More Big Blues
We fished Island Beach State Park again yesterday and there were bait and birds working everywhere. The monster Bluefish are officially here and I've got bluefish on the brain. Nick and I worked them hard and even though we didn't get a ton of them, the handful we landed were slammer size and beyond.
The fish were spitting up sand eels by the dozens, they were literally inhaling them. At one point we must've had 300 sand eels at our feet after a just a few fish. The gulls were going nuts.
Nick with a monster Blue, all fish were released, much to the chagrin of the guy set up next to us who caught nothing and really wanted our fish for the dinner table.
- . - .
Episode VII Now Online
Late Summer Blues
The 7th installment of the BTFS in now viewable by following the menu above. It's getting to be my favorite time of the year for fishing and the fish in this episode are a good sign of things still to come.
- . - .
R.I.P. Frank Mundus
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-limund145842601sep14,0,2276621.story
Legendary Shark Fisherman Frank Mundus passed away on Wednesday. For those of you who don't know, he was the inspiration for the character "Quint" in JAWS. I met Mr. Mundus in the '70's at the Philadelphia Boat Show with my father and he autographed his book for me, which I still have to this day.
- . - .
Bluefish Bonanza
Sometimes fishing pays you back for your effort and planning and this is exactly what happened to us yesterday, 9/10/08. We were planning on fishing offshore yesterday for Tuna but the marine forecast was horrible and the trip got cancelled the night before. Instead we decided (Me, Marc, and Nick) to try our luck surfcasting at Island Beach State Park, NJ in the hopes that the storm would churn up some baitfish and put us on some big fish. In typical Brownie Troop fashion we went fishing in the middle of an absolutely horrible Northeast front. The weather map showed a crimson red line that stretched from New England to Delaware. We discussed it and said “fuck it”. It seemed like it was totally worth the chance. Like a bunch of retards we drove onto the beach in blinding rain and set up our gear, I think the park ranger thought we were out of our minds.
I had the first line in the water (a bunker chunk) and within 30 seconds my rod went horizontal. 5 minutes later I beached a 13lb Bluefish. Little did we know it was gonna be an all day affair. The Blues were chasing the baitfish right onto the beach, the mullet and peanut bunker were committing suicide rather than get eaten by the yellow eyed demons. Nick was catching them on poppers and Marc and I fished Bunker chunks until we were out of bait and energy. At one point I was on my knees gagging and coughing, that’s how much they tired me out. I will never understand why people turn their noses up at Bluefish. It puts everything else in the surf to shame. I have no idea how many we caught….it was just one of those days that will keep me coming back for the rest of my life. It took me the whole day to clean out my truck, everything was covered in wet sand and blood. Late summer NJ Bluefishing at it’s best.
Nick hooked up on a popper
- . - .
Episode 6 Now Online
Sharks from the Beach
Episode 6 “Sharks From the Beach” is now online. Please click on the menu above to watch the current episode. The Trash Fishing Derby is getting a huge response and I’m really excited for it to get started. All the info you need on entering the Derby can be found at the post below or at the official Derby site located at http://brownietroop.ning.com There will be a saltwater trash fish derby next spring.
I just wanted to take a moment to clarify something here because I’ve noticed a huge amount of emails asking the same question, which is “do you release all of these fish that you catch?” The answer is a huge YES, and that includes the Brown Sharks in the episode above. We take the same care in releasing a 40 lb Striped Bass as we do with a Sea Robin or a tiny little bluegill from a creek. Sharks are especially delicate although extremely strong. So there you have it, NO SHARKS OR OTHER FISH ARE HARMED ON THE BTFS (unless they inhale the bait and get gut hooked, but that’s just fishing). We strongly encourage you to practice “catch and release” although we have nothing against you keeping fish for the dinner table as long as they’re of legal keeper size.
This episode is only 3 minutes long, this is because we were fishing at night and it’s very hard to capture anything on film unless you’re right up close. The battles with these fish lasted from 15 to 30 minutes each and so we just edited out everything but the fish themselves. The music in this episode is by Windjammer, which is me, Andrew Weiss, and Jon Weiss on drums. I think Bill Fowler played on this jam too.
We were fishing as the guests of http://www.surfrocketfishing.com It is a mortar-like contraption that launches your bait 200 yards out in the water column where only the boats can usually fish. The way it works is like this: the baits are frozen in advance, whole bunker already rigged with wire leader. The baits and chum bricks are then loaded in the Surf Rocket and the rocket is connected to a tank of compressed air. The rocket then blasts your bait to kingdom come. That’s it. Simple but genius. Please check out their site on the web and buy one for yourself, as you will see in the episode, it works beautifully.
Smallmouth Bass fishing on the Delaware has been very solid the past week.
- . - .
