EP 40: Chasing Albacore: The Thrill of Run-and-Gun Fishing with Rob Crossley

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False albacore season is approaching fast, and we're diving into everything you need to know about targeting these explosive gamefish. Rob Crossley shares his expertise on gearing up and tactics for the brief but thrilling albie run that hits Northeast waters in late summer.

• Using fast-action 7'3" rods with more glass for the right balance of accuracy and strength
• Selecting 20-pound braid with 20-pound fluorocarbon leader for optimal casting and fighting power
• Choosing epoxy jigs as primary lures and switching hook orientation for better hookups
• Approaching schools carefully—staying 10-20 yards back while casting beyond feeding fish
• Looking for birds, single jumping fish, and "nervous water" as indicators of albie presence
• Expecting different feeding patterns throughout the day with early morning, mid-day and evening bites
• Understanding the importance of mimicking exact bait profiles albies are targeting
• Watching for late August/early September storms that typically push albies inshore
• Differentiating between false albacore, bonito, and Spanish mackerel when they're mixed together

Get your gear ready and keep an eye on the weather—when albies show up, they'll be here and gone before you know it!

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Episode Transcript

Rob Crossley (00:00):
You know you want to stay with the pack.
You know run and gun.
You know you can get on them.
You know you might get two orthree casts on them and they're
gone.
They're, you know, 50 yardsthat way already.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (00:14):
Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad
Fishing Show.
I'm your host, rich Natoli, andthis is going to be a cool show
.
We're going to talk about aspecies that we don't talk about
nearly often enough, butthere's good reason.
They're not around often enoughFewer and fewer days every year
.
But tonight we're going to betalking about albies and albie

(00:36):
fever, whatever you want to callit.
It's coming soon and when itgets here it's going to be here
and gone in a hot minute.
So we have Rob Crossley comingon.
You may have seen in the Augustedition of the Fisherman
Magazine his article in there ontargeting false albacore, so
we're going to go into that withhim in a little bit.
I'm going to hit the sponsorsfirst, as we do every episode.

(01:00):
But before we do that reallyquick, if you're new to the show
, thanks for for listening,thanks for tuning in.
If you enjoy it, just pleasehit, follow, like whatever it is
that your platform supports.
Leaving a review is alwayshelpful.
It helps us to get guests.
But yeah, we're gonna.
We're gonna go quick into this.
So let's hit the sponsors.

(01:20):
The first one for a sponsor ofthis show ever is the kayak shop
that I use.
It's Great Bay Outfitters inTuckerton, new Jersey, on Radio
Road man, if you want an oldtown, if you want a native, they
got other brands in there aswell.
You definitely want to go inthere.
Swing into Great Bay.
They've got it for you, and notonly the whole kayaks.

(01:42):
They have them, they have thenew ones, they have used kayaks
also.
You can rent kayaks.
You can buy a floating dock atthe shop.
If you want a floating dock,you can buy one there.
But you can also get all theparts that you need and the
accessories.
And we know as kayak fishermenthat we accessorize like I don't

(02:02):
even know like what, but likecrazy people we spend more money
on the accessories than thekayak often, and Paul and his
team are there to help you dothat.
So if you need anything, swingby the shop, tell them.
I said hi, and these tunes arefor Toyota.

(02:28):
So Toyota trucks.
Look, it's not just the trucks,but it's also the 4Runner.
You got the 4Runner.
Yeah, you got the Tundra inthere, the Lexus 460, 470, but
this is going to help improvethe performance of the engines.
Kevin's the guy to reach outfor any information on this.
It will help with those Tacomasand any of these trucks that
have the gear finding issueswhere gear hunting, it doesn't

(02:51):
quite feel like it's in theright gear.
When you're on the highway, ifyou're towing a boat, you'll get
more torque, more horsepower,more efficient fuel mileage.
So reach out to him.
You're going to be in goodshape.
And then me for real estate.
Southeastern Pennsylvania iswhere I do it Residential.
If you want to do commercial, Ican at least help you to get
somebody that's going to helpyou with commercial.

