It’s Time To Go Catch Some Cod!

It’s Time To Go Catch Some Cod!

2 WINTER 2012NoreastSaltwater

Cover Story

THE JOURNAL OF NORTHEAST SPORTFISHING

What Winter?The fishing season hasn’t skipped a beat, as anglershave seen a great mixed bag of a bottom bite. Weeven had a great run of mackeral come through. The20-pound cod on our cover was taken by Bobby “cod”on the aplty named Codfather. There are a lot of codbeing caught from Long Island to Rhode Island, so pickyour boat and your day and get in on this great fishery!

FeaturesTARPON PARADISE/ROD AND A RUCKSACKCOSTA RICA BY GUY ELSONIf there ever was a feature written that puts you square into themiddle of some of the greatest exotic fishing around, this is it.Join Guy on some of the most intense fishing that exists inCosta Rica. Start with monster tarpon and then take your pickfor other species.

CODFISHING ON LONG ISLAND BY JOEY BUD RUSSOCodfish bring steady hot fishing for Long Island, beginning withJanuary’s freeze. You just can’t miss this feature written by one ofthe most avid winter anglers around. Save all Joey’s tips for surecod-pounding action on some of the coldest days of the year.

JOIN THE PARTY BY CAPTAIN ZAC GROSSMANDownsizing your fishing craft can save you some dollars whilealso enabling you to get into lots more fish. Bob gives you hisperspective on the advantages this holds when pursuing stripedbass as well as other game fish.

14.

Departments

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25.

PUBLISHER & PRESIDENTGeorge R. Scocca

EDITOR IN CHIEFSal Amendolia

CREATIVE DIRECTORBarbara Scocca

V.P. OF MARKETINGRob Pavlick

ACCOUNT COORDINATORNicole Sinning

PROOFREADERLinda A. Avignone

WEBMASTERJames Sullivan

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:

Chuck BarbatoBob CreedenChris GrechMike WrightJohn SkinnerKarim FaridSteve ByrneRob Caluori

Anthony Alessi Richard PannoneFrank Ruczynski

Mike Plaia Greg HazleyRichard DeMarteTony SalernoChris Spies

Nor’east Media, LLC525 West Jericho Tpke.Smithtown, NY 11787-5020Phone: 631.863.0170

Nor’east Saltwater is publishedmonthly May through October, andbi-monthly Nov. through April. byNor’east Media, LLC, 525 W.Jericho Turnpike., Smithtown, NY11787. Nor’east Saltwater, Volume23, Number 01 ©2012 AllcoastMedia, LLC. The design and con-tents of this publication may not bereproduced in any manner withoutthe written consent of the publisher.

4. Editor’s WaypointBy Sal Amendolia

6. Salt LinesBy Chris Spies

8. For Your InformationBy Rob Pavlick

10. Salt On The FlyBy Anthony Alessi

12. Surf SideBy John Skinner

16. Trophy PagesBy Steve Byrne

29. Treasure TroveBy Chris Grech

30. Nor’east GalleyBy Sal Amendolia

3www.noreast.com NoreastSaltwater

4 NoreastSaltwater WINTER 2012

Editor’s WaypointSTORIES AND INSIGHT FROM OUR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

By Sal [email protected]

Sal AmendoliaEditor-in-Chief

BRING ON THE NEW YEAR!

Admittedly, it is getting more difficult each year for saltwater recreationalanglers to keep their chins up. When you see the barrage of fisheryreductions and fishing regulation uncertainties, it makes you wonder

what the heck is happening to the recreational fishing industry. With theshortened or eliminated seasons, increased size limits, reduced bag limits, allmandated by seemingly inept fisheries management using inaccurate andflawed data, it is a wonder that any of us, who love to fish, can sleep at night.If you put yourselves in the shoes of the people who depend on recreationalfishing for their livelihood, it is even more of a wonder how they keep theirbusinesses going. Bait and tackle shops, party and charter boats, fishingequipment manufacturers, boat and boating equipment manufacturers, fish-ing publications, hotels, restaurants, et al, nobody is left unscathed. Read onand I’ll tell you a few ways that recreational anglers can help to improve thissituation, no matter what adversities we may face.

Years ago, fishing was a simple sport and whenever you felt like catchingsome fish, there were seasons open for lots of species that you could fish for.Today, you must thoroughly check the fishing regulations to ensure that thereis “one” fishing season open for you to enjoy since what we can fish for is solimited, especially in the winter. I’m sure we are all perplexed as to why thesport we love is undergoing such massive and unexplainable attacks from ourcurrent fishery regulators when the recreational fishing industry brings in mil-lions of dollars in government revenue and provides thousands of much need-ed jobs. One way we can try and improve this horrible situation is to take alook at how and why the very people who make the decisions that are hurtingthe industry get where they are in the first place. We need to take everyopportunity to change it whenever we can by whatever method presentsitself. In some cases, we can make these changes at the voting booth everycouple of years, so make sure you do your research well and in 2012, vote forwhoever supports common sense fisheries management and your right tolegally fish wherever you choose.

Another thing you can do is observe and abide by current fishing seasonsand regulations no matter how harsh or unfair they may seem and report anyviolators who blatantly ignore them. These violators are stealing “your” fishand causing much of the problem, it is that plain and simple. To report thesepoachers, contact the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) viatheir 24/7 fast response number at 877-457-5680. If you have a problem justi-fying what I am suggesting, ask yourself if those of us who obey fishing regula-tions are impacted by those who do not. The answer is that we clearly are andmost recently, the 2012 tightened blackfish regulations support this. I believethat if we can police ourselves and help the DEC eliminate, or at least reduce,the number of violators taking untold amounts of illegally harvested or under-sized fish, ultimately, those of us who obey the existing laws are bound tobenefit.

I wish you all a wonderful, healthy and prosperous 2012 and some greatfishing as well.

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2011/2012 WINTER LOCAL COD TRIPS

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Salt Lineswww.noreast.com/discussionDISCUSSIONS FROM NOREAST.COM

HERRING DODGER

I was hoping someone could post theproper way of rigging a HerringDodger.

mm46member

People do it all sorts of ways. I like tojust attach it to the barrel swivel witha split ring. It has good action whenjigging.

likeitreallyismember

Did some herring fishing last night andgot out fished by everyone around me(this has to be more frustrating thanbeing skunked). People were loadingup around me and I caught only 2.Thought I had the perfect rig, glow inthe dark sabiki rig, Luhr Jensen her-ring dodger and even a little glowstick at the bottom. Doing the regularjigging motion that everyone else wasdoing and that has worked for me inthe past. I think my problem mighthave been that I tied my main line tothe top of the dodger, and then tiedthe sabiki to the bottom of thedodger, all inline. But I see likeitreal-lyis does it differently. I’ll have to givethat a try. And most guys had dodgersthat looked like heavy duty foil with akind of rainbow shimmer to them.Perhaps the foil dodgers work betterthan the metal kind because of lesswater resistance? Anyone knowwhere can I find the foil dodgers?

acrylicmember

I use an old pie tin or tin from takeout.I cut it into a fish shape, fold the verytop over and punch a small hole in it.I attach it to the top like Bob does. Idon’t think you need 15 hooks. I do

fine with 5 or 6. I also use a small dia-mond jig on the bottom. If you areafraid of getting snagged on the bot-tom take the hook off the jig.

crabman1130member

I made my dodgers from thin alu-minum sheet metal. Try attaching thedodger on only one side, let it “flut-ter” up and down. Out of boredom Itied my own herring rigs to match thesmall spearing they are feeding on(still). Don’t jig like you’re bluefishing.Very slow up and down, barely mov-ing. Think like a shrimp or cold baitvery slow. Casting out with the dodger will alsobring them in closer to your dock socast out once in awhile. I use a 2-ozflukeball with a Hopkins attached withthe hook removed for the weight.Also if you’re using that glow stick,attach a hook as close to possible to itas they will hit the glow stick. Push thetube over the loop and get the hookon the bottom of it.

likeitreallyismember

Location of where you were is impor-tant. Some of these guys been fishingthe same spots and some spots catchmore fish. Get there early and try toget as close as you can to the spot thatwas catching the most. Also the smallsabiki rigs, I think #2, with a littlewhite flash seemed to be working thebest.We use the bottom of any tin pan cutit out add it to the top of rig likelikeitreallyis did. Have 2-oz lead onbottom. Sometimes very slow liftworks best, sometimes fast. Slow andeasy always works for me.

stpaul7member

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All Caught on the Island Current!

