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Hurricane swells, 1999

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BrianBM

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We had a remarkable string of distant hurricanes in 1999, and a lot of days of truly dramatic swells thumping ashore. I had the notion that all that fuss would be productive. Didn't happen. The swells were fine to see (and this experience is mostly at Fire Island Inlet, and one or two tentative walks at Napeague in Montauk). The current set along the ocean beaches was ferocious; water pressure on one's ankles was astonding.

Baitfishing was never worth a try, nothing short of a Danforth anchor would've kept a bait on the bottom, and the line would become a green cable immediately. The experience left me with three conclusions: 1) best time to go prospecting in high surf is before it gets that way. Building surf is better than built. 2) The best place to use a roarin' surf is where I would've been prior to 1998 - inside the damn inlet, from points no further outside than the outer edge of the standing wave action, and preferably farther in than that. And 3), until the fly casting improves beyond 35', the 120 1M and 525 will continue to come along in the truck.

Anyone with a better theory of how to fish the kind of big surf you see when there's a hurricane making the reporter wet on the evening news?

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Brian, first off, if the green stuff is thick there, it's probably thick inside the inlet, no? Around here, when it's bad outside, it's usually bad anywhere near inlets. Luckily, we don't get the green goo you guys get, we get luttuce, it comes off, but too much shuts you down just as fast. I agree, a building surf is the time to go, the fish are feeding best then, the rough water is new and the baitfish aren't all scattered yet. I love that building surf! Again, you're correct, the built surf is no fun, it's usually dirty and weedy. If it's not dirty and weedy, the fishing may be excellent...more times than not, it's dirty.

 

As for how to fish the big surf, pre-hurricane swells, I do it from a jetty and I throw rigged eels. There are so many different styles of eel squids, some very heavy, you can swim an eel and cast these things in almost any water....I've taken some very nice fish in 8 foot seas from jetties before the water, weeds, and sand homogenized. There are only a handful of plugs that will swim in 8 foot seas, 2 oz bottle plugs being my first choice, they dig enough so as not to be blown by the wind, you can really tighten up on a 2 bottle digging into a wave! I've also done plenty of fish with Smilin' Bills and 7" bunker flies in that kind of surf...but as for some mental block of mine, I don't throw the bills enough at night in the surf, they eat 'em at night in current, why not the surf? I dunno either, it's a mental block!

 

TimS

Show someone how to catch striped bass and they'll be ready to fish anywhere.
Show someone where to go striped bass fishing and you'll have a desperate report chaser with loose lips.

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The Surfcaster carries the Super Strike casting swimmer, and one version has a bit more weight up front - 2 3/8 oz where the normal plug is a straight 2 oz - which extra weight, I was told, was a Montauk request: a little more lead to dig in more quickly in rough, fast, very turbulent conditions. Tim, have you had occasion to try that one as a hurricane surf plug?

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FWIW I note that the first time I log on to this site and make a post, I must fill in name and password; these appear automatically when making successive posts. Using Navigator 4.4 .... timing is everything. A building swell that meets an outbound current at the Inlet, at the start before the interior waters of the bay get churned, would still be nice. All that turbulence gotta be good for something.

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