Surfcaster's Journal Issue 10

SURFCASTER’S j o u r n a l

I'll sleep whe

en I'm dead.

Warren Zevon

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

Have you ever thought about how much the internet has changed our lives? Not only does everything seem to be available to read, grab, browse or purchase, but in some instances, you almost feel transported to some other place. The videos of fishing action are posted daily on YouTube and it’s only a matter of time before we start streaming live video feed from the rocks at Montauk Point.

Captain Kirk never had it so good. Not only is there a plethora of internet chat boards that cater to surfcasters but even this magazine is a byproduct of this wonderful technology. Let’s be honest, we would not be able to bring you this type of publication via print. So send a thank you card to Al Gore when you get a chance!

But with so much social interaction, fishing forums, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and who knows how many other places you visit, there might be a thing or two that you missed. Yes, we know many of you spend insane hours at work looking at “important” stuff, like tides and who caught what where. Whose plugs are hot or not and how big of a behind Kim Kardasian has today! And we are sure your boss loves you for all the time you are spending. But with all these distractions, you might have missed a place that we think you should check out.

For two years we have been publishing this magazine and for two years many of you have glanced over the Surfcaster's Journal Blog button under the magazine on our web page. What exactly is the Surfcaster’s Journal Blog?

It’s a very friendly (and unedited) place where you will never find arguing or insults. It’s a place where we make you aware of new products, a place where we debuted over 80 original SJ videos.

It’s a mixture of information, education, history and as Charlie Sheen would say “winning”. We feature weekly giveaways on our blog, in either contest form or we just pick a random number. We gave away thousands of dollars worth of prizes including hundreds of lures, pliers, reels, rods, clothes, gear, books, you get in the mix and we will give you a chance to win something.

So visit our blog and enjoy all it has to offer. Stop whenever you want, chime in with your comments or opinions and who knows, maybe you will win some of the prizes we give away.

But most of all stop by and tell us how we are doing, what you want us to feature in the magazine and what you would like to read about Because at the end of the day, this magazine is designed for you and your reading pleasure. All we try to do is make it as interesting and as visually pleasing as possible.

Zeno Hromin Nov. 2011

Surfcaster’ s Journal Issue #10 November 2011 14-Geared Up 33-The Rod Corner - Caruso 47-Plugaholics Anonymous - Anderson 55-Rollin’With The Rock - Paoline 63-Fly Fishing Update - Papciak 75-Beach To Table - Chase 85-Bob Pond Interview - Pintauro 107-Surf Fishing Delaware - Burnley 123-Fly Fishing The Surf - Tabory 135-Fishing The Bucktail Excerpt -Skinner 149-Craftsmen At Work 169-Ron DiCostanzo (ZeeBaas)Interview -Hromin 188-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 cover photo: Zeno Hromin 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.

© 2011 Pure Fishing, Inc.

With SPIDERWIRE...

Nothing Gets Away. Period

Crank that inshore trophy from the jaws of this mangled, twisted mess with a line spun from Dyneema®, The World’s Strongest Fiber™ - 15 times stronger than quality steel.

Need a stronger fishing line? It doesn’t exist.

Breakthrough Color-Lock Technology holds in color – resists fading and won’t bleed on clothing and equipment!

Now Available In

NEW HIGH POUND TEST Up To 250 lb.

New Stealth

“Dyneema®, and The World’s Strongest FiberTM are trademarks owned by Royal DSM N.V.”

www.spiderwire.com

Competition

OUTFISHES LIVE BAIT

Gulp! has a powerful attractant that acts like a blood trail in the water. The revolutionary baits are bio-degradable and yield 400x more scent dispersion with the increased convenience of not using live bait.

berkley-fishing.com

Coming this fall.

The new book from John Skinner...

Fishing the Bucktail Mastering Bucktails from Surf and Boat

CLICK HERE FOR INFO

P U E M A G R U TS EP YO AVA I L A B L E N O W “Doc” Muller’s

The Ultimate Surf Fishing Guide

INFO

Columbia Sportswear Backcountry Ride Balaclava We recently read a study in the British Journal of Medicine. Hey, it was a slow day at work!

The thought in fishing circles was that most of your body heat escapes through your head.

According to British scientists, this might be more fiction than fact. According to their study, any exposed part of your body will emit heat equally. And also, drinking two pints of Guinness every morning before work will boost your Facebook skills and as an added benefit, it will help you grow hair on your chest. Back to your oversized, balding head and heat loss‌Since we are not scientists and we believe anything written by people with a higher education than we have (boy, there is a low threshold if we've ever seen one), we have no problems accepting this fact. The only problem is, with all things being equal, surfcasters generally only have their heads exposed to the elements. The waders, jacket and gloves cover up the rest of the body. So in our case specifically, we do lose most of our body heat through our heads. Unless we had chili with beans and curry the night before.

Then we create an awesome display of excess heat but that is a story for another day.

As the season winds down, you will feel cold. We've been in the water on some mornings where we felt that frostbite was definitely a possibility. When the line freezes on the spool, when your guides look like icicles, you are going to need something warm to cover your oversized noggin. Wool hats are nice and they do help but we have another recommendation for you, a Backcountry Ride Balaclava from Columbia Sportswear. It’s a hat-meets-neck-gaiter creation that will keep you nice and toasty when the weather turns cold. The only exposed thing will be your eyes while the ultra-toasty and breathable Balaclava will be fitted snug around your head and neck. You can always put a wool hat on top of it for even better protection from elements. It is quick drying, stylish and affordable and definitely an item that will be in high demand during next few weeks as the fall run starts winding down and arctic air moves in.

Costa Del Mar Hammock Sunglases We know you like your toys. From fancy reels to high end rods, you’ve bought yourself everything you needed to become a hardcore surfcaster. You fish in the roughest of surf, swim to the far rocks, ply your trade under the cover of darkness. It is you against nature. After all, you are at the pinnacle of the food chain, the ultimate hunter who doesn’t answer to anyone. Are you sure about that? We swear we saw you last night getting milk at 7/11 at midnight. And how about that trip to the mall last week while the fish were busting along the beach, was that really necessary? Admit it, there is only one person who wears the pants in your family, and she is the boss. She lets you spend an insane amount of dough on your fishing gear, she supports you in your pursuit of Moby stripers. Isn’t it time you took care of her? After all, the holidays are just around the corner. But you’d prefer not to walk out of Macy’s smelling like a petunia.

You’d rather get her something that will tell everyone: “My husband is a hard core fisherman”. Boy, have we got a thing just for you.

Get her a pair of Costa Del Mar Hammock polarized shades. Not only will she be styling in these Jackie-O oversized lenses but she will also appreciate you for going the extra mile and not getting her a gift from the $.99 store like last year. Costa Del Mar products have been synonymous with fishing for decades. Their glasses are impact resistant, lightweight and durable. Their 580 lenses raise red, green and blue colors to amazing levels, all while limiting the yellow light. This results in sharper contrast, deeper colors and purer vision. They don’t cut corners at Costa either. All of their frames are built by hand, using nothing less than the best components. They are designed to be comfortable and impact resistant. You probably are thinking about how

many lures you could buy with the money you’ll spend on these shades. But to her, the only thing that will matter is how cool she’ll look with a pair of Costa Del Mar Hammock shades on her head. Don’t sell her short. She understands tides and bait migrations better than you might think. Why do you think she avoids making weekend plans from Labor Day to Thanksgiving? And she also knows the quality, durability and stylish design for which Costa Del Mar shades are known. So be a hardcore at home and treat her to a pair. She’ll love them not only when she shops in style but also next time she accompanies you on a fishing trip.

INFO

Daiwa's Millionaire Tournament 7HT MAG We Americans have a hard time accepting that a product can be available in other places in the world but not here. Can you imagine some dude in Kazakhstan walking around with IPhone 5 before an Upper West Side soccer mom has one? That would surely cause a riot. So it is natural that USA anglers were a little miffed about Daiwa's Millionaire Tournament 7HT MAG reel and its siblings being available in Europe for a few years while we waited patiently for them to arrive in the United States. What is so special about these reels you might ask? These reels feature Diawa’s trademarked one piece duraluminum construction and lightweight anodized aluminum spool. With 5+1 ball bearings this reel is a smooth operator and the high grade brass gears and stainless steel pinion gear gives it enough guts to handle most situations you will find in the surf.

The rest of the features are nothing to sneeze at and include, Infinite Anti-Reverse, improved power handle, lightweight anodized aluminum spool and Daiwa five-point support system and low-frame crossbars. But at the end of the day, the heart and soul of this reel can be found in something folks from Daiwa call Magforce-Z (also known in Europe as Magnofuge). It is a mag control like you've never seen before, the one that can adjust itself during the cast. Listen to this description from Daiwa'd website: To control the high-performance spool, capable of reaching speeds up to 30,000 rpm, Magforce Z applies smooth magnetic braking as the spool approaches maximum speed to prevent over run, backing off as the spool slows. The result is the spool starts and builds speed faster, then keeps spinning longer. And the amount of control is fully adjustable to meet varying conditions and your particular casting style. This means that even lousy casters like us can achieve some sick distances. Have we mentioned that these reels have been used in winning many European long distance championships in

the past and are designed specially to achieve maximum distance in the surf. The Mag offers a swift ratio of 5.8:1, six ball bearings of which five are CRBBs. We spooled our Mag 7HT with 30 pound braid and went to the beach.

This reel has no line winder, which kind of makes sense as that would greatly reduce the distance via the friction the levelwind would create.

We are much more proficient with the spinner than a conventional. On our first cast, the line came off the reel in at an alarming speed. As we played with mag controls we were looking for a suitable setting to match our impotent casting. It said 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and Googan. Now that would be a good way to design a reel! Ok, we are just kidding but after we played with it for a few days we managed to achieve distance that impressed ourselves, never mind our friends. This reel and its siblings are the real deal for anyone who is looking to plug cast with a conventional reel or toss a bait further than he ever did.

Too much has been made about the reel’s ability to fight the fish. We think some of this has been so grossly exaggerated, we'd like to bring the conversation back to earth. The rod fights the fish. The reel is a mechanical tool that is designed to apply the drag as smoothly as possible and deliver the payload as far as possible. There are not many conventional reels that we know of that will do that better than the Daiwa Millionaire 7HT MAG.

INFO

Surfcaster: The Ultimate Surf Fishing Guide Although we often whine that our sport of surfcasting does not get enough attention from the large fishing tackle manufacturers, we can't say that we are being neglected by the book publishing industry. It seems like every few months, another title is released that is dedicated strictly to surfcasting. How do you cut through all the noise and find out whose book you should read? If you are anything like us, you’ll read any book, from any author, as long as it not say “surf fishing” in the title. Let's be honest for a moment here, we are lifers. We can't get enough of this stuff. We live and breathe this sport 24/7.

There always will be books that are “must read” regardless of the genre or the season. To us, there is only one name that stands out in the crowd when it comes to authors whose work has had a profound impact on our sport. William A. Muller, also known as “Doc” by most surfcasters on the eastern seaboard, has written quite a few of those types of books. His Surf Fishing With Experts in the late 1980’s opened up a window into the world of surfcasting we never knew existed. His follow-up, The Secrets of Surf Fishing at Night is classic we’ve read over a dozen times. Even now, twenty years after its original publication we still refer to it. His Fishing with Bucktails was well received but we yearned for another pure surf fishing book from Doc, something we knew he had in him.

To our delight the wait is over. Doc recently published his newest book, Surfcaster: The Ultimate Surf Fishing Guide a few months ago and it is destined to be another classic. It contains twenty two chapters of advice only a seasoned surfcaster could give. For a novice there are chapters on picking out your first rod and reel, for an intermediate angler there is a detailed breakdown of how and where to use each lure in the surf. For a veteran there is an in-depth analysis of structure, tide and currents. In addition, Doc shares freely his personal experiences throughout the book. No one, in our opinion, writes more clearly and concisely. No one breaks the sport down into terms we can easily comprehend while never looking down on any angler, regardless of their skill level. We give Surfcaster: The Ultimate Surf Fishing Guide two enthusiastic thumbs up. It will make a great read over the winter months and a wonderful gift for the holidays.

INFO

Abel Nippers Most fly fishermen “tie direct” which means cutting leaders and re-tying flies many times over the course of day or night. How many of us have been tempted to trim the tag end with our teeth? At least one of us here at SJ knows of a surfcaster who cracked his front tooth during a blitz when he tried to trim the tag end of a leader and quickly get back to fishing. Long story short, his dental insurance didn’t cover this mishap, so this was a very expensive day of fishing.

We have been using the Abel Nipper for most of the 2011 season and have been delighted with this neat little gadget. It is constructed of aluminum with stainless steel hardware and hasn’t shown signs of rust or wear after a season of fishing and wetsuiting. The cutting edges have remained sharp enough to trim mono and ultra-thin braids throughout.

The Nipper comes in a variety of Abel signature colors, and like the Abel reels, they can even be made in a variety of multi-colored patterns as well. Abel sells The Nipper with an optional Neck Lanyard, but we are not fashion conscious here at SJ, and a thick shoelace has so far worked out just fine.

INFO

GLoomis IMX Surf Rods We recently had the pleasure of testing a GLoomis IMX Surf rod late in the summer and into the fall run. To be perfectly honest, we don’t even know where to begin to shout superlatives when describing the rod we tested. We tested a GLoomis IMX 1264-25 SUR rated from 1 to 3 ounces. If you are strictly a lure fisherman, you will be in heaven casting this rod. It’s a powerful, high modulus and light weight rod designed not only to cast a mile but has plenty of muscle to turn any striper that heads for cover. The sensitivity of the rod is incredible, making you feel as if you are swimming right next to your lure and can feel its every movement. The small diameter of the rod creates less wind resistance during the cast resulting in improved casting distance. Not only that, but this series of GLoomis surf rods has faster action than previous models. This helps them recover faster after a cast, resulting in less friction and line slap and therefore improved casting distance.

Another thing we liked was the addition of the new “tangle -free” Fuji K-Frame Alconite guide system. It is designed to reduce line friction. Regardless of how sloppy a caster you are, you will never have to worry about the line wrapping around your guides during the cast. These rods also feature a new handle design. GLoomis calls it “sure-grip technology”. We call it darn comfortable! Not only do these rods launch the lure like a missile but their light weight makes putting in an “all-nighter” in the surf much more pleasurable. We know we sound like the late pitchman, Billy Mays, who convinced us all to try OxyClean on his TV infomercials! But there is more!

The GLoomis IMX rods feature a unique “micro adjust” reel seat, a simple yet effective contraption we have never seen before on a surf rod by any manufacturer. The biggest

gripe regarding buying a “store bought” rod instead of a rod made by a custom rod builder has very little to do with fancy wraps or a picture of Jenifer Lopez imbedded into the rod. No, the biggest complaint a surfcaster has when buying a pre-made stick is that the reel seat is fixed in one location on the blank. This positioning might or might not fit his or her casting style. GLoomis eliminated this problem by adding this microadjust reel seat to their line of rods. It’s fully adjustable and you can move the reel up or down to fit your casting style. Just think how impressed your friends will be when instead of borrowing your old beat up rods that have fixed reel seats, you let them borrow your new Gloomis stick with an adjustable reel seat. Then again, this makes you a better man than us. Because we’d never let our friends borrow this fine a rod.