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For Your InformationIMPORTANT NEWS ON THE FISHING FRONT www.noreast.com/fyi.cfm

NEW YORK SPORTFISHINGFEDERATION FORUM & AUCTION

The Annual New York SportfishingFederation Forum & Auction will beheld at the Freeport RecreationCenter on February 17, 18 & 19. Nowin its 30th year, the Freeport Show isthe “can’t miss” sportfishing event ofthe year for New York. Celebrate over30 years as the collective voice of themarine sportfishing district at the30th Annual “Freeport Show.” Doorsopen from 2p-6p on February 17th,8a-6p on February 18th and 9a-2:30pon February 19th (followed by theannual auction on Sunday afternoon;open to the public). Admission is $10,$8 for kids and seniors, and childrenunder 12 are free. Location is 130 E.Merrick Road in Freeport, less thanhalf a mile west of Exit M9W off theMeadowbrook. Noreast will have abooth at this show. Be sure to check inat the Noreast booth to be enteredinto a special drawing for Noreastmembers. For more info visitwww.nysf.org

ASA EASTERN & OUTDOOR SHOWSCHEDULES

The Eastern Fishing & OutdoorExposition in Worcester, MA isFebruary 10-12, 2012. The GreaterPhiladelphia Outdoor Sportshow inOaks, PA is February 16-19, 2012. TheWorld Fishing & Outdoor Expositionin Suffern, NY is March 1-4, 2012. TheSaltwater Fishing Expo in Somerset,NJ is March 16-18, 2012. Noreast willhave a booth at the Somerset Showso please stop by and say hello. Inaddition, Noreast members that checkin will be entered into a special draw-ing. So don’t forget to stop by. Formore information on these showsplease visit www.sportshows.com

9TH ANNUAL NEW ENGLANDSALTWATER FISHING SHOW

The New England Saltwater FishingShow produced by the Rhode IslandSaltwater Angler’s Association will beheld at the Rhode Island ConventionCenter in Providence, RI March 9-112012. The show will feature tackle,rod, reel, lure, electronic and guidevendors. Sunday is family day when allwomen and children under the age of12 get free admission. There will benon-stop free seminars and a kidszone with fishing games and a castingarea. Please visit the Noreast sistersite Stripers247.com at their boothand all members who check in will beentered into a special drawing. Formore info visit nesaltwatershow.com

CANYON RUNNER 2012TUNA/SWORDFISH/MARLIN/SHARK

SEMINAR SERIES

This excellent offshore seminar serieswill be held at the Hilton Long Island,598 Broad Hollow Road, Melville, NY.The seminar will feature topics thatinclude tracking and finding Big-Eyeand big fish, advanced rigging, tourna-ment winning shark tactics, verticaljigging, and much more. Learn all youneed to know for sword fishing, tunachunking, and experience a Play-By-Play video training session. For moreinfo visit www.canyonrunner.com

LONG ISLAND BOAT SHOW

The Long Island Boat Show is February10th-12th at Nassau Coliseum. Checkout the latest boats and speak to sev-eral vendors for all your boatingneeds. From marinas, to marine elec-tronics, everything you need to get onthe water will be at this show. Visitwww.nyboatshows.com for more info.


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Some friends are only around atcertain times. We might,sometimes, refer to such

friends as “fair weather” friends and,admittedly, this label has negativeconnotations. It describes people whoact like your friend only when theroad is smooth and seem to vanishwhen the going gets tough. I had afriend long ago who was only aroundat certain times, though I would neverdescribe him as a fair weather friend.His appearances did coincide with theweather, however, or to be moreaccurate, the change of seasons. Thiswas for good reason and we wereboth very much in agreement overthe arrangement. Joel was a fishingnut, you see, and, like me, wouldcome out of the woodwork at just theright time each spring and fall to bepresent for the beginning of the allimportant run of striped bass, bluefishand, of course, the elusive weakfish.Imet Joel one night during the springback in the early eighties while I wasfishing along the break wall onCaesars’s Bay in Brooklyn. I was tar-geting weakfish which was a speciesthat had eluded me to that date. I did-n’t have a boat or much knowledgeabout where to target these fish fromthe shore but armed with a ten footsurf rod and a few plugs I was confi-dent that I would wear down theobstacles between me and my quarryeventually, maybe not that night, buteventually. Of this I was certain.

As I was flailing the water with castafter unanswered cast late that night,a bicyclist stopped and started askingme the usual questions: “Catch any-thing?” …”What are you trying for?”. Iwas annoyed at first as I usually amwhen approached in such a mannerby un-ordained bystanders while fish-

ing. I became even more annoyed asthis particular fellow began to professthat he was catching great quantitiesof very large weakfish regularly latelyand went on to tell me stories that Ifound much too hard to believe aboutfilling garbage pails with fish thatweighed as much as sixteen pounds.After all, I thought of myself as a pret-ty good fisherman, a misgiving ofyouth, and had yet to land my first ofthese elusive tide runners. When Ifinally had enough of this stranger’smalarkey, I pretty much told him soand was very surprised when heresponded calmly with an on the spotinvitation to join him that very nighton his boat for a sampling of this spec-tacular fishing. Joel explained that itwould be necessary for me to load hisbicycle into the back of my car andtake him to his house first so he couldgather up his equipment and his out-board engine before going to his boat.It was already after 10pm and I wasfeeling skeptical not only of his self-proclaimed fishing prowess but of hisintentions as well. I did what camenaturally after weighing the situationcarefully…his preposterous stories ofgoliath weakfish, the fact that he wasan odd sort and a stranger, the time ofnight, the pathetic description of atiny wooden sailboat powered by anold 9 horsepower outboard…I accept-ed his invitation. There was a chance,after all, that he wasn’t going to killme and dump my body in the bay andthat we might actually catch weakfish.

We did catch weakfish thatnight…big weakfish. I took home a 14-pound fish and it was one of six fishwe caught in just a few hours thatnight. I had changed my mind aboutJoel. He was a diehard fisherman byall measures and a good one too. We


fished for weakfish from his boat reg-ularly that spring. Joel spent his sum-mers in upstate New York counselingat a summer camp for kids so whenspring was over I continued to targetthose big weakfish from the rockyshoreline behind KingsboroCommunity College by myself withsome success. I was surprised whenJoel called late that summer to ask if Iwas ready to get back out there forthe fall run on his boat. We fished atleast 3 or 4 nights a week from hisdory and caught many big weakfishand bluefish right into late Novemberthat season.

