Long weekend...and the fish are ready to play!

Sept 1, 2000:

UPDATE: The new is up...and has been up since Saturday, I just forgot to let y'all know about it! 

  Also, the fishing has still been improving, even in the flat water. Saturday night I educated 9 stripers to 10#'s, 4 fluke over 16", a 25" weakfish, and one rat bastage little bluefish. Same MO, plugging right in the foamy white stuff on the sand....4 1/2" MegaBaits, 5" Delta Sword Yozuris, and 5" Mambo minnow. The teasers of choice have been the olive/yellow bucktail deceiver and the white epoxy sand eel. Details on tomorrow's page! Enjoy your Labor Day...which is kinda ironic, aren't most people off on Labor Day? Maybe it should be called "don't Labor" Day? ;-)

    Holy smokes, welcome to September folks, the long awaited beginning of the good fishing has arrived. As if on queue, the fish are providing many fellers with exiting stories and evenings of action! Last night I got out with Paul Naj to enjoy some of the nice 3-4footers combing the beaches. We decided to do some suds stuff and some jetty stuff. Within 10 minutes in the suds, we both had hits...Paul hooked and lost one. As we were moving around the suds some, two fellers who didn't see us walked out onto the jetty we were planning on fishing...so we hurried out there to get some casts in. Paul landed a decent one there, he released it. I missed a couple good shots on the rougher side. All in all, we spend 2 hours out there, the bulk of our evening with a couple fish to show. Paul landed another short. I landed a short, had another one all the way to the rocks when the waves molested the fish and he came off at my feet...which was nice, the waves woulda crushed me trying to get him up!   There were some more hits, but we were really working for them! So, we decide to do some more sand. Paul's not big on the sand stuff, he's more at home on the jetty. I told him I'd be gentle ;-) He got off the rocks first, I took one more cast...and with the little Loomis, hooked another fish...so I walked off with the fish in tow and landed it right there on the sand. Then, my next cast, I'm in again...the fish were much more cooperative right in the foam than they were in the deep stuff out front! One more cast and Paul decides the other side might be better, it was less of a clobbering surf on that side, I agree. We fish our way north a little, to a nice pocket of foamy white stuff...Paul lands a decent fluke on the teaser. A little more north, I hook up and drop a decent fish. Then Paul does the same thing! Ready to split now, soaked to the hilt, we start heading back. There's a real shallow little hole, almost 1-2feet deep on the way out...Paul suggests a few cast...of course, I agreed...just to be social ;-) Turns out, there were a number of decent fish in this tiny spot! We both had shots, I landed one small one and dropped a small one right in the suds. Then I stick a decent one, it runs outta the whole, over the bar...and even though it felt very strong, I muscled it back into the shallows and slid it up on the beach...maybe 5-6 minutes total....and I was looking at a very nice fish, 12-13# and fat. Shocked...usually one that size on this steelhead type spinning outfit can take 10-12 minutes to land! Paul decides that one's coming home with him, he let his keeper go earlier. Not three casts later, I'm into another good one...it's thrashing wildly on top, feels like a 10#er...but I never let him get his wheels in the water and inside 30 seconds, I'm unhooking a 10#er! Again, I was shocked, that sized fish on the light tackle usually requires serious effort! I still don't now what was up with those fish, they fought well, I just got them under control in short order. Then I land a fluke on the teaser. We both were getting hits in this shallow stuff, but the steelhead taper and braided line did a number on getting the hooks sunk whereas Paul was using his jetty spinning out fit and mono. He could feel the hits, but he didn't stick any with the mono enough to land them from the sand...live and learn ;-) Not a bad night, actually, it had a good ending with the flurry of activity in that last shallow hole....I ended up with 10 hooked, 7 landed...and a fluke! The fish ate Delta Sword Yozuris, teases, rubber rigged eels, and 5" Mambos....and they were all within 50 feet of the sand...some within 15 feet. 

  So, if yer gonna get out, do it from the sand, throw smaller lures and teasers...don't be afraid to keep up with the incoming waves as you work them, the fish are shallow and they are hungry! Sorry to make this so short, I've got social obligations (wedding) from now until tomorrow brunch. I'll see you guys tomorrow, hope you can get out and walk the surf line tonight, the fish are starting to respond pretty well, right in the suds! 