(03:11):
I do very little of it.
It's not my wheelhouse, whichmeans I'm not going to pretend
it is, but I do have some greatcontacts in commercial as well.
So if you have any needs inSoutheastern Pennsylvania, reach
out to me, 267-270-1145.
And we are going to jump intothis real quick.
So I'm going to bring Rob onscreen right now.

(03:31):
Rob, welcome to the show.
Good to see you.
You too.

Rob Crossley (03:35):
Thank you.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (03:36):
Yeah , we were talking I'll share
this with everyone.
We were talking before we cameon and it seems like I'm kind of
going through the century teamwith guests, you know I I think
it says a lot about century, the, the quality of people that
they have representing the brandand everything.
So I mean we've been through.

(03:57):
You got Kwa on George and Frankand you and who knows where
it's going to end, I'll justkeep going.
I mean frank and you and whoknows where it's going to end,
I'll just keep going.

Rob Crossley (04:08):
I mean great guests, so welcome it's good to
see you.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (04:09):
Thank you me too.
Yeah, so the what really?
So we had been friends onfacebook for a while, so I I
kind of follow, you, know whatyou were doing and everything.
And when I saw the article popup for the fishermen, I was like
like, oh, now I can reach outto them and see.
If I read the article, I waslike, yep, this is good and
false.
Albacore are one of those.

(04:31):
They're one of those weirdspecies.
Like they're, everybody wantsthem when they're here and
everyone misses them whenthey're gone.
And it's so fast Like what's,what's, what's?
What are you thinking about?
The time period from when it'sgoing to start this year?

Rob Crossley (04:46):
This year.
I think it's going to be alittle later, I don't think it's
going to be the end of August,beginning of September.
Last year there was more Idon't know, like offshore, a
little bit like the total wreck.
The guys were, you know,digging them up with the window
all summer and I still haven'tseen an Albie inshore yet.

(05:09):
I mean I see the guys catchingBenito, like Monmouth beach area
, not the wrecks, but nothing,nothing as far as like where I
am going to get light, not onlythe state park.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (05:22):
Yeah , I, I haven't heard really of
anything insh at this point andeven because I don't even like
popping off yet, or nothing noso I, I don't know you know I I
do find it like reallyinteresting though that, look
when it kicks off it's not just.
I know we're going to talkprimarily about the album, the

(05:42):
false albacore, but that's notall that kicks off.
At the same time there aremultiple species that tend to
travel together.
So you've got the bonito, whicha lot of people like because
they say they're tastier, and Ido want to talk to you about
that.
And then you have the SpanishMac.
The Spanish Mac's in the mix,yeah max, the spanish max in the

(06:08):
mix, yeah, yeah.
So, so when, when it startskicking off, my first question,
the really the big question thatI had, is really simple are you
going out to target the albiesor are you going out to target
any one of those three?
What?
What is your personal goal whenyou hear that the albies are on
?
Because you're going to?

Rob Crossley (06:21):
get them all once they're in, once, I you know,
once they come in.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (06:24):
Short , strictly albies that's all I'm
going after you know they'rejust addicting and they're
explosive.

Rob Crossley (06:32):
It's so much fun to fight.
You know I get ramped up andyou know I start yelling and
screaming.
It's a good time they're crazy.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (06:42):
I mean the fight on them.
You would think that they'retwice the.
I mean the, the, the fight onthem.
You would think that you wouldthink that they're twice the
size.
Yeah, now I, I've I've caught alot of false albacore.
I don't consider myself to bean expert by any means.
I'm more of the, the geeked up,you know fishermen, just
tossing as fast as I can.
You know, I don't really havemuch skill behind it.
It's just trying to get it outthere and reel it as fast as I
can.
I don't really have much skillbehind it, it's just trying to

(07:04):
get it out there and reel it asfast as I can.
What is your technique thatyou're using?
Well, actually, let's start atthe beginning.
Your sentry rods, let's start.
You're going out.
What are you bringing with you?

Rob Crossley (07:22):
Let's start with the rod and the reel and the
weapon.
The weapon wrecker or theweapon junior wrecker is what we
call it.
Seven, three.
The rod has we put more glassin it this year, for last year I
used a five power which is halfto three and a half a little
overkill.
But it's got a lot moresnappier tip, which I like

(07:45):
because it'll be able to punchthat epoxy jig out to where I
need it.
And accuracy is pretty mucheverything with these Albies.
You know 20-pound braid, youknow your favorite choice of
braid, whatever I stick to.
You know I've been using a lotof Silk Ocean, which is more of
a PE.
It's very thin and it's verysmooth and it casts like butter.

(08:10):
But Cortland is great.
I've used Cortland forever, butthat, really the Silk Ocean, is
what I've been using for thelast two years and it's really a
game changer so I've nevertried that yeah so it's really
makes a difference.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (08:29):
Makes a big difference is it?
Is it like the different braids?

Rob Crossley (08:36):
it's one of the eight weave, you know.
But it's a different.
The way silk ocean stacks the,the braid, like the fibers, it's
very, not traditional, likecourtland and power pro, it's
very.
It's stacked differently sothey can get the diameter
smaller and tighter.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (08:52):
That's the reason really yeah, all
right, I might need to try that.
I, I uh, I found, you know, Iexperimented with a lot of
different ones and I found, likeyou know, the big difference
for most of them now Cortland is.
I like Cortland a lot but I kindof failed me you know, no, no,

(09:13):
and I started with Cortland backwith fly fishing.
I mean, that's where I startedwith it and I just kind of
carried it over.
But I noticed that a lot of themid range ones, it it just.
It was like the surface youknow, is it slick or not?
And I was like I don't care ifit's slick or not, if they cast
better, cast better.
And a lot of the times it wasthe one that wasn't quote
unquote slick, that castedbetter in courtland.

Rob Crossley (09:35):
You know, let's say, like 15 or 20 pound test,
it's only a four carrier weave,you know, it's not even an eight
carrier or a six calorie.
I think once you go up to 60pounds it's a six carrier, and
then 80 it starts at an eightcarrier.
So four, you know, fourcarriers.
It's rough, you know, but it's,you know, it's very abrasive

(09:56):
resistance right it's.
It's good, everyone has apreference yeah, so okay.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (10:02):
So you're gonna go with the
20-pound.
I love that.

Rob Crossley (10:05):
What kind of leader are?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (10:06):
you putting on there 20-pound
leader.

Rob Crossley (10:08):
I'll use a VeroVos the Ocean Record.
It's a great leader, it'sprobably one of the best.
And then the Azuri I'll use the20-pound Azuri.
The pink whatever the pink oneis.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (10:23):
Yeah , yeah, okay, all right, Makes
sense Now, and what reel are youthrowing on that?

Rob Crossley (10:29):
4K Stratix works Okay.
Daiwa Surtate 4000 works Okay.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (10:37):
I noticed last year 4000 class.

Rob Crossley (10:39):
Yeah, 4000.
3000, 4000 class.
I used the VR50 a few timeslast year.
Just doesn't have a fast enoughgear ratio to burn it, you know
.
So then, it's hard.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (10:52):
That's what I was going to ask about,
because, you know, the the mostimportant thing to me, I thought
and you'd maybe validate ortell me I'm absolutely batshit
crazy is the speed.
You know, know, I mean it's,it's get it out there and get it
in as fast as you can.
So it stands out againsteverything, and so that's it.

Rob Crossley (11:10):
So you want to separate that jig from
everything.
Everything else, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Da (11:14):
Everything else.
So it's it comes down to thegear ratio as your base.
Now let me ask you this whenyou're reeling it in and it's
it's humming in, are you alsodoing I?
I, I got yelled at for doingthis.
I was also doing a sweep withit to kind of speed it up even
more.
I got yelled at with some olddude, you can yeah.

(11:35):
Do you do that, or do you justcrank it as fast as you can?