In December we switched over totargeting big winter flounder towardsthe mouth of the inlet. I rememberwhen he called me that December tosay that he heard big flounder were tobe had out by the Round House areabut that his outboard was busted andwe would need to put up the mastand sail out there to fish. Joel asked ifI knew how to sail. I told him I hadnever been sailing before. Heexplained that maybe it wasn’t such a

great idea since it was going to bewindy and rough that day and hewould need me to handle certainaspects of the boat. The lure of bigflounder was too much for either of usthough and I found myself out therein a one piece orange hunting suitthat I wore to try and keep warm andheavy boots with my feet up on thestarboard gunnels gripping the portside gunnels with cold, wet, whiteknuckled hands wondering what I wasdoing out there.

The boat would lean hard to star-board as we tacked our way back inand I remember watching the oneflounder we caught swimming aroundthe deck as the old wooden boat tookon water and the bucket that the fishwas sitting in was knocked over. I wasglad to be able to unclench my teethwhen we finally pulled into the slipthat day.

I didn’t hear from Joel the rest ofthat winter. Then, in early spring, thephone rang and a voice said “Are youready?” I replied “Let’s go”. Joel’s out-board was fixed and another spring

season of chasing big weakfish beganthat night. Joel and I fished togetheron his boat each spring and fall for thenext 4 or 5 years. It was always thesame. We never even spoke duringsummer and winter but each springand fall at the same time as mythoughts would turn to fishing, Joelwould call and we would be back outthere night after night catching moreweakfish and bluefish than I thoughtanyone else could possibly have at thetime. I’m sure if there were anystriped bass to be had we would havebeen slaughtering them as well, butthese were the days after the collapseof that fishery.

Many nights of great fishing onJamaica Bay and some fishless onestoo along with a mutual recognitionthat we were fanatical about fishing,fostered a great friendship. Then forwhatever reasons we lost touch. It’sbeen 30 years since. I know the weak-fish have made a comeback in JamaicaBay over the last few years. I hope Joelis still fishing more than anyone has aright to somewhere.


Surf SideADVICE ROM OUR SURF FISHING EDITOR

By John Skinnerwww.noreast.com/surfside.cfm

Wow, some fall run, huh? For many, itmight as well have ended on theOctober 29th Nor’easter that broughtsnow to western Long Island andstinging sleet to the East End. Tomake matters worse, the fishing was-n’t exactly red hot prior to the stormeither. October had its moments, butalmost all of the good action tookplace in the darknear the inlets.The North Shore?It’s incredible to beout on the NorthFork in a strongonshore wind inOctober or earlyNovember and notsee any gulls work-ing. Up until a fewyears ago therewere clouds ofbirds in the sky,and some anglerscomplained thatthe plentiful blue-fish made it hardto get at the bass.Two years ago Ilanded 74 albies from the beach onthe North Shore. I thought 2010 wasbad because I landed only 26. In 2011I had a total of three hits and neverlanded a single one – and I tried hard.So what’s going on? I don’t claim toknow, but I have some ideas. Let’sstart with the bass.

As the fall passed us by and thebeaches remained quiet until the sea-son’s clock began running out, manybegan to sound alarms that thestriper stocks are in serious trouble.“There’s no fish. Something needs tobe done!” Statements to that effect.How short our memories are. Lastyear we saw days where the fishschools stretched from the shore to

miles out and as far as you could seeeast and west. There was an excep-tionally calm late October 2010 daywhere I took my kayak out about amile off the beach to play with thefish schools. There were times on thattrip when I felt as though the oceanwas filled with bass. Not only werethere fish under the birds, my

fishfinder keptlighting up in areaswhere nothing wasshowing. When I’ddrop a diamond jigon these bigblotches it couldn’teven get to thebottom. When Imentioned this to afrustrated angleron the beach thisfall the responsewas “The netterscaught them alldown south lastwinter.” I doubt it.

If you fished theNew Jersey beach-es this November,

it’s doubtful you perceived any short-age of bass. What we had in the fall of2010, they had in the fall of 2011. Sodid all of the fish just bypass us at theend of October? Certainly not fromthe perspective of Rhode Island surfanglers who enjoyed a phenomenalrun of bass and blues feeding on her-ring in mid- to late-November. It’s allabout perception. If you’re where thefish are, they can seem to be in greatabundance, if you’re where they’renot, they can seem extinct. The fishsimply took a deep route past LongIsland last fall resulting in about themost dismal fall run anyone canremember. I heard numerous storiesof netters doing very well in about 90

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feet of water while the anglers on thebeaches starved. A friend who wasfishing 180 feet of water more than20 miles off the beach in earlyNovember reported catching numer-ous 5-pound blues on clams on thebottom. Those were the fish thatshould have been driving bait into thewash. Which brings up the next item– baitfish. This past fall, Jersey got the sandeels

that Long Island had in 2009 and2010, and those were the baitfishthat fueled most of the Novemberfishing all three years. Peanutbunker? The last time I saw decentschools on the North Shore was 2007,and even those didn’t fuel the type offall fishing they usually did becausethere just didn’t seem to be enoughbluefish around to drive them. I’vealways felt that bluefish are impor-tant to beach fishing because thebass are often just not aggressiveenough to drive the bait to the shore.They seem to do fine without chasingbait schools because they eat justabout everything and do a good jobof staying fed on crabs, porgies, fluke,flounder, lizard fish, and so forth.

So there’s no peanut bunker, thesandeels went south, the herringwere north, and we were stuck in themiddle out of casting range of themigration route. There’s one otherthing I want to throw out there –Hurricane Irene and her effect onwater quality. As we all saw on thenews, Irene caused flooding of his-toric proportions in upstate NY andConnecticut. The Hudson River andrivers on the Connecticut side of theSound dumped a tremendousamount of freshwater and silt intoour coastal waters. The Sound wasbrown and full of debris for weeksafter the storm, and the water nevercleared completely until earlyNovember. I’m convinced this hurtthe Sound’s false albacore run, andsuspect it had other negative impactson our fishery as well.

Make no mistake; my impression isthat stripers are nowhere near asabundant as they were 10 to 15 yearsago. I found it much easier back thento put up good numbers every nightas compared to the last several years.

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“Local Waters - Local Knowledge”

What bothers me about this is that Iknow I’ve learned a few things sincethen that should have increased mynumbers. I often think, “If I knew thenwhat I know now…” My same impres-sion applies to bluefish. There’s noway that I think they’re as plentifulnow as 10 to 15 years ago. But nowI’m falling into the trap that I alludedto earlier – judging the stock from myexperience in a relatively limited area.

While some may debate its accura-cy, the most comprehensive data wehave comes from the Atlantic StatesMarine Fisheries Commission(ASMFC) stock assessments. When Ilook at the abundance plots of bothstriped bass and bluefish my honestreaction is “I suck”. I must be old, stu-pid, and/or lazy. For me, the very bestyears were between 1997 and 2001.When I look at the abundance plot forstriped bass older than 8 years(around 15 pounds) it shows greaterabundance these last few years thanin the period around 2000. Even moresurprising for me is that it shows thebluefish abundance as about 40%higher than that earlier period. I’mnot lazy. I have logs that show I’m notfishing any less. Of course I’m older,but smarter. The stock assessmentssimply don’t correlate with my obser-vations. In talking to other Long Islandanglers, I don’t know any who thinkthere are more fish now than adecade ago. How could this be? Onepossibility is that the assessments areor were inaccurate. There’s no way forme to know that. The other possibilityis simply distribution. Just like Jerseysurfcasters had a banner Novemberwhile Long Island surfcasters starved,quality stripers are being caught withease in places other than where theywere caught 10 to 15 years ago. If youtroll the fishing Internet messageboards, you’ll see occasional evidenceof this from boat anglers up northwho report unprecedented catches ofbig bass in waters where they neverhad them before. It leaves open thepossibility that there are indeed a lotof fish, just not where most of us are fishing. Hopefully 2012 will bringus much improved fishing that will make us forget about the dismalfall run of 2011.

