“Buzz�) to play up his product.

He never produced a catalog or advertised his plugs.

Oldfield made painted-eye Flapalures for his brothers and friends to fish with.

Oldfield believed so strongly in the catching ability of his Flapalures that he made very few swimmers and poppers.

This swimmer is the only known one to exist.

Norman Oldfield was not part of the New York City clique, but he knew a good thing when he saw it; and by 1946, he began his own one-man operation making flaptails which he called Flapalures. He started making them out of cedar because the wood floated so well, but it was too hard to turn by himself; so he quickly went to store-bought pine dowels. All lures were dipped in white lacquer. He stretched his mother’s old curtains over a handmade wooden frame that he designed and would spray through it in order to get the scale-finish he desired.

Eyes were purchased from Herter’s, and he cut out all the flaps himself from a template he made. Hooks for everybody in the business were hard to come by in post World War II America; but the majority of the ones he got, he purchased from Charlie Russo.

Norman figures he made no more than 1,000 lures before he stopped making them.

The rest were sold at a place called Dunn’s Corner in Rhode Island. Norman did the majority of his striper fishing up there because he preferred the less crowded beaches.

Oldfield loved the outdoors and was a versatile fisherman, equally comfortable bottom fishing or surfcasting. He wrote many articles for Outdoor Life and the Salt Water Sportsman in the 50’s and 60’s

Oldfield experimented with a variety of different sized Flapalures

Several glass-eyed models that were sold out of Marino’s Tackle Shop in New York and Dunn’s Corner in Rhode Island.

Post Word War II hooks that could handle saltwater conditions were hard to come by. The lures in the photo came out of Marino’s Tackle Shop about 10 years ago. They are still waiting to be rigged.

Oldfield advertised his jigs heavily in Salt Water Sportsman magazines in the 50’s and 60’s

Norman liked to call his flaptails “Flapalures” or “Slaptails.” His simple marketing strategy was to sell the glass-eyed models but use the painted-eye models for himself and his brothers and friends.

After Oldfield gave up luremaking, he and his brothers, Frank and Fred, took to boatfishing the Rockaways, Sheepshead Bay, the Tin Can Grounds and Seabright, New Jersey. Their boat, aptly called “We Three,” was a fixture in the New York Harbor area well into the 1960’s. While they did a variety of bottom fishing, blue-fishing is what turned them on; and they became masters at using diamond jigs during a time when few fisherman even tried them. Ever the opportunist, Norman, who had die-making experience, turned to manufacturing his own jigs. He turned them out for all his friends and found them so popular he decided to sell them. In doing so, Oldfield pioneered a fishing tactic we all take for granted today.

(Readers wishing to contact writer Frank Pintauro may do so by calling 516-741-7044 or by emailing masterlure@aol.com)

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BLOCK ISLAND

START TO FINISH TIM COLEMAN The first time I ever laid eyes on this famed spot was in September, 1972, while parked in the fishing lot at Deep Hole in Matunuck, RI. Block Island looked far away and a bit intimidating, maybe something out of “Mysterious Island� by Jules Verne, probably out of my reach or so I thought, little did I know.

I was awed by all the tales of giant bass coming from its beaches but in the meantime, I had to report for duty at the University of Rhode Island to finish college with a B.A. in Journalism. Block Island would have to wait.

I grew up in Philadelphia with its polluted rivers and worked as a laborer at a chemical plant along the Delaware River. With those experiences and after a year in Vietnam, the rocks and beaches of Rhode Island around Point Judith were the Promised Land.

Everywhere you looked you saw another break or edge where a huge bass was undoubtedly lying in wait to grab a plug.

With some classmates, I rented a cottage from Henry Chappell in East Matunuck, right next to the connecting water between Potter and the Salt Ponds. I used to write my fishing buddies back in New Jersey that we had stripers right in our backyard—and indeed we did. If you got tired of the textbooks, it was easy to grab a light rod and a small Rebel and head for the water to catch schoolies galore.

Right or wrong, we sold lots of bass in those days, not as mad money but to pay for school. That dough was sorely needed in spite of the GI Bill and a Vets scholarship from the state of Pennsylvania. We were poorer than church mice on welfare so we needed any boost we could get. A very common schedule was to run the bass over to the Point Judith Co-Op before class then heavy-foot it back to school.

One of my friends would often say I would arrive for the first class of the morning smelling like success from the night before. I still have some of the old trip tickets and saw a couple times we had between 266 and 282 pounds of bass on a hot night. We were accustomed to fishing all night at places like Black Point or the Point Judith Lighthouse. Back then I bumped into very few fishermen once the sun went down.

All the while though I kept hearing the old timers talk about the big fish over at Block, it was on the schedule but first was the matter of earning a living. I was hired by The New England Fisherman magazine after college. The magazine was just starting out on its first season and the first issue was published in March 1974. The office in Mystic, CT was my home base for the next 27 years.

Over time doing stories and manning our booths at winter fishing shows, I met a lot of excellent anglers, including people like the late “Silent” George Thackeray. George could talk the ears off a mummy until you asked him where he caught his last load of bass. Then he would earn his nickname. Around 1980, George began to get rumors though the grapevine that one of the local mainland pinhookers had teamed up with Charlie Dodge, a Block Island native who could trace his roots back to one of the first settlers in 1620. Together they were supposedly catching a lot of fish.

We were intrigued by these rumors so we made a trip there in the summer of 1981. By then the striper fishing on the mainland was heading south. Over we went, seeing Southwest Point for the first time, catching medium blues on pencil poppers under a hot July sun. We drove all around the island, checking spots like Black Rock for the first time. If the water on the mainland was good, Block was the Super Bowl. We often joked if you didn’t like the water there it was time to take up golf.

All night we hoofed around, catching nothing. We bumped into one of the mainland crew who told us about clocking weakfish for a few summers at Grace’s Cove and of course, stories about bass piled high and deep in the fall. We left the next morning, falling asleep in the back of the van on the ferry ride home. We’d seen enough to return when the time was right.

In those days there wasn’t much of a summer fishery, bass moved through in the spring, but usually were gone by the end of June and then returned in the fall. If you did fish during the summer you caught blues but not many bass.

Fall arrived and George and I were back at Block, up and down the cliffs, armed with surface swimming Danny plugs, the new 7-inch Rebel and the latest secret weapon, a 7inch Redfin loaded with just the right CC’s of water. By morning we were beat to the point that I was seeing little circles of light in front of my eyes. Not good!

We learned that it was easier to fly in and out than travel back and forth on the ferry. I borrowed a junker station wagon from my mom, bought a Block Island Airport parking pass for the princely sum of $50. We would leave the wagon in the lot so we could fly back and forth to Westerly for the further princely sum of $35 round trip.

