EP 39: Stalking the Shoreline: Late Summer Tactics with Bayside Dave

Episode Transcript
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Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (00:05):
Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad
Fishing Show.
This is the show where we takegreat, great pains to help you
make those pictures of shortslook like keepers, keepers look
like doormats and doormats looklike whales, and we'll go into
that tonight a little bit.
It's a really super secrettechnique that Bayside Dave has
down and he's going to share itlater with you.

(00:26):
Whether he wants to or not.
I'm going to press him on thisissue.
So listen, if this is yourfirst time here, welcome.
Thanks for checking out theshow.
If you enjoy it, please makesure you hit a follow, leave a
review on any of the podcastplatforms, a like anything, but
one of the most important thingsis share it out to people that
may not see the show, may notknow about it.

(00:48):
That would be awesome.
It helps us to get more contentcoming and more guests to come
on the show.
I'm going to quick hit thesponsors for the show.
It's our regular sponsors.
So Great Bay Outfitters, radioRoad in Tuckerton If you want
anything for a kayak, check thatshop out.
Check out Great Bay Outfitters.
Look them up on Facebook.

(01:08):
Great information there.
Paul is always on there sharingintel, talking about the
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So it's not just if you need anew kayak.
They have used kayaks, theyhave the brand new Old Town.
I think they still have a fewleft in stock.
I think the EPDLs might be gonefor the year, but it's worth

(01:31):
checking out and you never knowwhat he's going to get back in
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So check that out.
Native also carries Native.
So if you want one of those,man, and you're not ready to
step into an old town, you knowone of the more expensive kayaks
had one of those for a week.
We had the Native Slayer LTE onvacation this summer, me and my

(01:53):
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My son loves it, my wife lovesit and that's probably going to
be the next kayak that we add tothe fleet, the Fat Dad fleet.
So check them out.
Check them out on Facebook.
Next is Quad State Tune.
You can contact Kevin Driscoll,484-633-5975.
And let me try to do justice tothis.

(02:13):
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So make sure that you checkthem out.
Call Kevin if you have anyquestions.
He can walk you through it andthen me.
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So with that we're going tojump in here real quick.

(03:18):
I'm going to bring Bayside Daveon.
Old veteran of the show.
Good to see you, dave.

Bayside Dave (03:25):
Welcome back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (03:25):
Thanks for having me Good to see you,
brother.
It's been.
It's only been a little bit oftime, but, man, things change
Once you go into spring, intosummer.
I mean, it changes 10 times ayear for the fishing conditions
and the tactics.
But we're heading into the latesummer, so summer is, we're
officially in the back half ofsummer and the water's warmer.

(03:46):
Things have changed.
And land-based fishing for nomatter how much I want to talk
about kayak and boat and all ofthat stuff, land-based fishing
remains the most popular way togo fishing in the salt year
round.
So it seems like it's a goodtime to bring you back on and
let's talk about how we rollinto August.

(04:07):
So the first question is how isyour late July and how is your
early August going so far?
What are you noticing out there?

I'm noticing.
You know we had a real strongstart.
You know right now, you know,of course, it's summer down here
in South Jersey, off thebeaches, everybody's targeting
fluke.
You know the beginning of theseason was on fire and up until
about a week or two ago, youknow a lot of the fish were big,
a lot of the keepers were inthe 20 inch plus range and even

(04:39):
the smaller ones, I mean justbig, fat, heavy fish.
Last year was a horrible year.
We had a lot of the south windswith the upwelling and the cold
waters just chasing them out.
And you know I basicallystopped fluke fishing off the
surf last year around Julybecause I'd go to the beach for
like four, three, four, fivehours sometimes and pull up like

(04:59):
two or three fish like 10inches, 12 inches.
It was just horrible.
Fish like 10 inches, 12 inches,it was just horrible.
You know none of the big fishcame in, you know, off the surf,
maybe into the bays a littlebit for a little while, but then
it just turned right off.
This year has been a banner year, if you want to put it at that.
Like I said, man, just justgood heavy fish, good size fish.

(05:21):
A lot of them were near theinlets.
A lot of them were on the northend and the south end of the
island, first off, which ispretty typical, and then on into
the bays.
You know I have friends who dotake boats out into the bays and
sometimes throw bayside dave inthere with them.
You know, yeah, we did reallyreally well limiting out with
some 20 inch plus fishconstantly and right now it kind

(05:45):
of slowed down off the surf.
The water is really warm.
I went out there yesterday andthis morning.
You know we had those horriblecouple weeks there where we were
just sweltering in the humidityand and the heat and oh my god,
it's like I I didn't even goout on some of them days.
You know I'm lucky, I live onthe island, here I don't work

(06:06):
and you know I can pick andchoose.
You know air weather, fishermen.
You know I'll go out because Ilove it so much, but then on
those days where you're justmiserable I'm not having fun.
So but now it started.
It cooled off again.
Everybody sees that.
You know the humidity left andI went down to the beach

(06:26):
yesterday morning and I actuallyhad a sweatshirt on.
I walked out the door.
I'm only two blocks from thebeach.
So I walk out the door in myjust a t-shirt and whatever, and
, man, I had to throw mysweatshirt on.
So I threw my hoodie on andwent down to the surf and I left
that hoodie on all morning andit was so comfortable.
But that's when I noticed thewater temperature.
As soon as I stepped in thewater I was like, wow, the water

(06:46):
is warmer than the airtemperature.
It's amazing to feel, you know,that early in the morning and
even, you know, through theearly hours of the morning and
into the noon hour almost.
But yeah, it's just, these lastcouple days finding fluke in the
surf was just, you know, reallywasn't happening.

(07:07):
You know, wasn't getting a goodbite.
You know I I move a lot on thebeach and that's what you have
to do when you're surf fishingfor fluke.
You know, you look at theconditions, you look at the surf
and you see, you know where theholes and the rips and the and
the bars and the troughs are andall that stuff, but basically
fluke.
You know, I always try to fishin the troughs that form between

(07:28):
the beach and the sandbars Alot of times.
You know, a high percentage ofthe fish are in those long
troughs.
Sometimes they're a block ortwo long and they're hanging out
in those troughs and that'swhere all the food is, that's
where they're all feeding.
You know the big holes thatform outside the rips.
You know in between where thebars are formed.
You know that's where a lot ofthe water is exiting from the

(07:52):
surf line.
You know, as waves break overthe sandbar they weaken in
strength and they don't have thepower to get back over the bars
.
So that's what creates the ripsthat go through the holes that
go back out.
And a lot of times fish aren'thanging in those deep holes.
They're hanging in thosetroughs and they're hanging in
the shallows where some of theshoals will form.
And you know that's how it is.

(08:13):
When you're surf fishing forfluke, you're basically looking
to see where in the troughthey're laying.
Are they in the shallows,depending on the tide time you
know low tide those shoals arereal shallow.
There might be only a fewinches of water.
They're not going to be layingthere in that shallow water, but
a lot sometimes as the tide iscoming in and it's a high tide
and you got about a foot or twoin those shoals.

(08:35):
You know in between where thesand, sandbars and troughs are
formed, you'll find.
You'll find fluke in thoseshallows or not.
Sometimes you have to go goalong into the troughs and try
those areas, fan casting to seewhere they're laying.
So it's a lot of moving aroundand you find them and you catch
them and that's how it goes onthe beach.

(08:57):
But these last couple days, man, I'm just not finding fish.
Three or four days ago I was upon the north end, near the inlet
, near the Barnegat Inlet andthat area, if you guys don't
know, lbi the new South Jettythey call it they ran out along

(09:18):
the inlet and they ran it outstraight out into the ocean.
It probably goes out maybeanother 100 yards or so, maybe
further than that, past thebeach line, straight on out the
inlet.
But the old jetty actually camein on an angle from the beach
and shot out towards the inlet.
So that old jetty is stillthere, but that's below sea

(09:41):
level, that's below the waterline and it's only exposed at
like super low tide where youcan see the top edge of those
rocks.
On that it's like a 45 degreeangle that starts out maybe 10
yards back from the tip of thenew jetty and comes back on a 45
degree angle back to the beachline.
So that forms what we call thepocket between.

(10:03):
You know the new jetty thatcomes out and that it's like a
triangular body of water, andfluke hang out in that, in that
pocket that we call it, causethere's some rocks that are, you
know, kind of fallen down or orwhatever.
When they built that, that newjetty, which is up pretty high,
you know down in the water, youknow down deep alongside that

(10:24):
there's there's rocks that kindof are scattered around there
and whatnot.
So a lot of times you know thefluke.
They come into that one areathere that's kind of open, right
right against where the newjetty is, and the old jetty meet
, the rocks kind of drop off andthere's an opening there and a
lot of the fish come in there.
They just kind of hang out inthat pocket.
So, even though the whole lengthof the island might be a slow

(10:44):
bite for fluke, a lot of timesyou go up into that pocket and
you're going to catch fish.
But even lately they've beenshorts.
We're not getting keepers theselast couple of weeks, not to
say that they're not out realhot up until now it's actually

(11:07):
pretty good, good bite in thebay still where the guys go out
drifting the different areas inthe great bay or in in the north
end by the uh barnaby inletarea and and all throughout the
bay where people go fishing forfluke it's it's still doing
pretty well, but they'restarting to leave the bay now.
So now you're starting to catchfluke in the inlets and, like I

(11:28):
said, that there's, if you'regoing to fish the inlets right
now for fluke, of course ifyou're in the boat you can drift
the inlets and those.
That's great.
But the the currents reallychange, as you may well know
about inlets, as as the tidescome in, as the tides go out,
the speed of the current changes.