When you are tired of rods that don’t fit you, when your line tangles around your guides, when you are sick and tired of watching everyone outcast you, you should go and buy a GLoomis IMX surf rod. We are certain it will become your primary stick in very short order.

INFO

Penn Torque Reel After many delays, Last year Penn Reels unveiled their new signature spinning reel, the Torque. But another year would pass before the bailess version would show up on the store shelves. Many assumed that the delay was caused by a glitch in the design but we don’t think so. Instead we think Penn made sure that the finished product was as good as many expected it to be. There still was a doubt, however, among many in the surf fishing community that Penn Reels would succeed in making a fully sealed, submersible reel, made in the USA and priced less than its competitors.

Penn Torque spinning reels are equipped with Versa-Drag system featuring oversized HT-100 drag washers. We found that the drag was as smooth as any reel we ever tested.

We loved the fact that the drag pressure was applied in small increments and we found it to be as smooth as silk. These reels feature integral clutch sleeves to eliminate any back play of the rotor. The body is made out of one piece machined aluminum with forged soleplates and aluminum spools. The reels are fully sealed and waterproof and feature 7+1 stainless steel bearings that make the reel a pleasure to crank.

We had a chance to fish with a Penn Torque #5 reel during the fall run. At 19 ounces this model is slightly smaller in size than its competitors but we never felt under gunned at the beach. The line lay on the spool beautifully and it flew equally as impressive off the spool during the cast. This model has a capacity of 340 yards of 12 pound mono or 550 yards of 20 pound braid, more than enough to land anything you will hook from the beach. Maximum drag is 38 pounds and it’s a winner. If you’ve been fishing reels with herky-jerky drags or you were frustrated by the intrusion of sand into your drag making it useless, prepare to be impressed. There is also an option for a bailess model. Having said that, some of our readers will still prefer the bailed model and for them Penn offers a unique system under the rotor that allows the angler to change from manual to automatic bail operation by pressing a switch.

Ok, now that we got all that out of the way, let's look at the “real world” performance. There has been some very superlative reviews posted on the internet boards about these reels. Although they were mainly written by boat fisherman it was encouraging to see that they thought that Torque reels might feature one of the best designs in the market. But we still have to find out for ourselves so we spooled the reel with some TufLine XP and

headed to the beach. We were surprised to see how far we managed to cast. In a lot of ways this has to do as much, if not more, with the design of the rod than the reel itself.

We cringed the first time we got hit by a wave, expecting to hear some grinding as sand entered the spool. Sand is known to be the bitter enemy of the surfcaster. But it never happened! The reel was silky smooth in all conditions. The first big test was going to be administered a few days later. With cameras rolling we submerged the reel in the water and then placed it into a hole we dug up in the sand. We then proceeded to bury the reel in the sand and stepped on it few times for good measure. With the reel wet, sand was all over it like bees on honey when we dug it out of the hole. We walked to the water’s edge, with the reel totally encapsulated in the sand and gave it a quick rinse in the surf.

We removed the lure from our guide and cast it into the ocean.

Ok, we got to be totally honest here. You’d expect a little grinding coming out of the reel after such a mistreatment. After all, sand got into every nook and cranny of the reel. And yes, we know that our readers will never expose their reel to such harsh punishment but don’t you think it gives you peace of mind in case you drop it on the sand? Don’t worry, you can thank us later. Anyway, back to the Torque and sand. While our lure was sailing through the air we placed our hand onto the handle, waiting till the lure landed in the water. We manually placed the braid onto the roller and started cranking. What the hell happened here, we were wondering? The reel felt like it came out of the box a second ago. Not a grain of sand, no resistance whatsoever, no grinding noise, nothing!

After successfully completing the Surfcaster’s Journal Sand Test we took the reel to the place which destroys reels, rods and angler’s dreams quicker than any other place on earth, Montauk Point, NY. Here we put the reel through a serious workout, landing as many stripers as our arms could handle. We had the reel submerged and we even went for a swim with it. We even avoided rinsing it in fresh water. We did no servicing or lubing. When we opened the reel we found no water or sand intrusion whatsoever.

The final verdict is that this reel is definitely something you should consider next time you are in the market for a serious surf fishing reel. We fully accept the fact that a few months do not make a year and that we are not smart or competent enough to find out all the quirks of this reel. What we can offer you in our defense is that no one we know takes less care of our equipment than we do and we had no issues with this product.

Chances are, neither will you. It's a new product and time will tell just how durable this reel will be in the surf. But our first impression was that Penn Reels might have a BIG winner on their hands.

INFO

We can't personally test every product on the market we would like to let you know about.

So occasionally we will feature guest reviews by respected surfcasters. Today we have a pleasure of featuring review of one of the most respected anglers in the surf today, Steve McKenna.

Sebile Magic Swimmer Last season a fishing friend told me to try a Sebile Magic swimmer. He said it was a great new plug and that he would never go surf fishing without it! I quickly dismissed his advice and rationalized that this new plug was "just another plastic swimmer". This year, quite by happenstance, a box arrived at the tackle shop I work at and it was a care package of Sebile lures. I guess Sebile wanted all of us to field test their lures in the hope that we would carry Sebile in our shop this year. Manufacturers do it all the time.

Remembering what my friend had told me, I immediately grabbed a silver Magic Swimmer from the mix and figured I'd give it a whirl on my next striper trip. I recall it was May 1st and not the best day weather wise (a Nor'easter) but a perfect day to wet a line.

When I arrived at my spot I clipped on the Sebile swimmer. It was a 145 mm, fast sinker in natural shiner color. On my first cast I just made one crank on the reel handle and I was in!

The fish ripped off some line better than anything I had caught so far this young season.

After a wild fight on my light tackle, I brought the fish close to me and at that point it jumped clear of the water and I realized that it was a good size blue fish, about 12 pounds.

I quickly unhooked the blue and made another cast with the Sebile. That cast produced a striped bass of approximately 10 pounds. I went on to catch several more quality bass and a few more good sized choppers. The fish really liked the Sebile so much so that the back hook and hanger was completely ripped out of the lure by those hungry fish.

I tell this story of my initial outing using this particular plug because it is a perfect example of just about every trip this season I have made using the Sebile Magic swimmer. The Sebile Magic swimmer is now a great plug in my book and like my buddy I will never leave home without one in my plug bag! I have caught so many bass on it since that initial surf trip that I find it hard to take it off my line and clip something else on. Really, it is that good! I have experimented with it, purposely taking it off while into bass and putting something else on to see if I could still catch. Most times the fish wanted the Sebile. Looking at my log for this season, as of Sept. 25, I have caught approximately 65 percent of my stripers on the fast sinking 145 mm Sebile Magic swimmer. I wish I could tell you that I took a "40" on it but I have taken some decent bass pushing the 30 pound mark. It is a super fish catcher that casts well (1 1/2 oz.) and is a perfect size (5 3/4 " long) for my surf tackle. It fishes well in rough water too and won’t roll out in an inlet’s current. Sebile makes this swimmer in a variety of sizes ranging from 110 mm (4 1/4 "- 3/4/ oz.) to 228 mm (9 "- 5 oz.).

Sebile offers the Magic swimmer in slow and fast sink rates to cover all surf conditions.

It also comes in a number of fish catching color combos. I did best with natural shiner and white lady (pearl white). My spies tell me that a lot of surf sharpies use the bigger models to fish the deep, fast currents of the Cape Cod Canal.

The lure has some draw backs. Hey, nothing is perfect! The stock hooks are not really suited for our demanding fishing. I would change them out for something around the same size but in 4 extra strong. The split rings have to go too in my opinion.

Moreover, the Sebile Magic swimmer has a segmented body and "hangs up" once in a while when cast. When this happens just let the lure relax in the surf by letting out some slack line and then begin reeling again. Sometimes that works but if it doesn't then the plug must be reeled in and untangled by hand.

Another problem with the Sebile, as I eluded to at the beginning of this story, is that under the stress of many battles the hook hangers may pull out. Just the other night I had the rear hook and assembly get yanked out of the Sebile just as I was landing a fish of about 10 pounds. In all fairness, the swimmer was one of my older ones that has caught probably 40 or so stripers. It was pretty beat up!

Lastly, the Sebile swimmer is not the easiest lure to find on tackle store shelves. That should change soon though as Pure Fishing has purchased the business from owner Patrick Sebile so the entire line of plugs will become more available to surf casters in the near future.

INFO

Super Strike Lures Little Neck Swimmer How many of you carry a “bottle plug” in your bag most of the time? Don’t lie to us!

We’ve seen many of your bags. Let us guess, you’ve read how they work great in rough conditions, how they are great lures when fishing in stormy weather, how good they dig into the big waves when nothing else can be retrieved properly. And none of this is either exaggeration or old wives’ tale. But are bottle plugs, aka casting swimmers, really that much of a niche lure? Do you grab one as mostly an afterthought when packing up your bag for a night’s excursion? If it is, your “brain” operating system might need to be rebooted and loaded with new updates. Do this, stick a finger in your ear and hold F10 key on your keyboard to get to the BIOS screen. Ok, we are just kidding but what we make no jokes about is our love for the Super Strike Little Neck Swimmer aka bottle plug.

This lure comes in only one size, and for the most part it fills the bill in most situations.

Yes, there might be a few days during the year when a 3 ounce Gibbs is needed, but for us, for day in and day out fishing, nothing beats a Super Strike Bottle. Did we just say day in and day out? Oops, we meant, stormy, rough surf fishing. How did that slip out? Truth be told, bottle plugs are probably the most underutilized lures we use in the surf. Yes, they work great in all the previously mentioned situations. They dig in the rough surf like a champ, they present a wide, large profile and they are known to cull large fish with regularity. But did you know you can use them in flat, calm water? We did and we do and now we are telling you that you should too! You have a deep rip at

your local jetty? Don’t just toss bucktails and shads, try a bottle plug. Dig it into the current and barely turn your handle. Just keep tension on the lure and hold onto your rod, because hits on bottle plugs when fished in current can be bone jarring. You fish a deep sandy beach in close proximity to an inlet with a strong current? Don’t just toss a darter or a metal lip and skim the top of the water column. Try a bottle plug and probe closer to the bottom. Very few Montauk regulars will venture out at night without a bottle plug in their bags, regardless of the conditions. The only thing they insist is that is made by Super Strike Lures. You can take our word on this.

INFO

Western Filament Tuf-Line XP Braid You’ve probably seen Western Filament Tuf-Line XP at your local tackle store and wondered if the world needed another braided line. But if you dig a little deeper into the history of Western Filament, you’d find out that their products are well worth a look. For starters, Western Filament has been making braided products for the fishing industry for over seven decades. Not only that, but since they are leaders in manufacturing gel-spun polyethylene braided lines, they produce product for other companies. At one time Spider Wire and Stren Braid were made in the Western Filament factory under those private labels. Eventually, due to consolidation in the fishing industry those brands are now made in house by their respective owners.

Considering their vast experience as a textile manufacturer that supplied aerospace companies, they were well aware of the benefits and strength of these gel-spun polyethylene lines. Two years ago they unveiled Tuf-Line XP Braid and quickly found a following among anglers. Tuf-Line is made under a high-tension process that allows for a greater compaction of the fibers. This makes Tuf-Line thinner and stronger than many other braids.

We had the pleasure of spooling all our reels with it this summer and used it through the fall without any issues. It lays on the spool great, because of its thin diameter and roundness. It flies through the guides smoothly. It has great abrasion resistance.

Most of the time when we hung a jig on a rock, we had to straighten out our rod and pull on the line by holding the rod straight and cupping the reel with our hand. We felt that our rod might snap before the line would.

You probably wonder what did we thought of its casting properties. Not only is it comparable to the leading braids in the market but we felt it actually outcast many of them. As with any braided lines, we recommend a minimum of 30 pound test for fishing “out front� on the sand. In the rocks and in the inlets you might want to go a bit higher to get more abrasion resistance without giving up much in the casting distance department. We had no issues with wind knots or loops. We liked that the line retains its color longer than some other lines we’ve tried over the years. And during these tough economic times, we liked that it was priced lower than most of the gel-spun braided lines on the market today.

INFO

2OZ BUNKA BOY

thru wired Wolverine 260 lb test split rings VMC 3X hooks

See the full line of lures at guideschoicetackle.com

With-

Lou Caruso

?

Someone recently asked what makes a good pencilpopping rod?

If I were looking for a pencil popping blank, I would want something that was very parabolic. The old glass rods are the cat’s arse for working a pencil. Problem is they weigh a ton. By the end of a good few hours session on the water working one, you’re usually exhausted and every muscle between your shoulder blades is screaming. But get that rod going and it takes very little effort to keep a pencil dancing.

Today we have rods that fill just about every niche. We have slow action, medium action, medium fast, fast, super fast…. Well, you get the picture. The faster the action of a rod, the less parabolic it will be. A parabolic rod will bend through the handle. The faster action blanks will only bend in the top 25% to 35% of the blank. Great for distance, bad for pencil popping. Usually, the more parabolic a blank, the more durable the rod is in extreme conditions. If you are out on a rock, or fishing from above the water such as under the Montauk Light, a rod like the Lamiglas GSB 1321M can be very forgiving when trying to land a fish. A blank that only flexes in the top 1/3, not so much.

The GSB 1321M has been the staple at Montauk for a long time and for good reason.

It’s a great all around moderate blank. It is parabolic enough to work a pencil and still is stiff enough to cast a 3 – 4 oz bucktail into a 25 knot gale that’s blowing right in your face.

Many of the new high performance blank companies make blanks that have these traits too. You need to do your homework when researching a blank to decide which one will best fill your needs.

When deciding on a rod, you will need to weigh your options. Do I want a rod to fish extreme conditions? Am I looking for something that is going to hit the second bar on the open beach or is the plan to fish strictly pencils with this rod? No one rod is going to fill all your requirements perfectly.

Last year I began using some of these high performance blanks and have not looked back. I get better distance than I have ever gotten before. They fight fish extremely well and I can still work a pencil with them, although I am not a big pencil fan. Here are some examples of blanks that are better suited for pencils vs. other faster action blanks in the same company’s lineup;

Manufacturer

Moderate

Fast

Lamiglas CTS Century St. Croix

GSB Vapor Trail Stealth Mo Jo

XRA S8 Surf Sling Shot Legend

Hopefully this will help clear up the mystery and help in the future when deciding on a rod.

louscustomrods.com

Your fishing partner since 1986.