    Recent additions to the catalog:  Hab's Perfect Poppers were added to the catalog. Within 24 hours, fully 1/3 of them were already sold out! Get 'em while they're hot guys, they won't be around long! I just placed an order for another 15 dozen poppers, different sizes will be added. Also, a LARGE order of Hab's Needlefish in sizes from around 1oz to his monster 3 1/2oz, they should be here in a couple/few weeks. After the interest for his poppers, I don't think the needles will be around very long either! The PowerPro Page was just added. Also, brand new to the site, perfect for all the things we're gonna see around here in the coming months, ideal mullet or peanut bunker imitation...the 3 1/2" MegaBait plug! Man, these things are gorgeous, they are exactly like their super popular and fish killer big brother, the 4 1/2" MegaBait, but they are shorter and proportionally thinner. 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

The end of the long weekend :-(

Sept 5, 2000:

    Well, it's Tuesday already...so we got a jump on this week if nothing else! The long weekend was interesting on the fishing front, not spectacular, but interesting. Friday afternoon by 2pm I was on an old wooden Trolley (rented for my brother's wedding), drinking beers and driving all over Spring Lake and Belmar. We stopped for photos in a number of places...but the stop at the beaches in Spring Lake had me drooling. No, it wasn't just the hotties on the sand, it was the perfect surf rolling up to meet the sand. It was about ideal...and I wouldn't be able to get wet till Saturday night. Hey, can't blame Kyle, how was he supposed to know the surf would be perfect when he planned this day last year? ;-) So, after the pictures, we drove from the beach in Belmar all the way to the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank....a good hike in a wooden trolley! All the while, beers were disappearing at an alarming rate! The wedding was beautiful, Karen the bride was stunning...and Kyle got married! God bless them both as they start on their life long journey together.

   Now it's Saturday afternoon...Charlie took off to the mountains to do some heavy duty celebrating with some friends and I was looking for a date to fish with! After checking with a bunch of different fellas, I had put together dates for Sunday night but was destined to fish alone on Saturday. This was not a bad thing, I forgot how relaxing and un-pressured it felt to fish alone...I haven't fished alone in quite a while. The fish were right where I expected them to be, right where I had left them Thursday night. While the surf was a bit too calm for my liking, the fish were at least making themselves available. Throwing the same small plugs and teasers on the light Loomis steelhead rod, I ended the 3 hour plugging session with 9 bass to 10#'s, 1 weakfish about 25", one rat bastage blue fish, and the big surprise, 4 fluke over 16". Very different from Thursday's hook/landed ratio of 10 hooked, 7 landed...Saturday I hooked 9 and landed 9...batted 1000 for the night. About 3/4 of the fish ate the plugs, either the 5" Yozuri with the sandeel pattern on the back, I think it's called "bronze" or the 5" Mambo minnow, green/white. The biggest 2 fish at the teasers, one on a white epoxy sand eel, the other ate the olive/yellow bucktail deceiver that's done very well by me since late last fall. I fished a large area planning on entertaining a couple guys in the same location the following night, I wanted to have a good grip on where the fish were. The stretch I fished north of the Fling Zone was about 400 yds long with a couple jetties in it. I never got on the jetties, intentionally leaving my Korkers in the truck so as not to be tempted! All the fish were caught in a 50 yd stretch inside this 400yd piece of beach. I walked the whole thing a couple times, casting all over trying to find a spread of fish...they weren't there, they were all in the shallowest section of this piece of beach. I'm sure they would have been more spread out had the water been rough enough to make white water elsewhere, but as calm as it was, every fish was inside or near the one shallow bar in the area. The lesson here is to pay attention to the white water...ignore or quickly probe the deeper stuff between white water patches...pay much attention to the white rolling stuff, the fish are in there!

  So, Sunday night rolls around, my 2 dates confirmed and were both here at exactly 9:30pm as decided earlier, kudos to both of them, the traffic on the Parkway was murder but they made it anyway! The first to arrive was Ed Zaun, someone who I've corresponded with much prior to my personal removal from that "other site". Ed impressed me in our emails, I had asked him if he would be bringing some backup spinning gear, just in case we ran into something that couldn't be handled with the fly gear...Ed informed me he doesn't even own suitable spinning gear! Geesh, talk about a serious commitment to the fly rod! ;-) Impressed, I vowed to leave home all other means of unicorn hunting weapons as well, packing a 9wt and 11wt only. JimB arrived moments after Ed...Jim's also someone I met at the "other site". As we stood here shooting the breeze, it suddenly dawned on me, these two guys were both moderators on a site who's owner had sent me and 5 of my fellow outcasts packing, informing us that he no longer had any use for us! I teased them about this, poking a little fun at them. Neither one of them currently really does anything with that "other site", for whatever reason...but I needed to remind them that I was an outcast and they possibly should never mention that we fished together! ;-)