(11:48):
As it comes down to where it'slow tide on the beach, then the
current will start slowing down,coming in the inlets and then
it'll reach a point around twohours after the tide time on the
beach.
It'll be slack in the inlet andthen it'll start running the
other way.
Tide time on the beach, it'llbe slack in the inlet and then
it'll start running the otherway About two or three hours

(12:11):
after that.
That's when the current'sreally running.
So if you're going to befishing off the jetties or by us
.
At the beginning of the jetty agood stretch of it is a
concrete walkway with a railingright by the Barngett Lighthouse
and a lot of people fish offthat walkway in the inlet.
You know, fishing the inlet, sowhen the currents are running
really strong it's almostimpossible to fish those inlets

(12:33):
off of the jetty or off of thewalkway because you cast your
rig in and it just goes flyingwith the current.
You know.
So you've got to cut timefishing off those jetties and
that walkway if you're going tobe fishing the inlet.
The Barrington Inlet Guys arepretty successful and still
catching some prettydecent-sized fish.

(12:54):
I had my buddy the other daypulled in a 28-inch fluke and a
24-inch fluke the 28,.
I don't know how heavy.
It had to be 8 pounds, what hesaid six, eight pounds.
I mean this thing was a fatfish, but yeah, that's what's
going on right now.
Like I said, this is the timeof the year when the fluke are

(13:14):
leaving the bay.
They should be doing prettywell in the surf but for some
reason I think maybe because thewater is so warm they're just
not hanging out in the surf andI think maybe because the water
is so warm they're just nothanging out in the surf.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (13:25):
Yeah , I think part of it is.
We did have that bigtemperature change which can
kind of shut things off, turnthem back on, move the fish.
They're not gone.
You know, I, unfortunately, wasout it was last Wednesday I
think.
It was like 95 degrees and nowind.
It was brutal.

(13:48):
I mean dave it was, I was outsolo and I'm I'm pedaling the
kayak and I was like, oh my god,I gotta stop.
Like it was so bad.
I drank.
You're just like showered with,with sweat.
Yeah, oh, it was brutal.
I I had, I think I had fivebottles like those big bottles
that you get in wawa, the oneswith with the spout top that you
squeeze the bottle, so you knowmid-sized ones.
I think I had five of those.
Didn't have to go to thebathroom the whole day, not

(14:10):
until I was back.
So from when I hit the water atseven in the morning to when I
got home at 6.30 at night, neverhad to.
I was just sweating.

The body's just.
You sweat so much, you're justdrinking the water.

Yeah , it was brutal.
Now I'll tell you what.
Now I it was a little weird day.
I wanted to catch some nicefluke, but I wanted to get into
something that Skinner and I hadtalked about with the teasers
and that had come up as a topic.
You know, do you fish teaser?
So I went out there and I waslike all right, I'm going to
prove that you can catch just asmany fish without a teaser.

(14:45):
All right, I'm going to provethat you can catch just as many
fish without a teaser.
And I caught two shorts.
And then it's and it's gettinglate and I'm like this is
ridiculous, like I was hoping tolike do something.
So I just switched rods to onewith a teaser.
I think I banged like 18.
They were all shorts.
The biggest, the closest onewas like I think it was maybe 17
and a half, so nothing reallyclose to the 18.

(15:06):
Bangdom.
You know, I think I got like 18fish in the next hour.
Yeah, I caught fish all day,and mostly on the teaser.

So you were fishing with just the bucktail,
without a teaser at first.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (15:21):
Yes , yes.
And then I caught caught about18.
I didn't finish going throughthe video to count them right,
but I think it was around 18 ofthem and probably 15 of those
were on the teaser and yeah.
So so it wasn't a normal day.
Like I don't, I can't say thatthere were no fish in the

(15:41):
morning.
All I know is I didn't catchreally any fish in the morning
but, it was weird, but I willtell you this.
There's, there's a gentlemanthat's coming on as a guest,
probably at the end of August,and I'm not going to share much
more, except that he's beenpulling out five plus pound Luke
from shore up to, I think,eight to eight and a half pound

(16:05):
consistently over the past twoweeks and he's just determined
that he's going to.
He's going to go for his doubledigit from shore, and every
week they're getting bigger.
So I'm just quietly sitting onthe sidelines cheering him on.

Well, I agree with the teaser thing.
You, you know the rigs I I'vebeen using.
You know, uh, people use the uh, they call it the high low.
Yeah, it's basically just a twodropper loop rig, that is, has
two hooks set up above a sinkeror a bucktail.
I find that to be just too muchwhen you're casting in the surf

(16:43):
.
So I just use a single dropperloop rig and I'll either put a
bucktail on the bottom or just asinker.
And I tell you, more than 75percent of the time I'm just
throwing a sinker on the bottom,I'm just using the single
teaser up the top.
Yeah, and even when I'm fishingwith a bucktail on the bottom,

(17:04):
over the years it's basically75% of fish are hitting the one
that's up higher.

And it makes sense.
It makes sense from shore,especially because it's kind of
tough to get a lot of action ona heavy bucktail in shallow
water right, because you'repulling it almost horizontal, so
it's going to be a lot ofdragging on the bottom and that
teaser is going to be set.
You know, if it's up 12 inchesoff of that bucktail, I'm going

(17:31):
to slant it, or I guess this wayslant it 45 degrees and then it
comes back down closer to thebottom.
But it shouldn't be hitting thebottom.

Right, people don't realize that when I tie a
rig like that, I tie a lot of myown rigs.
I mean, my teaser is up a good18 inches from the bottom but
not when you're pulling it in.
On this angle here.
All right, 18 inches off theboat is 18 inches off the bottom
, but when you're fishing thesurf you're still only about

(18:03):
five or six inches off thebottom.
With your teaser and thebucktails that I use, I don't
use anything bigger thanthree-quarters of an inch and I
always use the ball heads in thesurf because the longer
mullet-type bucktails they tendto nose into the sand and kind
of dig into the sand along thebottom.
But the lighter the bucktailyou use, the better, because

(18:31):
that's not going to stay on thebottom as you're retrieving.
It's going to automaticallystart planing up off off the
bottom.
So I'll use a three-eighthsounce, a one, eight a half ounce
, three-quarter ounce is thebiggest I'll use.
But I'll never start out with athree-quarter ounce.
I'll always start out with likea three-eighths or a half ounce
.
You know, that's why you need agood super light rod that has
some really great action,that'll throw that out there and
get, get that to get thatlightweight bucktail out there.

(18:52):
But that's.
I think that's the problem thata lot of people have, or the,
or the thing that they shouldn'tbe doing is putting on a one
ounce or an ounce and a half ora two ounce bucktail that's just
going to drag on the bottom.
You're better off just puttinga sinker on it at that point if
you can't get your bucktail outthere.
If you can't get your half ouncebucktail out there, your
quarter ounce or three eighths,whatever out there, and and you

(19:14):
still want to fish with a teaserrig, put a sinker on the bottom
.
That's all there's to it.
One ounce, ounce and a halfgenerally when I'm fishing with
with sinkers off the beach.
If I end up I'm not going toeven bother with a bucktail.
Today I'm just going to use mysingle dropper and I'm just
going to throw a sinker on thebottom.
It's a bank sinker.
It's a one ounce bank sinker.

(19:34):
If I need to, I'll go to ounceand a half.
I find if I use a two ouncebank sinker it's just a lot more
work getting that thing in.
You know, the lighter the better, even if you can get like a
three-quarter ounce sinker onthe bottom.
You know you got a.
You got a good lightweight rodthat has some good action on.
It's going to get it out there.
You don't have to cast out toengland to get a fish, to get to

(19:56):
get fluke.
But as long as you're in thetrough, as long as you're in the
area of, of of the beach within, if you can cast out, you know
20 20 yards.
15 20 yards.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (20:07):
You're good enough, but yeah, the
lighter the better, for sure,when you're, when you're fishing
off the beach for fluke well, Ithink that brings up a good
point, because you know a lot ofpeople that don't do a lot of
surf fishing.
You know, there there's animage of what a surf fishing rod
is.
It's a 10 foot thick thing witha six thousand eight thousand

(20:27):
class reel on it yeah and you'rejust you're chucking it, you
know, and you're trying to getover the bars and everything
like that.
I I've seen what you fish withwhen you're going for fluke,
even when you're going forstriper like.
I use the same rods that I usein the backwaters in the surf
because I'm chucking lures.
So I'm using a seven foot sixTFO pro and a medium heavy or a

(20:51):
medium and I'm using basicallythe same stuff.
But, to your point, I do usesmaller bucktails in the surf
than I use in the back and evenjig heads.

I've been doing this setup a lot.
I'll just use like a quarterounce, three eighths ounce, jig
head with with a jerk bait onthere.
No, no rig, no line, no, nodropper loops, nothing.
I just clip this on and fishthis.
Yeah, this is actually a halfounce one.
This is a little heavy.
This is a little heavier thanthan what I normally use in in
the in the surf.
It's just something that Igrabbed because I went

(21:22):
downstairs and grabbed a bunchof stuff and it's already had a
jerkbait on there.
But this is a fantastic bait touse off the beach and I'll even
do this on the boats too, whenI get into the shallows.
I don't, I don't bother withwith the, with the bucktail
teasers or anything like that.
These, these jig heads workfantastic.
Nice painted jig head with withthe eye, big eye on it or
whatever.

(21:42):
But always make sure you knowthere's different jig heads.
This has a longer shaft on it.
These are the ones that youwant they have.
They make shorter shaft onesand they make longer shaft ones.
Get the longer.
The longer the shaft, the better, because it keeps your uh, it
keeps your soft plastic nice andstraight and the hook is back

(22:02):
more near the tail, becausethat's where fluke start
grabbing.
Bait is from the back end.
You'll feel a bite and then youkind of just release a little
bit, just just kind of stop whatyou retrieve a little bit and
just I call it giving in thebait, because what happens is a
fluke will grab and then a flukewill gulp.
You know they grab it all right, I got it, now I want to get it

(22:23):
in my mouth.
And that's when they get thehook in their mouth the mistake
a lot of people make is I feel abite, boom, it's gone.
No, no, no, no, give it to thefish, let it grab it again.

But yeah, I'll use this a lot, even
off boats when we get to therods, pull that back up on
screen.
Okay, I want to point somethingout on that.
That jig head that you have isthe look at where the eye is.

(22:55):
Yeah, so so it's.
It's slanted forward right.
It's not a 90 degree eyelet,which is, yeah, you're
retrieving on the beach becausethen it won't, it won't dig and
it won't turn it up.
You know we'll put a tail upnow.
Tail up is good in some cases,but when you're doing a retrieve
in like that, that's a decentspot to.
It's at least a better spot tohave it than the 90 degree

(23:18):
bucktails which a lot of peopleuse for most of what they're
fishing.

Yeah, even this, even this ball head has it
sitting forward a little bit andthen, like I said, with the,
with the mullet head bucktails,you know that eyelet is set back
in mid, like halfway across tothe head.
So when you're putting pressureon that to pull that, it
automatically starts going,going like this and, because it
has the nose, it starts diggingin the sand.
Yeah, so, yeah, you're good,good to point that out for sure
that's one reason I very rarelyuse those mullet, those mullet
heads it, it just doesn't itjust doesn't work with my style

(23:53):
of fishing.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (23:54):
A lot of people make it work
really well, but it's not for meand it's because one of the big
things is the placement of thateye and what it's going to do.
You know, when you're reelingthat in and then you see some of
the bucktails, they have a 90degree and then they have that
angled like 45 degree, so youcan pick and choose.
Yeah, you know where you are.
I think that's a littleexcessive.
Just buy a second bucktail, butuh, if when in doubt, get one

(24:16):
of those well, as far asequipment's concerned, you know
you were.

you were talking about your, your lightweight rod
, the 7'4", 7'6" 7'6".
Yeah, I ended up with a 7'10".
I have a Century Rods customthat I had made a good few years
ago.
It's a Weapon Junior and itthrows from quarter ounce to two
ounce.
Yeah, and it's an absoluterocket ship.

(24:42):
This is 7'10".
I chose the longer rod because Icould have gotten a seven foot
one, but I chose the 710 becauseI also used it in the back bays
for schooly stripers in march,when, when the when, the season
opens up in march.
So I just wanted a little bitlonger of a rod to be able to
cast out.
I don't know it, just just.
I just feel more comfortablehaving a longer rod when I'm

(25:05):
fishing for stripers and stuff.
But I could have grabbed theseven footer, but I'm pretty
happy with the 710.
I know guys who use freshwaterrods in the surf for fluke.
You know, because I'm notthrowing anything bigger than a
half ounce, three quarter, maybean ounce whatever, but that's
all you need.
You don ounce whatever, butthat's all you need.

(25:27):
You don't need a big, lone,heavy rod.
It's six footer, six footfreshwater rod.
You know that you're catchinglargemouth bass on.
You can.
You can go fishing for flukewith those things.
So even if you're not set up.
You know, oh, my only surf rodsare 10 foot chunk and rod and
all that stuff.
If you got freshwater stuff,man, grab it, grab it and go to
the surf and you're going tocatch fluke with a freshwater
rod for sure.

Yeah , why not?
Well, go back to the rod youwere going to mention about the
rod that you're using.
Yeah, was there another rodthat you used, or are you just
using that weapon?

That's all I use.
Is that weapon Junior?
Yeah, I do have a.
It's a battle two combosix-foot freshwater setup that I
bought.
I didn't grow up fishing.
I've only started fishing whenI moved to LBI 12, 13 years ago,
so I have no background infreshwater or anything like that

(26:12):
.
And about five or six years ago, maybe even a little bit longer
, somebody tried to get well,they did get me into doing some
freshwater fishing and we wentto the shop and I bought this
battle three combo, battle no,battle two combo and I've
actually used it for for fishingfor food off the beach.
But I just, I just love my, myweapon junior, so much.

(26:32):
Sure that that's all I use.
It's so lightweight and it'sgot such good action.
It's basically a flick of thewrist and it's gone.
Man, I just love that rod somuch.
But, yeah, that that's.
That's basically all I use forfood, fishing, for sure, off off
of boats.
I have a tfo professional.
It's a, not a spinning rod,it's a conventional and I have a

(26:53):
uh, a daewoo conventional reelon there.
I love the push button whenyou're when you're adjusting
depth.
That's the reason why I gotthat, because I didn't.
I just got sick of dealing withthe spinning rod on and off
with the.
You know clicking that bail onand off every time I was
adjusting depth right.
So that's what I use on theboat.
Is the the tfo professional?

(27:15):
It's a light, it's a prettylightweight rod.
I can't I don't remember whatis, uh, that the.
As far as the weight isconcerned, I just know I bought
this and I love it.
But yeah, off the weight isconcerned, uh, I just know I
bought this and I and I love it,but yeah, off the surface, that
is that century, but it's, Imean any, any rod that's seven
foot, you know, even six footsix.
I would say, go for a sevenfoot rod, super like, like a

(27:37):
medium something that's, that'srated for like quarter ounce to
two or three ounces.
Is is basically what you'relooking for, and probably a 3000
series spinning rod, a spinningreel.
15 pound test braid is all youneed.
You can even go lighter.
I know my, my one buddy, justdoes 10 or 12 pound.

(27:57):
You don't really need a leaderon that.
I tie a leader on it anyway,because I tie leaders on my, so
but it's not much of a leader.
It's probably three feet longor maybe two feet.
I I kind of like using theleader, because sometimes if I
just throw on, like I said, if alead head or something like
that, I mean a, a jig head, thenI feel like where I have some

(28:19):
leader I can grab, but there'smany different.
You know, talking a little bitmore about fluke and what they,
what they will hit, you knowthey hit everything oh yeah, I
mean they're.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad F (28:30):
They're incredibly aggressive, they're
going to hit whatever now youwere.
You said earlier in the yearyou're going to do a little
experiment with fishing, withwhat was it?
Was it swim baits?

I just want to try every lure that I have for
fluke.
Last year a buddy of mine buddyof mine was using these jerk
baits, these hard plastics, andhe was catching a lot of fluke
with these.
So I actually caught fluke afew times with this one.
And then earlier in the seasonI'm fishing for striped bass in

(29:02):
March off the surf and I'm usingthis Hydro Minnow and I'm using
this hydro minnow.
Yeah, and I got two flukes.
Grab the tail of this thing.
I mean, that's a pretty decentsize lure for a fluke to be
hitting.
And I had a 12-inch fluke onthis thing and you know they're
very aggressive feeders.
If you know about fluke andwhat they eat in the wild or

(29:25):
whatever you want to call that.
You know there's been largefluke that have, uh, you know,
snapper blues in their belly.
Yeah, spot that have croakersin their belly.
The other day, a week and a halfago, I was in the in the great
bay drifting around with a buddyof mine and I pulled up a I
think it was a 24 inch fluke andhe caught up.
He coughed up a croaker that hemust have just eaten because

(29:49):
the thing was still moving.
So I put it on a hook and Ithrew it down there and I caught
another fluke with that, withthat croaker fluke are flat, but
when they open their mouths,their mouths open up round.
They're like buckets.
Bite big stuff, man, and if youwant to catch big fluke, throw
some big baits.
When I was at a they're likebuckets pride.

(30:12):
He gave me one.
He sold me one of his short fatmetal lips.
He said dave, if you get onfluke, throw this, he goes.
They will get this, he goes.
I've caught many fluke withthis metal lip.
I have yet to use it and I I dohave in my bag when I go out.

(30:37):
I'm imagining you.
You want it to be in moreshallow because I don't know how
deep that thing is going to runright and again I've seen fluke
come out of 12 feet of water tohit rainfish on the surface
yeah fluke.

Like I said, they're very aggressive
feeding feeders very aggressiveit has to be the right time to
bring them up that high, though,but I've seen them on the top.
I think everybody's seen them.
You know when they, when theycome up top and they jump I mean
they'll jump out of the watertoo, yeah.

I've seen it.

Yeah , but you got to try that.
You got to try that bait andlet me know how it goes, because
I mean that really, think aboutit.
The best bait to use,especially right now, at this
time of the summer, is a wholespot in my opinion.
You know, if you're going touse live bait or anything,
actually, if I like we talkedabout it with scotty, you know,
several shows ago both of us arebringing live spot for a

(31:33):
tournament, if we're, if we'rein a fluke tournament, because
that's where you're going to getthe biggest fish bigger ones,
yeah the size of those things.
I mean they could definitely use.
You could definitely use thosebigger lures, the.
The question is, can you workthem in the right spot without
getting frustrated?
But from shore that could beperfect, especially in the surf.

I mean, there's some good soft plastics, there's
some good paddle tails that youcan put on some decent-sized
jig heads and drop down.
That'll be the size of a spotor whatever you know stuff that
you fish for striped bass withor whatever you know.
Some of those big paddle tails,some of those big soft plastics
.
You know that that's in myarsenal as well when I'm going
to try to target, fluke with,with whatever I can, and that

(32:17):
that's one of them.
I I wish I would have grabbedit.
I it's down.
It's down in my fishing room.
It's a soft plastic that a buddyof mine at Beach Haven West
Marine Center it's basically aboating place but they do a lot
of lures and stuff for the boatstoo he gave me this.
It's a soft plastic, it'spretty thick, it looks like a

(32:41):
paddle tail, but instead of atail it's got a spoon spinner on
the end of it.
Yeah, pretty big and it'spretty fat.
And you put it on jig heads andhe said he was catching with it
.
And the thing is big and it'sfat and, like I said, it has the
metal spinner on the end and Ididn't bring one up either.

(33:02):
But you can buy those littlemetal spinners that have like a
little screw on the end, and Ididn't bring one up either.
but you can buy those littlemetal spinners that have like a
little screw on the end of themyeah, so it's like a, like a
dart spin yeah, and you justclip off the end of your uh,
jerk shad or whatever your yoursoft plastic and just screw that
on there and you got thatlittle metal spinner behind it
and I had I.

(33:22):
I was using it the other dayand and the surf got too rough
and I didn't I, it was just toolightweight.
But it also is in my arsenalnow.
The problem with me this yearis I haven't been getting out as
much as I normally do orotherwise.
Otherwise I probably would havecaught a lot more food this
year and probably would haveused a lot more of these lures
that I want to use.
So I'm running a little lategetting all this stuff done

(33:45):
because I just had I've had acrazy summer.
I've been so busy doing this andthat and some priorities that I
want to get into.
Nothing too bad, but it justjust stuff that kept me busy and
I I just didn't get out as muchas I normally do and and shame
on me I gotta get out there andstart doing this stuff, man,
which I will.
But yeah yeah, that's the mainthing right now.

(34:07):
We're trying to get them flukesman.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (34:09):
So here's an interesting thing.
So this is not shore base, butI want to bring this up.
You know we're talking aboutthey'll eat anything.
So Stephen Duda, 26-inchflounder on a Stretch 30,
trolling for stripers the daybefore Christmas.
I love that it's off the Ferriswheel in Wildwood, just a
legendary area to fish.
Are you familiar with what astretch 30 is?

Yeah, that's those tubes right.

Well , no, well, I guess there could
be.
The ones that I'm thinkingabout are who makes it?
I think it's Mann's and it'sgot like a lip that's almost the
size of the fish.
The lure itself it's a big lure, but I love that you're
trolling for stripers and afluke comes all the way up to

(34:53):
the top to hit a stretch 30.
I've never caught one on astretch 30.
I never even thought to try it.
I don't even think I own anyanymore now that I don't have a
boat.
But yeah, they'll hit a lot ofdifferent things and that's just
a really good example.

Well I was.
I was digging with a flutterspoon at a eight or it might've
been an eight inch, it couldhave been a 10 inch flutter
spoon that a that a fluke hit.
I caught a fluke with it and itwas.
It was like a 15 inch fluke.
He hit like a 10 inch flutterspoon.

Oh , I love it, I love it, I love
it.
They're insane.

I got something like it's.
I think I got a piece of weedand I'm like, yeah, all right,
hit the hit, hit the thing thatwas the same size as the fish
almost yeah, so it feels likeit's just a bigger spinner on
there, a bigger thing around,but it's hilarious.

Yeah , the smaller one, the smaller
ones are going to be taking overagain because, to your point
earlier, a lot of the biggerfish are moving out.
But I'm going to tell peoplethere are still going to be big
28-inchers in the backwater,even 30-inchers, 10-pounders are
going to be in the backwatersand along the beaches all the

(36:00):
way up until we can't fish forthem anymore.
They just are.
They are every year and, like Isaid, you know, my one, buddy,
is going to be on the show atthe end of August.
He's catching eight pounders inthe backwaters, you know so,
and these are all land-based.
He's not in a kayak, he's noton a boat.
He's land-based and the picturesare.

(36:20):
I just love them.
I don't have permission toshare anything else but that, so
I won't.
I respect his privacy, but he'son his own personal mission for
that double digit and he'sgetting closer and closer.
All right, so okay, so we'vecovered Fluke, but there's more
going on.
You know, I'm getting textstoday saying you know'm I'm

(36:42):
getting, I'm getting texts todaysaying you know about different
things.
One of them is there's the uh,the pompano are showing up in
the cast nets.
That was one of them.
And then the other one I thinkwe've all heard this one the
tarpon that are that are up wellnorth of us at this point for a
good few years now with thetarpon.

(37:03):
Yeah, so I mean there aredifferent things that we can
target.
You're starting to get albiesthat are approaching.
They're going to be in soon.
I haven't heard much going onwith the albies.

No, Someone just asked me about that and I said
not yet, but I'll tell you whenI do.

Yeah , I can't wait for that, and I
haven't been on the water nearlyenough.
I just went out last week once.
I'm doing a lot of solo fishing.
A lot of the guys that I usedto fish with just aren't around
fishing when I can fish.
So I've been doing a lot ofsolo and just kind of like
messing around on the water.
But I got to get more.
Just like you, I got to get outthere and just take advantage

(37:39):
before this is over, you know,before.
I'm stuck inside for the winter, but all right so.
So let's say you can't gofishing for fluke in August.
What's the next thing thatyou're going to be targeting
from shore?

Well, they I mean there's kingfish in the surf.
They haven't come in realstrong yet, but they are there.
You know, kingfish, you knowthat doesn't really thrill me.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (37:59):
I don't consider.
I consider them a little bit.
I consider them a kid fish.

Yeah, exactly, they're easy to catch.
They catch themselves there'sno skill.
You make tacos out of them, orwhatever.
It's good when you're hanging onthe beach or kids want to reel
in fish, that's fun and all thatstuff.
But there's still striped bassaround in the evenings and at
night around the jetties aroundthe lighthouse in the deep

(38:23):
waters in the evenings and atnight around around the jetties,
around around the lighthouse,you know, in the in the deep
waters, in the bays by the sodbanks, go at night, go go super
early in the morning beforefirst light, go go in the
evenings as the sun is gone andthe light is starting to
disappear.
There's striped bass around allsummer and I had a guy three

(38:45):
days ago sent me a picture.
He was off the jetty in theBarnegat Inlet.
He was throwing a bottle.
It was after sunset and it wasgetting really dark and he had a
44-inch bass I'm sorry, 34-inchbass and that's just a
beautiful thing, man, and we dothat here down on LBI a lot in

(39:06):
the evenings.
I got a buddy of mine, rickyRazzle.
He's 21 years old and he's anabsolute maniac.
All he does is fish, work andsleep.
He lives at home with hisparents, he works in a
restaurant, goes into work at 4o'clock in the afternoon, gets

(39:30):
off of work at 12, 1 o'clock andthen just drives to LBI and
fishes all night.
And the kid, he's an absoluteanimal and he, he is, he does it
all the time and he just knowswhen and where.
Oh, it's going to be slack tied.
I'm going to bring my, I'mgoing to bring my shrimp net.
We're going to, we're going todrag out.
You know, we're going to drag,gonna drag some shrimp off off
the rocks, put them on on circlehooks and throw them out there
and we're just gonna slam bassall night.
And he does, yeah it's a maniacor or I'm doing live eels

(39:51):
tonight.
All right, get some live eelsafter work.
One o'clock in the morningdrives the lbi, throws live eels
in the inlet, off off thewalkway and and he's, he's
banging, he's banging bass allnight.
So so, but you know during theday you're not going to be
really doing that.
You might get lucky.
You know, yesterday actuallysomeone got a 30-inch bass up by

(40:16):
that north end throwing like atopwater plug along the rocks
and got a 30-inch bass.
So congratulations.
But you know, you, all these,all these charters, these four
packs and these six packs bring,bring people out early morning
along the north jetty there by,uh, island beach state park,
across across the inlet from lvi, and they're, they're banging

(40:38):
striped bass off those rocks,tails and stuff.
But as far as off the surf isconcerned, you know it's, yeah,
it's, it's.
There's not a lot of not a lotgoing on right now other than
the fluke and the kingfish.

And yeah, of course, we got tog now
you know, I was gonna say weneed to talk about tog, yeah
sheep your sheep.

you know the sheep's head are in good again
this year.
You know I'm hearing reportsevery day sheep's head, uh, off
the rocks and stuff like that,you know.
So that's another thing thatwe're targeting.
Thank God we had that seasonopen up again, you know, for the
TOG, but even so we've beengetting trigger all summer here
and for at least a month we'vebeen getting sheep's head, if

(41:21):
not longer.
So yeah, that's another thingpeople are targeting for sure
and loving it.

Yeah , I, I haven't gone for talk yet
this season.
I'm probably going to wait alittle bit longer.
I like to do like a clean shiftfrom summer into fall winter,
and that's where I consider talk.
You know, spring for me isstriped bass, primarily, winter
is white perch and tog, you know.
So I kind of shift that way,but I'm I'm starting to get

(41:51):
excited about it.
I actually last weekend Ipulled the tog gear out which
has been in storage for a yearand a half, and got it all ready
to go.
So I'm going to be ready.
There there's.
You know, I want to go back tosomething all the way.
At the beginning you weretalking about the currents in
the inlet and it made me thinkabout something that I think is

(42:13):
worth sharing.
Most people probably know this,but some people may not, and
let me tell a little bit of astory and I'll bring it around
to fishing in an inlet and whatyou can learn from it.
So when I first got my kayakthe current kayak I have five
years ago maybe it was I used torun inlets quite a bit, so I

(42:37):
ran out of seeking inlet one dayand I fished offshore, actually
went all the way up the coastof it I was fishing offshore
came back and I started to comein back in the inlet.
Now I didn't run with the tides.
So now I'm coming in againstthe outgoing tide and it was
ripping right, which is exactlywhat you're talking about.

(42:57):
And I'm coming in and I'm like,wow, this is going to suck,
it's going to take hours,because I was pedaling as fast
as I could, which is, on a calmday, three and a half to four
miles per hour speed over ground, and I'm going at about 0.1,
0.2.
So I'm going as hard as I can.
You're just sitting there, yeah, I mean, I was barely moving

(43:20):
forward, but I had a lot ofstamina back then.
So I was like, all right, it'sgoing to kind moving forward,
but I had a lot of stamina backthen, so I was like, all right,
it's going to kind of suck, butI'll just keep going, keep going
.
But what I did is I watched twoother kayakers not be able to do
it and they got swept out.
Now, as I'm coming in, Istarted to go up the middle and
I realized I can't do this.
So I just turned parallel tothe beach and went south.

(43:43):
And the reason I went south isbecause if you look at Epsican
Inlet, there are jetties on thesouth, so as they're getting
swept out and actually they hadto get rescued because they just
gave up they couldn't do it Wow, I turned in the inlet on the
south side and I came right upto the jetties, the fishermen as
I'm coming by, they're waving.
I'm like I'm sorry I to thejetties, the fishermen as I'm

(44:10):
coming by, they're waving.
I'm like I'm sorry I got to getin.
They're like no, go ahead, goahead.
They're like kind of cheeringme on.
What people need to remember isthese currents.
You get current breaks aroundstructure and when you have
jetties along an inlet, if youhave a seawall along the inlet,
you have a current seam there,which means you're not going to
have the full force of thatcoming in.
So I was able to actually comein at about a mile and a half to
almost two miles per hour onthe way in, where these other

(44:32):
guys couldn't make any headwayat all and had to get picked up
by boats Wow that's great advice.
Right.
So think about that.
For fishing it doesn't.
I won't say it doesn't matter,it can matter less.
You can get around the currentsif you fish those current seams
and in very close to thestructure.
And it makes sense, because ifyou had those incredibly strong

(44:54):
currents, you're not going tohave a ton of fish sitting out
in that current anyway.
They're going to be sittingbehind structure, so they're not
burning calories trying tofight it the entire time.
Yeah, so bring it in tight, andone of the best things you can
do for fluke from shore ifyou're especially on a seawall,
just it's, it's essentiallyvertical jigging.
Just drop it to your feet andwalk down, walk down the seawall

(45:17):
and just, yeah, the entire wayand you will catch more fish
right there than you will bycasting it out as far as you can
and battling that current,getting snagged, like if you go
up to Manasquan and you're goingto get snagged if you throw it
out there too far, too often andthat current just rips it under
something.
So just, I wanted to come allthe way back to that because

(45:37):
it's still, it can still befishable, not always.
Sometimes it just overpowers youand there's nothing, yeah I
think you and I had a day likethat where we we gave up because
it was, it was just nothinggoing on.
And I think I went to manasquaninlet and it was one of those
days where it's like there'sthere's no relief here at all.
So I just kind of hung outthere for a little while,

(45:59):
watched the crazy people andthen I left.
But yeah, it's something tothink about.
Get the current breaks andyou're going to get a current
break along some of thosejetties and everything.
So fishing close to the rocks,the fluke will be there, the
weak fish will be there.
They're not going to sit out inthat current, they're going to
tuck in behind something.
So if you can find that, fishit no-transcript current.

And the closer you are to the rocks, the the less
the current is, is the slowerthe current gets because, like I
said, it just breaks it upbecause of all the structure
that's there, the rocks.
Even though you have like 12,15, 20 feet of water, you know
the rocks disappear right hereat the waterline but it goes out
on an angle.

(47:12):
You know you'll have a pile ofrocks and then it'll drop down
another pile or a couple ofrocks here, here and there.
So that's all structure that'sdown there.
That's breaking up that current, all structure that's down
there, that's breaking up thatcurrent.
And when you get that strongcurrent, like you like you were
saying rich, those fish willhide from that current by going
downstream, the down current ofof that you know and and kind of

(47:36):
hide, hide in behind thoserocks, get into those pockets
there.
And that's when I I'm tellingpeople that's what you want to
look for when you're on thesejetties is, look for those
pockets, look for those rocksthat are kind of sticking out a
little bit further than than thejetty is, and get down current
from there, because that's wherethe fish are going to be
hanging out and you can targetthem down there, right and that

(47:58):
and that's for like the tog andthe trigger and for the sheep's
head and whatnot.
Now, when I'm I I love yourpoint of using the current
because I do that all the timewhen I'm fishing for fluke in
the jetties, in the inlets, offthe jetty, I'll cast up current
as far as I can go, as far as Ican go out, it'll depend I'll do

(48:21):
different distances, but I'llcast it out, I'll let it drop
down and just let the currentdrift the rig down and then and
then reel it in and cast back upcurrent again a little further,
a little closer, or whateverI'm.
I'm kind of used to fishingthat that inlet off that jetty,
knowing where the rocks areright.

(48:41):
I know if I go closer I'm gonnaget snagged.
So yeah, just like you said,use those currents as a that
you're drifting like the boatsare doing, but you're just,
you're just standing up.
You know you're standing on therocks and it's not like the
surf where you're just castingout and drawing straight in.
Use that current, cast upcurrent, let it, let it drift
down, bang, bang, bang, bang,bang, bang, bang, bang, and then

(49:03):
retrieve it, get, get it backout there again, and even for
tog.
I cast out a lot more for togthan I do fish close, especially
with those with the slowercurrents.
Because, like I said, that thatthat jetty doesn't go straight
down, it goes out on an angleout into the inlet and even the

(49:26):
structure of the inlet itself,the sand or whatever you want to
call that.
That doesn't go straight upeither.
There's like a slope that goesdown from the jetty down to the
bottom of sand and whatnot.
And so you've got to rememberthat the fish might not always
just be uptight to the jetty,they might be down where those

(49:46):
little rock piles are, down atthe bottom of that slope.
And I catch a lot of large togout there and I'll cast out a
little up current and just kindof let it drift in and it'll
drift in off the bottom.
You know it'll be out past therocks, it'll be out you in the,
in the channel a little bit more, but then the current will
bring it in closer to the rocksand then it'll stop and then you

(50:10):
tighten up your line and let itsit there and I catch a lot of
big tog doing that.
What really helped me out was abuddy of mine who spearfishes
and he knows the structure ofthat entire jetty and he, he
contacts me almost every otherday, dave, over here by this, by
that you gotta.
You gotta see this hole, yougotta check out this spot.
He's tells me so muchinformation about what goes on

(50:32):
underwater because he's downthere looking at it right and,
uh, it's, the guy's helped meout so much.
There's a couple spots on thatbarnigan inlet, off that jetty,
there, he says, where bass justhang out, and I'm not going to
give you all the secrets, butthere it's.
It has to do with the structure, it has to do with hiding from

(50:52):
the currents.
You have to look for thosepockets, you have to look for
those little pieces of structure, of of sand or of the rocks,
where the fish will protectthemselves from that strong
current, and that's where you'regoing to target them.

And you can see well.
First of all, not all inletsare created equal right.

So keep that in mind, yeah, yeah.

And you have to do some
experimentation.
You know, sometimes time on thewater really does help, and
this is one of those.
So let's talk specificallyabout TOG.
So for TOg, what you often seeon the jetties is people just
dropping straight down.
They're using theirconventional setups and they're
just dropping straight down.
When I fish a jetty for tog, I'mvery rarely right up on it.

(51:39):
Now, sometimes I will, but thereare multiple rock walls in
multiple inlets where I fishabout 20 yards off because the
rocks on the bottom have fallenonto the drop.
So that's where the big drop indepth is and there's boulders
down there and you can see that.
You can't even really see itvery well on the electronics

(52:01):
unless you're really dialed in,but you can see it.
When you can see like an eddyjust kicking up out of nowhere
about 30 yards down current,you're like all right, well,
based on this depth, it'ssomewhere up here and you just
you scout around a little bitand then all of a sudden you
find hard bottom and then youget a little snag.
You're like, okay, I found it.
Yeah, you mark it visually,however you want mark it, and

(52:22):
you just keep hitting that spotand so most of the tog that I
catch in the backwaters orbackwaters meaning not out front
on a boat.
So anything inlets and in it'snot right on those rocks, it's
out.
Where it doesn't look likethere are any, there are.

You just don't know it because you're not right
up against the rocks.
Yeah's what I was saying abouthow I like to fish that, that
jetty, and off that walkway I'mnot casting, I'm flipping.
Yeah, about 10, 15 yards andjust let me get to the bottom
there and sometimes the car willjust take you into the closer
that.
You're just on the outside ofthose rocks and on the outside
of that structure and those bigfish are just swimming around in
there.
And and you're right about howthe eddies are forming where the

(53:05):
walkway corners off going,coming in the inlet into the bay
, but by the lighthouse therewhen you have current running
sometimes you'll see where theall right, the currents run this
way goes around the corner, itcreates an eddy and it starts
cutting back around that eddy.
That's formed especially thehigh when the current's really
ripping.
That's formed especially thehigh when the current's really
ripping.

(53:26):
That's packed with fish pack itis.
And and I get all that infofrom my, my diver buddy, you
know.

Yeah , and and think about it this
way also.
So we're talking late summer,hot water temperatures, you know
, and again, not all eddies arecreated equal.
However, let's say you haveincoming and you have a bridge
and you're fishing behind abridge, if you can get right
where that eddy has it.
So an eddy will typically havethat big turn in like you talked

(53:54):
about.
But then there's, so it'swarmer water, you have the
cooler water, which is moreoxygenated, coming in from
offshore.
So it's coming in the inlets,it's going to mix around that
bridge, it's going to pull, soit pulls everything together

(54:16):
More oxygen in the water, whichthey want, along with the
swirling currents which theywant because that pushes food
into a certain area, and currentrelief, so they're not fighting
the current as much.
So it's things like that alsothat you want to look for.
Don't forget the biggest part ofwhy we talk about how summer

(54:36):
fishing is different than springit's the temperatures, it's the
water temperatures, and it'snot just the heat of the water,
it's the oxygen in the waterquite often is the problem.
That's why if you catch astriped bass in the summer, it
has a much higher mortality rateon the release than if you do
it in the winter.
The cold water has a lot moreoxygen.

(54:57):
It's a lot easier on them.
They're not, as stressed, allof these fish at this point I
shouldn't say all weak fish havea pretty good tolerance.
Fluke have a decent tolerance,but they're at their upper
ranges of where they're reallycomfortable.
They're just about to move outof their prime feeding

(55:17):
temperatures, so keep that inmind.
They are looking for moreoxygen and cooler water because
it's going to make it easier forthem to survive.
So look for areas that will givethat to you, and if you can
find an area that's going togive multiple things that are
going to keep them in that spot,that's it, and that's why that
pocket is awesome.
You have a current break, youhave structure, you have the

(55:40):
clean, cool water of the oceancoming through.
I mean, what else are you goingto want?
I mean, you have the depththere which is going to help
keep them out of the, you know,the direct sun and a couple of
feet of water.
Yeah, I mean that's.
If you can find places likethat, fish it Absolutely.

Yeah, and and and I think you're making me, you
know you made me realize thatthese last two mornings where I
wasn't really finding any flukebite off the surf, it was
basically the last few hours ora couple hours of outgoing tide
and that water was really warmand I was actually considering

(56:16):
going out the last couple hoursof incoming this afternoon to
see if any of that cooler waterturned on the bite.
And what I'm saying?
I didn't find any fish.
You said it, you said dave,they're there, they're just not
feeding, right, and that'sbasically what it is.
And we get that in the bay alot too.
You know you're in one area andyou're not catching any fish,

(56:39):
but you know, as soon as thetide turns around and the
current starts bringing coldwater in, you're going to start
catching fish.
It's not that the fish weren'tthere, they just weren't feeding
.
And people don't realize that.
You know it's.
You know you hear the old adageturning on a bite.
You know, especially whenyou're bottom fishing, for like
a tog and whatnot, you knowsometimes those fish are just

(56:59):
down there and they're justhanging out and there's not
really feeding.
And then you just start givingthem, you know, some stinky,
yummy smelling tasty morselsdown there and they're just
hanging out and there's notreally feeding, and then you
just start giving them you knowsome stinky, yummy smelling
tasty morsels down there for awhile and then one of them grabs
and then the other one grabsyou're turning on a bite.
So I think that's what happenswith the fluke is in the surf as
well.
You know there's there, it'stoo warm, they're just hanging

(57:20):
and you know, once that coldwater comes in, I think that'll
turn that bite on.

And , um, yeah, well in the over the
overnight bite it's still goingto be the best in the heat of
the summer.
Yeah, you know, it's cooler,it's it just helps everything.
And honestly, I I've talked toa couple of people uh, it wasn't
this last week, I think theweek before.
They're like, yeah, you keepsaying to fish at night, but I
just just don't.
I don't know, it's not foreverybody, but it should be for

(57:48):
everybody to try when you havethe opportunity.
Because when you get a nightbite going, oh my God, it's, it
can be, it can make you wonderwhy you fish during the day
sometimes.
And you know, I I had mentionedit before I fished for when my
kids were little we go to theshore and it was look, I'm

(58:10):
spending the day with the kidsand the family.
You know, I got little kidsrunning around the beach.
I don't want to miss that.
But I also have to fish andthere's something in the meat
that it's.
It's a requirement for me tolive.
So I just fish at night and,man dave, I banged them like all
summer long.
It was just, it was ridiculous,and it was at night.
And I find myself like I stilldon't fish at night, nearly, I

(58:35):
guess, because I feel like I'mgetting old.

You know gotta work in the morning, are you
catching fluke at night?

oh yeah, fluke at night is the
best time.
I've caught more fluke at nightthan all days combined and I
probably fish 20% of my time atnight.
You take that 20% of fishing atnight versus the 80% fishing
during the day.
More fish were caught in that20% than all the rest.
Yeah, people don't think flukefeed at night and they do.
Oh, they absolutely do.

(59:01):
Yeah, they're just likeeverything else.
They can see it.
Look for shadows if you canshadow lines, but they're going
to be in the same spots.
The only thing that will changeis if they're, don't mistake it
, for there has to be light.
It can be pitch black andyou're still going to catch them
in your normal spots.

(59:21):
But if you can find a spot thatsets up really well for that
tide and all the conditions andyou add a light, a consistent
light that's been on the waterI'm talking backwater, so I'm
not talking the surf right inthe backwaters.
So a bridge light, a dock lightyeah, I mean that's, that's the
thing that'll kick it over theedge that can be a great spot.

Yeah, it gives something for your uh, for your
bait to be silhouette against.
Yeah, it just makes it a littlebit easier.
I mean, they make those glow,glow in the dark gulps and and
soft plastics and stuff likethat.
So I guess that's what that'sfor as well, you know yeah, just
be careful, because talk aboutdogfish magnets oh really, oh,
my lord, I I don't use.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (01:00:04):
I don't think I have any glow at
all in my in my uh kit becauseit gets really expensive when
the dogfish turn on and uh youcan't get away from them you see
that, that's good, you see thatone.
Do you ever go out on the oncharters or anything for tog in

(01:00:24):
the fall?
Yeah, so go out on the OceanExplorer or the Big Mohawk and
just wait until somebody dropslow and they start the dogfish
bite.
Talk about people gettingpissed quick, yeah, and I know
some people that swear by it.
I swear it's the best thing forcatching trash fish swear it's

(01:00:45):
the best thing for catchingtrash fish, it's.

Bayside Dave (01:00:46):
It's funny because that you say that about the
dogfish with with the glow andall that.
Because I was out on thecharter last year, the year
before, and I was using, I wasusing the tog jigs and I was
using a uh, a chartreuse, andthis, this old salt on the boat,
looks at me.
He goes.
He goes you're gonna catchnothing but dogs with that.
And he goes.
He goes, scrape the paint offor use.
And he hands me black ones orjust regular unpainted lead ones

(01:01:11):
.
He goes just use these.
He goes don't bring the dogfishnear us, kid, I'm like all
right I didn't know.
And he's like you don't needcolor to attract hog.
He goes.
You give them food, they'regoing to attract hog.
He goes.
You just you give them food,they're going to eat it.
He goes.
You throw color down there.
That's where we're all startcatching dogfish.
We're going to hate you, okay.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (01:01:30):
Yeah , yeah, I wouldn't go that far,
but I've seen it happen whereyou know.

Oh, I'm so, and it's dog after dog after dog,
it's like, it's like everyonestarts moving away from the.

Yeah , that's good to know.
Yeah, yeah, but I I don't.
I'm sure there are fish thatprefer glow.
I just right, I I hate dogfishof either spiny, I don't want
them it's a waste of time.

It's like catching skates or something you know.
It's like ugh.
Skates are the worst.
I'd rather snap my line thanbring a skate in.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (01:02:09):
Yes , I agree.
And the cow nose rays aredefinitely coming close for
frustration for me.

I tell you a good-sized cow nose ray will
spool you.
The smaller ones fight likebluefish and they're a lot of
fun, but a lot of times it'sjust yeah, just grab the spool
and snap it and people don't cutyour line when you want to,
when you want to get rid of your, when you want people that do

(01:02:37):
that drive me crazy.
You just snapped off, you justcut off 50, 50 yards, 100 yards
of line that's out in the ocean.
Now Grab your spool, snap itoff at the rig and get all your
line back in.
Don't cut your line if you getsnagged.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (01:02:55):
So in a kayak it can get a little
dicey because of the weight ofthem and the violence of them.
So I bring it up as close.
I hate doing this with fish butI let it play itself out as
much as possible and then I'llpull it in as close as I can get
and I will just reach outwithout high sticking and get it
as close to its mouth aspossible and I won't even try to

(01:03:17):
remove the bucktail.
It's like all right, there goes$8, but I don't want to kill it
.
So I get it close and I willcut that line as close to its
face as possible.

Yeah, you're not letting.
50 yards, 75 yards, of line no.

No , I can't stand when that
happens.
And I caught one that had.
This was years ago.
It was actually probably one ofthe first ones I ever caught,
probably 10, 15 years ago.

Yeah.

And it must have had 100 yards of
line on it and I remember I waswith my dad, so it was a long
time ago, and we pulled it upand he went to cut it off and he
cut both and then just startedpulling in the other line and it
took forever.
Yeah, I mean it was like a huge.
It must've been a whole reelworth of stuff, almost probably

(01:04:06):
150 yards of braid on it.

Yeah, I mean, for the most part, you're going to.
You're going to snap at a, at aknot or something.
You're not going to.
You know, when you grab thisyou're going to snap up at the,
up at the rig, you know.

Yeah , yeah.
So what?
What other tips do you have forfolks as they come into August?
I mean, we've got some options.
We're going to talk everybody.
You know Spanish, mack andAlbies and everything.
We're going to talk about thatin the upcoming weeks.
But let's you know just fromshore Jersey, new York, delaware
you're still on fluke for now.

(01:04:38):
What about the weak fish?
Are you focusing on them at allright now?

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that before and I
thought about it and I we gotsome guys starting to catch the
weakies.
Yeah, we're not getting them alot of them off the surf yet,
where we're generally gettingthem in by the inlets and not by
that pocket and stuff along thejetty, we get the weak fish in.

(01:05:05):
They'll hit'll hit.
You know.
Everybody knows they hit thepink.
They also hit white.
You know paddle tails, splittails, gulp, they hit all that
stuff.
You know it doesn't have tonecessarily be pink, it could be
white too they're.
They're down towards the bottommore.
They run in schools.
You know we've had them manytimes along along that pocket
off off the beach side of thatjetty where we got we're pulling
in weakies and all of a suddenit stops.

(01:05:26):
Just move down, because theschool just moved down and
you're going to start pulling inagain, you know, yeah.
So yeah, targeting weak fish isreally good and, like I said,
you know off.
You just got to be careful onjetties, man, if you can get
this, if you can get the corkers.
You know it's so easy to slipand fall on those jetties, you
know.
That's why here on the BarnegatInlet we got a nice long

(01:05:48):
concrete walkway with railingsand people catch a lot of fish
off that walkway.
So don't risk yourself for fish.
You don't realize how easilyyou can get hurt, break
equipment.
You know, when you're out thereon those rocks, even if it's a
beautiful, beautiful sunny daywith dry rocks, they all have
moss on them.
There's always a chance to slip, misstep, jumping from rock to

(01:06:11):
rock or something like that.
Where it gets a little furtherapart or the rock has an angle
on it and you jump on it and youjust kind of slip and fall down
.
I mean you don't want to gethurt out there, you want to
break stuff.
I mean I wear corkers out therein the summertime with my
shorts and stuff.
I don't go out to the tipanymore where the rocks end up

(01:06:32):
being wider apart and more of anangle and all that stuff.
I'm not risking myself anymoreout there, even on nice days.
And you got to watch what thewater's doing.
You know you got swells comingin those inlets and they'll
break on those rocks and justget to keep those rocks soaking
wet with some big swells comingup and that'll make you slip and

(01:06:52):
fall.
And then when you got a highertide and some of those.
It gets real choppy out thereand you got some decent waves
crashing over the top of themrocks.
Just because you got corkers ondoesn't mean you ain't going to
slip.
Water takes your feet right outfrom under you and I've seen it
happen.
It almost happened to me acouple times where I just moved
and I had corkers on and it wasbasically shin-deep water that

(01:07:15):
just shot over the rocks and Idon't know how I didn't fall.
But yeah, you're notinvulnerable in.
You're not, like you know,invulnerable just because you're
wearing spikes on your shoes.

Man , yeah, the uh the.
Avalon ninth street jetty is isa good one for that, when, when
those waves, I mean there'vebeen people stuck on the end of
the ends of these jettiesbecause of that.
Yeah, the Avalon one was alwaysinteresting because if the, if
the, the swell comes in theright direction and it's heavy
enough, it'll, it'll actuallywash everything off and onto the

(01:07:51):
beach on the other side, and Ican't tell you how many times
I've had gear that is all set upon the dry side, on the beach
side, and it ends up 30 yardsdown the beach because the water
just rushes over and thenthere's, when it's doing that
thing, you get this, this gullyon the other side it just runs
all your gear out.
Yeah, how many times little kidswould run down in there.

(01:08:13):
You know they're protected.
They're not getting hit byanything because they're on the
beach and they're.
They're picking out lures andeverything.
Tackle boxes for people.

Got to be careful up there definitely last year we
had two people rescued off offthe tip of the uh the, the south
jetty, because the water levelwas so high that they ended up
climbing that tower and theylost all their equipment and a
helicopter had to come out andfly them in and fly them in
because even at low tide theythe water was so rough they just

(01:08:44):
couldn't get in.

Keep an eye on that shit man.
The other thing is, typicallythe end of the jetty is not the
best spot.
If you're fishing the structureNow, you can have some deep
holes, typically off to thesides at the tips, but that's
typically not for many I wouldsay most jetties.
That's not the best place to befishing it Because there's no

(01:09:08):
current relief or anything.
There's no, you know.

Yeah, not if you're trying to target that
fish that are, you know, feedingand surviving by those rocks.
Right, maybe the pelagic, youknow.
If you're targeting stripedbass or false albacore and you
want to get out there, for sure,yeah.
But if you're fishing tog andsheep's head and all that stuff,

(01:09:31):
you're absolutely right.
The whole thing is going tosupport those fish.

I'm going to throw one question up
here before we start to wrapthis up, and I'll let everyone
know who's coming on next weektoo.
But this one from Joseph Kiley,when the bite is slow have you
ever tried spraying yourplastics with a scent?

Yes, I have and it works really well.
I like using the what is it?
And I know Joe Kiley he's mybuddy.
He ties fantastic bucktails andteasers and he owns a liquor
store.
He just sits behind the counterdoing that and the guy's does
amazing work okay you gottaintroduce me to him, then yeah
he's, he comes to the market.

(01:10:12):
Oh he's, he's fantastic.
But yeah, I use the uh, thebunker oil.
I forget now, jesus, there's areal thick one.
I'm sorry my brain isn'tworking right now, but yes, I've
used it.
I've used it on lures, I'veused it on soft plastics and it
works fantastic, even when I'mbait fishing.
I'll just, I'll just pour it onsome clam or pour it on some

(01:10:35):
bunker and just just juice it upa little bit and even if it's
not staying on the bait, it'sgetting sent in the water.
And it's the same thing withlures oh well, it's going to
wash off in the water.
You don't know how sensitivefish are to odor the scent.
If you're, if you're fishing,if you're, you know, plugging
the surf and you squirt somescent on there every now and
then, keep plugging, you'regetting sent in the water and

(01:10:57):
that's going to attract the fish.
Tom from surf, city bait andtackle.
The owner.
He does a lot of research,reading and all that stuff, and
he found that there was aproject where they tested the
sensitivity of different fish tohow much, how sensitive they
are to scent.
And just for the sake ofexplaining it, if you put a drop

(01:11:19):
of bunker oil in an Olympicsized pool, one corner, and
there was a straight bass on theother corner.
He senses it.
That's how sensitive they areto scent.
So, joe, that's a greatquestion and, yes, that does
work.

Yeah , and I'll throw something out
there.
If I'm using an unscentedplastic, I, 100% of the time,
scent it, and I do it for tworeasons.
Well, first of all, the timescent it, and I do it for two
reasons.
Well, first of all, you have tobe careful about the scent from
you.
Right, and there's no scent onthe bait, well, there could be a

(01:11:53):
scent on your hand.
So I'll tell you this anybodywho's watching or listening to
this, that smokes or chewstobacco and touches it with
their hands, that is adetractant for fish.
I've heard that.
That's great point.
Yeah, so the nicotine.
I believe it's actually thenicotine and not necessarily the
smoke from smoking.

(01:12:14):
I think it's the nicotine.
So if you have that on yourhands and you bait up, they now
have that.
So you're now detracting fromthem biting that bait or, if
they do bite it, holding onto itso you can mask your scent.
So I will typically nottypically I always put Procure
on any new bucktails before Iuse them the first time, even if

(01:12:36):
I'm using gulp, because it kindof gets rid of and I don't
smoke or anything.
But just for the sense, if youkeep your rods in a garage and
you also keep gasoline for yourlawnmower, gasoline is a
detractant.
So that is now getting into thefibers, it's getting into the
plastics, so you have to becareful about that kind of stuff

(01:12:57):
.
And in your line too, yeah, andyour line too.
So I put it on everything, nomatter what.
If it's unscented, definitelyit always has it on there.
And every new bucktail andevery new lure I'll put it on
anyway, because I don't knowwhat kind of manufacturing
scents got on there before Ibought it.
So I think it's, it's always agood thing.
Procure is the one that I go toas my go-to, but i'll'll throw

(01:13:21):
if I don't have anything.
I always have cheddar oil.

Shedder oil.
That's what I was trying to sayShedder oil, okay.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (01:13:27):
That's all I use.
Okay, so I always.

I use that as my backup.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (01:13:32):
I put Procure and then and I will
use shedder oil more as themasking thing and sometimes I
will put it on my hands a littlebit just so that I get that
scent on there if I'm going tobe changing out a lot of tackle
or a lot of gear throughout theday.
So I would always recommenddoing that.
It's worth the investment forjust a few bucks to get those
scents and, as you said, theycan smell it and there are

(01:13:55):
certain scents that will pushthem away and there are certain
scents that will draw them in.
So at the very least, you knowthat you are hopefully trying to
cover up what they don't likethat, look, it's just part of
our normal life and, you know,gasoline in the garage it could
change the bite, so try to atleast offset that.

Yeah, can I quickly just show you this
bucktail that Joe Colley made me.
I have it on my desk here.
This is a jointed,multi-jointed bucktail that Joe
Colley made me.
I have it on my desk here.
This is a jointed,multi-jointed bucktail that he
made.
Look at all the hairs on thisthing.
These are multiple joints thathe makes and attaches them all
into where it's hard to see, butthese are all different types

(01:14:40):
of hairs that he uses, differentparts of the tail and feathers
and stuff like that, and then heput a little grateful dead
because I'm a dead.

oh , that's awesome does he sell
these?

he does.
He doesn't really market them.
He'll make them for for friends.
I'm not trying to like push himas as a business.
He just does beautiful work youcan push him as a business if
he wants.

If he wants to, all right, well,
give me his information, becauseI want to reach out to him and
get some bucktails.
As everybody knows, my myprevious bucktail maker is no
longer in business, so I'vestarted like having to make my
own, and I just don't like itand the teasers he makes is the
same thing.

It's not just one single type of hair and he's,
he's, he's making this, thisdifferent type of teaser that
you can put, gulp on, because ifyou, if you put, if you buy a
regular teaser, a lot of thehairs are tied along the shaft.
Yeah, he figured out a way totie it where it's facing the
other way and then he flips itback over and there's still
plenty of shaft with thebucktail flop over that you can

(01:15:45):
slide the, the gulp on, and thepart that it's the design that
he came up with and, uh, theguy's an absolute artist.

All right, I'm gonna reach out to
him.
All right, plug.

Plug your upcoming event oh yes, the lbi surf
fishing classic, the derby.
It's been going.
This is the 71st year.
It's a nine.
It was a nine-week derby thatstarted in October and ran
through the first week ofDecember, where you target
striped bass, bluefish, kingfishand tog.

(01:16:16):
Also you can get red drum blackdrum there are special prizes
for those and weak fish.
Red drum black drum there arespecial prizes for those and
weak fish.
But now we're opening it up onAugust 30th and running it to
November 30th and we added fluketo the targeted species.
Where there's going to be, letme see, we have weekly prizes

(01:16:40):
and we have grand prizes.
There's prizes for, there's a.
There's a largest fluke bitefor women, seniors, juniors,
it's it's 40.
The registrations are going tostart very soon.
There's going to even be anonline registration for the
first time.
You go, you come to the one ofthe three bait and tackle shops
on lbi, you go to surf, you goto surf city bait and tackle,

(01:17:02):
you go to jingles bait andtackle or you go to fishermen's
headquarters and and registerfor this derby.
It's a 13-week derby.
We also have with the stripedbass.
You know there's there's dailyprizes, their weekly prizes,
there's a grand prize and thereis also what's called we call
now the Surfmaster Award, whereyou can catch photo release fish

(01:17:25):
over slot, because you know theslot is small, it's 28 to 31.
How are you going to competefor 13 weeks when you're only
catching fish up to 31 inches?
Well, the Surfmaster Award nowallows you to take a picture and
send it in, but we're onlydoing it for fish 38 inches or
larger.
We're not doing the 32s and the36s because we're trying to

(01:17:47):
protect these fish from beingmishandled.
We, the first year, we did it.
We opened it up to 31 andbigger and there was just way.
So there was so many fishturned in constantly.
We're doing it this way whereit's 38 inches or larger.
That way, you know, just keepan eye on the leaderboard.
So if you see there's a 41 inchfish in the lead and you catch

(01:18:08):
a 39 inch fish, just throw itback.
Don't bother keeping it out,taking the picture and sending
it in, all that stuff.
So, uh, the, the, uh.
The prize for that surf masteraward is is a, is a mount of
from a taxidermy company calledreinhardt and they will do a
mount of your fish, and lastyear was a 44 inch bass and they
did an absolutely from ataxidermy company called
Reinhardt and they will do amount of your fish and last year
it was a 44-inch bass and theydid an absolutely beautiful

(01:18:32):
replica mount of this fish andgave it over to the winner and
he has it hanging in his homenow.
So there's $25,000 in cashprizes to be won.
Go to lbisfccom that's LongBeach Island Sir Fishing Classic
.
Lbisfccom that's Long BeachIsland Surf Fishing Classic.
Lbisfccom.
To the website that's beingupdated now.
That will be updated with allthe new rules and regulations

(01:18:55):
and prizes will be all up withinthe week with all the new stuff
.
Long Beach Island Surf FishingClassic on Facebook and at Long
Beach Island Surf FishingClassic on Facebook and at Long
Beach Island Surf FishingClassic on Instagram.
It's going to be just constantinformation all throughout the
derby and I'm hoping that peoplewill sign up for it and get

(01:19:16):
their chance to win cash prizes,even if you only come down.
It's a 13-week tournament derbywe call it.
Even if you only come down acouple weekends or a couple days
, here and there, you have thechance to win a day prize.
You have the chance to win aweekly prize.
You have the chance to win oneof the grand prizes just because
you caught a decent-sized fish.

(01:19:37):
So I'm hoping you guys willconsider registering for this.
This is the 71st year of theclassic.
We call it the Derby and, likeI said, lbisfccom for all the
information.
Awesome, thanks for letting meplug that.

Of course, I was going to let you
go without doing it.
That's great, so great to seepeople sign up for that.
Dave, thanks for coming on yougot a free hat.
Oh, there you go and all thatstuff.
All right, beautiful.
No, no problem, no problem.
So, everyone, get on there, getsigned up.
Next week, next Monday, we'regoing to have Rob Crossley on If

(01:20:16):
you are a subscriber to theFisherman Magazine New Jersey
edition well, actually, if yousubscribe to any, you can still
see the Jersey edition.
There's an article in there byRob on just Albie Fever.
They're going to be coming inprobably by the end of this
month, unless they come in alittle bit early and he's got a
great article in there.

(01:20:37):
So he's going to be on andwe're going to start talking
about catching those albacore,the false albacore and the and
I'm sure we'll talk Spanish maxand all those others that are
going to be racing through atthe same time.
So that'll be next Monday.
I'm looking forward to that one.
Again, thanks for coming oneveryone.
Thank you for tuning in.
We'll be back next week.

(01:20:58):
Until next week, until nextepisode, get out there, get on
the water and get some tightlines.

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