As we waited at the airport that morning having caught a couple of 20-pounders for an allnighter, up pulled a small blue, severely dented pickup with a cap on the back, driven by Steve Smith, another island local. In the back of the truck was a deck load of bass, all over 20 pounds, the biggest going 50 pounds.

I dragged George out of the small airport dinner tearing him away from his coffee and eggs, to look at the catch. Both of us then knew we had a lot to learn. Just this year I asked Steve about that night. He has since moved away from the island and now lives in Bradford, RI, running a boat shop at Watch Hill Boat Yard. Steve said he fished Southwest Point early but some rain chased him home. About midnight he noticed the wind shifted, the sky cleared so back he went to find the place deserted, catching 14 fish to 50 pounds. That catch was the start of my Block Island education.

When we returned, we saw more and more sand eels in the water. That prompted us to change our tactics to respond to what the bass were after. We started using droppers up ahead of the Rebels, working the lures slowly for best results. Pat Abate made a great line of flies tied with saddle hackles and many of us had read about the success of the Red Gill teaser during the 1970s blitzes on the Cape.

One morning at Charleston Beach on the west side, we encountered a large number of bigger fish rolling in the sand eels, refusing bigger plugs like poppers and bottle plugs.

George stuck a 25-pounder by barely turning the handle of the reel, the ticket that morning. We grabbed a couple more quick 20s then hot-footed it off to the airport for the plane home.

I was lucky enough to have a terrific job and some great ladies in the office who covered for me. I could grab a morning’s sleep at home then show up at work by noon with a very large, black coffee in hand. Usually the phone messages ran about 70-30, inquiries about the fishing the night before versus business calls. Block Island was making news—quietly back then—but some of the sharpies from the mainland were on the prowl.

In time we rented a small house in town by the post office that was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Pike. It served as our headquarters and also a roof over our heads on the nights it blew like the hammers of hell or rained so hard we gave up the hunt, glad we had a warm, dry bed to come back to rather than sleeping in the truck as the rain pelted the roof.

Our numbers grew beyond the small house as did our success so we moved on to bigger quarters, the Curtis House near Southeast Light. It had a picture window facing the ocean where you could watch the sun come up over the Atlantic. One morning just after 6 a.m., I enjoyed the view, sipping the coldest, bitterest, greatest tasting coffee in creation, savoring the time because in the back of the vehicle were bass of 50 and 54 pounds, my first two 50s caught on successive casts after 19 years of trying hard without hitting the magic moment.

As sand eels stayed the dominant bait, we began to hear about a strange plug coming on big time but they were hard to find, The first few guarded and clipped on a leader away from prying eyes. One very calm night at Southwest Point (there’s that spot again) we were catching a few low 30s on 5-inch Redfins which we fished in the quiet, clear surf with spinning rods, 14-pound line and 30-pound leaders.

Up the bar a bit, a father and son team from New York were also hooking up but we didn’t notice anything until we saw them land a really big fish. Closer inspection showed it to be about 52 pounds and further inspection showed a plug called a needlefish. It was long and slender, just like the sand eels, a dead ringer.

The next morning I was on the horn to Betty and Bick’s Tackle Shop in Seaside Park, NJ to order 24 of the needles, big money back then. We started using them and the big bass started busting them up, pulling the hook hangers right out of the wood or bending the hooks into something from a bad dream.

We started collecting all the bent hooks, storing them in a jar in the house. Someone thought up a name, and labeled the lost fights as “Broken Hearts.” Pat Abate of River’s End Tackle in Old Saybrook, CT still has the jar and all the unbelievably bent hooks.

In time we saw the first wooden needlefish from Don Musso and then a through-wired version made by the Danny Pichney. Danny’s plugs worked great and Don’s plastic needlefish went on to become the gold standard for island fishing. One night Pat found a 7-inch Musso needlefish on the beach and used it at Dories Cove to land eight bass from 40 to 55 pounds.

Top to bottom are Danny’s eight-inch needlefish, 6-inch needle with extra weight to blast through a head wind and Danny’s version of the Pocket Rocket. Bottom plug is a version of the Pocket Rocket made by the late George Thackeray. The author used one like this to catch a 67-pounder on November 19, 1985.

Danny branched out from his first design that had three swivels in the belly for three 3/0 trebles. You kept them super sharp to get a good hook set or Mr. Bass sent you back to the locker room with another addition to the Broken Hearts jar. From that first plug, Danny produced a 6-inch plug with two hooks with lots of extra lead that would blast through a 20 mph southwest wind.

He also turned out the first version of the Pocket Rocket, now called the Stubby Needlefish. That was followed

by George Thackeray turning out his own version of the Stubby or wooden Hopkins, the idea being to create a casting weight for the long black saddle hackles on the back of the plug.

I used George’s version to catch a 67pounder on November 19, 1985 and Danny’s plugs to catch the two 50s back to back on November 18, 1984 With dates like that, it seemed very obvious to us, Mother Nature had the bass on a schedule. Big fish were

caught in November, smaller ones in October. Steve Smith used to call the 25-pounders schoolies, much like the Cape Cod anglers who fished at Race Point during the boom times.

Gibbs first turned out needles with just hook hangers like those favored by island high liners like John Grant but big bass tore those up too.

Remember the water was cooling down and we all figured in the cold water, fish from 40 to 60-plus pounds were in their fighting prime. If you weren’t on your A game, you lost.

In time John Gibbs, at the behest of Art Lavellee from Acme Tackle, made the first wired-through needlefish, an 8-inch long plug with two hooks. Art gave one to his good friend Steve McKenna who brought it over to Block on a Friday night, December 1, 1985, Steve landed bass of 51, 48, 45, 38 and 12 pounds that night—and he still has that very plug in his tackle cave at his home in Cranston, RI.

While all the members of our crew at the rented house caught the biggest bass of their careers during that time, we also had stinko, nothing nights, from last light to sunrise, leaving us beat to the bone, glad it was over. I was so tired one trip I fell asleep over coffee at the airport, almost knocking the cup over. It was common practice to fall asleep right in the middle of a conversation with whoever was sitting next to me on the plane ride home.

We also had lots of times too when you would laugh until you cried. The old clunker station wagon had so much sand on the floor on the passenger side some type of small green plant started to grow up out of the carpet. I always joked with new people to please watch the landscaping as we drove around.

During those dark trips up and down the island’s roads we would see deer galore—and that was a good sign. We figured if the deer were active so were the bass. One night we stopped right alongside a big doe munching by the side of the road in the wee hours. Dr. Frank Bush rolled down the window and asked her if she knew where any bass were? The deer looked up a bit but kept eating, figuring it was another dipshit tourist from the mainland.

On another night, George, Pat and I fished the Snake Hole and beaches to the west.