O L D S AY B R O O K . C O N N E C T I C U T . 8 6 0 . 3 8 8 . 2 2 8 3

BITE BACK AP-8 Aluminum Pliers

Guaranteed to Cut Braided Line Cleanly MSRP/ $59.99 8" length Anodized Aluminum Stainless Steel Replaceable Jaws Razor Sharp Tungsten Carbide Replaceable Cutters Cordura Sheath with Aluminum Grommet Aluminum Carabiner with Lanyard Included

Built to withstand corrosion from saltwater's harsh effects Available at these fine retailers Paulies Tackle Montauk, NY Saltwater Edge www.saltwateredge.com Efingers Sporting Goods Bound Brook, NJ Fishtek www.fishtek.com

saltwaterpliers.com

PLUGAHOLICS ANONYMOUS GOING SMALL

Three days of perfect tides and really not a whole hell of a lot to show for it. There were fish in the area. We’d seen them breaking here and there at first light, saw plenty of bait and even caught a precious few. But beyond that, it was just a good old-fashioned beatdown on our confidence. We talked about our plan for the following night and morning on the ride home. I remember thinking that we should swear off the area we’d been fishing. Maybe give it a rest for a week or so. But sometimes when you’ve been beaten up as bad as we had, the only thing that will stop the swelling is going back for another punch in the face.

DAVE ANDERSON

We hit a spot closer to home first, each of us afraid to mention the elephant in the room to the other. When that all-important moment came when if you don’t leave at that very second, you will not be able to make it in time, we both let on that we were ready to stand chin-out for the knockout punch. We piled our tackle and ourselves into the Jeep and made the hour drive. There were few people fishing there compared to the days prior. Many of our fellow casters had already taken their last licks the day before. The wind and weather had changed though, winds out of the NE and gray clouds tumbled over our heads in the earliest hints of morning light.

We settled into a comfortable spot standing in knee-deep water casting plugs. I was throwing my own yellow Pencil and my partner (also named Dave) a Guppy 3-ounce in herring color. Right when it was bright enough to tie a knot without a light it happened. A burst of bass appeared in front of us pushing 3- and 4-inch baitfish. The breaks were so constant that we were certain that we’d be into doubles immediately. So we took our time, preparing to make the perfect cast into these fish. But cast after cast produced nothing, NOTHING! The ripping sounds of Velcro followed shortly as we rummaged in our bags for something else. As if by psychic connection, we both chose the rare 2ounce Beachmaster Pencil Popper, his in mullet (white body, blue head) and mine in blue over white. We sequenced through every pencil popper trick in the book from the Montauk-style rod-breaker to the subtle sloshing of light dog-walking. These fish hated everything we had to throw at them… it almost seemed like they were staying in front of us just to taunt us!

Time for a different look! The Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil in black/chrome would have to be the ticket. For those of you who are not familiar with this plug it’s not really a pencil, it’s more of a spook, a great springtime lure and also a good option when albies are feeding ferociously. At six inches it was a little closer to the size of the bait. Dancing that lure through the waves only brought more indifference from this school of bass that was increasing in size. The blitz was getting more intense by the second!

We had to go smaller! I decided to sit back and watch for a minute, I tried to focus in on the baitfish themselves to see if I was missing something. They were definitely mackerel and they were definitely small, four inches, tops. Suddenly the solution became clear. My partner reached for a Left Hook small pencil in green mackerel and I reached for a Daiwa SP Minnow in the same color. The SP Minnow, I should add, is the best casting Finnish-style swimmer on the market. I only wish they made them in simple colors like pearl and black!

I shot a long cast into the middle of the blitz and began a very deliberate start-stop retrieve, moving the plug fast in bursts of about three feet. Three sweeps and my rod bowed into a deep arc and line began to peel off my reel. I looked out at Dave’s 5-inch pencil sloshing wildly just in time to see an 18-pounder clear the water with the plug firmly stuck in its jaw. For the next hour or so we had fish as fast as we could get our small lures into the drink. When the blitz moved on, we stayed put hoping to catch a few of the (usually larger) cleaning crew. We only found one, but it was a good one, Dave stuck a 32pounder about 30 minutes after the fray moved past us on that same Left Hook Pencil.

Another time when going small can really help is when you have to deal with excessive amounts of fire in the water. A few years back I was in the most frustrating version of this that you could think of. Tons of fire in the water and hundreds of bass breaking on bait!

You could watch the bait streaking through the water. They looked like shooting stars and the bass looked like Haley’s Comet as they came up from below to smash them. I tried everything I could think of, including downsizing my leader to 20-pound test and fishing everything from Bombers to small shads to floating needles. Not even a bump! My presentation was obviously phony, thanks to those little illuminated plankton. You could clearly see my line and my lure. I could even make out my swivel and snap in the water as my plugs swam past.

Digging in the bottom of the bag, I found a 5-inch loaded Red Fin. This was going to be my last attempt! I threw the Red Fin out there about ten times and got nothing. On my next cast, I heard a knot “tink” through my guides so I reeled in through my fingers to find it. It was one of those awesome wind knots that come undone without too much effort, maybe 30 seconds. But that was evidentially enough time for the tide to pull the swimmer out in the slow current. As soon as the knot was out, bang, I was tight to a fish! I reeled it in and made another cast. I let the tide carry the plug out until my line came tight, I kept my rod high and after a few seconds, I was on again! Later inspection showed me why. In the fiery

tide, the plug sitting nose-up left just a little wisp of a glowing trail when no action was imparted by me. If the lure had not been loaded it would have started to swim and probably would not have worked. But because that water-load was in the back of the hollow body it sat in such a way that it needed only a little current or a slow retrieve to make the lure swim…a perfect accidental scenario that has worked many times since.

Downsizing in the surf is a real tightrope, because lighter lures and heavy rods do not play well together. When you downsize your rod to match the lure—well, let’s just say big stripers seem to know when you have a nicked leader or rusty hook, right? They also seem to know when you’re standing in the surf with a trout rod! There are no safety nets in surf fishing. Then there is the challenge of putting hooks on these small plugs that can hold a big fish. Luckily in these days of a million and one lure designers we have choices but they don’t always work the way we might hope. As always, test the plugs before you head out to fish so that you know the hooks you’ve “swapped in” are not going to be detrimental to the action of the plug. Above all this, and I know this kind of goes against my column from the last issue about overstuffing your surf bag, but it’s wise to always have a few small options in your bag whenever you go out. Finicky fish will usually take a swing at something small—that is if you present it correctly and if you don’t get an impossible wind knot from throwing a ¾-ounce plug on your Lami 1201M! SIDEBAR Some Proven Small Lures and Suggested Hook Sizes (One little tip: if you find that putting larger hooks on a small swimmer is killing the action, try fishing the plug with just a belly hook—nine times out of ten it’s the added drag on the tail of the lure that saps the swimming action.)

Lure 5-inch Red Fin (loaded with 3 cc of water) Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil Super Strike 1-ounce N-Fish Super Strike Bullet Daiwa SP Minnow 5-inch Guppy Loaded Canal Pencil Left Hook Loaded Small Pencil Afterhours Small Needle Beachmaster Lil’ Guy Surf Asylum Small Danny Gibbs 1-ounce Pencil (deadly)

Hook Size 2/0 VMC 2/0 VMC 2/0 VMC 3/0 VMC 2/0 VMC Stock Stock Stock 2/0 VMC Pair of 1/0 VMCs or a single 2/0 up front, flag on tail Pair of 2/0 VMCs

I want to address an issue in this month’s column. It deals with 4 wheel drive. Not all 4 wheel drive set ups are the same. Obviously all wheel drive is not 4 wheel drive. The issue lies with drive axles and hubs. Locking hubs ensure that both wheels of a given drive set, either front or rear, apply power together and at the same rate. Just because you have 4 wheel drive doesn't mean your hubs lock.

Some vehicles have systems that lock the rear wheels and allow only one front wheel to apply power and the other front will not engage until the first one slips. This is not an ideal situation in sand, as once you spin you are generally stuck.

Some vehicles, such as Fords, have available locking front hubs, and at the flip of a switch both front wheels apply power together and in sync with the rear, giving you the best ability to get through loose sand and changes in grade. There also are manual locking hubs, where you get out of your vehicle and manually turn a dial in the center of your hub to lock it in. Either are an excellent choice for beach driving and allow surf fishermen the best option to avoid problems that could cost you valuable fishing time.

RUSSELL “BIG ROCK” PAOLINE

A common misconception suggests that 4x4 and traction go hand in hand… you can’t have one without the other. The truth, however, is that most 4x4 vehicles send power to the wheels with the least amount of traction once difficult terrain is encountered. The problem is simple – when one (or more) of your vehicle’s wheels loses traction, your highway minded factory differential directs all of your vehicle’s power to those spinning wheels. On road, the standard "open" differential allows each of your wheels to turn independently thus eliminating any binding during turns. Off road, this becomes a major burden as engine power will take the path of least resistance, which occurs at the wheels with little or no traction.

Newer vehicles with limited slip differentials, positraction, etc. may offer some improvement over standard differentials, but more often you’ll find the slipping is not "limited" enough to maintain forward progress. Automatic locking differentials also have their disadvantages. Aside from being noisy, automatic locking differentials often change the “on highway” and “off road” driving characteristics of your 4x4. During normal driving conditions, vehicle responsiveness becomes less predictable, and when sandy surfaces become soft or sugary, the driver must use extreme caution just to keep the truck in control.

Fortunately for beach drivers there are plenty of after market alternatives for beefing up beach driving capabilities. ARB 4x4 accessories offers one of the better new set-ups: air lockers. Created to provide 100% traction on demand, without sacrificing any of your vehicle’s highway driving performance, air lockers employ a 12 volt air compressor designed to activate (and deactivate) a solid and durable locking mechanism inside the differential. This gives you the traction you need, when you need it, all at the flick of a switch, all within the safety and comfort of the driver’s seat.

The advantage of the air lockers lies in the pneumatically operated locking system inside the differential. When activated, the air locker prevents the differential gears from rotating and therefore prevents the axle shafts from turning independently of each other.

With both wheels tied directly to the rotation of the ring gear, the vehicle maintains maximum possible traction at all times. When unlocked, it operates just like conventional "open" differentials.

In addition to providing outright improvements to a 4x4’s off road capabilities, the air locker offers significant environmental benefits. When approaching difficult terrain, less reliance is put on momentum. An air locker equipped truck can be driven in a slower, safer and more controlled manner as a result of vastly improved traction. Air lockers are currently available in over 100 configurations to suit a wide range of 4x4 vehicles from around the world. Because the air locker is only engaged when needed, it can be installed in BOTH the front and rear axles, with separate switches independently controlling the locker from within the truck.

Installation should be performed by a qualified differential technician, although no special tools or skills are required apart from those necessary for fitting a standard differential. I have seen this process done, and believe me you would not want to attempt installing this set up unless you are a certified mechanic, and I wouldn't let my buddy with the tool kit do it either. When installed with an ARB air compressor, the locker system is supplied as a complete kit which contains all of the parts necessary for proper installation, including industrial grade control switches, air lines and fittings. ARB offers two compressor models suitable for air locker operation. A dedicated air activation system is available which is extremely durable and compact. Alternatively a larger compressor can be specified, which is also perfect for inflating tires, air mattresses and a host of other applications where compressed air is required. You can have front and rear air lockers and a compressor powerful enough to inflate your aired down tires, or in the event of a flat run an impact gun to easily and quickly remove lug nuts.

However you proceed, remember this, the less prepared you are for problems on the beach, the more fishing time you will waste fixing them. Until next time, tight lines.....

LI OUTDOORSMAN.COM

516.678.5554

Choopy Lures crafted. fished. proven.

www.choopylures.com

Needlefish

Darters

Swimmers

THE HOME STRETCH

As I sit here looking at my log book, I’m trying to make sense out of twenty years of entries and scribbled notes. Separating the random events from true patterns is quite a challenge, but for the most part, it is obvious that November (on the whole) has been good to me. More than any other month, I’ve logged more days where I was simply in the right place at the right time – or so it seems.

So now that I’ve officially jinxed myself for 2011, let me share a few things that have been game changers for me in November and early December of years past. Now that we are into the 2011 home stretch, I plan to keep an eye out for the following: 1. Peanut Bunker: This was the dominant late season forage of the late 90’s to mid 00’s, but sorely missed over the last 6 seasons or so. Peanut-induced blitzes were never 100% predictable, but that first calm day after a cold, hard NW wind always held promise for kicking things into gear along vast stretches of beach. Peanuts are a surfcaster’s blessing, due to the fact that this bait has a habit of hugging the beaches, and moving rather slowly down the coast. From a beach-bound fly fishing perspective, peanuts are a very very good thing. My logs are chock full of great days with peanuts pinned to the beaches, and respectable bass and bluefish taking white 6 inch deceivers with reckless abandon just a few feet from shore. I’ve tied plenty of peanut imitations over the years, but I have yet to log a day when “match the hatch” was required. If we have peanuts this year, I expect to call in any favors, burn vacation and sick days, and fish like hell.

2. Sand Eels: Sand eels were the dominant late season bait up to the early 90’s. They disappeared from the late fall scene somewhere around 1992 in many locations, but have since made a comeback over the last handful of seasons. Sand eels also have shown a habit of sticking to a given stretch of beach for an extended period of time. The good news is that once you know where they are, there is an excellent chance they will be there again tomorrow, and the next day. The bad news is that every other surfcaster and their brother now knows their location as well. I’ve yet to match the success I’ve had while fishing a peanut feed, but it’s almost always worth the effort to get out of bed on a cold November morning when there are reports of sand eels in the wash. If there are sand eels again this year (and I have a hunch there will be), if wind and water conditions permit, I’ll be throwing a fast sinking shooting head and dragging the bottom.

3. Herring: My experience with herring represents the proverbial crap-shoot, with low odds but high pay-outs of quality bass from about the 3rd week of November on. My log recounts days upon days of pre-dawn scouting, but the percentages are not all that spectacular. I do have fond memories of herring-induced action in late November (and early December) through the early 1990’s, but seldom under flyrod-friendly conditions.

The vast majority of my success involved big winds and big water. By contrast, the same patch of water under more favorable conditions found picky gamefish, if the herring were in close at all. Each day was different, as the herring tended to move quickly, and the days when herring and bass overlapped never seemed long enough. It has been more than ten years since I’ve enjoyed the kind of bass/herring action that I almost took for granted in the early 1990’s. The only exception to this has been the back bays, where I have been able to occasionally target bass chasing herring around lighted piers or bridges. Two words: dress warmly.

4. Moderating Temperatures: I’ve logged enough seasons to see how a stalled cold front and a week-long Nor’easter can shut down inshore fishing for weeks during the critical mid-point of the fall run. Similarly, a precipitous drop in temperatures (too much, too soon) has spelled curtains for late in-shore fishing during a number of past seasons.

I pray for lows in the high 30’s at night, and daytime highs in the 60’s. This suggests alternating SW and NW winds, as successive cold fronts inch us closer to winter. The “November curse” - with day after day of lows in the 20’s and highs in the 40’s – too early in November usually has the fat Lady warming up her pipes well before Turkey Day. The net result has often been fish moving way off the beach, and well out of reach of even the best tournament caster.

All that said, regardless of how November plays out, my log proves year in year out that I almost always end the season well before it’s officially over. This is never intentional. It usually starts with a false belief that if there are no more fish being reported from New England, there must not be anything more coming our way here on Long Island. Then a bunch of fish make landfall in Montauk on a random one or two days. I ‘ve been in on a couple of these, and I can assure you, I was just as surprised as the guys getting those phone calls - “Get your ass back out to Montauk.”

