A Sad Day At Grumpys and Improving Fishing
For today’s fishing report, we have a guest editor, Blackcloud Bob. His comments are in parenthesis and italicized below…
It’s a sad day for Grumpys Tackle. (No it is not, it is a glorious day) Sheldon has moved on to bigger things, and today was his last day (It is about friggin time) (He didn’t originally say friggin. – John). Soon he will be shipping out to the US Air Force. Don’t worry, they aren’t going to let him fly a plane (They should). At least we don’t believe they are (And they should start a new United States Kamikaze division). He says he is going to be learning how to disarm explosives (He’s going to blow that widows peak off his forehead). We hope you make us proud Sheldon (Always cut the red wire, no matter what they tell you).
In all seriousness, Sheldon, good luck with your new adventure.
Some more positive shop news.
We are fully stocked on ODM D.N.A. surf rods, both in store and online. We have every size available. This includes the extremely popular 9 foot model, the versatile 8 foot model and the popular (and fun to fish) 7’6” Back bay model.
While we are speaking about rods, we got in some new Black Hole USA blanks in. We received a few of the Challenger Bank 731 blanks, which are a perfect blank to build a blackfish jigging rod on. We also received a bunch of 691UL blanks. You can build a real nice spinning rod for throwing light lures that has plenty of backbone for bigger fish, or a great conventional jigging rod for fluke. You can have Blackcloud Bob build one for you, or, if you want, we have all the components to build one yourself. Just come into the shop. Or hit us up on the Contact Us page if you want us to ship a blank and/or the rod building components to you.
We also have the off-the-rack Black Hole Challenger Bank rods for those who don't want to wait for one to be built.
We brought in a new line of wooden lures this week. Check out Salty C’s Plugs. We brought in mini-gliders, two sizes (4.5” and 6”) round nose metal lip swimmers, and deep diving swimmers. These are beautiful workmanship that catches fish. They are not on the website (yet), but you can reach out to us via the Contact Us page and we can get them shipped to you if you do not want to take the ride to the shop.
We restocked on Van Staal reels and Penn Fierce III reels. Van Staal reels need no explanation. The Penn Fierce III reel is a nice budget friendly reel with a good drag for fishing both the surf and the boat.
Regarding the fishing, we have been hearing some good reports. We’ll start with tautog first…
Ray and Sean from the shop went out fishing Saturday with Capt Steve and did well with the blackfish, limiting out to keepers up to 8 pounds. All were caught on S&S Whitechin Wrecker jigs, to the chagrin of Sean, who really prefers fishing with standard rigs. We have green crabs in stock for those who want to give it a try.
The striped bass fishing on the ocean has been picking up. Bunker chunks, salted clams and bloodworms have been the way to go. We have our new bunker tub all set up and filled with fresh bunker. Don’t forget to target striped bass using bait, you need to be using inline circle hooks.
On the bayside, the striped bass fishing remains good, though the size of the bass remain small. For bait, bloodworms have been the ticket. The lures that have been working have remained the same as previous reports, but we have also heard that fin-s fish have started to produce too. As far as where they are, we have heard reports from all areas of the bay, so if you try a spot and they are not there, don’t be afraid to go searching.
With Sheldon leaving we have had to types of emotions. Ray:
Bob:
