Fall Fling 2002
and some other stuff ;-)
November 25, 2002:

---

The Third Annual Fall Fling at the old Oak Beach Inn parking lot on Long Island

---

Wow, we've done a lot of Flings this year :-) I'm hoping to have Luke help me out this winter and put together pages for each of the Flings that have passed. If we have enough really bad weather and Luke ever finds himself a woman, we'll have a much better shot at getting the pages done So the most recent Fling was the Third Annual Fall Fling - and as usual, it was a smashing success! Those are some fine folks out that way and hanging out with and later fishing with them just never, ever gets old. This year the whirling dervish from Turkey made it to the Fall Fling - Awesome John! And let me tell you, the man is one in a million, there's no one quite like this big Turk! He's got more enthusiasm and more love for our sport than any 10 normal human beings He comes on very, very strong...but don't let that get to yah, he's for real...he's just got so much energy that it all tries to come out at once It's hard to believe he lives all the way over in Turkey - the guy knows so many of the Montauk regulars, I was shocked. He's just one of those guys that loves life, devours everything to do with fishing, and who's enthusiasm is just plain contagious - Squidlips put it best when he said "That guy is an absolute treasure." It was nice to finally meet you AJ, next time we'll get to fish together, too :-) I think AJ is now officially the further distance to come to a Fling - it's hard to get further away than Turkey :-) It was so nice to see the familiar faces of my old friends and to finally meet some first timers who've been posting for years but haven't been to one of these get togethers! The food was beyond reproach, a monstrous thank you to everyone who helped out in the grub department...bringing grub, burning grub, utensils for burning/serving grub, soda, plates, condiments, etc, etc - THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I love these get togethers because it does my heart so good to see so many serious surf fishermen laughing and sharing so much - you guys all rule :-)

Now the hardest part of the Fall Fling - the fishing! Yikes. I must say this Fling's fishing was better than last year's fishing - and we were "competing" for a Lamiglas TriFlex 9'6" conventional rod so generously donated by Lamiglas for the "Big Fish" of the Fling! Thanks Todd, you guys at Lamiglas continue to rule :-) As it ended up BrianZ has an 11# fish taken on a black Mag Darter that was the biggest fish...strange for this time of year in that area that an 11# fish would win it...but that was the biggest fish! I had 5 fish that night but my biggest was 10#...so Brian won the Lamiglas...and he loves it! I fished it one night, just to make sure it was ok to give to Brian ;-) I also loved it and was throwing jigs from 3/4oz to 2 1/2oz without issue - the rod has unlimited back bone but can still throw stuff under an ounce...that's nice :-) Here's the kicker...and it's always the same story with the Fall Fling - the night before the Fling, in just a couple hours of darkness, CharlieM and myself landed probably 25-35 stripers on jigs, darters and assorted plugs. We thought for sure we'd be able to repeat on Saturday night...but the massive amount of boat traffic, Q-beams and screaming engines apparently shut the fish down hard. I'm beginning to wonder if may next year we start the Fall Fling on Friday night? I think the fishing would be much better...and the crowds and boats wouldn't be nearly as troublesome. I do like the fact that we had this fling in November rather than October, I think that's a trend that will continue :-)

On the local front - striper fishing in the surf of NJ continues to be the worst ever. Same story from every angle - where are the fish? There are pretty much no striped bass to speak of in the near shore NJ waters. One thing I read in the paper the other day was a real eye-opener: "Reel Life hasn't weighed a striper in since 11/14/02." Ouch. That's a shop that is en route to the popular clam fishing beaches - and they usually see a lot of pseudo-slot fish weighed in - fish from 24" to real keeper size 28" fish...but not a single one in like 10 days - of mid November. With perfect clamming conditions the entire time. How sad and telling is that? Anyway, I will no longer dwell on the sad state of NJ's surf fishing - apparently I am no longer the only one who has noticed and others can gladly carry that torch ;-)

On to better things - like toggin'! Thank God for tog (blackfish)! If they only bit at night, I'd probably stop missing my striped friends so badly. BrianZ and I played hooky on Thursday last week to get in on some near shore toggin' - it was some much needed good medicine We picked fish as we fooled around with the anchor to adjust how we were laying on the little nub we were anchored on - and once we got it just right it was all gravy after that! The fish were strange though as they would only ear whole crabs...cut pieces were being ignored...even if fresh cut and still wiggling, they just wouldn't hit them. But button a whole crab on and you got crushing hits :-) Once we got that figgered out...and the boat laying exactly right, we proceeded to catch 4-8# tog for the next 2 hours - on every single drop to the bottom. For that period of time, if you didn't get a hit in 10 seconds or less, your bait was already gone. It was pretty amazing. The other thing that was a shock was we were fishing in zero wind and a 3kt current - usually the death of a tog trip...but once we got everything just right, it was very, very good :-) We also agreed upon the first rule of successful toggin' - "If what you are doing isn't putting fish in the boat - stop doing it" I know, it sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how many deep rooted some of the tog techniques we use are - sometimes you have to just think completely outside the box to put white chins on the deck with regularity. Did I mention we had a really good time? ;-) So good that we did it again Saturday in the 50kt winds..this time we let new togger CharlieM show us how to do it. Without question, he put on the best "first time togger" show I've ever seen...after a slow start, he got his game on and was plopping tog on the deck like a grizzled old salt The tog will no longer be safe from him, the guy's got game :-)

I'm suspiciously optimistic that the recent screaming NW winds are going to mark the beginning of what little fall we have left - the weather should turn steadily colder from here on it and the fishing should markedly improve. But it's too late to really call anything that happens from here forward a "fall run". That time has passed - no amount of late arriving stripers can bail this fall out - there's been 10 weeks of absolutely dismal fishing since September - a few decent weeks at this point will still leave this fall as the worst ever. And it followed the worst summer ever. I will, however, continue to give the striper fishing here an honest effort. It's my home waters, it's where I learned how to fish and I simply refuse to believe that the fishing will never be normal again here. I'll fish till they "leave"...but first they gotta show up in order to leave at all. I'll hopefully be able to enjoy some at least decent fishing in NJ in the bottom of the 9th of this fall season...and I can always pretend I'm fishing in another state...how expensive is property in Rhode Island anyway?