Another Classic Weekend
Less than a week to our Grumpy Santa Event. We’ll have more details on the event (specifically the sale) in a day or two. Watch our social media and your emails.
We recently added Ebbpoint Surfcasting bags to the shop and our website. We now have the Beachwalker Surf Bag from Ebbpoint Surfcasting. These are nice versatile bags built tough for the demanding surfcaster. It’s a great size for adding to a surf belt when wetsuiting, for carrying smaller stuff when working the back bays and sod banks, or when going light for long distance hikes on sandy beaches. These will not last long in the shop.
With the crazy striped bass bite the past two weeks, we have been seeing on social media a lot of people who have had a fish shake and put a hook into their hand. This can be avoided. First, be patient, which we know is hard to say when there is utter mayhem going on in front of you and you want to get back in the action, but a trip to the ER takes longer. There are some tools that can help too. First, a tool to hold the fish like a Boga Grip or a Fish Grip keeps your hands further away from shaking hooks. Additionally, get a good pair of pliers and crush down the bards on your hooks. It will make releasing a fish easier, and if you do get stuck, you may not need to make the ER trip. If you keep a tight line, you won’t lose any more fish than if you had hooks with barbs.
As for the fishing, we had another absolutely incredible day on Sunday. Pretty much any lure you threw in the water caught fish. Swim shads, SP Minnows and poppers were the most common, but really anything moving around those blitzes was going to be eaten.
Monday the fishing was good but not blitz conditions. It seems they have settled in the holes up and down the beach, and you need to work a little harder for them.
Here are some notable catches. Ok, a lot of notable catches. And apologies to those whose pictures we didn’t get on social media on Sunday, as it was absolute mayhem in the store for the day. We believe we got you all covered below.
December started the way November ended. Here’s George Miller with a nice one…
Dinia and Barney had an awesome Saturday morning. This is one of three bass caught on our Vac-Pac Bunker.
On Sunday, all heck broke loose again, and we were having multiple weigh ins. Here’s one where we had more than one fish, and more than one Randy Edwards. Here is Senior and Junior with a pair of striped bass (18.05 pounds and 7.7 pounds) caught on white shads.
Kenny Elis and Ariel Gonzalez with a pair of bass (11.8 and 13.45 pounds) caught on a spook and a popper.
David Haotanhof with a 31 inch, 10.8 pound bass taken on a bucktail.
Jackson's Dad with a 37 inch, 18.05 pound striped bass taken on a glider. Jackson is gonna be mad he missed this.
Steve White with a 35 inch, 16.5 pound bass caught on a Cotton Cordell pencil popper.
AJ Simon and Tyler Lombardo with a pair of stripers, one 18.45 pound, 35 inch fish caught on a popper and an 12.7 pound, 32 inch fish caught on a swim shad.
Joe Brady (no relation, we asked…) with a 32 inch 11.8 pound bass caught on an SP Minnow
Pedro Il Defonso with a nice 29 Inch 8.8 pound striped bass he caught using a swim shad. Nice fish Pedro!
Mike Laske all aglow after catching an 8.6 pound, 29 inch bass on an SP Minnow. Or maybe it’s just good lighting. Nice fish Mike.
Robbie & Marissa with a nice 35 inch, 16.0 striped bass caught on a Yo-Zuri Hydro Minnow.
Nick and LJ came in with Robbie and Marissa above. They didn’t have a bass to weigh in, but they did land a lunker. This one pound bunker took them up and down the beach, and almost broke the 65 pound line they were fishing with. They had to leave their reel for some drag maintenance after this fish.
Lane Biertman with a 37 inch, 22 pound bass caught on a metal.
Andrew Cahilly was in the shop picking up a couple of lures, and came back with this 32 inch, 13.45 pound bass he caught on a metal lipped swimmer.
Tom B. and his son Jack with a pair of fish they got on Yo-Zuri Mag Darters. This was the first keeper bass Jack caught without assistance, and he edged out his father’s fish by an inch and almost 2 pounds. Jack: 32 inches, 11.7 pounds. Tom: 31 inches, 9.95 pounds.
Benny D’Aloysio with a 35 inch, 14.15 pound bass caught on a shad.
@shorekayakfishing with an absolute tank caught off this surf during this legendary bite on his 8ft ODM Evolution with an S&S Bucktail topped with a Grn.Head curly strip!
Not all weigh ins were bass. Here are Matt and Ron Skudera with a pair of blackfish, 4.3 and 2.45 pounds caught fishing white leggers on blackfish rigs.
Ok, we have to confess about a ruse we have played on all of you the past two weeks. You may have seen recent photos of Ray fishing the beach for striped bass. Ray hasn’t surf fished for striped bass in about 10 years. Technically he still hasn’t. That was a stand-in. We hired Haley Joel Osment to stand in for Ray (their faces swap pretty well). Why did we need to do this? Well, Ray was away filming for the new Willow show on Disney Plus. We couldn’t say anything before prior to this for fear of repercussions from the House Of Mouse. But Ray makes a good Willow, check it out.