Ablurred alarm clock flashedin my peripheral visionwarning that it was nearly

5am. I rolled into my clothes andchecked that everything thatshould be, was in my bag for thethird time. Some quick goodbyesand then I was out the door andinto a taxi. Boarding my plane atHeathrow I arrived in Miami sever-al films later. After pacing thelength of Miami Airport for anoth-er six hours I finally joined my con-necting flight to Costa Rica. On thedecent into San Jose I could see asparse scattering of lights twin-kling through the forest canopyand clouds pouring out of the vol-canic craters that surround SanJose. Another short taxi ride from

the airport and I arrived at theCasa Ridgeway, the Quaker peacecentre in downtown San Josewhere I was to spend the night. Ihad been awake for 23 hours bythis point and promptly passedout.

The next day I spent walkingaround San Jose buying lastminute supplies like Deet and sun-screen. That evening I traveledback out to the airport to pick upour camera man Andrew. I was fullof nervous energy as the reality ofthe trip set in. The following morn-ing we boarded the chicken bus toGuapiles and Cariari, the two lastoutposts of civilization before youreach the jungle. After bribing thebus driver to secure our equip-

ment from potential thieves dur-ing the trip we disembarked atGuapiles to be thankfully met bythe lodge owner Memo, who hap-pened to be in town picking upsupplies.

The unpaved road from Guapilesto the port at Zapote was akin toriding on a washing machine dur-ing full spin cycle but the scenerywas breathtaking. Giant figs thatnested in dense jungle now stoodas solitary reminders as the wilder-ness had retreated either side ofthe road for ranch land. A snakecrossing the road in front of usreared 5 feet into the air striking ata passing car before slithering backinto the undergrowth. The air washeavy and a breeze was rapidly


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building. The daylight was banishedbehind a tidal wave of apocalypticelectric mauve clouds as we arrived inZapote. Local fishermen were swiftlyoffloading their catch of prawns as weloaded our lancha. Slowly motoringthrough the dense jungle on a riverhardly twice the width of the boat,the wildlife began to reveal itself.Firstly monkeys and a myriad of wildfowl followed by glimpses of rivercrocodiles and the occasional mana-tee as we joined the main river. As theembers of our first Caribbean sunsetbegan to fall, we silently drifted intothe Barra Del Colorado which wouldbe our camp for the next 6 days.

Day OneWe rose at 4.30am, had some cof-

fee and made for our boat. Our guide,who was conveniently nicknamedCap, (as in captain) was waiting for usand we motored out to the rivermouth. Running the boat up thebeach we strolled along the surf linecasting for snook, but to no avail. Plan

B was rapidly put into play and wejumped back into the boat andmotored out over the bar of the riverinto the ocean. Here we released ourbucktail jigs (essentially a large flywith a weighted head) and drifted outinto the ocean. Soon the local boatsthat we had met the previous dayunloading prawns at Zapote arrived inunison and we were able to scoresome fresh fish as bait. The hot baitwas an odd slender silvery fish calleda machete, with a pair of fangsDracula would be proud of. Withoutfurther delay we deployed our baitsand immediately jumped a tarpon. Isay jumped rather than hookedbecause about 90% of our takesresulted in the lures glancing off thetarpon’s seemingly hook-proof mouthand indignantly being spat out on thefirst jump.

By lunchtime I had jumped well inexcess of 500 pounds of tarpon andwithout a solid hookup. My only con-solation was Cap had also failed tohook any either... we headed in for

lunch. Round two proved very similarto the morning’s antics with 5 tarponjumped and no hookup. As the daydrew to an end, both rods bent dou-ble and the drags hummed as the linepaid out. “Hit it... hit it again”. Capspoke little English but was very clearabout striking into fish. No jump....what does that mean? Well, you canbe certain that it’s not a tarpon. Tenminutes later a pair of beautiful 15and 20-pound golden jacks came boatside to conclude our first day fishingat the Barra.

Day TwoI decided to up the anti a little the

following day by arranging to meetour guide at 4am to try for snook fromthe shore again. Blurry eyed wechugged off to the beach where wewere met by a sunrise you will onlysee in the tropics, the horizon wasablaze. We spooked a couple of hugetarpon in the surf but still no snook sowe returned to the bar. No sooner hadwe wet our lines, we jumped a tarpon,

LEFT: We had a really good shot ofmackerel this year and Stan was sureto get in on the action while fishingaboard the Ocean Eagle.

BOTTOM LEFT: We know . . . it’s notbass season. Someone should havetold this one that took Chris’s clambait aimed at a cod.

BELOW: After a slow start the cod bitehas been steadily picking up. Thisnice brace of cod was taken on arecent trip aboard the Montauk-based Viking Fleet.

WINTER 201216

TOP RIGHT: Fares aboard the IslandCurrent have also been getting in onthe recent cod action out of RhodeIsland. Dave took hig-hoook honorson this day, posing here with his twolargest.

MIDDLE RIGHT: Now there’s a nice onefor the table! Alonzo did a number oncod on a recent excursion on theHampton Lady. This was his largeston the day.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Christmas cameearly for Gene Pitero, hooking upwith this NYS Record Blackfish of21.6-pounds! Gene was fishing onthe No-Time, skippered by noneother than Captain Nick Savene.Congratulations guys!

BOTTOM LEFT: These fish were part ofa “last drop bail job” on the CaptreePrincess out of Montauk. There wereover 100 keepers for 14 anglers onthis trip.

17

then another and another. Bylunchtime between my guide andmyself, we had jumped nine tarponand faithfully each one had thrownthe hook. I was perplexed, our cameraman was sunburned like a barbecuedchicken breast and we were all fam-ished so we headed in for lunch.

For the afternoon I decided tochange tactics, no more sitting wait-ing for the takes, I would stand readyto strike. As we reached our mark, Icast my lure and assumed the posi-tion. I felt a tug and replied with awhiplash inducing strike. A small,rather shocked barracuda, came flyingto the surface. Another barracuda andtwo catfish later and it felt very muchlike the tarpon knew I had adopted anew approach and had taken precau-tionary measures. A sudden thud andthe ratchet on my reel screamed as Iset the hook, but no jump! Ten min-utes later a large triple tail of 12pounds was released and a smilereturned to my face. My rod wasalmost wrenched from my grip on thenext take as a large tarpon launched

skyward in slow motion. I hit it sever-al times until I was sure the hook wasset. Forty-five minutes later a pristinesilver king of 90 pounds was hauledinto the boat for a photo. Afterreturning the fish I looked like PeterVenkman from the film Ghost Busterafter he had been slimed, but I could-n’t be happier.

As I sat down to recuperate my rodjumped into action again. I set thehook and a monster tarpon jumped toour port side. This was a big fish andan hour-long arm-wrestling matchensued resulting in us boating a 130-pound monster. I was spent but youcouldn’t wipe the grin from my face allevening.

That evening Memo, the lodgeowner, told me that 15 years ago ifyou hooked a tarpon in the Barra youwould only ever get in the head due tothe sheer number of sharks that oncewere found here.

Unfortunately, the Chinese demandfor shark fin soup had seen the Barrabecome almost devoid of all speciesof shark.