George stayed at the Hole, Pat and I made the trek along the rocks. We caught nothing for an hour’s effort; George meanwhile had landed a 40 and 54 on his homemade needlefish plugs. George wasn’t exactly Mr. Body Builder, matter of fact he often said when he laid down on the beach for a nap he looked like a beached whale. Rather than carry both fish all the way back up the cliff, George offered Pat a deal on the night of his birthday, November 28, 1985. If Pat would carry the 40 up the hill, George would give it to him as a birthday gift.

Pat did and a half hour later we were weighing both fish on the scale outside of the tackle store in New Shoreham run by Charlie Dodge.

On still another night, same location, Pat and I came around the beach again to find George asleep on a flat rock by the Snake Hole. George was snoring away: the sound like somebody was cutting a rusty Chevy in half with a dull chain saw.

Fishing got so hot some of the guys went to extremes to get a ride around the island.

George came over by himself one trip and hired a cab to bring him to Dories Cove. He was going to fish the west side all night. The cabbie was told to pick him up at the Dories parking lot in time for the plane home.

If you had a good night, and wanted to get your fish back on the plane, you had to buy an extra ticket for the fish.

Many mornings you would walk down the aisle of the small plane to see somebody seated in a window seat with a tote full of bass heads and tails strapped into an aisle seat for the ride back.

After one excellent two-day stretch, I returned to the house around daybreak to find two totes of large bass in the garage. I asked one of the crew about the fish but he just shrugged and said it was OK but nobody got a 50. On still another time Dr. Frank Bush told a fellow we met on the west side that we hadn’t kept any fish so far that night because we hadn’t caught anything over 55 pounds. At that point in time we weren’t keeping anything under that mark, after weighing the “smaller” bass on a Chatillion 60pound scale I used to carry around in a shoulder bag. I originally had a 50-pound scale but it wasn’t “big” enough to weigh some of the larger 50s people were catching.

No story is complete about Block with some of the great numbers landed. Here’s a few.

Art Lavellee and Steve McKenna fished the south side for 30-plus fish that had an average weight of 33 pounds. Dr. Bush climbed down under Southeast Light on a cold mother of a trip. There he released 20 bass, two of them in the 50s, and lost a fight with a fish I’m convinced was over 60 from the way he described the battle. The largest bass by the way that was caught during this time was a 70-pounder by Captain Joe Zaebo that was for a time, the Rhode Island state record.

The first house we rented was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Pike and was in town near the post office.

The old clunker wagon was used many nights on the island’s roads. It had so much sand on the floor on the passenger’s side that little green plants of some type were growing up out of the carpet.

I’d run out of space here or would need a book to go into all the scores rung up by some of the great surf rats from Rhode Island and New York. Among the many are a 58-pounder by the late Tommy Beehan, a 64-pounder by the late Al Pellini who died a tragic death while fishing at Cuttyhunk, two 50s by Dennis Zambrotta of Newport during a 24-hour period on November 13, 1987 and three other 60s caught the week of November 1985 when the good Lord blessed me with the 67.

Our time ended at Block in 1988. By then all the press brought hordes of fishermen, some jammed into spots that would only handle a handful of regulars. Fights ensued and in one case the police were called in after somebody’s glasses were broken when another guy smacked him with his rod.

At the time we fished there, we didn’t think that the island would receive the fame it has today.

Block Island is improving with age and without a doubt will rate a high spot in striper history.

There was a period, often stated in beach conversation over a break late at night, that your next cast could produce a 65-pounder.

This Old Shop

Greg McSharry

I have been an avid fisherman my whole life thanks to my father. When I was much younger, our weekly outings consisted of trout and bass fishing in the local freshwater ponds in Southeastern Massachusetts. As I grew, my father started to incorporate saltwater fishing with a heavy focus on striped bass. We would fish with bait from a couple of local bridges and marsh areas that my father had fished while growing up. At this time, I thought bait fishing was the only way to catch striped bass.

One day while catching an early morning dropping tide at one of our favorite marshy locations, bass started to feed on top. They were chasing small bait and making all sorts of commotion on top; it was awesome to see. I had never really seen anything like that, or never had the attention span to really notice what was going around me. I started casting mackerel chunks at the breaking fish to no avail. Some other anglers, who were also in the area, were using top water plugs that they cast to the breaking bass. They caught fish after fish as I just stood there in amazement. I did not know that striped bass were like largemouth bass in that they would eat artificial bait.

I started to get more into striped bass fishing after I got my driver’s license; I had some freedom and could fish more frequently. That’s when the fishing bug really got me. It’s all I wanted to do, all the time. I loved fishing so much that I after I graduated high school I went to college and majored in Aquaculture. As soon as my first year of college classes were over and summer began, it was my time to fish. I had outgrown the fishing spots my father and I frequented. I wanted to try some new locations. So we did what everyone else did at that time and turned to the fishing reports in the local newspaper. The Cape Cod Canal seemed to be mentioned in almost every weekly report so that is where we headed.

The first thing we learned about the canal was that it can be an absolutely miserable place to fish without any guidance. We learned that within the very first hour of fishing. Next we learned not to bring just a few bait rigs and bank sinkers because they will snag on the bottom and you will lose them in the first couple of mega fast drifts. The third lesson we learned was not to show up to bait fish the Canal midcurrent on a double star tide, because you cannot.

Frustrated beyond belief, we left and headed to the shop that was mentioned in the fishing reports to seek out knowledge: the Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay. Red Top had been around as long as my father could remember; he had always wanted to check out the shop, and this was the perfect chance. As we walked into the shop, I couldn’t believe the size of it. We were used to makeshift tackle shops in somebody’s basement. This was nothing even remotely close to that. I had never seen so much fishing equipment in my life. It was awesome. We talked to a few of the staff members at the shop. I remember that they were pretty friendly guys and talked about how good the fishing was that morning. We bought a few of the plugs that guys recommended and when we left the shop, I couldn’t wait to go back to the Canal or to Red Top. I fished the Canal primarily in the summer when classes let out. I graduated from The University of Rhode Island in 2003 with a degree in Aquaculture. I went to work at a local hardware store until I found a job using my degree. During those two years when the spring time rolled in and the bass showed up, I would travel forty-five minutes to fish the Canal and forty-five minutes back to be at work by 7:30. I loved the Canal and could not get enough of it.

Red Top Sporting Goods began in 1949. Its founding fathers were Charlie Sherer and Bill Chase. Bill Chase grew up in the local Bourne area. After World War II he went to work at a plumbing supply house in Providence, Rhode Island. Charlie Sherer was from Rhode Island and his family had a summer residence in Grey Gables village in the Bourne area.

Both men were avid hunters and salt water fisherman. Somehow, their paths crossed in the late forties and the two became friends. Charlie wanted to open up a tackle shop in the Canal area and he wanted Bill to help him out with the shop due to his local contacts and knowledge of fishing in the area. The Sherers had a family holly tree farm called the Red Top Farm located in Little Compton, Rhode Island, so they decided to borrow the name. In 1949, the Red Top Bait Company opened its doors in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. It was located down the street from where the shop stands today, in a building that is now connected with St. Peter’s Church.

After a couple of up and down years of being in business, Bill Chase did not think he could support his family much longer so the two business partners decided to sell Red Top. They sold it to a gentleman by the name of Dutton Alden. Dutton was then the President of the Blackstone Valley National Bank. He needed someone who knew about fishing in the area and how to run a business. Dutton had asked Bill to stay on and run the shop but Bill gracefully declined the offer and ended up going to work for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Across the Canal in the Town of Sandwich, an avid fisherman named Bernard “Bunny” DiPietro had a small ice cream shop called the Sugar Bowl. In a small part of the shop, Bunny would sell plugs that he got on consignment from his good friend and fishing pal, Bill Chase. Bill and his son Bill Jr. went to visit Bunny one day and told him about the employment opportunity at Red Top; Bunny was a logical choice. He, much like Bill Chase, was an avid fisherman and knew a great deal about local fishing. So, Dutton enlisted Bunny to run his shop. He would go on to work at Red Top for the next 50 years.

Bunny always greeted his customers with a warm smile.

His knowledge and friendly nature made him highly sought after by local fisherman. One season he decided to start a fishing derby for the guys who worked at the shop. There wasn’t any money or prizes involved; only bragging rights.

This tradition still carries on to this day with the current staff, myself included.

He was a charter member of the Shame Fish and Game Club, a member of the Bourne Chamber of Commerce and original member of the Sandwich Conservation Commission. Sadly, Bunny passed away in March of 2002.

Many say he was the Soul of Red Top and to some the words “Red Top” and “Bunny” go hand-in-hand.

During the sale of the shop, Mr. Alden bought the rights to a plug company called Cap “N” Bill lures.

Charlie Scherer originally made Cap “N” Bill lures.

Dutton bought the company as a tax write-off. He employed a variety of folks at different periods of time to produce this plug. I am told that most of the plugs were turned and assembled by local college students and craftsmen. Some of the plugs were assembled in the back room of the shop by Red Top staff. Cap “N” Bill plugs came to an end in the mid 60’s.

For a period of time, there was a boat called the Red Top and they ran charters out of the shop. For a brief time, along with selling fishing tackle, they sold small johnboats and outboard motors and even repaired small motors. In the early sixties, the guys at the shop started to keep a fishing log. Customers would come in from off the boat or from the Canal to stock up on gear. They either just lost a favorite plug or they wanted to find out what the “hot” plug was. The customers could then “sign in” stating their name, location fished and their catches of the day. It became a shop bragging book, if your name wasn’t in it, then you either missed the tide or needed to sharpen your skills. The book continued on for twenty years.

On December 8, 1972 the shop changed hands for a third time. The new owners would go on to own the shop for the next thirty-seven and a half years. Don and Elizabeth Stromeyer had just moved up from Florida and bought the shop from Dutton. Over their years of ownership, Don and Liz experienced a lot of highs and a few lows.

In the first couple years of business the striped bass population was on an upswing and business was good. They remember lots of big fish being caught in the Canal. By the mid 80’s, however, the bass population was in decline. They had to curtail the business and adjust to the numerous big bluefish being caught.

On June 23,1985, right smack dab in the middle of the short tourist season, a fire gutted the back of the building where all the stock was kept. The fire burned hot due to the camping kerosene and propane that was kept on the shelves. The Stromeyers thought they had lost their shop. Thankfully, they had insurance to cover the cost of damage, but did not have the extra funds to restock the shelves.

So, the Hal Brown Company, a distributor of fishing tackle that Don and Liz did business with stepped in to help them out. The Stromeyers were able to restock the shelves and the folks at Hal Brown gave them an extended period of time to pay off the bill.

Notable people who stopped in the shop were guys like Jon Chaney, Bob Cousy and John Havlicek. They would stop in and talk to Bunny when the Celtics had their training camp up the street at the Mass Maritime Academy. Local Legend plug builders like Bob Pond, Floyd Roman and Stan Gibbs would come in and hang out at the shop.

Aside from his plugs, Stan Gibbs was also known in the local area as a guy who caught really big bass. Don says that one day Stan came into Red Top giddy as schoolgirl. He was very excited about a 7pound plus sea run brown trout that he had caught at Scorton Creek on a spoon he had fashioned at home. Don said it was the most excited he had ever seen Stan.

Other impressive catches they weighed in at the shop came from the Cape Cod Canal. In the summer of 1976, a thirteenyear-old young man, Peter Lebrun, weighed in the biggest striped bass the scale at Red Top had ever seen. The fish weighed just over sixty pounds and was caught on a reverse atom plug. During the month of November in the late Eighties the shop weighed its most unique catch from the Canal. Dale Anderson caught a forty-three pound Cubera Snapper when he was chunking clams for codfish. It was so unique they had to call biologist from Marine Fisheries to come and identify the fish.

In the summer of 2010, Tom Coots the current owner took over the shop. Don and Liz have retired and with their dog Scout they are making up for the years of hunting and fishing they missed out on.

In the fall of 2005, my dreams came true. I moved to the Cape when I got a job working at a fish hatchery in Sandwich, Massachusetts. I was living in paradise. Fishing the Canal was tough for a newbie like myself. The guys I would see riding down the Canal road or at the water’s edge were pretty tight lipped with information. Red Top Sporting Goods was my “go to” tackle shop for those years.

The guys at the shop were friendly and always steered me in the right direction.

I knew that every season they hired a few extra hands for stocking shelves and bait, etc. In the winter of 2006, I applied for a part-time job even before they had the help wanted signs up in the window. Thankfully, they hired me that spring.

Over the years of working at the shop I have gone from bait boy to floor manager. I have learned an invaluable amount of information during this time. Each of the employees came from different fishing back grounds. Some of the staff members were Canal guys, some were surf guys, and others were in-shore or offshore boat fisherman. It was the perfect learning environment for a fishing junkie like myself and was exactly what I was in search of.

Eager to learn all the techniques and nuances of fishing the Canal, I jumped at the chance anytime one of the guys invited me along on a fishing expedition. Every time one of the guys or customers had a current fish story to tell or was recounting how things were in years past, my ears always perked up, even if I was not involved in the conversation. The friendships that I made over the last 6 years have been really amazing. The guys I work and fish with are like extended family members. One of my greatest influences while working at the shop was Bob Samuelson.

Bob was the floor manager when I came to work at the shop. He was one of the guys I would see on the Canal, riding his bike while I was walking miles on end. We worked a lot of the same hours, so he had a big hand in my training on the cash register and line-winding machine. Over the years, our schedules stayed the same so we ended up working and fishing a lot together. We shared the same kind of passion for fishing the Canal and the surf. I attribute my custom plug addiction to him as well.

Bob was one of the best bucktailers I have ever known. He just had the right kind of finesse when it came to jigging. He consistently out-fished me on the Canal or on the beach. I always learned something from him each time we fished. Sadly Bob lost his life in 2010 while we were on an early morning fishing expedition. I miss him greatly.

BIGROCK CUSTOM LURES.COM SERIOUS PLUGS FOR SERIOUS SURF CASTERS

reel talk with Michael Rice, Senior Product Manager at PENN

You guys produced what many consider the ultimate surf fishing reel, the 704/706 Z series...and then one day we woke up and it was gone. Could you tell us what was behind that decision?

Starting out with a tough one….we officially dropped the reel in 2005 due to slow sales…but there were other factors at play. The year 2005 was transition time for PENN spinning reels as we realized we couldn’t be competitive manufacturing reels under $250 here in the US…so we began to move overseas. We successfully moved 2 series/reels over…the Spinfisher and the Slammer….but the volume of the Z series didn’t justify the move. To move reels overseas you have to be willing to invest in a new set of tooling which means $250K easily. The thinking at the time was that the Spinfisher and the Slammer would fill the void left by the Z, but that didn’t happen.

Looking back I don’t think anyone involved in the decision could have imagined the backlash of anglers from New York to Texas.

We are a passionate bunch when it comes to our reels. I'll get to ask about the actual design of Torque but first, how did you guys come up with the Torque concept? Did some marketing genius sitting in a dark cubicle have an eureka moment or did the interest from anglers spark a discussion about making this reel?

The original Torque idea was drawn up in January of 2002, and was the brainchild of 3 PENN engineers. During the purchase and sale of the company the idea was put on the back burner until it was resurrected in February 2007 by a different group of PENN engineers. In 2007 it seemed like more of a logical step for the brand than anything revolutionary. We were already making Internationals and Torques and our customers were asking us for a PENN spinning reel of the same quality that was made in the USA. Not to mention we were watching Van Staal reels starting to take over the beach and quickly realized that we were missing a key segment of the market.

Ok, so the idea was born. What went into consideration or what specific features were talked about during this time?

We started out in 2002 as the International spinning reel morphed into the Torque spinning reel. It was always supposed to be available in black and gold cosmetics which made it to final production. It was supposed to be fully machined aluminum and capable of extreme drag pressures which also made it to final production. The design was supposed to be simple and easy to work on which again made it all the way to final production. The biggest miss of the entire project was the pricing….it was supposed to retail for $400 but ended up retailing for almost $700! We grossly underestimated the cost to manufacture a high-end spinning reel here in the US. At the end of the day the final product ended up being very close to the original concept……ensuring this happens is easier said than done…..I’ve seen numerous projects try to veer off course during the development phase.

We understand and accept the fact that we surf fishermen are a small speck in the fishing universe. And we usually don't have a high expectation of manufacturers taking our concerns into consideration when designing a product. Penn, however, went an extra mile on the Torque. From waterproof design to intently listening to end user suggestions and incorporating them into the final design, you guys really made sure this was a surf ready reel. Excuse us for asking, but we are not used to so much attention. What changed at PENN? Because we know it wasn't always like this….

When Jarden (that’s our parent company) acquired PENN in 2008 we assessed the situation and changed up a few things. Resources were added in the engineering, product management, and supply chain departments. So one thing changed for sure, the amount of horsepower we were able to put behind the PENN brand. The other thing that changed was the ability to hear our consumers….this was driven by the internet….and more specifically the popularity of forums. I believe that the surf crowd has always been outspoken, but with new tools like Stripers Online and Bass Barn they are better able to voice their opinion and we are better able to find it. When you combine more resources with better consumer feedback we are able to dial into smaller markets and develop the right products.

How is the Torque spinning reel different than any other reel Penn made in the past?

The first major difference is that the major components (body, sideplates, rotor, spool, handle arm, etc) of the Torque are all machined from forged aluminum, previous spinning reels were made from die cast aluminum or injection molded graphite. Forged aluminum gives you one of the purest forms of aluminum possible, completely solid, no

air pockets. This process is extremely expensive but well worth it on a reel that was built to be passed down to your grandchildren. The other major difference is that the Torque is fully sealed against water…the body/sideplates, where the handle connects, top of the spool, bottom of the spool, rotor, pinion gear, it’s all sealed. This creates a little friction when turning the handle but keeps saltwater away from key components (bearings, clutch, drag washers, etc). I’m also going to tell you one thing we didn’t do different…we didn’t design the Torque to be a complicated reel. We kept the design as simple as possible. We wanted all anglers to be able to repair and/or replace parts if needed…let’s face it….stuff happens when you’re surf fishing.

We appreciate the simplicity as we remember the last time we opened our Penn Baitcaster to service it and then ended up mailing all the parts to Penn in a Ziploc bag with a note "HELP!". And we also appreciate that you guys made these reels available in a bailess model. We fished with a Penn Torque #5 most of the fall and we were impressed. If there is one thing that we would like to see you do it is to add a Penn Torque #6 to the line-up. Any chance of this being in the pipeline or at least a serious consideration given to adding another model?

It’s not in the pipeline but we can give it consideration. To be honest this is the first request I’ve heard for a 6 size. What is the ideal weight, line capacity, and gear ratio for this 6 size?

The only reason we are bringing this up is because some surfcasters prefer a beefier "full size" reel for fishing strong current and heavy jigs. Torque #7 at 28 oz is too beefy! It is heavier than most reels we are used to. We think that size 6, weighing in at 22 to 24 ounces would be a big hit with our readers. But then again, what do we know? We are after all, keyboard fishermen.

OK, that’s the kind of feedback I can work with, we can put a 6 size surf reel in the hopper but I can’t put a timeline on it. I assume you’re thinking bailess?

Do they come any other way? lol...In all seriousness, thank you for spending this time answering our questions. We sincerely appreciate the attention PENN has bestowed upon up us and are looking forward to more new products..

GOOFING OFF AT WORK WAS NEVER SO MUCH FUN

THE

RHYTHM OF THE SURF STEVE JACCINO

Rolling down route 27 on the east end of Long Island, NY, I’m Montauk bound. The truck is loaded with all the necessities for a night in the surf, including my iPod. The sky is dark as a nasty storm is forecast overnight, and the wind has kicked up enough to start rocking my Jeep back and forth. I’m on a mission and the music blasting out of my truck pushes me forward through the nasty weather to my final destination for the night.

I shuffle through my IPod looking for a song to best compliment my excitement as well as the scenery around me. I land on a song called “Rise” by the band Anew Revolution, a modern metal band that I had recently discovered. My adrenaline pumps a little more as the chorus plays, “Hey! You! Stand the **** up and rise! I’m not afraid!” I’m sure I turn a few heads as I roll through the ritzy area of the Hamptons in my dirty, mud stained Jeep with 11 ft. rods securely attached to my roof, while the local debutantes stand in circles outside one of the area bars, preparing for a night of drinking. But I’m not here for them. I have a tide to catch.

