Twenty-two things I learned on 12/22, my last trip to the beach and first with a fly rod.

[PennKev]

Nymph-wristed wrote:

6. Simms and Patagonia are $499.99 but when one fishes 100+ times in a year, they may be a necessary investment.

You can pay the money and have dry waders for 4 or 5 years (or more) before they start to leak irreparably.

Or you can buy whichever crummy cheap ones have a fantastic warranty and be damp for part of every year or every other year you own them.

 

[Fredrick]

I like the Rio out bound lines , I buy a intermediate running line and use outbound short shooting heads with different sink rates it will save you the trouble of buying and changing out reel spools.


I have taken back my fair share of bootfoot waders when they are leaking at the seams or the sole comes of the boot. If I'm paying good money for waders I expect to get at least three years from them without factory defects. Now if I poke holes in them some way then I will just repair them myself and not attempt to get a refund.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Good debate, fellas, and sorry for having the Cabela's/Bass Pro reversed, but the point is despite image/marketing they are all big box corporations looking to make mad profits (either for the family or shareholders). My point about Linda Bean is not that she shouldn't support Trump who is good for her business; it's the point that they want it both ways. Despite fishing 100+ times a year, I work too hard to keep sour milk or waders that leak in 6 months. Just brain dumping at the time (and now), and I don't claim to have it all figured out. I see Swattie's point, too, (and did at the time of our original debate about this) but it also fits my narrative that they are pricing the many to please the few like me, and it's all marketing and branding unless more than a handful of unpleased consumers take them at their word and return products with which they are unsatisfied.

If you are keeping sour milk, that does require some soul searching, and you need to talk to my wife. That is just not right! If she buys a bag chips and they don't taste right to her, they go back. She's known like Norm! at all the service desks. If you feel you are right, it only takes a few times to get over the embarrassment of returning a shoddy product. I think they want me to feel embarrassed, cheap, and low for exercising my side of the bargain. Go figure, I find that salespeople making 8 bucks an hour are usually on my side with this.....

To Bean's credit, they do phase out crappy product lines based on the number of returns and consumer feedback. They end up in the Sales pages (buyer beware).

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Dave_W wrote:

Nymph-wristed wrote:
Any advice on a good coldwater, saltwater line?

The salt - and surf and jetty fishing in particular - is just brutal on fishing gear compared to the typical freshwater fishing so many FFers are accustomed to.

In addition to the stripping basket and bigger rods you've taken note of....I strongly recommend you get set-up with a fast sink shooting head. The main reason is wind. A double hauled SH will enable you to really punch into wind. In surf fishing, precise casting is of little importance - what you want is distance and a SH will shoot well and buck the everpresent wind. A fast sink head will not fish poppers (it can work if the fish are right in the wash and you're hardly casting) but I don't FF much at the beach with poppers and prefer to get down fast. The current along the surf can be very strong and a fast sink SH gets out far and gets down fast, where you want your fly.

My experience fishing the surf really improved when I started using big, fast sink shooting heads. I use the same one regardless of water temp (can't remember the brand or grain weight as I've cut it up and modified it, like much of my equipment). It does help a lot if you take some time before walking out to the beach to manually stretch your running line. Really, don't scrimp on this chore. A streched running line will perform much better and tangle less in the stripping basket.

Thanks, Dave. That makes sense. Unless there is a blitz happening, I rarely catch a fish on the surface, so I am definitely better served with sink tip.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

AFISHN wrote:
I can tell it's too cold to fish. 🙂

I know! I don't mind cold, but this is not fishing weather. Maybe I need to take the boy snow tubing to get out of the house and near woods or something?

Happy New Year!

 

[pete41]

Ice fishing with fly rods and 6/0 streamers really an in thing now-go get them guys-me-Florida bound and veranda sitting,remembering all the fine trips I had when I wasn't so sissified.. and you get to forget the bah trips..but never forget driving 60 miles to night fish the Madison,on second cast burning the amnesia running line with cigar- longest cast of my life-had no spares so 60 miles back home...why do those things seem so funny,35 years later ?

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

You need a fast action 10wt for NJ in fall. A 9wt is a half-measure.

Whatever coldwater line you get, get an extra spool and spool up with 30# Trilene Big Game and a 450g shooting head. Now it doesn't matter which way the wind is blowing.

Make a stripping basket out of a dishpan, a wading belt, and either a mass-produced cone mold (that you screw or zip-tie to the basket), or some weedeater line spikes to stick through the bottom).