Day ThreeIn contrast to the previous day, the

fishing was quite slow. After jumpingtwo tarpon in the morning we ven-tured offshore in search of pelagicspecies. As we reached the drop off,some big yellowfin tuna broke the sur-face but they seemed unfocused andalmost immediately dispersed. Afteran hour’s troll with no takes we head-ed in. For the afternoon session, Idecided to unpack the fly rod. Overlunch I was lucky enough to meet withthe Barra’s top fly fishing guide whotied me some flies and gave me somepointers, “Strip, strike and hit it againand again, when he jumps, bow to theking”.

Armed with this newfound knowl-edge we headed back out. One castand then we let the river do the workas we drifted out to sea. Suddenly myfly-line tore north through the watercolumn as a 60-pound plus tarpontail-walked eighty feet from the boat.I was ecstatic as I set the hook andbegan to regain some line.... butsomething was wrong. I looked down


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finding to my horror that the reel’sbacking had wrapped around themetal spindle of the handle. A franticde-knotting session ensued but it wastoo late. The tarpon embarked uponanother series of jumps, while my reelwas jammed. The dreaded crack of myleader echoed across the river mouthand my heart sank. We fished into theevening missing another tarpon onthe fly rod as I was reeling in to packup. I guess that day, it just wasn’tmeant to be!

Day FourFollowing my defeat on the fly rod,

I decided to return to my spinningoutfit. It seemed everyone was inagreement that one ounce 7/0 whitebucktails were the lure of choice fortarpon here; however the previousday I had been using essentially blackcolored flies with success. I decided tothrow caution to the wind and try abright red bucktail. At about teno’clock that morning I struck into afreight train of a tarpon, over 7 foot inlength and intent on pulling me over-board. After the initial acrobatic rou-tine (apparently common to all tar-pon), I was then subjected to twohours of being towed kilometer afterkilometer around the river mouth. Wedid get it boat-side briefly but just shyof reach from the gaff. Its strengthwas phenomenal and showed nosigns of tiring at any stage during thefight. Estimated at 190 to 200 poundsin weight, my 30-pound line was bare-ly able to contain this fish and as hedragged us into open water, I lost theadvantage of being in shallows of theriver mouth. Five minutes later hesounded deep and that was the lastwe saw of him...bugger! We caught afew more catfish and jumped anotherfour tarpon with the hook predictablybeing spat out like a mustard sweet byeach fish. I limped back to the lodge,tail between legs and with a sore armand wounded pride. The next day wasour last day and I had to regain someface amongst my fellow fishermen.

Day FiveWith fresh determination we head-

ed out for our fifth and final day.Plenty of tarpon were rolling as we

reached the river mouth whichinstalled a childish confidence in me.We baited our jigs and began drifting.The first pass produced a missed hitbut halfway through our second drift,I connected with a very large angrytarpon. He jumped one way and ranthe other but my determination wasresolute. After a brutal hour long bareknuckle fight, the 110-pound silversubmarine succumbed and I collapsedin a happy sweaty mess on the deck ofthe boat. I needed a rest so we decid-ed to head out offshore again to tryour luck. Rapalas in position, I beganto sit down only to find myself recoil-ing back up to strike one of the tworods being attacked. Cap got his onein first to unveil a sturdy 15-poundblackfin tuna. Mine however was stillfull of beans and took another tenminutes before I landed a 20-poundneon-colored blackfin. Returninginland for lunch we gave the bar twodrifts. I missed another tarpon on thefly and Andrew, our camera man, wassnapped off by a large jack.

Following lunch, I asked Cap aboutfishing the lagoons for gapote andsnook. He was keen so we motoredslightly inland to a series of severalidyllic forested lagoons. We trolled asmall X-Rap Rapala and cast to over-hanging bushes. A troop of monkeysfollowed us inquisitively and toucanscalled from the forest canopy. Out ofthe blue, the small trolled Rapala toreoff but Cap, who was facing the wrongway, only managed a tentative strike.At last, a snook was clearly visiblethrough the glassy tannin stainedwater thirty yards to our stern beforediving out of view, leaving our lurehanging 3 feet under the water’s sur-face. Well, you can’t catch them all.As the sun began its decent, we silent-ly snaked through several morelagoons soaking up the peaceful soli-tude of the oasis. That night we madea fire on the beach and pan fried thetuna while recounting our experi-ences from the week over a fewbeers. There must only be a fewplaces in the world where you canrealistically jump in excess of 800pounds of tarpon per day and we hadjust experienced it.... this really wastarpon paradise.

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Let us start at the beginning. Stuck in the den on awintery day is fine after the blackfish season is done,but by the middle of January we start hearing mutter-ings of the cod run out of Montauk. The waters offthe southeast side of Block Island come alive withmarket-sized cod and baseball-bat-sized ling. The lureof my cooler being filled with 6 to 12- pound codfishand a few ling to boot, or if i’m real lucky a tog is toomuch to resist. Don’t laugh, even though we’re fishingbasically flat bottom with pebble like rocks dottingthe bottom, there is some structure, whether it belost dragger gear or some small pile of wreckage, wedo see an occasional white beard or two.

So are you ready to plan a cod fishing trip?The easiest way to get in on this fishing action is to

take a trip on one of the head boats out of Montauk.There are big ones, small ones, wooden and steel ver-sions, with heated cabins and rails, bunks and tables(where there is usually a good poker game going on).Lots of the galleys have soups, coffee, soda, food, etc.And the mates usually can sell you just about every-thing you’ll need, including all kinds of hooks, sinkers,jigs, teasers, etc. For about 150 bucks or less, you canget a reservation for a full day of codfishing whichshould include your fare and the pool.

Don’t throw caution to the wind!You must watch the weather and be very aware of

some important clues that will make your cod fishingexperience a good one. Hard wind out of the east andsouth, most of us stay away from. It usually causes the

CODFISHING ON LONG ISLANDThe Art of Cold Weather Fishing

BY JOEY BUD RUSSO


wave heights to increase greatly. Themoon phase is another factor. Full andnew moon tides produce fast movingcurrent. This in turn makes us have touse heavy sinkers to hold bottom. It’slike a domino effect, heavy sinker androd equals less feel for the bite. Payattention to the aforementioned andyou will have the ideal day, conditionwise.

What to use for bait?The bait of choice out there is skim-

mer clam. But some prefer freshmackeral, herring, and sand eels.We’ve found that “fresh” skimmerwork the best especially before firstlight.

Let’s talk gear: Most of the crew uses one heavy

and one or two lighter setups. Thebaiting rods are usually rigged twoways. The first being a 2-hook rig withsmall pink teasers. The hooks areplaced 16 and 32 inches above thesinker. Hook leader is about 10 to 12inches from the main shock leader.The other rig is a one hooker placedabout 24 inches above the sinker anda pink jelly attached to the shank ofthe 6/0 to 9/0 hook.

The jigging rod I prefer is a 7’6” oldschool slow taper e-glass rod matchedwith a 300 series Newell spooled with50-lb. braid. I love the braid when itcomes to water over 100’. The thinnerdiameter of the braid enables thesinker to get down with speed; thelack of stretch gives you a better hookset, especially when using j hooks.There is nothing like using a 7-footG.loomis with a saltist 20-2 speed,with only 6 ozs. of lead and catching12-pound cod. The light action allowsyou to feel bottom quickly andenables you to actually play the monoleader like a yo-yo, feeling every touchwhile you’re slacking and tighteningup on your line. The cast up tide androll back method works with this lightsetup as well.