Music is the soundtrack to our lives. No matter what you’re particular tastes in music, or how passionate you are about it, music plays a role in all our lives on a constant basis. The way music can make or break a scene in a movie, so too is this true for surfcasting. The right song or playlist can motivate you, push you to stay out a little longer, fish a little harder, push out into the surf a little farther and in turn, might put you into a fish you might not have caught otherwise.

Music is a vital part of each and every trip I make. Whether it is a calm back bay setting, the open beach, or standing out in the middle of a nor’easter with walls of water trying their best to suck you out to sea, music can complete the scene. Now, for me personally, I don’t listen to music while surfcasting. I prefer to hear the sounds of the waves rolling in, or being tuned into the quiet back bay waters where the slightest splash or pop can signal the presence of fish.

Nature becomes my soundtrack.

However, music is still a part of this experience, and I’ll attempt to explain.

First, like most surfcasters, I spend a lot of time behind the wheel of my car. Whether it’s driving to a specific beach or area to fish for the night, scouting new locations in daylight, driving from spot to spot looking for fish, or rolling down a beach looking for productive water, my car will put many miles on it during a typical trip. And, places like Montauk require many hours behind the wheel, sometimes in bumper to bumper traffic. What keeps me motivated and focused? The answer: music. These long drives are part of the adventure for me, and are as much a part of a trip as the actual fishing.

Depending on the location and conditions I plan on fishing, I make my musical selections to match what I’m in store for that night. For example, in the story I told above about my drive to Montauk, the conditions were snotty, and predicted to get worse. Montauk is one of the most difficult places to fish on the east coast under calm conditions, and under the worst conditions can be downright life threatening. I knew I was going to be spending my night being beat up and tossed around by an angry sea, so I wanted high energy music. I needed music that got the blood pumping and prepared me mentally for the physical abuse I was about to take that night. Under these conditions, I’ll generally choose harder edge music such as heavy metal, punk, or even some rap.

Now let’s change the scene. Deep in a back bay, conditions are the polar opposite of Montauk during a raging storm. The water is generally flat calm, almost glass-like in appearance, the wind can be almost nonexistent on some nights in these sheltered waters, and the slightest sounds or pops can seem as loud as a cannon when compared to the silence that generally surrounds you in the

bay. It is a surreal and serene environment at times, and I choose my music to match. I like to listen to calming, almost hypnotic music while driving to these locations. Hard rock and metal have no place here. Pink Floyd is a personal favorite of mine while driving out to fish the bays, as well as some smooth jazz, or blues. Maybe even some classical music, but whatever I listen to, it is calming, mellow and reflects where I am going and the general atmosphere of the location.

Fishing the sand beaches is different as well.

Depending on weather, the beach can be tranquil and relaxing or kicked up with waves the size of a semi truck crashing on the sand.

Again, I use the conditions to help me pick my music to mentally prepare myself for what’s in store. I can’t explain why, but I’ve always preferred classic rock or instrumental hip hop for sand beaches. My two go to artists are The Who, specifically the Quadrophenia album (anyone who has heard this album, knows why) and Rjd2, who is a modern DJ and hip hop producer. His music isn’t what you’d expect when I say “hip-hop” since he draws inspiration from many places, and his music can range from a nice beat, to atmospheric and dream like.

The music we choose to listen to can get stuck in our head, so even though I said I do not listen to music while fishing, I do have a soundtrack playing in my head while on the beach.

Next, it is becoming more and more common for guys to put together “highlight” videos of their surfcasting excursions. Some are great, much like the Surfcasters Journal videos, while others are not quite as good. Musical selection is very important when it comes to making a video. Yes, the person’s skill in cinematography and editing do come into play, however I feel that music is a much more important factor. I would rather watch a subpar surfcasting video with great music, than a great surfcasting video with poor or no music.

If you are reading this and have always wanted to put together a highlight video for YouTube, or to share with friends on Face Book, don’t overlook the importance of the musical selection. A song with good atmosphere that captures what you are trying to portray is very important. Even better would be to have a song with some movement to it, a song with highs and lows to match up with your video or pictures. Music can become visual to some extent and if you listen to a song you would like to use for a video, you should be able to visualize what your finished product would look like before you even start work. I have two songs in particular that I not only love to listen to while driving out on the beach, but also would love to make videos for. One would be The Chemical Brothers-Acid Test and the other is Nine Inch Nails-Just Like You Imagined. Both of these songs contain key elements that I would look for while attempting a surfcasting video.

There is a direct correlation between music and memory. How many times have you heard a song from your past, and out of nowhere you are flooded with memories? Sights, smells, the way you felt at the time. It’s as though you are experiencing it again. The memories are so vivid it feels real. This can be incredibly useful while surfcasting. When it comes to keeping a log, details are key. Sometimes memories will fade or you get a little fuzzy on the details of a trip.

Look to music. What do I mean? Ok, I’ll give two examples. The first time I ever surfcast was about 6 or 7 years ago, and I can remember every detail about that trip to this day. Keep in mind, this was well before I discovered the importance of keeping a log and how conditions affected where and when to fish. How do I still remember all of these minute details? Well, I had a song stuck in my head the whole trip. I remember standing at the Shinnecock west jetty on October 29th. The wind was blowing hard around 30 almost out of true west and we were getting sandblasted. It was a beautiful day, with lots of sun, some clouds but a bit cold and the current was ebbing. As I stood there fishing I couldn’t stop singing the chorus to this particular song, which was now getting annoying because I absolutely hated that song. Fast forward a few years, and I hear that same song again. Instantly, I was immediately back on the beach and I could feel, hear and smell everything that was around me. Every detail of that trip was remembered simply because I couldn’t get some crappy pop song out of my head. Amazing, right?

Another time, I was on my way to Montauk. I was in my first season of “real” surfcasting and I decided I was going to fish a nor’easter at the point. Well, I not so much decided to go there as it was more like I saw the sign for 27E and it said “Montauk” and I said to myself “Why not”? This is another trip that is forever ingrained in me because of music. When I listen to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s album Baby 81, I remember every detail about the trip. Why? Because I had just gotten that album and this was in the days before the IPod. So I listened to the album 2-1/2 times on my drive out. And to this day I remember everything about that trip. So don’t overlook the importance of music when it comes to keeping a log. It won’t happen for every trip you make, but on some it will help you remember some small detail that could make or break a trip and be the difference between getting skunked or landing the fish of a lifetime.