Rob Crossley (11:38):
I crank it.
My son will do a little sweepevery once in a while.
He'll pause it and then crankit.
Do a little sweep every once ina while.
He'll pause it and then crankit.
Pause it, sweep it and thencrank it, but he gets bit just
as much as I do.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (11:50):
Okay , it's one of those things, your
son and I aren't crazy, we justdo it differently.
Yeah, all right, so you're outthere doing it.
It's going to pick up soon.
You got your sentry rod, yougot your Stratica on there, your
20-pound braid, what are youthrowing on the end?

Rob Crossley (12:08):
So I'm using the epoxy jigs.
So here's one, here's a UVT.
This is a three-quarter, or oneounce a three-quarter, and then
it's got a single inline 1-0.
And you want so here's thething, lot of these hooks or or
jigs, they're coming with thishook facing down.

(12:28):
I don't know if you can seethat yep right.
So when this is swimming throughand you stop it and pause it,
this hook closes.
Wants to just gravity, you knowwhatever.
Just wants to close, wants toswing down.
So if you, if this, if you takeit off the split ring and
switch it where the tip, youknow know the barb is facing up.
So when this thing swings down,you're always going to have an

(12:51):
open point for the fish to grabversus it coming this way in the
package.
You're going to miss that biteevery time.
So always swing or switch thehook to the barb up that's a
good tip.
Yeah, that's a very good tip,yeah I don't know why, I don't
know if they just don't know thedifference.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (13:11):
But it's, it's not right honestly,
I wouldn't have thought about it.
You know what?

Rob Crossley (13:17):
not only would I not like, tuna fishing, you know
so tuna I I know I've alwaysswitched you want the bar to be
facing up and out I feel like anidiot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (13:28):
I've never changed an epoxy jig yeah
the other way never, I nevereven thought, but but like you
said, for here's a hoagie andthis is.

Rob Crossley (13:39):
I'll just flip it upside down.
But yeah, here you know youdon't want that right you know,
swimming across the water, youstop it or anything, or they hit
it and boom, that hook is gonnaclose, at least if they hit it.
That barb is always accessible.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (13:55):
It's always gonna grab, no matter
what yeah, that's, that's somegood information right there,
and I gotta go do that becauseI've got a whole bunch of them.
I read the article and I got mystuff ready, so I actually made
a whole new box for them.
I don't even know if I'm evergoing to get to go Right Like so
I probably won't, because it'slike you know, like you said in

(14:18):
the article, it's here and it'sgone like really fast and I
probably will miss it, but I'mready, I'm totally ready, but I
got to switch the hooks.

Rob Crossley (14:26):
Yeah, yeah, I got to switch them.
When you see those first fewfish caught, you know obviously
I can't.
I can't be out there every day.
I have a job you know, right,but you know a lot of my friends
are, you know, decarters andstuff and you know they help me
out with Intel and you know assoon as they come in.

(14:51):
I'm, you know if I find them.
I find them, you know, on theweekend, and then you know I'll
have to take off one or two daysof work and get on them, you
know, for them all day, but umyeah, right now I'm just waiting
, see when they come in.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (14:57):
Yeah , and, and it is.
It has been a weird summer yeah, you have I mean for everything
.
Temperatures have been all overthe place.
It was even just in thebackwaters.
It was 80 degrees in thebackwaters two and a half weeks
ago.
I was out yesterday with JoeJohn Perry and a couple other

(15:20):
people and it was 75 degrees andit's crazy.
So it's messed with the flukebite definitely oh, absolutely.

Rob Crossley (15:29):
That's why they're all off, you know, at the
wrecks now yeah the wrecks aredoing well, yeah, backwaters are
.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (15:35):
You know they're still there.
It's just it's figuring out.
This bite has been terrible,but it doesn't bode well for an
early season for these, thesefast movers that come, you know,
the blue fin and all thatcoming in tight.
It's not.
It's just it's not setting upthe way that it has in the past
so you know, this year was veryfor the blue fin.