   We looked at shiny lures, talked about past fishing trips, things that have happened online, petted Calvin (the watch cat), and then decided we should go before the rain stopped. Have I mentioned that I like fishing in the rain? ;-) Jim's new to the fly rod and for our personal safety, he agreed to throw only the spinning rod that night (thanks Jim;-) Ed and I had the long rods. The surf was generally mild, an occassional beach slammer would land feet in front of you and plaster you with sand and saltwater...I had enough sand up my shorts to make a colonial sand castle when I was finished. We surveyed the surf, I made a couple suggestions pointing out what I was seeing that night, we split up a little...Ed went left, I went right, and Jim due east. My second cast was met by a good, splashy hit 50 feet out...the hook set easily as it was dangerously sharp (that's how I try to keep them all!). I'm thinking to myself that this was even easier than I suspected it would be! As I'm on the sand unhooking a fat striper, I head Ed from 50 yds down the beach, he's holding up a nice fat one as well! Hmmm....both of us landing a bass on the long rod in the 2-3 foot rollers in the middle of the night...a very good sign for the rest of the evening! It really wasn't...sad to say, those were the only two unicorns landed in the next 2 hours of fishing. Jim had two fish right up to the sand but they wrestled themselves free before being subdued. I had but 2 other hits, both missed. I did manage a small weakfish before we called it quits. There was enough sand on my person that no matter where I tried to wipe the sand off my face, I was just rubbing different sand on it. After the fishing, we hung out by the trucks for a few minutes to unwind and shoot some more breeze. These are good guys, both of them, I sincerely look forward to spending some more time with them. I'm still certain that our limited success was due to the deep tides we fished...just as the tide had again dropped to a point where the white water was starting to roll again, we all had had enough. I guess it was bad planning on my part, I suspected the water would be rough enough that we should have had action even at the deepest parts of the tide much as I did the night before. Thanks guys for a good few hours in the suds, it's always a pleasure to hook up with old on-line friends!

   Present day, Tuesday. Kicking and screaming winds last night held Paul and I to a pair of stripers each. We both had 4 or 5 hits within the first half hour of fishing, I lost a couple to pulled hooks, Paul missed a couple due to the newness of the rod I loaned him for this special mission. See, Paul's not really a beach fisherman...sure, he's dabbled, but much as I always was, he's a jetty guy. The demise of the jetties forced me to the sand a couple years back, I put together a perfect rod for it after figuring out what I'd need. Paul's now hooked, the light Loomis/Sustain combo is so perfectly sweet it's something that no one who's used it can then live without. The perfect match of lightness, authority, casting ability, and backbone...you can literally feel when your teaser bumps a spearing...I've set up on a few of those really light bumps and landed spearing snagged on the teaser. It's very responsive and sensitive. Paul's hopelessly hooked now, my last bastion of safety from Paul's growing list of talents is now at risk and I must devise a way to stop him before this goes too far! ;-) The 30kt N to NNE winds last night made fishing nearly impossible, the belly and drag on the line were tremendous....but the fish were around...at least initially. I'm going to bet that when this blow is over, the fishing will be as hot as it can get this time of year, things will start to feel an awful lot like fall and the mullet will be leaving the rivers. Fall is falling my friends, prepare ye the way! ;-)

   Recent additions to the catalog:  Hab's Perfect Poppers were added to the catalog. Within 24 hours, fully 1/3 of them were already sold out! Get 'em while they're hot guys, they won't be around long! I just placed an order for another 15 dozen poppers, different sizes will be added. Also, a LARGE order of Hab's Needlefish in sizes from around 1oz to his monster 3 1/2oz, they should be here in a couple/few weeks. After the interest for his poppers, I don't think the needles will be around very long either! The PowerPro Page was just added. Also, brand new to the site, perfect for all the things we're gonna see around here in the coming months, ideal mullet or peanut bunker imitation...the 3 1/2" MegaBait plug! Man, these things are gorgeous, they are exactly like their super popular and fish killer big brother, the 4 1/2" MegaBait, but they are shorter and proportionally thinner. 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

Feels like fall fer sure!

Sept 7, 2000:

   Man, these cools nights and cool days are sure to get things rolling outta the bays and rivers, no question about it! Anyone who fishes the surf a lot has got to be feeling the pull of the cool nights. One thing that's still sort of odd, we geared up for the 55 degree air temps last night only to be greeted by the hot breath of a 70 degree ocean! I'm a little embarrassed to say that I hadn't remembered to dress for the water temps instead of the air temps, I was sweating in no time standing in the much warmer water. Charlie and I had another chance to fish with Cowhunter last night. Seems he was taking some time off from hunting cows in other states and was condemning himself to a night in NJ's less fertile waters. I did warn him that while we might find some fish, we most certainly wouldn't be tangling with any cows...at least it was very unlikely. Kenny said he didn't mind, just looking to get out and throw stuff for a while. Well we certainly put him on the right spot for that ;-) The water was kicking pretty good when we got out about 10:30pm...if it hadn't been already rough for a few days, I'd have said we had a real good shot at tangling with some substantial fish. There's usually a marked increase in fish activity when the water goes from calm to rough, that's the time to be there, that's the time to really put in the effort. Once it's been rough a couple days, the increase in activity is usually over. That's not to say a good bite won't ensue, it's not to say that if you find the fish they won't be easier to fool...both those things can happen. It's just saying that the spike in feeding is usually done, I've always guessed it was because the rough water offers so many more feeding opportunities that the fish are pretty well taken care of as far as their bellies go...but you can still stumble onto a bunch of fish that are ready to reload their bellies if you're lucky! 