I don’t know exactly why, exceptfor the fact I do some great numberson the pink stuff and it works for us.The powder coated pink jigs with agulp grub is our favorite combo. Thevikes, a close second and let’s not for-

get the hammered diamond jigs. Likewith other types of fishing, “matchthe hatch”, when it comes to the jigstoo. Sand eels have this pink hue com-ing from the bottom white belly,maybe that’s the reason or maybe it’sthe squid, whatever it is, the color forthis January through March fishinghas been pink. I like the bare hook (noteaser) rig before sun up.

Part of this whole experience is tofind your nitch in the tackle game. Weset –up and make our favorite rigs, gocrazy buying jigs and teasers and thenthat day comes. There’s a guy next toyou slaying them on some other colorteaser, jig, or bait, a different setup.And you’re back at square one. Nowdon’t you just love it? All kiddingaside, for us it’s the idea of tying yourown rig. This way, if you do break offor if you have a monster catch it’s dueto you and nobody else. Don’t get me wrong, there are some greatstore bought rigs out there. Mike atPeace Token in Woodside, N.Y..([email protected]) has the jel-lies and the rigs in all the hot colors and Seawolfe tackle up inNew Hampshere ([email protected]) have some great cod andblackfish rigs. Seawolf makes a greatpowder coated jig in my favorite colorpink!!!!!!! Check out his codkillajig…it’s awesome. As far as our hooksgo, we use octopus 5/0 to 9/0 depend-ing on the size of cod we’re catching.The jellies are mainly curly tails andsquid types from 4-6” variety.

South shore wreck fishing.So now that we’ve covered the

Block Island open bottom fishing, let’stalk about the offshore wreck fishingon long island’s south shore. With thetarget water’s depths ranging from120’ to 240’, the wreck angler is in aclass by himself. Long rides in roughseas, long down time in betweendrops, hangs, and the constant peck-ing of your bait by smaller wreckdwellers are all the things the anglermust endure for his shot at a monstercod. The smart angler will take advan-tage of these little bi-catch crittersand use them for bait. Many a cod hasfallen to a fillet of a cunner or a ling.As a matter of fact, we have caught

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larger cod on such baits.I’ll give you a tip while wreck fish-

ing. Cut open the stomach on a few ofyour cod.

See what they’re eating on thewreck. Look not only at the species offish or crab, but the color and size. Onmy most recent trip, I found fry ling inthe stomachs of many of the fish.They had an orange glow to them. Isnelled a 5/0 hook with an 8” leaderand put a green bead to the hook, a 2”piece of orange glow tubing and thenanother bead, tied about 30 inchesfrom the sinker. The bait was a fillet ofa cunner (bergal). This was theresult… a 32- pound cod.

Keeping warmThe head is first. Well, I shave my

head bald (yeah, right). I wear one ofthose mountain hats from Tibet.Here’s a trick for you. Take one of yourold sweatshirts and cut the sleevesoff. I use them for a head sock undermy hat, it works great, along with 2hooded sweats, an Under Armorcrewneck, and an Under Armor cold

weather long-sleeve tee. The bottomhalf has longjohns, Under Armor cold-weather bottoms and a bibbed insu-lated Carhart pant. The feet have twopairs of 20-below socks and a pair of

vikes (love my vikes) boots or some-times a short bass slip-on snow boot.

The most important item in stayingwarm and functional, are my gloves. Ihave a pair of clc workgloves (with thefinger tips cut off) and a pair of AtlasLove vinyl gloves. The last few timeswe went out, the weather was in the20’s and I was all good. I even had totake the Atlas gloves off a few times.You see the key to enjoying this trip isnot only the fish, but the comfort andenjoyment of the day out on thewater and at the rail. The last thingyou want, is to be warming up in thecabin all day long.

Last but not least there are a fewmore points I think are very important

when fishing off the party boats out ofMontauk, or for that matter any-where we go. Place yourself in ahappy and motivated state of mind.Be friendly to the anglers on each sideof you. Be aware of what is catchingthe fish. The color of the jig, the typeof bait or teaser, the size of weight orjig, plays an important role in yourangling success. The crew and captainplay an important part in making yourday an enjoyable adventure. I myselfhave worked the deck on many headboats and find that a little kindnessand courtesy goes a long way. Matesusually work very hard and depend onthe anglers for their tips and patron-age. The cleaning of fish is also anadded service that’s not included inyour fare. I often ask the mates toclean my fish and pay them according-ly. My rule of thumb is a buck or twofor each fish. All in all it’s a relativelyinexpensive day of enjoyment and bytaking care of business all aroundyou’ll see the difference these simplerules of the road will make. Tight linesfor now.

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Readers of Nor’east Saltwater know them asparty boats, but in south Florida and the Keysthey’re called drift boats (although not all ofthem actually drift (see below). Ask about a partyboat and you might be steered to one of the gam-bling ships, but for the readers of this article, I’llstick to the term you use most.

Coming down here to escape the ravages ofwinter? How will you answer your friends whenthey ask what you caught in the state most asso-ciated with salt water fishing in the country? Theparty boat makes it easy to avoid an embarrass-ing answer to the question. Finding one is simple,grab the Yellow Pages and turn to fishing. Theseboats run out of every inlet and on the east coastof Florida, the run is extremely short.

Those that actually drift are the vast majority,north of the Keys. The proximity of the fishinggrounds (usually 1-3 miles from the beach) makesit possible for them to run three trips a day;morning, noon, and evening. If your schedule istight, a 4-5 hour trip would still allow you to gofishing.

The goal of the captain is always to have every-one on board catch fish to take home, but thatdoesn’t always happen so here is the best tip Ican give you (pardon the pun); tip first. When youstep aboard and get situated find out who themate or mates are. Hand over a good tip and say“I’m not familiar with the techniques here anddon’t want to be a burden. Can you watch overme and make sure I am doing the right thing?”

This investment should assure you the best ofthe loaner equipment, if needed, the freshest ofbait, and the best advice as the mate now reallywants you to catch a mess of fish to clean and/orwin the pool. Even if you know your stuff, thismakes you special to the crew.

These boats tend to target fish in the upperwater column during the day looking for largergamefish and the bottom at night for snapperand grouper (these two are much better in theKeys). During the day, the most favorite target isthe kingfish, a long and sleek member of the tunafamily with after burner speed and a mouth fullof teeth. They can grow pretty large too.

Join the PartyBY CAPTAIN ZAC GROSSMAN

The standard rigging is a 3-hook rigmade by putting the point of onehook through the eye of the next.Sometimes a small egg sinker isplaced on the line or leader first. Ifusing your own tackle, use rubbercore sinkers as these can be changedquickly as conditions (tide, wind,depth of the fish themselves) dictate.

This rig is then placed alongside asardine or ballyhoo, so that the hooktied to the leader is lined up with theeyes of the bait. Starting with the tailhook, the points are rotated into thebait with the final one piercing theskull. To look at this rig, any experi-enced angler from up north wouldthink “tourist rig”, but not so. It kills!Some people add a skirt in front, Idon’t.

Another version is to use a bucktailjig with one trailing hook (sometimesa treble) and impale the bait on thisrig. As the boat drifts along, everyonefishes on the windward side and feedstheir baits out. Ask the mate howmany feet to let out before reeling inand starting again. The rest is just likebluefishing or tuna fishing up north.Get a speedy runoff and set the hook.

The kingfish is not the only fish like-ly to respond to this with a hammerblow strike. The other possibilities areblackfin tuna, dolphin (mahi-mahi),amberjack, grouper, the occasionalsailfish, and often the ubiquitousbonito. These are actually false alba-core or little tunny. Down here theyare often thick enough to be consid-ered nuisances, beating more tastyspecies to the bait. Anglers who readNor’east Saltwater would considersuch a thing wonderful, as this specieseven has a following of its own upnorth. The bonito here are usuallylarge, many approaching 20 pounds.

On the other side of the coin, manypeople on party boats go without asingle bite, much less a good fish fortheir 4-5 hour and $35 investment.That’s fishing (at least nowadays).Another fact of life is the tangles.Most of the pelagic fish are hard tocontrol at boatside. The more peopleon board and the more novices, theworse it gets. Be willing to cut yourline and get back to fishing ratherthan wait.

There is a way to increase yourodds and decrease the level of stresscaused by so many people fishingtogether; go on a small, reservationonly, party boat.

They are usually under fifty feetand take a limited number of passen-gers (most take 10 or 12). For this,they charge more. For the sameamount of time it will cost about $60.These boats move more often, arefaster, and go further if necessary.Some even troll part of the day if cer-tain fish are around, like wahoo.

I have fished many times withCaptain Mike on the Sweet Emily,(954) 861-8113, out of PompanoBeach and found the success ratio sig-nificantly increased. Mike will evenstop to pick up live bait for customerswilling to buy it from the marina nearthe inlet. It is kept in a live well to beused only by those anglers. He will setout a kite on the leeward side of theboat to fish live baits at the surface.The odds of catching a sailfish on aparty boat now approach those onprivate charters.

If you have the time in your plansfor a full day investment and areeither staying in the Keys or have a carat your disposal, the odds of successwith snapper are practically guaran-teed. Most of the party boats anchorand chum, targeting those tasty yel-lowtails and mangroves, but this doesnot stop other great fish from joiningin too. The boats do full day trips,about 7 hours, for $60-65. A real bar-gain.

The technique (made feasible bythe heavy concentration reef dwellersin the Keys) causes huge schools toline up from the surface to the bot-tom, under and behind the boat aschum particles sink with the current.Sometimes the water actually turnsyellow as a school rises into the upperlayers of the slick. Even though thesefish are competing the way school fishin a chum slick do, they still require astealthy bait presentation.

Light tackle is best for them andsometimes leaders have to get reallylight to get the bite. Tiny hooks andtiny yellow jigs (1/16 to 1/8 oz) tippedwith a piece (yes, a piece) of shrimp orfish are tied directly to the leader. The


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631.363.2020

www.montymanfishing.com

Orient Point, NY

CAPT. JAMES MONTALBANO

631.727.42911315 W. Main (Rt. 25), Riverhead, NY 11901

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rig is fed back into the chum slick insuch a way that the line comes off thereel leaving a little bit of slackbetween the rod tip and the bait. Anyhesitation in the bait’s speed of driftsends an alarm the fish will not ignore.

Watch your line (there should be aslight loop of slack). If the line sudden-ly straightens out (often observed,rather than felt) that signals the stac-cato hit. Hit back, unless using a circlehook. Then just reel. No fish, meansthese expert bait thieves mugged you.Bait up and try again.

Yellowtails and all the other possi-ble players (mangrove, muttons,grouper, porgies, and more) all fightvery well on light tackle. Note, ifyou’re bringing your own tackle don’tuse braid. It will make you very unpop-ular during tangles and will result inlosing a lot of expensive line to thequick knives of the mates.

It is easiest to drift baits back intothe chum slick from the stern of theboat. Getting a spot there depends onthe particular boat’s method forassigning them. Some believe in firstcome, first served while others usethe date you called to reserve a spot.Another tip is to have each member ofyour group (if going with friends) callup individually as some captains willonly allow one or two from eachgroup to get a stern spot.

This does not mean that people onthe sides will not do well. These boatspride themselves on everyone catch-ing fish, so people not on the stern areusually rigged with heavier egg sinkerson their lines to keep them in thelower stream of chum particles andalso out of the way of the stern lines.For some reason the fish hitting rigsdown near the bottom are not so sen-sitive to bait movement. Often anglersare rotated to the stern for a while aswell, if the bite is hot.

The most interesting and effectivetechnique (especially for those on theside) is called “sand balling”. On mylast party boat trip in the Keys I fishedaboard the Miss Islamorada whichsails out of Bud ‘n Mary’s Marina.Reservations taken at (800) 742-7945or (305) 664-2461. Every time I havefished on this boat, the mates set up abucket of sandball mixture (sand,

chum, oatmeal, and probably somesecret ingredient too). If you don’twant to handle this stuff yourself, thena mate will do it for you as soon asavailable; quicker to do it yourself.

A baited hook is placed into themiddle of a handful of the mixture. Itis then kneaded into a ball about thesize of a hardball. Then enough line ispulled through the rod’s tip top toallow several wraps around the sand-ball. With the bail open, the ball ishand-tossed overboard away from theboat. The rapidly sinking ball disinte-grates on the way down, creating achum slick of its own with the bait inthe middle of a cloud of oily and tasty(to the fish, that is) particles. Almostinfallible!

On most such trips rods are bent allaround the boat, all day. On my latesttrip, I had the pleasure of meeting andphotographing a “regular”. Her nameis Lyn and she fishes often on this boatand on the Gulfstream, out of KeyLargo, captained by Chan Warner(786) 554-7224.

She says the latter is populated bymore hard core anglers and the for-mer by more tourists. She obviouslyenjoys the different “feel” of both,and is equally at home on either.

She also pointed out that on theGulfstream, they do a stern rotationtechnique. The angler throws in at onecorner of the stern and then slidesover left or right, depending on cur-rent direction. Then the next person inline steps up and throws their bait in.By the time you reach the other cor-ner you either have a fish on or reel upand get at the end of this “conga line”again.

Lyn has caught cobia, tuna, grouper,shark, kingfish, spanish and ceromackerel, snappers (yellowtail, vermil-lion, and mutton), and sailfish onthese party boats. If you see a ladyangler, doing it all herself, and mostlikely outfishing those around her, sayhello for me. Better yet, watch whatshe is doing so you too can bring fishto the “party”, and have a story to tellback home.

If you want to reach the author forany advice on party boats or privatecharters, see his website www.cap-tainzac.com or call at (954) 802-1508.

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516.635.5588www.SomedayCameCharters.com

[email protected]

26’ FORTIER DOWNEASTER SAILING OUT OF SHINNECOCK

Capt. Brad Ries “Fish Today, Brag Tomorrow!”

www.whitewateroutfitters.net

631.594.3336243 East Montauk Hwy. • Hampton Bays, NY 11946

LONG ISLAND’S OFFSHORE OUTFITTING HEADQUARTERS

CUSTOM RODS FISHING CHARTERS

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SUNDAY ISFAMILY

DAYAll woman & kids

FREE!

NEW ENGLAND

The 9th Annual

www.nesaltwatershow.com

SHOW HOURS:Friday: 12 - 9 / Saturday: 9 - 7 / Sunday: 10 - 5

March 9 - 11

SALTWATER FISHING

The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association presents

Rhode Island Convention CenterProvidence, RI

Show

NEARLY EVERY MAJOR COMPANY WILL BE THERE!See plugs • lures • rods • reels • fishing charters • guides • clothing

fly fishing • boats • kayaks • outboards • marine equipment • noveltiesgovernment agencies • safety equipment • and much more!

MANY COMPANIES OFFERING “SHOW SPECIALS” AND DISCOUNTS!

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ADMISSION:$10 Adults

(12 & younger free)

TWO SEMINAR AREAS!by the top seminar speakers in the region!