Better waders. Get the Patagonia (better customer service) with the knee pads. Get spikes for your boots.

Fish more jetties. You can only cast so far into the open ocean. Get on a jetty. You can reach the fish that concentrate in the rocks. The only time you'll see me fishing open beach is if I see fish or know there is a metric ton of bait with fish just on the other side of the bar. Tie flies on circle hooks--they won't get hung in the jetty rocks. Get them down in there and get the fish that are holding.

I should follow this advice more often, myself--this was basically my plan every time I went out back when I used to catch a lot of stripers on the fly rod from shore. You can start fishing like this as early as late May some years and fish all the way through summer and fall.

 

[afishinado]

Here's a good article to read about using sinking lines for SW fishing......oh, and they did mention stripping baskets, too... 🙂

 

[Fredrick]

I went out for albies this fall and forgot my basket it made for a interesting outing

 

[Nymph-wristed]

afishinado wrote:
Here's a good article to read about using sinking lines for SW fishing......oh, and they did mention stripping baskets, too... 🙂

Your boy Ron K says that article is shite... :-D :-D Thanks for sending along my info to him, afish. I know enough to already know he knows his stuff about the surf. I will def pick his brain this upcoming year.

Thanks, again!

 

[afishinado]

Nymph-wristed wrote:

afishinado wrote:
Here's a good article to read about using sinking lines for SW fishing......oh, and they did mention stripping baskets, too... 🙂

Your boy Ron K says that article is shite... :-D :-D Thanks for sending along my info to him, afish. I know enough to already know he knows his stuff about the surf. I will def pick his brain this upcoming year.

Thanks, again!

Ron (the weenie) is a great SW guy. He knows his stuff and SW fishes more than anyone I know.

 

[Fredrick]

Ron who just saying 😎

 

[afishinado]

Fredrick wrote:
Ron who just saying 😎

No Fred, your nickname is not RonK.

But I will say, without doubt, you are the utmost authority on FFing for snakeheads.

 

[JackM]

He looks a lot like RonKowski, though, but about 18 inches shorter.

 

[Fredrick]

afishinado wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
Ron who just saying 😎

No Fred, your nickname is not RonK.

But I will say, without doubt, you are the utmost authority on FFing for snakeheads.

Thanks for the kind words but I’m curious who the weenie Ron k guy is

 

[Dave_W]

Fredrick wrote:

afishinado wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
Ron who just saying 😎

No Fred, your nickname is not RonK.

But I will say, without doubt, you are the utmost authority on FFing for snakeheads.

Thanks for the kind words but I’m curious who the weenie Ron k guy is

PM is best for handling off-site content.

 

[Dave_W]

Steering this thread back to the OP's original material....

I would add to what's already been said: don't overlook springtime fishing and back bays. If one's salt experience has mainly been on the beach in the late autumn (as the OP suggests) one will conclude much of what the OP learned and commented upon: you need bigger rods, stripping baskets, boot-foot waders, etc.

However, if you're going to focus on much of the Mid-Atlantic area, including NJ down to NC, back bay areas are a different fishing experience. In these areas, I prefer the spring time months and use smaller tackle, typically 7-9WT rods and floating lines. Striped bass, blues, weaks, and redfish are excellent targets for a wading - or better yet kayaking - saltwater FFer.

There's more to saltwater FFing than "out front" during the fall run.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Dave_W wrote:
Steering this thread back to the OP's original material....

I would add to what's already been said: don't overlook springtime fishing and back bays. If one's salt experience has mainly been on the beach in the late autumn (as the OP suggests) one will conclude much of what the OP learned and commented upon: you need bigger rods, stripping baskets, boot-foot waders, etc.

However, if you're going to focus on much of the Mid-Atlantic area, including NJ down to NC, back bay areas are a different fishing experience. In these areas, I prefer the spring time months and use smaller tackle, typically 7-9WT rods and floating lines. Striped bass, blues, weaks, and redfish are excellent targets for a wading - or better yet kayaking - saltwater FFer.

There's more to saltwater FFing than "out front" during the fall run.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I have been tied up with family stuff for a week or so. I have tackled the weakfish and small bass in the back bays, too, and I agree with Dave that there is fertile ground in the back for fishing, especially during times when trout are doing their thing or during the dog days of summer (and those May choppers!) I guess one way to look at this deep freeze is that I am saving the gas money that I am not spending this winter on road trips to fish Central PA and the LV for some new sw/ww gear for the upcoming year.