   So the water was pretty stirred up, lots of white water rolling on, near, over, under, and alongside the jetties! Man, it sure looked wonderful! The three of us milled around the rocks, throwing various rough water creations...rigged eels, bottle plugs, jigs, and 7" MegaBait plugs, with and without teasers. I stuck the first unicorn, it grabbed a 1oz yellow bottle plug...one of the 2 lures I like to use in water that looks like a washing machine. It wasn't a big unicorn, but it was the ice breaker, the fish that gives hope to all who see it after taking 50 casts without a hit ;-) Two casts later, Charlie hooked up...a little bigger striper that gave him fits as it got wedged in the rocks while trying to land it. Poor Charlie climbed down the rocks as far as he could to get the fish up which had Charlie's last 7" Yellow Shad MB plug in it's mouth! A couple attempts, some soaking waves, a scared bass was retrieved with the shiny plug in it's lips. The fish was released, the plug was detained and re-attached to the line. Meanwhile, a kamikaze weakfish had grabbed my olive/yellow bucktail teaser, right in the heart of the maelstrom...the last place you'd expect anything other than a striped bass! I released the trout, noted to the fish that it really should be careful in all this nasty water. Cowhunter was the only one still looking for a LARGE with a jig fished deep...and he'd had a couple shots on it but didn't connect. Meanwhile, the rising tide was now dousing us with each collapsing wave. I remembered Kenny's fondness of black and red pork rind trailers from our first meeting and decided to show him the newest of the Pork-O's that we're carrying. They call them "tequila"....I say they are black over dark purplish red...semantics. 7 1/4" long, thick strips of pork dyed to a gorgeous black/purplish red with tons of cut up glitter flakes....I knew he'd have a hundred spots to try them before I could possibly get them shipped to him, so I did the fellow fisherman thing and entrusted him with my personal stash! ;-) I haven't fished this darker color yet, but after seeing the fish eat black smiling bills in Long Island, I know this new color's gonna be a killer! We fished the chart/white ones in Cape Cod this summer, the fish ate them like nothing else! I'm guessing that others are finding similar success with them, I've sold about 75 jars in the past 2 months. I'm still trying to get the 5 1/4" sized ones, they'd be great for smaller jigs...I'm eternally optimistic that I'll get 'em soon.

  So, we're on the jetty getting partially drowned, Kenny's the only one properly dressing with rain gear. As we're working off the rocks to throw lighter rods from the sand, Charlie gets his plug creamed, shaking him up even! He missed the hit but vowed to subdue the creature from the sand with the little spinning rod...a man on a mission. I stayed on the rocks till Charlie came back and informed me that the rolling suds "weren't as easy as they looked from the rocks." Yes, they were steaming shoreward, no doubt about it. Now it was my turn, leaving the rocks, I took one more cast near shore and got plowed...a swing and a miss...and just as I was tightening up to continue retrieving, I got plowed again...and missed again!?!? 0 for 2 on the same cast...embarrassing.  By now, I'm the only one fishing, Charlie and Kenny are hanging on the beach, shooting some breeze. As I grab my little spinning rod to help out that poor fish that tried twice to eat my plug, Charlie reminds me that the surf is tough with the big waves. I remind him that I like it that way...I think he was shaking his head as I head to face the big collapsing waves ;-) Second cast, I'm in...I can only hope it was the poor fella that tried so hard to catch the plug from the jetty ;-) Quite a wrestling match as he kept getting his motor going in the serious rip along the rocks...Kenny came over, spurred by the possibility that it could be a decent fish. I really didn't know, anything in those kinda rips will hang tough against the steelhead rod! Finally, I removed the teaser hook from my biggest of the evening (size intentionally left out so as not to ruffle the "inches versus pounds" fellers ;-)  Now Charlie's in, much to his surprise, in the nasty surf a critter had found his plug! That was to be the last bent rod last night...but all in all, it was fun...a little wet, but fun. It's always a pleasure to fish with Cowhunter, and I did warn him that our critters aren't quite like the ones he's been chasing in Rhode Island ;-) 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent