Mattyice572

Ive caught trout in all depths as low as 4" of water and in deep 10'+ pools. Best advice is hit it early. In my experience They tend to stick to darker areas of the water and best lures ive used for them have been 1/4oz joes flies, anything brown seems to be like crack for them. I try to get on the river a bit before sunrise and have luck until around 11am when the sun is high in the sky they dive deeper and when its too warm they dont seem to strike

I have the fk in sizes 1000 and 3000. I was torn between the fk and ci4 at the counter but i believe the aluminum hange body is stronger and built for a longer life but you really cant go wrong with any higher end shimano reels

5 hours ago, Marc VI said:

I remember a few years back a guy caught a BlueFin tuna from the Surf in Seaside, around 500lbs or so.

Dude thats crazy!! I wish i could hook into something like that. Need a buddy with a boat so i can get to the canyons lmao

2 hours ago, Plug Em All said:

Get a Ugly Stik GX2 in 6'6 you don't have to break the bank for one, and it's super strong to and light to cast & jig. 

Agreed. I use a GX2 ultra light with a shimano stradic 1000 and the thing in literally unbreakable, check a youtube vid of a guy pulling a boat with one. I loke the ultra light for smaller fish but for large mouth bass and pickeral id prob go for a medium/fast

I go to walmart and get cheap hiking boots. I have a pair that cost me $20 and had it for 2 seasons now. Use them for wading rivers and streams and on the beach, give me great grip on the rocks and the rocky terrain as well

Bunker chunks about 2" wide

Hit the beach with a buddy today and was gifted with 2 nice fights. A small dogfish which was a decent fighter but the big one was a cobia!! Never caught one before and holy crap these things fight like mike tyson was on the line! Cobia clocked in at 30" and back to the sea it went. Good luck to any anglers out there. I love the ocean because its always a suprise what youre reeling in and this was the nicest catch ive ever had in my life!

Me and my buddy hit seaside park today. Fished from 3am-2pm no luck until around 11am. Def worth the wait as i pulled in something ive never caught before. This beast grabbed my bunker with a vengence and fought hard!! It was as if my drag was non existant. My spool spun so fast i thought it was going to fall off. After about a 10 minute fight i finally saw the siloutte. At first i thought it was a baby sand bar shark but once insaw that white stripe i knew it was a cobia. A few fellow fishermen gathered around in awe claiming to never have seen one pulled from the beach, and neither have i. The first cobia i ever caught and man what a memory it made. I got the itch to get out there to try for more! It clocked in at 30" the legal limit is 37" so off he went back to the sea to grow so i can catch him another day.

Most nj rivers are stocked, i fish wherever i can, trout can be found in shallow and deep water. Best time of day to catch them is typically between 5:30 am and noon. Pulled these guys from ramapo river near pompton lakes area

Ugly stick gx2!! I use the ultra light and its awesome!! Its strike sensative and dam near un breakable. There a video on youtube of a guy pulling a small sailboat with one and trying his hardest to break it. The rod is only about $40. I have been using one for 2 seasons now and it has proven its weight in gold

Trout are by far the most difficult fish ive ever caught. Theres a science to catching them. They have excellent eye sight, and from what i read they can see a full 360 degree around them. They are very line shy and wont bite just anything. You want something sensative so you can feel the strike as soon as they grab it, and keep the rod low so they dont jump and wiggle the hook free. I use a shimanon symetre 500fl on a 5'6" st croix trout rod. I also use segur tatsu 6lb  flurocarbon for my line because its strong, strike sensative, and invisable under water. And for lures i use 1/4 oz joes flies. I find brown hackle joes flies work the best on a slow retrieve.

I use mostly shimano reels, but also have a few okumas. Shimano perform better than my okumas. Reel size depends on what fish youre targeting. For trout and pan fish and small mouth bass i use a shimano symetre 500fl which is no longer made but is still avaliable online for about $100. For large mouth bass, crappies, and pickeral i use a shimano stradic fk 1000, for wall eye and pickeral i use shimano sustain 2500, and for larger fish i use a shimano stradic 3000. All of them are solid reels that wont quit and the handle turns like butter every time. I also use an okuma ceymar c-10 for trout and pan fish and small mouth, and an okuma helious for large mouth and pickeral. They work very well but you can def feel a difference in quality.