Most important is the use of music after a long night in the surf. We have all been there at some point. Long day at work, come home, gear up and head out for a night of fishing. Next thing you know, the sun is rising in the east and you have been up for 30 hours straight with no sleep and facing a two or three hour drive home. Not ideal and most certainly, not safe. Besides the largest size coffee that 7-11 sells, the most important thing to me at these times is music. The right music is crucial to me for these long trips home. Music will keep you awake, alert, and get you home in one piece. This is where loud, fast, abrasive music comes into play. Slayer, Metallica, Sick of it All, Pantera, anything that will keep my eyes open gets a play in my car. My only close call doing these drives home came on a trip this past year. I was almost home after an all nighter in Montauk. I was on the last parkway I had to take which is curvy and narrow and can be a challenge while fully awake, let alone barely conscious. A song came up on my ipod that I loved that was slower and mellower than I would normal listen to at this point, but I figured I knew this highway like that back of my hand and within 10 minutes I’d be home asleep.

Not more than a minute into the song I was awakened by the sound of my fishing partner Eddie yelling at me to “get the hell back on the road!” I had dozed off for no more than a second and was now riding on the shoulder heading towards the abutment of a bridge. I quickly corrected, changed the song, and made it home in one piece. I now make an “allnighter” playlist which goes on the second I leave the beach just to avoid what happened that morning.

Music plays a much larger role in our time in the surf than most realize. It is so vital to our trips in so many different ways. Whether it is setting our mood or getting us in the right frame of mind for a night of fishing, music either gets us pumped up or mellowed out. It helps some folks explore their creative side making videos or slideshows. It helps us remember elements of our trip that might have otherwise been forgotten, or simply keeps us awake so we can make it home to see our loved ones. As a musician, general music lover and a surfcaster, I greatly appreciate how much more meaningful and useful music is to us in what we do. And maybe after writing this, some will have a renewed appreciation for music and how it is always a constant part of our lives.

surf jamz

Steve’s SJ Mix Tape

Rise Anew Revolution Let There Be Horns RJD2 Final Frontier RJD2 Just Like You Imagined Nine Inch Nails The Test The Chemical Brothers Sea And Sand The Who The Real Me The Who Blue In Green Miles Davis Lien On Your Dreams Black Rebel Motorcycle Club American X Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Satellite Rise Against Collapse (Post-Amerika) Rise Against Turn On Your Love Light - The Grateful Dead Built To Last Sick of it All What Doesn't Die Anthrax October Broken Bells Believe The Bravery High Hopes - Live Pink Floyd Living Through Me Pantera

Criticism?

We can handle it.

Info@surfcastersjournal.com

“Take me fishing, daddy?”

Aram Berberian

The half request, half declaration made by Caroline, my eight-year-old daughter startled me. I’d be a fool not to, I thought to myself. My mind raced. I hadn’t been fishing in years.

Many, many years. But when I was younger, my family vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard during the summer, where I fell in love with fishing. I knew something about the endeavor. As I grew older, the discovery of girls and motorcycles left little time for the pursuit, and my gear gathered dust. Fishing had been a big part of my life, but I had lost it. Now my youngest daughter was asking me to take her fishing.

“Yes, of course we can go fishing!” I blurted.

With that she seemed satisfied, and returned to the book in her hands. I might have been more excited about the prospect than she was.

I would have to figure this out since I had been out of the loop for such a long time. In my daughter’s eyes, catching fish was equivalent to success. This child would require action as she had not been endowed with even the slightest hint of patience. I reasoned fresh water would be our best bet. I’d need a license too.

In the garage I found a dusty spinning outfit that I had purchased from a gas station in Minnesota while I attended college in that state. They take their fishing seriously in the Land of 10,000 Lakes where tackle can be purchased in a variety of unlikely places.

Another cheap outfit came from Walmart along with a few lures. We were good to go.

To ensure a positive outcome, I scouted a few of the local ponds solo. I discovered I could easily catch dozens of pan fish and largemouth bass using poppers and small jigs before sunset. The winning formula did not require long casts or complicated presentations. Time to take Caroline fishing.

There have been many successful outings since. In fact, we have had a few family sessions when I have taken my wife and both of my daughters fishing. On these occasions I spent most of my time unhooking fish, snapping photos and retrieving lures from trees after errant casts. Fishing gave way to laughter one evening after Katey, my eldest daughter, put a Rebel grasshopper popping plug into the same branch on three successive casts despite my emphatic advice to change her casting motion or move to a new spot.

A simple request by an eight year-old has changed my life. At the time, I did not see where this would lead. I became pretty fanatical about catching largemouth bass. I was spending money on the sport, but not a lot. I bought several bait casting rigs and started watching “fishing shows” on TV. During the warmer months, I was getting out after dinner several times a week. Something was building here.

The path has been circuitous. At the present point in my evolution as an angler, I am a surfcaster in pursuit of striped bass. Now, I managed only two or three sweetwater outings a season. The fishing log shows just under 80 saltwater sessions last year.

Rob Cohn, a family friend and secretary of the Connecticut Surfcasters Association called me one night and told me that David Kinney, author of The Big One was going to speak at an upcoming CSA meeting about the book. Rob felt I might like to attend because the book is about the Martha’s Vineyard Bass Derby and he recalled my connection to the Island. The meeting was great and it sparked an interest in the salt.

Initially, I could not fathom, nor could I justify, spending $300 on a saltwater spinning outfit. People who would buy Van Staals were, quite simply, in my view, insane. Eighthundred dollars for a reel alone is preposterous. I would never be there. Ever! Nor would I clip a $20 piece of turned and painted cedar to the end of my line and heave it out into the ocean to probe the rocky depths. This was not going to happen. My naiveté was laughable. More astonishing is how quickly my thinking and spending changed.

I now have too much stuff: waders, dry tops, Van Staals, wet suits, belts, bags, pliers, knives, head lamps, rods for different conditions, grippers, lures, plugs and more lures (some costing much more than $20). There are frozen eels in our freezer. Eeek! My home page on our desk top is a well known striped bass blog site. Fishing stickers are plastered all over the back of my car. My teenagers cannot believe I am such a fishing geek and that I get text messages at all hours about the bite. When our family goes to the beach, I gaze at the surf and point out good rocks and enticing rips. Nobody listens.

Much of my time off is devoted to fishing. Schedules are adjusted according to moon phases and tide charts. I leave the house after dinner and return for breakfast.

My family is united in the belief that I have lost my mind. Perhaps. But I have found something else. Fishing has enriched my life profoundly. I was content and unaware something was missing. It sounds trite, but surfcasting for striped bass has brought fulfillment and rhythm to my life. Never, have I felt more alive than when I am standing on a wash-covered rock in the chilly air at three in the morning, casting for striped bass, peering into the darkness, waiting for that thump. Being literally and figuratively immersed in the environment of my quarry makes me alert, my senses so keen that I actually tingle with adrenaline and expectation. Nothing is more exciting than the notion that I might trick this spectacular force of nature with my own cunning and effort.