At some point, my delinquency on the home front catches up with me, and holiday shopping or putting up Christmas lights takes priority. I know what I have to do - if I want to stay married.

I always try to put on a brave face for that dreaded phone call, usually around the 8th of December, announcing that blitz I am missing... at Long Beach or Breezy or Sandy Hook.

Like so many other patterns documented year after year in my logs, that phone call arrives each December with surprising regularity.

TACKLE TALK Fly Lines - Basics and Beyond When talking about tackle, we tend to focus most of our attention on rods and reels. It's been said that the most dynamic and most important part of your fly fishing tackle is actually the fly line. I have to agree.

A fly line is comprised of a core, sometimes made of a monofilament or braid-like material, covered with a PVC-like coating. I use the word "like" here because the actual core and coating materials vary by manufacturer and line type.

It is important for the line to be stiff, so that it is easier to handle and so that it can shoot through the rod guides. But if it is too stiff that it is prone to coiling or "memory."

Memory equals tangles. Tangles suck. Tangles at night really suck.

It is usually the case that the line stiffness varies with temperature, so many manufactures have developed coldwater and tropical lines to provide the right amount of stiffness for that temperature range.

If your line feels overly stiff, it may require stretching to work out the memory. My experience is that stretching helps, but in extreme cases, no amount of stretching will work out the memory of some lines during a good cold snap. There is one "Striper Line" that I bought years ago which works exceptionally well from June to September. But by late October, that same line leaves me cursing in the dark, regardless of how many times I try to stretch it.

Coatings offer protection for the core and they add mass to the line. This mass is needed for casting. The degree of change in mass and thickness along the length of line is referred to as the "taper." A typical saltwater taper line has a 30 to 40 foot "head," with more thickness and mass, followed by approximately 60 to 70 feet of relatively thin "running line." In fly fishing, it is the mass of the head section of line, when being false casted (or accelerated), which ultimately pulls the fly.

(Rio Striped Bass Line Tech Specs. Courtesy Rio Products) Lines are classified according to the weight in the final 30 foot section of the line, the "head." The unit of measure here is "grains," where 437.5 grains is equivalent to one ounce. To put this into practical terms, the “standard� 30 foot head of a 9 weight line is supposed to weigh approximately .55 ounces (give or take), according to industry standards. In actuality, line manufacturers vary the weights, and/or vary the distribution

of that weight, so that a 9 weight line of Product A will feel and cast very differently from a 9 weight of Product B. This variation is almost always intentional, since line manufacturers know (for example) that some casters prefer a little more weight than suggested by the rating of the rod, based on casting styles and based on the flies that the fishermen are expected to throw.

Using a line heavier than the rod rating is quite common, especially among "non-expert" casters, which includes almost all of us. I will concede opinions run the spectrum here. I've read plenty of debate on over-lining and under-lining among professionals, and among those on the internet chat boards. I've usually found that most of those opposed to overlining are not speaking about fishing the Northeast, at least not wading, and certainly not fishing at night.

I stress this because the technique of fly casting, which requires continuous sensory feedback on how the line is loading the rod, is usually the most difficult thing for a fly fishermen to master. Handling fly line during casting and retrieve is probably the second most difficult thing. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to be comfortable casting and handling a line, especially at night, in order to be productive in the local surf.

For many experienced fly fishermen, this is all kindergarten stuff, so what's the take-away?

Rods are different, casting styles are different, and the flies you are throwing vary considerably in terms of weight and size. And as mentioned above, temperature can impact the line itself. Now throw in variations based on wind or other conditions that you will face on any given day (or make that night), and you can easily see how the fly line you choose becomes a highly personal, highly subjective, yet very important thing.

The fishing shows are coming up this winter. You will be tempted to cast a bunch of rods, but I highly suggest that you bring a favorite rod with you and test cast a bunch of lines as well. Try casting lines above and below the rod rating, try casting the line with a fly on the end, and try casting outdoors (if they will let you).

As suggested above, the line is the most dynamic part of the equation, so it is critical that you dial in to a line that matches your rod and suits your own casting style. I am not a big buyer of equipment for the sake of "gotta have it," and I tend keep my rotation of outfits to a handful of favorites. But in the case of fly lines, I do think there are benefits to trying them all, and then having quite a number of different lines at your disposal.

You know on Public Television when they interrupt the Yanni concert to ask you to donate money.

Help us keep The Journal free... by sending us some money.

SUPPORT

SJ CREW

RedGi l l sAr eBac k!

Re di s c ov e rt heul t i mat e

s ande e li mi t at i onl ur e

RedGi l ll ur esf r om UKar enowavai l abl ei nt heUSA. Vi s i twww. r edgi l l us a. c om t oi ndadeal ernearyou.

Fol l owusatwww. f ac ebook. c om/r edgi l l us a

HOT-SMOKED SALMON

Hot-Smoked Salmon This is a delicious and slightly unusual way to prepare any fatty fish. Bluefish would be an obvious and timely substitution to make.

As opposed to cold-smoked fish which is cured and then smoked at a low temperature, (ie, the smoked salmon you put on your bagel), hot smoked fish is also cured but then fully cooked in the smoker. It is normally served cold as part of a salad or other appetizer.

In this recipe we use a curing mix (dry-brine) just to insure that the fish is fully but lightly seasoned before smoking and the reason is two-fold. One, when serving any food warm or hot, the seasonings, particularly salt, are much more pronounced and need to be toned down. Two, we are serving this fish as a main course so the flavors should be more subtle than for an appetizer. A slice of salty prosciutto is a perfect way to whet your appetite but you wouldn’t want to eat a plateful of it for dinner!

When I serve this dish at the restaurant, I only smoke/cook the fish halfway, then quickly chill and store it. We then roast the fish to temperature when needed. This would also be a handy way to make this dish at home because there’s a bit less hassle at serving time.

You could choose, however, to cook your fish all the way in the smoker if it suits your cooking style and preparation schedule.

The Cure Mix: The salt and sugar are the key ingredients here. I add black pepper but feel free to experiment with other fish friendly flavors like fennel seed, coriander or even lemon zest.

(This will make more than you need but can be stored for later use) 1 cup salt (sea salt or kosher) ½ cup sugar ¼ cup black peppercorns, ground coarsely The Fish: As many fillets as you’re serving

Season each fillet evenly but lightly with the cure mix and lay out on a plate or non-reactive tray and cover with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate overnight or for up to 12 hours. (Curing time will depend on how thick your fillets are so I would recommend that you really do season lightly, especially the first time you make this).

Remove the plastic wrap and pat the fish dry with paper towels. Place back into the refrigerator, un-covered, while you prepare the smoker. This will allow the fillets to lose their surface moisture and take on the smoke more readily.

Next you’ll need to set-up a smoker. I use a perforated tray which fits inside a deeper pan that can be placed on the stove-top. I place a large handful of wood-chips in the bottom pan and then position my perforated tray with the fish in it over that. I then wrap just the top tray with plastic wrap to seal in the smoke.

Place the smoker on your stovetop over low to medium-low heat; you will begin to see smoke almost immediately. The idea is to keep the heat low while continually producing a light haze.

You do not want to make thick or yellow smoke and if this happens remove the smoker from the heat and let things cool down until the smoke inside the pan subsides. Then place the pan back on a lower heat.

I find that salmon fillets about 1� thick are half-cooked in 25 minutes. This may sound like a long time but keep in mind that I’m maintaining a very low temperature in my smoker. This gives me fish with a subtle smokiness and ensures that the fillets stay very moist. At this point you can opt to remove your fillets and chill them until needed or to keep going another 15 minutes or so until your fish is medium-rare and then serve it right away.

Dark, leafy greens like kale or spinach and buttery mashed potatoes are the perfect complement to this dish.

cafĂŠkatja.com

CASTABILITY DEPENDABILITY

BASSABILITY

“Fish it like a Pencil Popper for amazing top water action.”

3oz

Surface Tension Lure

with patented channel design.

LineStretcher.com

.4 SIZES .ABS PLASTIC .THRU-WIRE CONSTRUCTION .MADE IN THE USA

Bob Pond on a visit to Cape Cod in 1995, proudly holding a wooden ATOM lure from his Attleboro factory

A HISTORIC INTERVIEW WITH BOB POND

BY FRANK PINTAURO PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED POORE

Fourteen years ago, Ed Poore had the foresight to do a 90-minute interview with Bob Pond, the man who created ATOM plugs, the lures that are responsible for catching more 40, 50 and even 60-pound bass than any other single lure. Pond, founder of STRIPERS UNLIMITED, has spent a lifetime fishing for and studying stripers along the East Coast. The following are excerpts from that interview focusing on the early years and his marketing efforts. Enjoy.

Ed Poore: It’s November 15, 1990 at the ATOM Manufacturing Co. in Attleboro, Mass. with Bob Pond.

Bob Pond: Well, the wooden plugs were first. And they started in ’45. We actually made them in ’44 and when the atom bomb was dropped we already had them on the market.

Poore: Oh. They were already being sold.

Pond: They were on the market. We had made 400 bodies and started turning them in to plugs. And it was that bunch that got the name for the plug, they got the name ATOM. Because at the time the atom bomb was dropped the plug was being used. But we had it with no name for a year. So we made them in ’44 as prototypes and started to market them. Made them over the winter of ’44-45 and marketed them in ’45 for the first time.

Poore: The first year they just came in plain white boxes with no marking?

Pond: The first year they were wrapped in newspaper with no box, no name.

Four ATOMS. Top: A first-year wooden ATOM with hand-cut metal lip. Note the simple paint job with no outer clear coat. Pond estimated a run of aout 400 of these during his first-year production. Second: A subsequent early production model with a slightly more sophisticated paint job and factory stamped metal lip. Third: The larger of the two sizes of the junior wooden ATOMS. Bottom: Small sized Jr. ATOM. Sold in a small box that was a tight fit for this lure. Both Jr. ATOM sizes are quite rare and highly prized in collections since very few made.

Poore: No stamp on the lip?

Pond: No, we actually cut our own lips out and made our own. And they were all crude.

On the first ones, we actually cut the big plates out by hand.

Poore: Wow! Pond: We worked over here at what is now Texas Instruments. But it was Metals and Controls back in the 40’s when we started. And they rolled metal for the jewelry industry, and so we would pick up scrap metal and use that to make the lips with. We worked for them, you know, for a good many years, right up through till we made the plastic plugs.

Poore: So, if someone found one and it had no stamp and no mark on the lip or no mark on the body ‌?

Pond: The lip would be rough but it would be one of the originals.

Poore: Okay.

Pond: Here is the first wooden prototype model. We only made two of those.

Poore: Is that right?

Pond: Yeah, just two; and then if you lose one, you still got one. See how the lips is cut out?

One of the earliest ATOM advertisements featuring the wooden ATOM and heralding the move to plastic.

The ATOM Black Box, produced by the Mason Box Company, was made for one year only and housed some of the earliest plastic ATOM 40’s.

Poore: Oh yeah. When were they marked on the lips?

Pond: I don’t think we had a patent on the first 400. We didn’t have anything. But the original ones, that first 400, if you ever found any of those, it would be a swivel mounted hook, not open-eye; and it would be cut.

Poore: That’s interesting … But at some point in time the lips became bent or reinforced on the edges.

Pond: We only did that with the 40, the plastic. The wood never got that; we never did that with wood. We did that when we went into the plastic; we were more automated then.

And we had better and better stamping and bending equipment. So we got where we’d stamp into the steel – the ATOM Manufacturing Company, out of Attleboro, Massachusetts.

Poore: But the earliest ones were just ink stamped on the lip.

Pond: Yeah, just ink stamped. We didn’t get the patent till the second – or rather started on the patent - until the second year. The first 400 didn’t have any stamping and we never thought of a patent. But then Cap, Albie Sherer, came up with CAP’N BILL. Bill Chasen and Charlie Sherer owned the Red Top Bait Company. And they were the very first ones who wanted our plug to sell retail, and so we went to them and made a deal. And we were also selling direct to individual fisherman. We didn’t know anything about retailing.

Poore: Oh, yeah.

ATOM 51’s. A variety of painted ATOM 51’s used on some of the early plastic swimmers.

Pond: We lived in a trailer park in Buzzards Bay. People would come up and buy the plugs. We actually turned some plugs and made some plugs right when we were there in the trailer park. That was back in ’45.

Poore: Who came up with the name?

Pond: The name was developed by Charlie Sherer and Bill Chasen. They went out one time fishing and got so many fish on our lure, they said, “this has gotta be an atom bomb.”

And that’s how the name evolved.

Poore: I see.

Pond: But, of course, even Albie Sherer used the name ATOM for a while. The two names were both filed for by each of us, and I finally got the name when Albie died. Albie was always the guy who was pushing us all the time. He was pushing us to do better.

Always coming at us with CAP’N BILL’s line of stuff.

Poore: So all the wooden ATOMS were called Striper ATOMS. Pond: Yeah, they were called Striper ATOM. They didn’t have any numbers or anything. They were just a Striper ATOM, and they had no number. And 40 became the number for the plastic, the first plastic plug. And it was made in ’49. My best recollection would be that ’49 was when we came out with the first plastic one.

Poore: Tell us about the plastic.

Skunk ATOM lures. Very limited production lure with solid white belly makes these ATOM 52’s fun to “color collect.”

Pond: Everybody was making out on plugs at that time. It became generic. RUSSO in New York was making ATOM plugs also and they were all calling them ATOM plugs. So, in order to shake the pack that was now doing what we were doing, we decided to go plastic.

Poore: Yeah.

Pond: And that started about ’49. By then we knew we had to get away from wood turning if we were going to stay in the business.

Poore: Yeah.

Pond: So by going to plastic we lost out for a little bit because people didn’t like plastics, and wood was still the preferred way of making a lure. But then they began to see the advantages of the plastic which had the same weight with the same action but didn’t absorb water.

Poore: You know, of all the ATOMS that I have, I’ve never found a glass-eyed one yet.

Pond: I made that just for one very short period of time. I don’t’ know how long, not long.

Poore: This plug, maybe one season?

Pond: Oh, maybe one season, that was all because by ’48 we’d decided – in ’48 or ’49

A rare ATOM 54 plastic Jr. Popper shown with advertisement.

This style Plastic popper also came in a larger size.

Old advertising color chart featuring the short-live and rare Three-Pack.

– we were going to plastic. See, we’d made up our mind. We couldn’t put an eye in that.

So I guess that’s when we decided not to do it in the wood since we weren’t going to do it in the plastic.

Poore: And let’s see. You used different paint jobs on the Junior ATOMS? Pond: All our painting again was done by hand. I mean, we did this all. We would spray; we would dip the plug in a clear material. It sort of turned orange over time. It was clear when we started. And then we would spray a powder into the clear. We just did it with air. And so you could make any design you wanted. And then when it dried the color was right in to the undercoat. You never put a top coat on it; just one coat was all we did.

Poore: So the paint jobs were all different – not by design but just by whoever happened to be painting them and added their own little flair to it.

Pond: Yeah, right. By whoever was doing it. It wasn’t sophisticated, I’ll tell you.

Poore: The Kill-Lure is interesting.

Pond: Very short life.

Poore: That didn’t catch fish too well, I guess.

Glass-eyed ATOM, This is the Holy Grail for all AOTM collectors. A Wooden ATOM with glass eyes, advertised in 1947 only.

There are just a handful of these known, in any condition. (Thanks to Marty McGovern for use of his lure.)

Pond: No, the only time it caught fish was when it was laying on the bottom and no one was moving it, when the fish would come over and pick it up. (That was a joke.) That just evolved. But we wanted to make a lure that looked like a fish and it had a lot of action but never became a factor. And very few were made because it didn’t sell very well. A few hundred only ever reached the market.

Poore: So how did the Black Box come about? Was that a special…?

Pond: Well, no, it should have been. Whatever we did, that would be a year’s run, you know. Whatever we would do, we would do it for that year. We would get Mason Box Company up here, and they did our boxes. And it’s the only people that ever made our boxes. Or you know, as long as we made boxes, I think Mason Box did them.

Poore: Yeah. Did you have a problem marketing your lures outside of Massachusetts?

Pond: Bob Linton, a charter boat captain in Rhode Island, started to use them; and once he started to use them, then they began to progress along, close to Rhode Island. Then we got Johnny Kronuch, in Montauk, N.Y. And at that time, that’s where we ran into the RUSSO wooden plug. And at that time, we had our plastic plug, too. We went down to Montauk, I fished with Johnny. And I had the plastic plug, He was pretty much set against using plastic; he was a very traditional fisherman, a good fisherman, but very traditional. And he liked the old wooden plugs much better.

Poore: Yeah.

ATOM Kill-Lure. This little oddity features a painted lead body coated with a cellulose acetate baked on and then coated in a tough clear plastic. Produced for only one year.

Pond: And so he wouldn’t take RUSSO’s plug off the shelves and put ours on. But I happened to go fishing with him one night with the plastic plugs. And I just beat the pants off him. So, you know, it was one of those things. I just did really well. We hadn’t been able to sell plugs in the New York market. But we’d sold some to the New York jobbers, but they hadn’t moved them on to the retail. They were just a glut on the market down there. But, we had it going.

I stayed with the fish migration and I wanted to go right down and see where all these stripers went on the way down to the Chesapeake. But then I called back to see how things were going. And they said, “Will you please come back here? We’re inundated with orders.” And of course we can’t get this stuff out. Because I was gone there was no stuff being turned, and nothing was happening.

So, what had happened? Johnny Kronuch had gone in and bought every single plastic plug he could get his hands on, anywhere, anybody, at the low cost. He took them off their hand, you know, figuring he was doing them a big favor by removing these things from their dead inventory. And then he broke the story through the writers because he knew all the outdoor writers in New York. And, good God, he was getting maybe six, seven, eight dollars apiece. He didn’t care what the price was. So, he did very well, he cleaned up.

And then of course, then we came back, and now all of a sudden we had a huge market in the South which we’d never had before. But ninety percent of our plugs used to be sold in Cape Cod. Even if they were sold in New York, they’d come back in to the retailers out of New York.

Poore: Oh boy! How about the Stinkey ATOM. Was that a one-year?

Pond: Arnold Laine. That was Arnold Laine and his scent. And we did that for maybe

Stinkey ATOM lures. These came in two different box styles and were sold with or without the eel skin already positioned on the lure. Included were hooks, scent bottle, and scent dropper.

three of four years. About three or four years. Yeah.

Poore: So that was – it had an eel skin over the plugs and …

Pond: Some, some yes, some no.

Poore: Oh, really?

Pond: We did some with the eel skin, some without.

Poore: I’ve only seen one other Stinkey ATOM, and it was in the original broad flat box.

It was eel skin packed in salt with the hooks not yet attached.

Pond: Yeah, right.

Poore: And the separated scent bottle?

Pond: Well, the Stinkey ATOM was made both ways, with skin and without. And that lasted, well, it was when fishing began to get really tough.

Poore: Yeah. So from ’55-’60 for the Stinkies?

Pond: Yeah. Arnold Laine was just doing fabulously with scented eels and stuff like that. He had this scent he had developed. And the fellows who had left the canal and gone down and were fishing Race Point. And that was when the big, big fish were caught at Race Point and down that way. That’s when they were huge. There was a world record set.

Spin ATOM display card made for the new spinning market. These

ATOM 40 in both Swimmer and Reverse configurations.

Poore: Yeah. Did the Stinkey ATOM sell well?

Pond: For a while, yes. But it was such a mess, you know. And it didn’t last well on the shelves. And everybody was complaining their house stunk. And we got out of it, in and out.

Poore: Yeah. So that the production years would have been kind of low on the number end.

Pond: Yeah. Very few.

Poore: What about the Reverse ATOM? Pond: They came about because we were using these as “sketch plugs” to break our thumbs in for casting in the spring of the year. We’d take the faceplate and hooks off, hook our line to the eye, and just go out and practice casting in the field. It’s just standard. Well, one guy down at the Cape was doing this with one of these plugs. He was using it just for a test plug to cast with. And it had all the hooks off it. And he started to get this thing knocked all over the place by big bass. He ran back, grabbed some hooks and put them on. Frank Woolner was there, and all the real Cape Cod regulars witnessed it! We didn’t know about it until the guy came back to us and said, “Can you make these?” And we said, “Yeah! Sure.”

ERIC BURNLEY

SURF FISHING

DELAWARE

I wish I could tell you that Delaware is the finest surf fishing destination in the world or even along the east coast, but we all know that would not be true. Back in the day of big weakfish we had spectacular action in the spring and fall along the beach and all summer at Indian River Inlet. We had some very good runs of big blues from the same locations, however in recent years the weakfish have disappeared and the big blues only show up when east winds push bunker to the beach.

On the plus side, we do have better striped bass fishing than we have had since the1970s. Once again, it is the spring and fall that brings out the best action. This past spring there was an unprecedented run of stripers, know locally as rockfish, at Indian River Inlet. These were big fish to well over 30 pounds and shorts were uncommon. I have been fishing the inlet for more than 60 years and a friend has been fishing there for over 70 years and neither of us or anyone else can remember a run this good that lasted for more than two weeks.

THE BEACHES Delaware is fortunate to have the vast majority of our coastline open to surf fishing. Drive-on surf fishing is available in all the Delaware Seashore State Parks and walk-on fishing is possible in the towns from Lewes to Fenwick Island.

Several years ago someone caught a fish hook in their foot while swimming in Rehoboth. A great hue and cry went out to ban surf fishing in the town, but when the mayor began to get calls from people demanding the beach be kept open the idea of prohibiting fishing never got a hearing. The mayor said she could hardly hang up the phone before it would ring again.

Dewey Beach, which has always been known as a party town, used to be quite a fishing hot spot.

There were two tackle shops in town and the motels catered to fishermen in the spring and fall.

Increasing property values made a tackle shop cost prohibitive and the less expensive motels became high value condos. The beach is still open for fishing, but I don’t think it gets a lot of attention.

Most surf fishing goes on at the state parks, Cape Henlopen, Delaware Seashore and Fenwick Island.

While many people drive on these beaches, a good number walk over from the numerous parking areas.

It does cost money to fish from the surf at a Delaware state park. There is a park entrance fee for those who want to walk over and a surf fishing permit for those who want to drive on the beach. The entrance fee is currently $4.00 for Delaware residents and $8.00 for non-residents. The Surf Fishing Permit fee is $65.00 for residents and $130.00 for nonresidents. This money goes to the general fund and comes back to the State Parks Division as part of their budget request. Last year surf fishing permits accounted for over $1,000,000 in revenue and pretty much assures we will be able to drive on the beach.

Delaware also has a General Fishing License (GFL) that covers fresh and saltwater fishing. The cost is $8.00 for residents and $20.00 for nonresidents. This money does go into a dedicated fund and is used for improvements to recreational fishing in Delaware. You will need the GFL to fish from all Delaware beaches.

If I were to rate the Delaware beaches for surf fishing I would go with Three Rs Road south of Indian River Inlet as the most consistently productive. Delaware does not have much structure to our beaches and Three Rs Road has the sharpest drop of any location along the coast. I am no geologist, but I would guess the Indian River Inlet just north of here plays some role in the beach structure at Three Rs. I fished here for many years when I had a place in Ocean View. It was a hot spot for big weakfish and blues in the spring and fall as well as kings, spot and small blues in the summer. I still venture down there if I think it is worth the trip from Lewes.

The next most productive location would be the point at Cape Henlopen.

This spot is only open in the fall as the beloved piping plover has it tied up in the spring and summer. Why that bird insists on nesting in the best fishing spots I still don’t understand.

The location I fish most often is Herring Point at the southern end of Cape Henlopen State Park. I like the area close to the south jetty where the beach has a steep drop. So far it has yielded stripers, blues and the occasional croaker. This place is attractive to me because it is close to my house and with a truck that gets 10 miles per gallon on the road, forget about on the beach, I really don’t want to drive any further than necessary.

Several long-time Delaware surf fishermen find the beach on the northside of Indian River Inlet very productive. At one time the inlet was further north and the place where it once cut across the land is where they fish. The Old Coast Guard Station, visible from the beach, is close to the site of the old inlet.

Fenwick Island is a pretty smooth beach with even less structure than most other spots. Still it produces good numbers of fish including the largest striper caught out of the surf in 2010. This 44 pounder was caught last November.

Unlike New Jersey, Delaware only has few jetties and other than the two at Indian River Inlet, they are not very long. The Navy jetties are found at Cape Henlopen State Park and are out of the water on low tide. I have picked the occasional fish from around the base during flood tide, but generally I fish close to but not on the rocks.

In Rehoboth and Bethany Beach there are a few short jetties where light tackle and fly fishermen can find the occasional blue or summer flounder.

This is almost exclusively a night time fishery in the summer as the place is crowded with swimmers during the day.

The two jetties at Indian River Inlet provide the only real jetty fishing in the state. The rocks have been there for a very long time and are just as dangerous as any along the coast. Creepers or Korkers are a must before venturing out here.

A sidewalk follows the inshore section of the jetties and fishing can be very good from a much safer perch. Some locations along the sidewalk are very popular and conflicts are common when any fish is running through the inlet. I am constantly amazed that a few nuts will get even nuttier over a 1pound bluefish as they would over a 20-pound striper. Fortunately, there is plenty of sidewalk away from the crazies where fish and cooler heads prevail.

THE FISH Stripers have become the number one target of serious surf fishermen during the past five years. They arrive in the spring and then return in the fall. Since we have very little structure to hold them the fish move in and out with the bait.

During the last 10 years I have seen more bunker in Delaware waters than at any time in the past. Huge schools roam the Delaware Bay and the near shore ocean where they encounter stripers on a regular basis. The only time the bunker and the stripers come to the beach is when a east wind moves them in casting range. This can be a one tide event or as in this past spring’s action it can last much longer.

While bunker are the most abundant bait I have had good results by using clams during the spring. Several years ago I invited an angler from New Jersey to fish with me and he brought an abundant supply of rotten clams. They worked much better than they smelled. Unfortunately, the odor lingered in the back of my trunk until I uncovered a lone clam that had somehow escaped and hidden itself. On a hot and humid day I can still detect the slight aroma of that New Jersey rotter.

We use a basic fish-finder rig when soaking clams or bunker. A circle hook is tied or snelled to one end of a 4-inch, 80-pound mono leader with a black barrel swivel tied to the other end. The short leader makes the rig easy to cast and has worked as well if not better than the 3 to 4-foot leaders we used in the past.

Plug casters are rare in Delaware. I would guess that I have more surf plugs than the average Delaware angler and while I keep trying to catch a big striper on one, to date I have not succeeded. The biggest drawback to plug fishing here is the lack of structure.

No outer bar, no jetties, nothing to attract and hold bait and fish. With some 30 miles of bare sand beach it is hard to find a starting point.

Indian River Inlet is the exception. Anglers use plugs like Bombers and Tsunami shads here, but the most popular lure is a white bucktail with a white plastic worm. As mentioned earlier, I have fished the inlet for 60 years and that same bucktail and worm combo worked in the 1950s and still works today.

Bluefish are in the mix most of the year. We get the occasional shot at the big boys in the spring and fall with snapper to tailors available in the summer. Most are caught on cut bait, but when they move in force to the beach metal such as a Hopkins or Kastmaster will produce more fish in a shorter time. I have had some success with surface lures on spring and fall blues. The usual suspects, pencil poppers, Gibbs Polaris and Atom Striper Swipers have all done a good job.

Summer fishing is restricted to summer flounder, kings, blues, spot and croaker. I realize this sounds funny to anyone north of southern New Jersey, but that is what we got and that is what we fish for.

You will find even the most dedicated Delaware surf fishermen with his rod planted firmly in a sand spike and his butt planted firmly in a beach chair during the summer.

The typical two-hook bottom rig is used and baited with bloodworms, FishBites and Gulp! Should fate smile upon his efforts there will be a fish fry that night. If not it will be hamburgers on the grill.

The exception to this pattern is the hard-core jetty jockey who will hit the rocks at sundown and fish till dawn. He will cast eels, plugs and bucktails and may or may not find success. I followed this pattern for many years, but now in my dotage I leave the jetty fishing to the young folks.

So there you have it. I would never recommend anyone from New Jersey north travel to Delaware for the surf fishing, but if circumstances find you in the area there are fish to catch.

FLY FISHING THE SURF LOU TABORY

The waves rolling over the bar were more powerful than I first thought when looking from the beach parking lot. A fast sinking line would have been a better choice but I’d already made the long walk to the bar and was set to fish so the intermediate line would have to do. I would just allow for more drift and maybe feed some loose line if I needed to get the fly deeper. Waves broke, flowed over the bar and spilled into a deep drop-off where the bar ended. I started casting straight across the flow letting the moving water swing the fly into the white water along the bar’s edge. As the line and fly flowed into deeper water I used a fast retrieve with long strips to make the fly dart through the slower water below the bar. After half a dozen casts a fish took. It was a school fish about five pounds—a good start. A dozen more casts produced another small fish. I made another cast well up the flow allowing for a longer drift to get the fly deeper. On several casts I paused, letting the line and fly settle deeper into the hole before retrieving. This technique worked with the take of a bigger fish in the low to mid teens.

Letting the line and fly work deeper seemed to be the answer—the bigger fish were perhaps holding farther away from the bar in deeper water. A fast sinking line would have been more effective in this case but the intermediate line still worked well with several other better fish before heading home. The morning’s outing was fishing a wadable bar with waves breaking onto the bar then rolling into the hole. The bar’s location was about one hundred and fifty feet from the high tide line and helped to create a deep hole from the bar to shore. Some bars are safe to wade on lower tides and give good access to deep water. If conditions are right, fish will feed and at times hold right along the edge waiting for wave action to bring bait or disrupt bait activity to make feeding easier.

In rolling surf, each condition might require a different technique depending on the wave speed and size or the shape of the beach. Steeper beaches fish differently than

shallow beaches but are similar and at times the same techniques can be used but with different tackle. Steeper beaches usually generate more wave force because a steeper slope creates more speed and power when the wave rushes down the beach.

Maintaining fly control in rolling surf is the key to putting the fly in the proper location. And keeping in touch, feeling the fly is necessary to hook fish. If you can’t feel a strike, hooking fish will happen by luck only. The fish hooks itself! In a small surf, fishing is often simple but when the wave size gets over two feet, the angler must keep in touch with the fly. In another example, you might be working a hard flow that runs a short distance then dumps quickly into deeper water. The flow in a big hole might run for a long distance but waves flowing off a beach are usually like fishing a quick rush, swing and retrieve before the next wave hits the beach.

In a small surf, floating lines work well and are fun because poppers and surface flies are effective and visual fishing is the most exciting way to catch fish. Often this fishing is just casting and working water, like fishing a shoreline without surf. If there is enough roll off a beach try casting and letting the line and fly swing with the flow. I like to cast at an angle to the shoreline to catch the wash as it flows into the trough. Stripers like to feed and cruise that edge in small surf and those anglers that fish the east coast beaches in Florida will find that snook like to feed just as stripers do. There are days when walking along a beach can be productive sight fishing. At times an intermediate line can be very effective and is my choice if sight casting because I can get the fly down faster. When the fish are looking down searching for food along the bottom getting the fly well in front of the fish and near the bottom is important. If the fish are feeding on baitfish just below the surface then cast four to six feet in front of the fish and move the fly as the fish approaches. If it were possible sight fishing would be my first choice, but in most conditions beach fishing means covering water.

Larger waves however, will push a floating fly line around much more than a sinking line.

Sinking lines are the best choice once the surf gets larger and are more effective on beaches with a steep slope. An intermediate line will work in mid size waves two to four feet but once the surf gets bigger, the fast sinkers are the best bet. And even in two to three foot surf, if the waves are very fast or the beach is steep, a fast sinker will maintain better line control. With a fast sinking line in smaller surf use a nine foot tapered leader with a buoyant fly. This will keep the fly from dragging on the bottom. I prefer to fish an intermediate but in rough conditions the fast sinker is usually more effective.

There are several types of flows that occur along a beach. Beaches with ocean holes develop good flow along the shoreline. Holes that are shaped like a piece of pie fill up

with water from breaking waves. This water, builds up in the hole, becomes higher than the open ocean and moves back to sea. The flow starts at the small end of the hole and builds in speed as the waves break over the outside bar pushing out to open water. This fishing is fairly basic—cast at different angles and fish this water like a rip.

Usually you should make a quartering cast down the flow or try casting straight across the flow then retrieve the fly with different strip lengths. Keep trying different casting angles using different retrieve speeds and pull lengths until you find the most effective combination. If the hole is large a fast sinking line works best.

The other flow is actually the breaking of waves onto a beach. Waves that break onto a beach push up the slope then flow back down the slope creating movement and force. The flow inside a hole is fairly easy to read but the flow on and off the beach can be tricky. There are many variables. The steepness of the beach, wave size, wave speed and the angle that the waves hit the beach can effect line control and will dictate what technique to use.

Long rolling waves that flow along a beach often form a current along the shoreline that moves in the same direction as the waves. Casting straight out off the beach gives a good swing but once the line moves down current the waves will sweep the line onto the beach with only a short fishing window. To increase the time that the fly and line are in the strike zone try casting quartering up current. This will give the fly longer fishing time in the strike zone. Another good trick is to walk along the beach with the flow as you retrieve. This keeps the line straight off the beach and the waves have less effect so you have more time to fish the fly along the beach. On a crowded beach this technique will not make friends so stick with the quartering up current cast.

Waves that roll onto a beach then flow off can be difficult to fish. Timing the cast is important especially in bigger surf. When waves flow straight off the beach, cast as the water begins to flow into the trough. Try to pick the last wave in a set. Waves usually roll onto a shoreline in sets of three but some sets might have double that number. Casting too soon will result in the line and fly being pushed right back toward the angler. In big surf feed line after the line and fly hit the water to allow the fly to flow with the wave and stay in the strike zone longer. As the flow dissipates retrieve the fly through the trough. If you catch the flow of the wave correctly, let the fly swing with the flow and give the fly sharp pulls without retrieving line. Then once the wave stops pulling, use long strips and a medium to fast retrieve to move the fly through the drop-off. This is trial and error fishing more than a science. If the waves are close together and keep breaking without a pause between sets just try to cast when there is a lull where you can fish the fly into the trough.

degree angle might keep the fly in the strike zone longer. Also try casting straight into the wave just as it hits the beach. As with waves flowing off the beach fish the fly on the swing. When the flow dissipates begin retrieving to work as much water as the flow allows. If possible cast when there is a lull in the surf and work the water like an open beach. This is true for any wave direction, wave size and speed on any beach.

Waves that roll on and off a beach at an angle give the angler more time to fish because you can cast at an angle to the flow and swing the fly into the trough. Again this is timing. Place the cast straight off the beach just as the wave begins to flow into the hole. Try different angles to the flow to see what angle works best. In bigger surf more than a ninety

Locations that produce areas of white water can be fish magnets.

Usually this water is not fast moving—a good example is the drop-off behind a bar. Bait gets trapped or is pushed into these locations and in the bubbling water, gamefish have easy feeding. As waves breaks over a bar rolling white water forms. Watch for surface feeding fish just after a wave spills into the hole.

Sometimes you will see swirls, splashes or tails and fins break the surface and timing the cast to reach this water just after it spills below the bar is most effective. Poppers can be very effective and fun to fish. Even if no fish are showing this sort of water is worth some time and can be hot fishing.

Beaches that are very steep generate more and faster flow. But they can be harder to fish and will remain fishable in bigger surf compared to shallow beaches that washout in bigger surf.

Steeper beaches can be dangerous. If a big wave catches an angler too far down the slope it will pull the angler into the tumbling trough. One trap that anglers fall into is to keep inching down the beach during a lull in the waves. On some beaches a wave coming in at an angle might flow up and catch the angler from behind—dry sand to knee deep is a good wading rule in big surf.

Shallow beaches are easier and safer to fish and will, at times, have fish right along the edge. Many times the outer bar is much closer to shore and the depression between the shoreline and the bar is much shallower than a steep beach.

Fishing rolling surf along a beach requires patience. Unless fish are blitzing, hitting anything that moves, you will earn each fish. There will be days that less than half the casts will remain in the strike zone long enough to be effective. Anglers must be willing to keep trying different techniques and never become entrenched in just one retrieve or one casting angle. Water along a beach is constantly changing and the angler must be willing, at times, to fish each cast differently as the water changes. The challenge is what makes fishing along ocean beaches fun.

SPECIAL BOOK EXCERPT

Fishing the Bucktail

Mastering Bucktails from Surf and Boat CHAPTERS 1. A BUCKTAIL PRIMER.................................................... 7 2. BUCKTAIL CHARACTERISTICS .............................. 15 3. NUTS AND BOLTS ...................................................... 27 4. OCEAN SAND BEACHES ............................................ 31 5. OCEAN INLET JETTIES .............................................. 41 6. BACK BAY SHORELINES ............................................ 55 7. ROCKY SOUND BEACHES .......................................... 63 8. MONTAUK SURF .......................................................... 75 9. SHALLOW INSHORE WATERS.................................... 83 10. THREE-WAY RIGS IN DEEP RIPS .............................. 91 11. LIGHT TACKLE FLUKE BUCKTAILING................. 101 12. MAKING YOUR OWN BUCKTAILS ........................ 111 13. FINAL THOUGHTS .................................................... 121

Chapter 4 - Ocean Sand Beaches As I walked seaward on the 100-foot track leading onto Fire Island National Seashore, it became quickly obvious that the daybreak tide was even worse than I had expected.

The track that my jeep had rolled over just two days prior was now cluttered with straw and driftwood deposited by the early morning high tide. As it was now nearly 10 a.m. and three hours down on the tide, I had some beach to walk on, but not much. The only upside was that the water wasn’t completely chocolate, but had a touch of green. The waves were down to around 10 feet, but with an average period of 13 seconds they built and broke on the outer bar in a way reminiscent of the lead-in to Hawaii Five-O. The dozen or so surfers in front of the Smith’s Point pavilion were taking advantage of the situation. Despite the great sandeel fueled bite that had been going on in the area for weeks, it was clear that almost all of the anglers must have decided the conditions were unfishable, as there were only two in sight, both to my left towards the County park. I was headed west into the Federal side, and there was no one in sight along that stretch.

The plan was to hop from point to point until I found fish or tired of walking. I was most interested in the areas where I could reach the whitewater of the bar that ran from one to three casts off most of the length of the beach. I would need a heavy tin to reach the backside of the bar, but that was fine since tin and tube combos were accounting for a high percentage of the fish since the sandeel run started.

I caught nothing on the first point, but wasn’t surprised, as it had been mostly a loser for me on other trips. I wasted little time making it to the second point, about a 10-minute walk from the first. As is often the case, the whitewater was closest to the tip of the point, and I worked it with an A27 and green tube into the little cove on my right. Nothing again.

I brought out the small pair of binoculars that I had tucked into the sleeve of my Aquaskinz top, and saw an encouraging sign on the next point – gulls standing around on the beach. I’d rather they be diving and picking, but this was the next best thing. If gulls are sitting on the sand, they may be staking out a good spot, or maybe they’re just resting. If they’re standing and occasionally getting their feet wet, like these were, that’s a sign that they’re keyed in on bait and just waiting for it to become accessible.

After all, creatures in the wild are careful to conserve energy. These were likely watching for sandeels to be washed from the bar when sets of large waves crashed with enough power to dislodge them. I was only halfway to the point when the gulls took to the air to confirm my suspicion. I moved faster now, imagining that the stripers were doing below the waves what the gulls were doing above. As I reached the eastern edge of the point, a gull pulled a big sandeel from the wash. My first cast was bumped in the beach wash, but I managed just one more missed hit over the next 10 minutes as I proceeded west to about the middle of where the birds had been working.

The gulls were back on the sand again, but they had done their job attracting me to the spot.

Both hits had been relatively close to the shore, and within easy bucktail casting range. I try not to have any set in stone rules when it comes to fishing, but one that comes close is to use a bucktail whenever I can reach fish with one. In this case a bucktail would do a better job of tracking and making a good presentation in the nearshore turbulent wash. On went a white 1-ounce Blue Frog fixed hook jig with a strip of #50 white porkrind. It flew less than half the distance of the tin, but my focus was now closer to shore in the slice of water that had produced the two hits. I maintained contact with the bucktail on a retrieve whose speed varied with the movement of the waves – speed up while swimming with a wave, drop to a crawl while barely making headway into a seaward rushing undertow. As the jig emerged from the

last wave and slid through less than three feet of whitewater, my reflexes converted a sharp tap into a hooked fish. It pulled a little line off the spool with the help of the strong sweep, but made it only as far as the next wave that pushed the fish and me along the beach. The fish would be lucky to break 12 pounds, but it was actually a bit better than the recent average size. I reasoned that it beat raking the leaves that were piling up in my back yard.

Over the next hour I pulled another half-dozen fish from the wash. One was a touch bigger, and the rest a little smaller. Most were caught a little west of the point in a bit of a bowl where the water was deeper. It was typical of fishing this kind of structure with powerful waves coming in.

The conditions varied greatly

from one side of the point to the other. The east side had small mountains of water that had slipped past the outer bar and were crashing on the beach, the main point was almost all whitewater, and the west side had a small cove of deeper, calmer water. Even if you caught, it paid to move a bit and work the whole thing to see where the fish might be concentrated.

After the frequency of the hits decreased and I eventually went over 20 minutes without any contact, I decided to make another move. There were gulls picking on a point about another 15-minute walk to the west, but there were also some on the nearest point to the east that I had stopped on only briefly before being distracted by the gulls at my present location. I decided to head back east since I’d have to go that way eventually.

I made a few casts on the east side of the point, but the 1-ounce bucktail could hardly bite any reasonable water as huge waves crashed on the shore. I went up to a 2-ounce jig, but it didn’t make any difference.

I dropped back to an ounce and proceeded east, encouraged that a dozen or so birds were still at it. A couple hundred feet shy of the point a very noticeable lateral flow of water caught my eye. It was clear what was happening. Some of the bigger waves were punching through a break in the bar, and all of that water had to go somewhere, so it was flowing parallel to the beach. I couldn’t understand how I missed it the first time, but reasoned that I might have passed by during a lull in the waves or was just too distracted by the gulls. It wouldn’t be the first time I had missed a good opportunity that was right under my nose. I led the rip on an angle throwing slightly to my left and upcurrent, not unlike I would in an inlet. As the jig slid in front of me, I was in. The 15-pounder was my best of the trip so far, and I horsed it, anxious to see if there were more. There were lots more, as for the next 90 minutes I had a hit or fish nearly every other cast. At one point

the only truck on the beach, a Federal park ranger, shut down behind me and just watched for about 20 minutes. I used his truck as a point of reference as I moved back and forth from one end of the moving water to the other. I moved closer to the main point to try where the water was pouring in, but I did that only briefly as the fish were clearly stacked in the deeper moving water.

As the tide receded, the water flow and depth decreased to the point that the fish gradually vacated the spot, but not before I had beached a couple dozen fish into the high teens. Not bad for a day that most anglers passed on because it was “unfishable”.

Points, bars, coves, troughs, shore breaks, rips – all lit up by large bulges of water pushing to the beach. Where do you start? Certainly this is a question that’s not unique to bucktail fishing, but at the price of some casting distance it’s the bucktail that can allow you to work all of the varied features with an effective presentation. The short answer is that you should ideally work all of it. We can’t predict what the best approach is on any given day, but it’s worth thinking about why a little move of 30 feet can sometimes make such a big difference.

Ocean beach structure is changing constantly, but there are some characteristics that often establish themselves. In the preceding account, I was working a series of points that had features that are rather common. I was on a south facing ocean beach where storm-driven waves generally come from a southeasterly direction. The east side of the points typically catch the brunt of the big waves, the point tips are the shallowest with lots of white water, and the western edges are often carved out into slight coves where there’s some deeper water. One of the bars in the story had a thin spot where

water poured through when sets of big waves came in. On this particular day, the key was to take advantage of the lateral water flow caused by the bar break. It would turn out that I fished that particular spot many times over the course of five weeks in the fall of 2010. The fun part was that on a stretch of beach that could be covered with a threeminute walk, there was a wide variety of structure. Because the depth varied, so did the weight of the bucktails I was throwing, but not by much. In situations like this, even a quarter-ounce difference in weight can impact your catch significantly. Under rough conditions, the eastern point edge was often tough fishing that called for a two-ounce bucktail. It was almost deflating to realize that you could barely push that jig beyond the first wave, but it didn’t matter. That water was very turbulent, often held fish, but you would never know it unless you focused very carefully on the tumbling wash where some anglers might assume their cast was finished.

The tip of the point was often tricky with a bucktail. The shallower water called for a lighter-weight jig, but the water was so shallow that it often took a tin to reach the fish.

Bucktailing right on the point tip had its moments, but they were few. Water deepened and moved on the western edge, and although it was still rough, it was more manageable than the eastern edge. A 1-ounce bucktail was often deadly here. When the bar break was active I usually did best on its west side to catch the water flow.

I recount this specific situation to emphasize a few things. At the very least, you’ll benefit by observing different structure features. As you notice these, it helps to make smallish moves to fish the features from different vantage points. As you make these moves, you’ll encounter different wave heights, depths, and currents. A 1-ounce bucktail is a superb starting point, but you may improve your presentation and gain access to the best water by going a little heavier, but only rarely more than 2 ounces. In general, a slow

to moderate retrieve produces fish, but in these turbulent situations it’s best to consider the retrieve speed of your bucktail in relation to the water movement around it. If your jig is in an approaching wave, speed up a bit. Your jig will be coming at you rather fast, but it’s the speed relative to the surrounding water that’s more important. When retrieving your jig into a receding wave you might barely crank at all, as the force of the rushing water can suspend your jig nearly motionless, but hang on, as many hits come at this point.

Sometimes the right place to throw a bucktail is all about where the fish can find some overhead cover. In the previous story the water was tinged and very rough, so the fish likely felt somewhat hidden. Hit the beach on a day with clean water, sunshine, and relatively moderate surf conditions, and the fish might be looking for something that makes them feel a little less exposed. That leaves us with two features that were mentioned in the primer chapter and deserve careful focus – white water blankets and the beach lip.

I’m not quite sure why it’s referred to as a “lip”, but it’s a piece of structure formed by turbulence where waves break onto the beach and meet receding waves. This action cuts a dropoff that’s usually not much deeper than a few feet, but it’s enough to provide gamefish a channel to swim in and take advantage of forage tossed about by breaking waves. When fish are running this lip, I like to make diagonal casts along the beach. If there are other anglers around and I don’t have room to make diagonal casts, I’ll walk until I can find some room. In terms of which direction to cast when fishing diagonally, it seems logical to retrieve the jig in the same direction that the baitfish are likely to be moving. However, there are just too many other variables such as current direction, wave sweep, and the angle of the sun, to even attempt a generalization as to which

direction is best to work when making casts diagonal to the shore. Rather than over-think the situation, I’ll make those diagonal casts in both directions and adjust my strategy based on the results. When I’m targeting the lip, I’m aiming to start my retrieve a little beyond where the waves are breaking on the beach.

The sun penetrates water very effectively. While diving in the relatively turbid waters of Long Island Sound, I’ve been surprised at how I can look up and see the sun clearly in 15 feet of water when the range of visibility around me is maybe half of that. Part of the reason why the beach lip works is because the fish have a little bit of overhead cover caused by foam and turbulence. A similar situation often sets up around sandbars. Consider a sunny day with moderate surf conditions and clear water. Most of the water’s surface is undisturbed blue, having taken on the color of the sky’s reflection. Now watch what happens when waves break on a sandbar. For maybe five or ten seconds, a white layer of foam will sit on the water’s surface. For that brief period of time, the fish have some opportunity for overhead cover, and they’ll often take advantage of it to feed on whatever may have been dislodged or disoriented by the wave breaking on the bar. You can take advantage of this easily by timing your casts to hit the water right behind a breaking wave. By doing this you’ll be retrieving your lure under the foam blanket at the same time fish are likely to be charging into this water to feed briefly. On some days this works so well that the predictability becomes rather entertaining. I’ve seen times when almost every properly timed cast is tapped, while those poorly timed presentations fished under a clear surface are never touched.

Open sand beaches are a great place to learn how to bucktail because there’s no penalty for hitting the bottom, there’s a wide variety of structure to work, and the current is usually slow enough and the water shallow enough that you’re almost always in the strike zone. Even though it’s the perfect setting for a novice, it’s by no means an easy setting to master. The best advice I can give is to pay attention to white water, moving water, turbulence, and the beach lip. If you’re not hooking up, make frequent small moves to fish different structure or to fish the same structure from different perspectives.

Match your jig weight to the different kinds of water you’re focusing on, which may require that you make small and frequent jig weight adjustments. If I’m going to spend the trip casting lures averaging an ounce, I want to do that with a comfortable 9-foot rod. This is a setting where there is generally plenty of room to allow a big fish to run. Take advantage of this and enjoy yourself by matching your tackle to the jig weight that you’ll likely be fishing with.

LURETUBES

GET VERSATILE Tackle System

Whether you are fishing the back bays of the south shore or fishing the north side of Montauk, Luretubes Tackle System is on your side.

NOW you have a choice in your surf tackle system.

8”x2” High grade polypropylene construction. Guaranteed for life.

L U R E T U B E S . C O M

CRAFTSMEN AT WORK Making My Favorite Lure

2 oz. Swimmer by R.M. Smith (R.M. Smith Lures) Nearly ten years ago I stood on a rock pile off the coast of southern Maine as rolling swells met giant rock in the eternal battle between the unstoppable force and the immoveable object. It was a day that typifies some of my favorite fishing with bass in the white water, mouths at the ready, waiting for a morsel to be dislodged by the oceans anger. A day when little swimming plugs are easily mistaken for something much more real and alive. I was relatively new to commercial plug building and was excited to be adequately armed with my 2 oz. Swimmers, a plug which I had recently introduced for sale.

I doubt there are many conditions more enjoyable to me than being able to cast from an elevated position and watch a Swimmer work its way through the unstable water created by swells and rocks. The elevation offers the angler a prime opportunity to alter the retrieve as swells, currents, and generally instable water work against the plug. The day did not let me down as small pods of fish would come and go from the rocky mass I was standing on. It was a simple casting rotation for me - cast at the rip in front. Then short cast between the boulders, then cast to my right and allow the current to pull the Swimmer around the giant single rock merely 20 yards to my right. And as the plug was beginning to be sucked around the far side of the rock, the little Swimmer did its job. With a flash of silver and a splash, a bass propelled itself up from the depths and swallowed the plug.

I remember that fish for some reason, even though it was only one of many that day.

Perhaps it was because the thrill of catching a fish on one of my own creations had not yet been tempered by the passing of time. Perhaps it was being in one of my favorite

places on earth. Perhaps it was watching a Swimmer perform the way it was meant to perform; to watch it wiggle through the best the Atlantic had to offer and ultimately end up connecting a fisherman with a fish.

The 2 oz. Swimmer isn’t necessarily my favorite or most used plug in my bag merely because I now have other plugs which share the spotlight. It is, however, the one I’m most sentimental about. I believe the smaller peanut and 2 oz. Swimmer were the plugs which put my plug building into the public eye, for which I’ll always be indebted to those silly little pieces of wood. I still believe the 2 oz. Swimmer is probably one of the most versatile plugs I make. It is a great starting point for anglers who are beginning to throw wooden plugs and is also an excellent all purpose plug for anyone’s bag. It's not really big, but big enough to pass for a larger bait. It's not really small but you could still pass it off as a “big boned” peanut bunker. It casts fairly well, swims on top or just below with good stability. I would probably vote it as “most well rounded” should we ever decide to make a plug yearbook. As I write these last words I am about to embark on a weeklong coastal trip and yes, my trusty 2 oz. will be joining me.

Straight Pikie by Mike Fixter (Fixter Lures) I enjoy making and fishing with all sorts of wooden plugs, but if I had to choose just one that was my favorite to build and fish with, it would have to be a straight pikie around 8".

Ideally it would be a little more "chubby" than average and weigh about 4 oz.. A nice moderate roll and super sexy tail wag would be a must. My color preference on this plug would be a tossup between a blue flash (dark blue back/light blue sides with glitter/white belly or my version of a pearlescent wonderbread (creamy white body with a light shot of random orange and yellow spots faded in). Although I have caught plenty of stripers on

pikies with all sorts of color schemes, these two seem to produce most consistently for me.

That being said I think it is a confidence thing more than anything else since those are the two colors I use the most.

The history on these pikies goes back close to 40 years ago when I began experimenting with various types of wood and body styles.

Eventually I got real lucky and found what I feel is the perfect wood for building pikies: Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Along with finding the perfect wood I also had the great fortune to have some of the west coast’s most talented, experienced, serious die-hard striper fishermen more than willing to test, evaluate and give me input on how my plugs could be improved upon. The test crew consisted primarily of guys who lived and fished around the

hazardous Pacifica, CA coastline. They would climb the cliffs and swim to the rocks in search of stripers, with pikies being their plug of choice. Harry Bode (one of the west coast’s original wetsuiter type striper fishermen) and his then young protege Chris Morello both played a big part in the early evolution of my pikie style plugs. Over the years word gradually spread that I was making plugs, many of them finding their way into the hands of talented surfcasters who put them to the test on a daily basis. It is to these guys that I will always owe a debt of gratitude.

I like fishing pikies because if they are designed right they can be quite versatile. They can work in conditions ranging from flat calm to fairly rough water with light to moderate current around either rocks or beach structure. Although I think pikies can be top producers around the rocks, my fishing the last few years has been off the beach. Pikies will work fine in most any beach setting, but my favorite type of structure would be right where a trough running parallel to the beach dumps into a deeper hole. I'll cast the pikie slightly up current and let it swing into the hole. In many settings like this, once the line swings tight, I just maintain contact and let it swing in the arc of the current until it is out of the current and slowed down to the point where I'm starting to lose contact with it.

Typically right at the transition where the trough meets the hole is where I get a lot of takers. I like to fish these plugs S-L-O-W-L-Y !!!!!!!. Just fast enough to get a nice tail wag and sexy tail kick. Most of the time I will also add a slight twitch of the rod tip to add a bit of noise and commotion to the plugs action. Also, fishing the plug slowly, keeps it in what I call the "impact zone" for a longer period of time. This gives fish more time to locate it. Like any other plug, there is definitely a learning curve to becoming successful with pikies. The above is what works for me here on the west coast and hopefully a lot of this info can be applied to east coast tactics.

Screamin’ Popper by Armand Tetreault (Rhode Island Poppers) After over twenty years of building lures, I have found a lure that is a complete joy for me to build. It has to be my favorite lure because it’s tough and completely different from anything else on the market. I’m talking about my “Screamin’ Popper.” This lure isn’t really a pure popper, it’s more of a darter.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and I guess that’s very true in this case.

I was looking for a lure that didn’t really make a louder pop but a higher splash because that would make for a longer noise to give the fish more time to “zero-in” on the source.

So after a couple of designs, I came up with adding a hole to the top of the head and elongating the mouth of the lure to let water jet out of the top on a hard “POP”. That accomplished what I set out to do.

But here comes the surprise! It not only made a good popper but as I was testing the lure I noticed it dug in and acted a little like an old cut faced swimmer. I let it float back to the top and kept using it as a popper.

My son, Marcel, took one of these poppers on a trip to the Cape Cod Canal. He was fishing with a bunch of old time “Canal Rats” and was keeping up with them. When the stripers would surface he would use the lure as a popper. But when the fish headed down and stopped the surface feed, he started swimming the lure deep in the water. In a large eddy in front of him, he started hooking up on almost every cast.

Everyone else was waiting for the surface action to start again so they could resume with the pencil poppers but Marcel didn’t skip a beat. He hooked up on fish swimming the Screamin’ Popper and when they came back up he changed over to using it like a popper. He brought home some great pictures of fish and a new use for one of Pop’s lures.

Well, after hearing about this success, I started playing around a little with the lure when I was out fishing and found out that by adding just a touch of weight underneath and extending the rear I came up with the final design of the “Screamin’ Popper”. And the success stories have been blitzing my computer. From the outflows in South Jersey to the flats on Cape Cod, both in running water and calm, this lure has been producing some great stripers, bluefish and tuna.

As being one of the longest running lure businesses in the North East, I’ve had many fishermen and women ask me when I’m going to come out with a “darter”. I have no plans for doing it because I want folks to try this lure and many have told me that the action of this lure is comparable to any darter on the market especially in moving water and is a far superior casting lure than any darter commercially made. I have considered changing the name of this lure to the “Pop-Dart” but then some of the guys fishing late at night would probably take a big bite when they needed a sugar fix.

We have come up with two sizes of the “Screamin’ Popper” with the large being 7¼” long and approx 3 oz. and a smaller version that is 4½” and about 1¾ oz. Both come in any color you can think of and are available at most of my retail outlets, on my web page or by email at: armandt@verizon.net.

Jobo Jr. Pencil Popper by Wayne Hess (Guppy Lures) The 3-oz. Jobo Jr. Pencil Popper is our favorite lure because of its fishability and origin.

When we decided to form the Guppy Lure Company, I asked each “fishing” family member to create a 7-inch pencil popper and turn a sample on the lathe. The Hess family fishing crew is very competitive against each other, and I was nervous that deciding on a winner could be the start of a family feud! But from this competition, the Jobo Jr. Pencil Popper was created.

Living 20 minutes from the Cape Cod Canal and fantastic Cape beaches provides us with a great testing ground for our lures. The color we use most is the blue/pink scale, and though not our biggest seller, this is the most popular within the Guppy Lure family. I truly believe that technique is more important than the color of the lure.

I recall one early morning a few years back, fishing with my father, two brothers, and two sons. As per our usual routine, we were all using different colored pencils, waiting for

one color to start out-fishing the others. It was still early and all was calm until my son yelled out, "Here they come, get ready!" A minute later as the bass came down the middle of the Canal to feed; all six of us fired out our pencils and hooked up! Three generations of our family fighting and landing fish was truly a great moment. But my point is that even though there are times when the fish are keyed on a specific color, more often than not it’s the action of the lure that drives the bass to strike.

The Jobo Jr. Pencil Popper has the ability to deliver a long cast and still create the surface splash and slide needed to attract the surface crash we all love to see. I use a pencil when there is some surf and current from the tide change, but I have not had much success in flat-water situations. You have heard this plenty of times, but I am going to repeat it: Let the fish do the talking. Vary the retrieve and the action of the pencil until you have multiple hookups. Try an aggressive back-and-forth with a moderate retrieve, then switch to a lazy back-and-forth motion, barely retrieving enough to keep the lure up.

I like to fish with pencils at first light and at sunset. The exceptions are in the spring and fall during the big migrations; this is when the opportunity to fish a pencil all day long exists. When to go? My answer: go every chance you can! Sure, there are parts of the tide we prefer to fish, but during the spring and fall run that all goes out the window. So pray to the fish gods that the bait fish land on a beach near you!

The Surfster by Larry Wentworth (BigFish Bait Company) Fishing wooden lures has been a passion of mine for many years. Pencil poppers and spook type plugs have always been particular favorites. However the only thing I find more exciting than teasing up stripers on surface plugs is enticing hard and violent takes with the sexy, seductive action of a metal lipped swimmer.

Danny’s, Atom-40’s, Jointed Eels and more, all have a place in my plug bag given the appropriate conditions. But there is one swimming plug that is in my bag day and night no matter the location or circumstance. That lure is a “Surfster” style swimmer that I make and aptly named the “Prey”.

I had fished several different surfster style swimmers early on and many were very good, but I found that outside of calm, flat water most could not hold in rough or moving water as I would have liked so I set out to design my own.

What I came up with was a 6 inch, 2.3 ounce Surfster that swims on top in calm water with a sexy tail wag and a classic “v-wake” and also holds in rougher/moving water without the roll-out that is common in many Surfster style swimmers. In fact, in certain conditions the “Prey” can grab a little more depth when worked faster on the retrieve and go as deep as 1-2 feet. The action tightens up a bit, making the “Prey” a very versatile and devastating addition to any surfcaster’s bag.

As far as color selection goes, I am of the belief that if a particular color appeals to the individual fishing a plug, he will have confidence in that lure and if a fisherman has confidence in his offering he will catch fish more often than not. If I must choose a personal favorite color when fishing the “Prey”, it would be my bunker pattern for sure.

With 9 different colors blended and layered together into what I consider a very good representation of a bunker it is worth all the effort given the results I have enjoyed while fishing it.

I find myself fishing many different areas with varying depth and bottom structure from

the sandy beaches of Cape Cod to the rocky shorelines south of Boston and the storied boulder fields that surround the island of Cuttyhunk.

One place where the “Prey” shines is in the hard current of the Cape Cod Canal. With the way the water moves through the canal on the changing tides, the “Prey” is ideal. You must allow it to “sweep” along with the current working the plug slowly back to shore. Its profile is a perfectly sized imitation of most of the forage stripers seek such as bunker, mackerel and herring and the canal holds many of these throughout the season.

During the daylight or under the cover of darkness, be it a full moon, a new moon or anything in between, the “Prey” has been a proven producer for me and is often times the first plug out of my bag and the one that enjoys the lion's share of time on my line when I am on the water.

WaveJammer by Al Lemire (Lemire's Plugworks) This is a spook style walk the dog action plug. This is one of my favorite plugs because I love surface action. And it is fun to work and one of the reasons I like it so much is because you give it the action, it can be retrieved fast with a lot of slapping on the surface or slower and it will zig zag and sweep through the water. I will vary these retrieves while fishing it and it gets great surface hits. This plug is effective both from the beach and off a boat. It can draw fish from the bottom from 20 to 25 feet.

I make two sizes, 8.5 inch,3oz., and 6.5 in.,2 oz. I fish both sized but the bigger is my favorite,(big bait for big fish). This plug has been used by a charter captain on block island this summer, and while he was fishing eels for his clients he would fish the wavejammer himself and hooked up with lots of good fish. One plug alone he estimated he caught 75 fish, both stripers and blues.

Another customer sent me an email last year: “Al, I have been fishing spook style plugs most of my life, your wavejammer casts better, is easier to use, swims better than any other plug I have used, I fish from Maine to Florida and have hooked up with countless stripers, blues, marlin and black tip reef sharks with this plug. Al, Don’t change this plug, thanks for making such a great quality fish catcher.

A few years ago my uncle came to me and said, you need to make a spook style plug. So I made a bunch of prototypes, different sizes and weights and we tested them and picked out the one that I make now as having the best action and ease of use. It can be fished with mono or braid, but I prefer braid because you have a better feel for the plug in the water because there is no stretching of the line.

I have a lot of favorite colors, but my go to is “true pogy”. Black on top, fading to gold, then silver, and white belly. With pogy spots of course. Another favorite is “Half Beak”. Metallic teal blue, white scale over charcoal grey, white belly, and a little blush of pink behind the eyes.

Another favorite is the needlefish, being I live on Block Island for six months of the year, this is where I do most of my fishing. We always have an abundance of sandeels here and needles are the most effective plug, and coincidently, the first plug I ever made. But I always throw the wavejammer here too, and do very well with it.

My favorite part of plug making is painting, this is when the plug comes alive, and I especially like painting larger plugs like the wavejammer because you can put more detail into the paint schemes.

TOP OF THE LINE

COMPONENTS

custom lures MADE IN

NJ

SEE US ON

ASK FOR THEM

BY NAME

RussellPaoline@gmail.com

Ron DiCostanzo ZeeBaas

Surfcaster's Journal staff was recently invited to tour ZeeBaas’ facilities in Stratford, Connecticut. After walking through the complex and marveling at all the heavy tool making machinery that they have at their disposal, we sat down with ZeeBaas’ operations director, Ron DiCostanzo, for an interview. We know that many of our readers like to engage in “He said…She said" debates on internet boards.

We, however, let our wives do the heavy lifting when it comes to gossip and unsubstantiated rumors. We only want the facts and boy did we get them from Ron! We'll let you read the interview to see for yourself exactly what‘s the scoop from ZeeBaas. We will tell you this: all of us at Surfcaster's Journal were extremely impressed by changes that recently took place at ZeeBaas. They are focused on quality control, attention to the smallest detail and customer service.

They have brought the manufacturing and production back to the USA. But we don't want to spoil the story. Read on! We can almost guarantee that you will be just as impressed as we were after you are done. Make sure you don't miss a very important part of the interview. We'll give you a hint…..pressure testing.

SJ: Hi Ron. Thank you for giving us the tour of the place where ZeeBaas’ reels come to life. We understand that you guys have many new things to tell our readers. Why don't you tell us what they are?

I am very excited about some of the changes that we have brought about here at ZeeBaas. One major change is that we are bringing a large percentage of our manufacturing back to the United States. We have machine shops from Maine to Pennsylvania, as well as in house manufacturing. This is a great thing for us because it helps us to control both the quality and the supply.

How much of the reel is manufactured in USA ?

We have started out with some of our major parts: the body, rotors, spools, line rollers, handles, and knobs to name just a few. Right now approximately 80% of the cost of our manufactured parts is going to US vendors. There are always going to be some components like seals and bearings that are made overseas. There aren’t a lot of US companies making these seals and bearings. Our goal right now is to have as many of the manufactured parts as possible produced here in the United States.

What was the reason for bringing the manufacturing back to the USA? There are several reasons why we are bringing the manufacturing back to the United States. We want to be able to proudly say that these reels are made in the USA. We have been working closely with local vendors and there is no comparison to the quality, and attention to detail that these vendors can supply. We have also found that it’s a whole lot easier to communicate with a US vendor than it is with a vendor overseas.

There are no time differences. There are no language barriers. It’s a whole lot easier to do business with domestic sources. Some of our vendors are avid fishermen and are excited to be part of what we are doing here. I get fishing photos emailed to me from some of these guys and I’m looking forward to throwing some plugs with them in the near future. It’s a great way to do business.

Do you have capabilities to produce any parts for your reel in house?

Yes, right down the street here in Stratford! Some of the parts being made right now include the pick up arms and the drag plate click disks. We have a large machine shop to back us up on any problems that we encounter such as not being able get a part made in time to meet production needs. We have the ability to make certain parts ourselves.

In addition to the fact that over 80% of the value of our parts now come from the US, we also assemble all these reels from scratch right here in this shop. Every screw, every bearing, every bushing has to be assembled and it is all done here in Stratford. We don’t take assemblies from other countries bolt them together and call it made in the United States. We literally take parts after they come to us from the machine shops and put them through a tumbling process where the part is polished. Then it goes out to get anodized. After it comes back in, if it’s a part that needs laser engraving we will send it out to be engraved. Once it comes back and all the parts are anodized, we are ready to begin the assembly, but no two parts of this reel are connected together anywhere else. 100% of the assembly from every last screw is done right here in Stratford. This is the foundation of all our reels right here, this is the ZX 2 body, US made.

You recently added a very well known surfcaster to your staff. Fill us in.

One of the things I’m really excited about is the team we’ve built here at ZeeBaas.

We recently hired John Posh, the original founder of Stratford Bait & Tackle, who is a very well respected fisherman here in Connecticut. John’s been in the tackle industry since the 1970’s and is an expert when it comes to fishing gear. He knows the intricacies of what a reel is supposed to feel like when it’s in your hands and knows what fishermen want and expect. He oversees our quality control along with reel assembly. We are really excited to have him as part of the team.

We also have Wendy Scaia, who’s been with ZeeBaas from the early days. She does a phenomenal job in customer service. She also knows the inner workings of the reel and helps out with assembly. It’s important to us that everyone on staff has a good understanding of the mechanics of the reel. We have a policy where every reel goes through a double check list. The assembler will use the check list to make sure everything is correct. Then a second person will check to make sure nothing was missed. Once the body assembly is finished and inspected, it goes through performance testing which is another thing that we implemented. Every reel we build is tested to make sure it is waterproof. Once the reel gets to the point of having the rotor and the spool installed, there is a second checklist the reel must pass.

This checklist also has to be run twice so we are really confident that when these reels are shipped out of here they are ready to go.

We have to ask this even if you might hate answering it. One of the loudest complaints has been the "generation" issue. First there was one generation of reels. Then the second came about shortly after. Those that bought first generation reels probably wish that they waited till second generation reels came on the market. Is there a third generation of ZeeBaas reel in the works?

The second generation allowed us to evolve. This design is now very stable. Here is a ZX2 25 reel, single roller with a counter weight. This is a second generation reel and this is the only reel that we are working on right now. There is no third generation scheduled to come out. This is the reel we have had out for the past 2 years. Any changes that are made to this reel are going to be retrofittable. If we find something that we think we can improve, we are going to improve it in a way that we can take an existing reel that a customer has and make the modification so that the reel will be able to be upgraded.

We understand there is a new self service kit in the works. And a new reel for lefties?

We are excited about some products we are going to be coming out with in just a few weeks. The first is going to be a right hand retrieve reel so we can accommodate the lefties who up until this point weren’t able to find a ZeeBaas reel that they could use. Another thing we are excited to announce is that we are coming out with a self service tool kit. It's going

to be an affordable kit with just a handful of tools that will enable you to service your reel. ZeeBaas is a very easy reel to service as it was designed to be user self-serviceable. We hope that these kits will be available by the end of October. We highly recommend that the reels be serviced after the fishing season is over. (An annual service is required to maintain the warranty) Some people like to wait over the winter because they have a springtime ritual of getting their gear ready. When we are talking about a submersible reel, if there is any moisture that gets into it, you want to get to it, and get it out of there as soon as you are done with the fishing season so it doesn’t have a chance to sit in the reel all winter long. That’s when it will do the most damage.

How about us that have ten thumbs and don't know the difference between flat head screwdriver and Phyllis? Or was it Philips?

You don’t have to self service. You will always have the option of sending the reel back to us here at the factory. Plus we are also working on establishing some local service centers because we know it is expensive to ship these reels when you insure them for what you paid for them. We are trying to make it easier. Our goal at ZeeBaas is to make the experience of owning this reel a better experience whether it’s through self servicing or sending the reel to us, or to a service center in your area where you can bring in the reel, drop it off and avoid the shipping charges.

You mentioned doing a walkthrough this morning about having classes here at ZeeBaas. Tell us about it.

There are people who are on the fence about servicing their own reels.

We tell you it’s easy but they are still not sure how easy it is. What we are going to do is to have free classes starting in the fall. Customers will have the opportunity to come to the shop and we’ll teach them how to self service their reel right here. After that, the customer can make the decision whether to service their reel themselves in the future, or send it back to ZeeBaas. I have a feeling that when people see how easy it is to work on this reel, most will take the lead and start servicing their own reels.

Tell us why we have to service these reels in the first place?

One mistake that a lot of fishermen make, and I was guilty of this mistake myself in years past, is that they wait until something doesn’t feel right in their reel before they send it in. Now with some reels that are not designed to be waterproof that may be o.k. but when you are talking about a waterproof reel that has rubber seals that contact moving parts, you know there is going to be wear in those rubber seals so they need to be serviced on a regular basis or at least annually. If you wade into the surf, if you’re a skisher or if you’re a wetsuiter, you absolutely, positively, should have that reel serviced every year. This applies even if you just occasionally get your reel wet. If you’re fishing on a center console boat, and it’s getting splashed and if you want the water to stay out of that reel, you have to maintain those seals. You have to change them every single year. One of the first places that a reel is going to leak is in the main seal

and the reason for that is that every time you turn the handle once, the rotor spins almost 5 times. On our reels we have a 4.75 to 1 ratio. The shaft guide, which drives the rotor, is rotating against this rubber seal, which is keeping the water out. When you are talking about that much use rubbing on this knife edge of a rubber seal you are going to have wear. There is no rubber seal that is going to last indefinitely. If you wait until you notice something isn’t right, the damage is most likely already done. The water gets in and damages the bearings, the clutch bearings, or the main bearings, what’s going to happen is you are going to ruin those parts and you are going to have to replace the parts as well as replace the seals. The way to avoid that is to just change these rubber seals and O-rings on an annual basis. One of the things we are going to be coming out with is an affordable seal kit that has the important parts you need to change every year.

Fill us in on the ZeeBaas warranty? We know there is always confusion about this. And please, don't use big words. We’ve already had a fill of shafts, rollers, bearings and clutches.

The ZeeBaas warranty is 3 years, provided that the real is serviced annually, but you can extend that warranty by servicing the reel every year after that. Our warranty is contingent upon having the reel registered AND serviced every year. I can’t stress it enough that you have to change those rubber seals every year. If you buy a reel today, and you get it serviced on an annual basis, we’ll have a record of that, and you‘ll be covered.

Servicing the reel after each season not only keeps the warranty in effect, more importantly, it’s the best way to ensure that your reel will be ready to give you optimum performance for another season.

I’m hoping to implement a program where we can register the purchase of self-service kits so fishermen who want to service their own reels can still maintain their warranty. It’s logistically challenging to do, but our ultimate goal is to make ZX2 the most reliable, and easiest to maintain, high end reel to own.

Thank you Ron for your time and for being a gracious host. Next time, please have bagels ready. After all, we are coming from New York!

zeebaas.com

THE ECONOMY SUCKS. STIMULATE US.

SURFCASTERS JOURNAL ONLINE STORE

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 John Skinner is one of the most respected surfcasters on the striper coast. He authored “A Season on the Edge” and he also was a contributing author in the book “The Hunt for Big Stripers.” John is a stickler for details and his meticulous attention to detail has paid off over the years resulting in catches of some very large stripers. His propensity for obsessing over every little detail led him to develop the very popular “Fishers Log” software, which is used to record information on each fishing trip you make so that you can analyze past catches based on moon, tides, winds and many other variables. His web site is www.fisherslog.com. John's upcoming book, “Fishing the Bucktail” should be one of the most sought-after gifts this holiday season.

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.”

Lou Tabory is a legendary fly fisherman whose book, "Inshore Fly Fishing" remains the bible of how to read the inshore structure for surfcasters and fly casters. He also authored another four books including “Stripers on the Fly”. His writings have appeared in many national and regional publications. Recently, "Inshore Fly Fishing, 2nd: A Pioneering Guide to Fly Fishing along Cold-Water Seacoasts" was published, an updated version of his classic book from 1992.

Eric Burney is an accomplished writer with four books on saltwater fishing in print, including "The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing" and "Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast". You have probably read one of the many articles on surf fishing he has written over the years for magazines in the northeast and other publications.

Special thanks to lure builders from R.M. Smith Custom Plugs, RI Poppers, Fixter Lures, Lemire's Plugworks, Big Fish Bait Co. and Guppy Lure Company for sharing with our readers what are their favorite lures to make. Part Two is coming in the January Issue of the Surfcaster's Journal Magazine.