I use all types of line, depends on what im fishing for and where and what time of day. my go to is flurocarbon. Its literally invisible underwater and is more sensative to strikes than monofilament, it also sinks where mono floats, it has less stretch properties than mono and isnt as badly affected by UV rays. Since i found flurocarbon i havnt gone back to mono since. Segur makes some good stuff if you wanted to give it a go

Ive used alot of stuff over the years, but 3 years ago i hit the jack pot! Found these inline spinners by joes flies and i swear its like fish crack! 1/4 oz size is the ones i use, the smaller ones dont seem to work well. Bass pro has the full line of them at under $4 a pop. My go to is the brown hackle. Try them i guarentee you wont be dissapointed.

NJ rivers have been providing me with a good amount of trout this year. Last week i landed over 20 trout in 5 hours! Great day on the river. Usually do catch and release but my pops was getting pissed that i spend so much money on fishing and never bring any home so i took home 3 keepers to calm him down lol

I picked up a tsunami trophy series rod a few months ago, like it better than the shimano i had. So far this thing has taken a beating and proved itself a solid and good spinning rod. I have a 10' and with the cannon bait casting aid attatchment i can launch my 5oz weighted rigs a good 30-50 yards or more without any risk of slicing my fingers on my 50lb braided line. The rod was only around $100 at my local spot, jigging world, in NJ. Rod has pulled in countless big blues and stripers and this weekend im putting it to the real test to see if i can pull in a good size sand bar shark. 

have never intentionally caught a shark, and im not sure if i can really classify catching a dog fish as a shark... i just bought a sharking set uo and im going to be going out for the first time next week. You guys have any advice for me? Not even really sure what kind of bait to use or if i have to chum the water. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks guys

MAtty why do you think that's happening? I went 3 weeks ago and caught 6 blues and a striper in an sp minnow...I want to go Saturday again but I'm not sure what to expect.

Cant say for sure, but with all the different stuff we were using i expected at least 1 fish in that time period. Ill fish all day for 1 fish but i hate going home after a long day of nothing especially because it takes me over an hour travel time. Either way it still beats a day at work, but last week i caught 1 smaller blue fish at seaside park and i fished from 1am-1:30pm. 13 1/2 hours and only 1 small blue?! Not a good start to my season but i heard a guy pulled in a 47lb striper at pt plesant a few days ago so ill be heading there this weekend or take a break and hit stokes state forest for some freshwater. Never caught nothing when i hit the lakes or rivers but the ocean has done me dirty pleanty of times.

me and my buddy hit gunnison beach yesterday. we fished from the entrance to the tip of the hook from 6am-3pm and didnt get anything. tried poppers, bombers, buck tails, sinking eels, bunker chunks, mackeral chunks, finger mullet, and clam. all we had the "pleasure" of catching, was a sight of old dongs flopping in the wind. PLEASE dont go its a nude beach full of dudes with no fish and police that searched my cooler and our gear bags for undersized fish and drugs. 

Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated!! Im going to start off with a VS simply because i have seen people selling them on here at a better price than in store and i have yet to see a zeebaas in my price range although it seems a zeebaas is a better reel. Going to be looking to get a zeebass or van staal reel in the next 2-3 weeks if anyone is selling one in working condition let me know. Thanks again!! Ill be buying a shark set up this week lol going to try my luck at sandy hook to land a sand bar shark

Had my best day of bass and blues fishing in mid january off my buddies boat near the verazano bridge. Cold as anything but im sure if you try it you wont be dissapointed.

I have had some decent luck using lunker lights, its like a mini glow stick you can attatch to the line usually i put it a few inches above the hook. Have had best results with purple color glow sticks. Good luck

Definitly some nice catches! Ive only been lucky enough to pull up a few baby snappers so far this season

Sorry guys im a noob at surf fishing lol. Thanks fornthe input. Have been watching videos of something called "skishing" today and it looks like something im probably going to try out. I live on the outskirts of NYC myself. Any recomendations on a reel and rod for skishing? Also thanks for the input about the better rod for ahore casting, any recomendations for a good shore rod??

Sorry if i posted this in the wrong spot, not very good with computers lol. Yes this was a serious question, i failed to mention that i was trying to get into something ive seen called "skishing" i live on the outskirts of NYC and it seems like a cool concept to me. I have a basic okuma rod set up for boat fishing wherebi oiterally just drop the line over board, and i have 3 shimano freshwater set ups for trout, bass and pickeral fishing. So if you guys say better casting can happen from the shorline, what rod do you think i should invest in?