Satisfaction washes over me like the waves when I kneel down on my perch to release a fish. I am happy to my core. I am not a religious man, but I am a spiritual one, and I often say “Thank you� aloud after I watch a striped bass disappear from my grasp back into the black water. Most people do not get it, which I understand. It’s odd to be sure.

Fortunately, there are some folks that do get it. I joined CSA. Slowly, I am becoming a better angler. More importantly, rewarding friendships have developed and grown strong. I cannot place a high enough value on the importance of these connections and the opportunities these friendships have afforded me.

I recently rounded the corner of 50.

Despite the aches and pains of middle age, life is good. Looking back on my past, I realize I have come full circle. A barefoot little boy, standing on a weathered dock, peering at his fishing line in the water expectantly has become a grown man casting into the surf in the dark of night. The excitement remains potent as ever. What was lost has been found. Of course there are other things I want to do, and stuff I want to find out about, but I have much to be grateful for, including the spontaneous request of an eight year-old.

We will remember you when we get to Hollwood... we promise.

SJ

Contributors

Roger Martin has fished the rocky beaches of Rhode Island, plowed through soft sand on Cape Cod beaches and navigated the treacherous rocks of Montauk. But most of the time, you'll find him close to home, on the sandy beaches or the back bay marshes of Long Island’s south shore. Over the last half century he has written numerous articles, authored a chapter in William Muller's book “The Secrets of Surf Fishing at Night” and given many presentations on the subject of surf fishing.

He was taught how to rig eels by his friend, the late Al Bentsen, and has passed this knowledge on to many others. Roger and his wife Marie are co-editors of the Surfcaster's Journal and they are the ones who labor over our sloppy writing, bad grammar and terrible pronunciation errors. For that alone they should be saluted .

Zeno Hromin is the author of two recent bestselling books, “The Art of Surfcasting with Lures” and “The Hunt for Big Stripers.” He is a budding angling photographer who has won numerous awards for his camera skills. He is one of the founders of the Surfcaster's Journal and a frequent contributor to the Surfcaster's Journal Blog. You can get more information about Zeno on his website www.zenohromin.com Email him at info@surfcastersjournal.com Lou Caruso is a long time member of the Farragut Striper Club, Surfcaster's Journal official "Rod Guru" and one of the most well regarded custom rod builders on Long Island, NY. His web site is www.louscustomrods.com Tommy Corrigan is an insanely driven, ridiculously talented dude who designs the Surfcaster's Journal magazine from his head. No guidelines, no drafts and no boxes into which to plug articles.

Everything that you see is the result of late night inspirations on those nights when his better half makes him stay home. When he manages to sneak out you will probably find him on a local beach, plying his craft. His talents are vast and range from music CD cover designs, to posters, books and tshirts. Don't be surprised if the design on the shirt you or your kid is wearing was created by our design guru. You can send him an Email at tommy@surfcastersjournal.com

Dave Anderson is an editor of “The Fisherman Magazine”, New England edition. You have probably read many of the articles on surf fishing he has written over the years for that magazine and other publications. What you probably did not know was that Dave is also a well respected plug builder who creates exceptional lures under the name Surf Asylum. You can receive his newsletter by dropping him a line at danderson_nef@yahoo.com Andrew Chase is a renowned chef and a passionate surfcaster. He is equally comfortable around the stove as he is casting his lures for stripers. Along with his partner, he is a proprietor of Cafe Katja located at 79 Orchard Street in New York City. It's a great place to grab a beer and sample some authentic Austrian cuisine. No pretentiousness here or sky high prices, just an intimate neighborhood watering hole with exceptional food. Chef Andrew might be behind the bar or serving food on any given night but as soon as the lights go off you will find him on his favorite rocks casting into the darkness, looking to catch his own dinner. For more information about Cafe Katja please visit http://cafekatja.com Russ "Big Rock" Paoline is a well respected New Jersey lure builder whose creations are some of the most sought after lures on the market today. He creates his lures in small batches, one at a time and the quality and attention to detail are evident on each lure he makes. Russ has been a fixture on New Jersey beaches for many years but don't be surprised if you run into him at Montauk, NY or even Cuttyhunk, MA. In fact, Cuttyhunk is where we met him for the first time. A mountain of a man in every sense of the word, Russ is imposing figure in the night surf but have no worries, he is one of the nicest person you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting.

John Papciak is a well known New York surfcaster who is equally comfortable with a fly rod or a surf rod. John is one of the most fearless surfcasters of this generation and one of the rare anglers who fish from the far rocks with a fly rod. As much as we all admire his fearlessness when swimming to the rocks in the middle of the night, we are even more impressed with his conservation ethic. He was one of the people involved in the Bring Back Big Bass campaign in recent years and he has been always on the forefront of the conservation movement among the surf fishing community. You can email him at info@surfcastersjournal.com Frank Pintauro is an avid vintage surf fishing lure collector and the author of many articles on classic lures and lure makers. Frank's work has been published in The Fisherman magazine and Fishing and Hunting Collectibles Magazine among others. He is considered the leading authority on the authenticity of vintage surf fishing lures and their origins. Readers who wish to contact Frank can do so via email at masterlure@aol.com Steve McKenna is one of New England’s most respected anglers of the past few decades. His humble persona and lack of an oversized ego, which is often found among surfcasters of his caliber, make him one of the most liked surfcasters walking the beach today. Based in Rhode Island, Steve has found success not only at home but in most places he has visited: Cuttyhunk, Block Island or Cape Cod. Put the rod in the man's hand, stand back, watch and learn. Steve has written numerous articles over the years for many Northeast publications including a chapter in Zeno Hromin's book, “The Hunt for Big Stripers.”

Steve Jaccino is an avid surfcaster, musician, amateur photographer and union carpenter from Yonkers, NY. After work, he can frequently be found plugging Long Island's south shore inlets and bays, while on the weekends he is usually out in his "second home", Montauk Point.

Aram Berberian is the father of two daughters and is an RN at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Recently he has become re-addicted to surfcasting. Membership in the Connecticut Surfcaster's Association has helped fuel the fire. He is passionate about fishing and particularly enjoys exploring new destinations. He can be reached at aramberberian@sbcglobal.net Greg McSharry has a bachelor’s degree in Aquaculture from the University of Rhode Island.

He is extremely passionate about fishing and is often found along the banks of the Cape Cod Canal, in the surf on the Cape’s beaches or at his favorite bass pond.

Michael Rice is a Senior Product Manager at PENN and a man very much in touch with the needs and desires of the surfcasting community.

Tim Coleman served as an editor of the New England edition of The Fisherman magazine for 27 years. He’s written many books and articles about surf fishing and has spent countless hours fishing the beaches of Block Island.

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