LARGEST SALTWATER FISHING

SHOW IN THE NORTHEAST

• Kid’s casting area• Kids Zone • Scavenger Hunt on Sunday

CBS Weather Mobile

MARINE ELECTROICS

Plenty for the whole family!

$1.00 OFFNew England Saltwater Fishing Show

regular adult admission with this couponmay not be combined with any other coupon or offerU.S. Army Hummer

BOATS & KAYAKS

LOW PRICES

LINES & TACKLE

NONSTOP FREE SEMINARS

FREE FISHING CHARTERwith

Priority Chartersor an 13’ Duke Canoe

Register to win a

The first 100 people eachday will receive a FREEGAG’S WHIP-IT EEL

Fenix LD20 FlashlightWhether you choose to chase down your prey by boat or by pounding the surf, every angler needs a qualityflashlight. The Fenix LD20 Flashlight fits the bill by packing a super bright multifunction light in a com-pact package. This amazing product features 4 light modes that allow you to use the right amount oflight for every situation while conserving your batteries. The best part is that this is all packaged ina waterproof, aircraft-grade aluminum case that runs on 2AA batteries. No expensive, hard to findbatteries are needed. Dimensions are 6” long, 1” in diameter and a weight of 3 ounces. I haveput the Fenix LD20 Flashlight to the test and I can honestly say that it’s the real deal.$49.99www.fenixlight.com

The Treasure TroveTHE NOR’EAST’S TAKE ON NEW AND EXISTING PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET

By Chris [email protected]

Pelican i1015 Smart Phone CaseMore and more of us are using Smart Phones these days. Why not protect your investment? After all, you won’tbe able to call for help with a wet or broken phone. Enter the Pelican i1015 Smartphone Case.Designed for the iPhone, iPhone 4, iPod Touch and many models of Smart phones, this tough casewill keep your mobile device working in even the worst conditions. It features an external jack,built-in cable manager, active sport carabineer, easy open latch, custom rubber liner that doublesas an o-ring seal and stainless steel hardware. The Pelican i1015 is water resistant, crushproof anddustproof and is available with a clear or solid color lid. The case measures 5.14” x 2.64” x 1.37”and comes with a lifetime guarantee.$25.00 http://pelican.com

Loon Outdoors Nip N SipThe Nip N Sip from Loon Outdoors is like a mullet. I’m not talking about the fish, I’m talking about the hairstyle. Justlike that popular redneck hairstyle that we all secretly wish we had, the Nip N Sip is “Business inthe front and party in the back!” All kidding aside, there are two very important tasks that mustbe completed on each fishing outing; cutting line and opening bottles. (Catching fish is alsoimportant.) This handy little tool accomplishes both jobs in style with its stainless steelcutting blades, built-in bottle opener, extra wide grated pads for grip and eye clear-ing needle. The Loon Outdoors Nip N Sip allows anglers to cut theirline easily and enjoy a beverage without breaking their teeth orbreaking the bank. Pick one up for yourself and a true friendtoday.$19.95www.loonoutdoors.com


SUNDAY ISFAMILY

DAYAll woman & kids

FREE!

NEW ENGLAND

The 9th Annual

www.nesaltwatershow.com

SHOW HOURS:Friday: 12 - 9 / Saturday: 9 - 7 / Sunday: 10 - 5

March 9 - 11

SALTWATER FISHING

The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association presents

Rhode Island Convention CenterProvidence, RI

Show

NEARLY EVERY MAJOR COMPANY WILL BE THERE!See plugs • lures • rods • reels • fishing charters • guides • clothing

fly fishing • boats • kayaks • outboards • marine equipment • noveltiesgovernment agencies • safety equipment • and much more!

MANY COMPANIES OFFERING “SHOW SPECIALS” AND DISCOUNTS!

Sponsored by

®

ADMISSION:$10 Adults

(12 & younger free)

TWO SEMINAR AREAS!by the top seminar speakers in the region!

LARGEST SALTWATER FISHING

SHOW IN THE NORTHEAST

• Kid’s casting area• Kids Zone • Scavenger Hunt on Sunday

CBS Weather Mobile

MARINE ELECTROICS

Plenty for the whole family!

$1.00 OFFNew England Saltwater Fishing Show

regular adult admission with this couponmay not be combined with any other coupon or offerU.S. Army Hummer

BOATS & KAYAKS

LOW PRICES

LINES & TACKLE

NONSTOP FREE SEMINARS

FREE FISHING CHARTERwith

Priority Chartersor an 13’ Duke Canoe

Register to win a

The first 100 people eachday will receive a FREEGAG’S WHIP-IT EEL


By Sal Amendoliawww.noreast.com/recipes/index.cfm

CODFISH MIRA MARE

Ingredients

• 1.5 – 2 lbs. codfish fillets (market size) • Olive oil• Salt • Pepper• Italian flavored breadcrumbs• 1 qt. seafood or crab sauce• Pam

To Prepare

Season the fillets with salt and pepper.Heat your seafood sauce in a pot and hold aside.Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees.Spray an oven pan with Pam.Pour in some olive oil.Dredge each side of the fillets in the oil and situate in the

pan.Sprinkle a generous amount of breadcrumbs on top of the

fillets.Broil the fillets for 5-7 minutes (no need to turn) or until

white and flaky.Remove codfish from pan and place in a serving dish.Pour your sauce over the fillets and serve.

CODFISH WITH CAPER SAUCE

Ingredients

1.5 to 2 lbs. codfish fillet (market size)Light olive oil¼ cup chicken broth2 Tbsp. caper, rinsed

1 Tbsp. lemon juice3 tsp. butterSalt and pepper to taste

To Prepare

In a pan, sauté the fillets in the olive oil, just until theyturn opaque.Transfer to a plate, cover to keep warm and set aside.In a bowl, pour the chicken broth, capers and lemon juice

and stir all together.In the same pan that you sautéed the fillets, add the ingre-

dients that you just mixed in the bowl and bring to a lightboil, stirring constantly and scraping any bits from the bot-tom of the pan.Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and

season the mixture with salt and pepper to your taste.Pour over the fillets and serve!

Nor’east GalleyCATCH ‘EM & COOK ‘EM

Codfish TwiceBy the time you read this column, many of you who just

can’t stop fishing, no matter what the temperature, will have

braved the cold and ventured out for some beautiful cold

water codfish. With a little bit of luck and armed with a

bunch of cod fishing tips from Nor’east Saltwater, you

wound up with a few cod in your pail. Filleted by your

trusted mates on the party or charter boat of your choice you

are now ready to prepare and eat some of the best tasting fil-

lets you can get. There are lots of ways to prepare and eat

codfish and I have already given you a few. Since I believe

in employing a variety of methods to prepare your fish, here

are two more for you to enjoy and hopefully save.

Freeport Recreation Center130 E. Merrick Road, Freeport, NY

Fri. 2pm-6pm • Sat. 8am-6pm • Sun. 9am-2:30pm

Seminar speakers include: • John Skinner

• Gary Caputi

• Tom Schlichter

• Capt. Bob Rochetta

• Capt. Rich Tenreiro

• Capt. Andy LoCascio

• Capt. Kayak

• Capt. Jerry McGrath

and more!

OVER 50 EXHIBITORS!

INFORMATIVE SEMINARS BY LOCAL EXPERTS

CHARITY AUCTION SUNDAY

ADMISSION: ADULTS $10, SENIORS & CHILDREN $8KIDS UNDER 12 ADMITTED FREE

For more information go to www.nysf.org

It’s Time To Go Catch Some Cod!

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