Rob Crossley (15:55):
It didn't kick off , I don't know, maybe three,
four, about a month ago, maybe amonth ago, but it's not what it
used to be.
But it's just because it's justdifferent pattern this year.
That's all.
Two years ago we had a bigsquid bite off of Seaside
Heights there.
That was never going to happenagain.
That was just a freak thing.

(16:16):
We had all that squid spawn andshore and the bluefin just sat
there all summer and gorged onit.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (16:23):
I got to tell you I was very
disappointed when that wholesquid thing came up and nobody
told me until it was over.
I was, I was so pissed.
I was like I was like youcouldn't, you couldn't say
anything.
Oh, it was epic.
What about me?
I'm like I don't have any squidgear or anything, but I would
have stolen yours and gone withyou.
But yeah, that was a reallywell-kept secret for me, at

(16:45):
least at that time.
Yeah so, but when you go, howare you?
Are you going from shore andyou're you're finding those
jetties or do you have a boatthat you're jumping on?
Yeah, you're jumping on my boat.

Rob Crossley (16:56):
I'm an 18 foot seahawk okay I run out of
barnagot light and typicallyI'll start off like maybe a mile
two off the off the beach,cruise around.
They're usually hanging there.
You know there's less boattraffic in the morning because a
lot of guys will, you know, runup the beach in the morning.
You know either north or southand go to their rep spots, but
usually I'll hit them, you know,go out north and maybe go about

(17:20):
two miles north and usuallythey'll pop up there and then
I'll just keep on on, you know,chasing them all the way to the
beach, right, much you know now,what are you looking for when
you break that inlet?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (17:32):
like what?
What's the indication?
Are you just looking for birds,or are you looking for?

Rob Crossley (17:38):
birds.
Yes, you're looking for birds,but in the morning there's a lot
of singles.
They'll just start jumping out,like you know, like carp do,
like you know, singly, justjumping out for no reason.
Once you can find and locatethat, then usually as the sun
comes up, more they'll be on thebait and birds will be
everywhere and there'll be afull friends.

(17:58):
You know full feeding frenzy,but I usually look for the
singles first.
You want to be able to findthem first yeah, okay, all right
.
So you're really off there andyou're just scouting, you're
just you're just drivingscouting you know, just kind of
just cruising around until I canfind, you know, a patch of
albies, and then I'll startcasting on them.
Then then at that point youknow, you're gonna see what

(18:21):
their pattern's doing, you knowright, whether which they're
going east or west or north orsouth and see what they're
feeding on, because that's a bigpart of it, I think.
You know some guys it's like,oh, they're gonna eat anything,
but no, like I.
You know, I'll throw this jighere, and if it's a pink, they
sometimes they won't touch it.
Then I go to a chartreuse or adifferent style like this is a

(18:44):
UBT Albi.
Daddy, right here it'sdifferent, yeah, different
bodies, all different profile.
Yeah, so I just keep onswitching it up until I get bit
on one and then I just throwthat and then an hour later it
changes Right, either they wantsomething more silver and a

(19:05):
slimmer profile, but it's just,you just got to keep playing
with it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (19:10):
So you're heading out with
multiple rods already ready togo.

Rob Crossley (19:13):
Yeah, usually I'll start.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (19:14):
I'll just bring two, two, okay so
you're not like a bass fishermanwith your whole front deck
loaded.

Rob Crossley (19:21):
Two is quick.
You know I can if I have tojust cut it off and and uh retie
, it just takes a quick secondokay, all right.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (19:30):
So you're out.
You're, let's say you.
You break the inlet.
You decide I'm heading northtoday.
You see them up in front of youand this, this, I think, is
going to be important, becausethere is a difference between
happening upon a school of fishor some birds and starting to
fish it, and what is truly therunning gun which this is like.

(19:53):
There, there's a way that youshould do it and there's a way
that you should not do it.
So you're, you first break.
Now, let's, let's take all thepressure off.
You break the inlet.
There's no one, it's just you.
And you're cruising up and yousee, okay, I can see the single
come out.
I can see some birds startingto form up.
I found them.
What's your approach?
It's just you and a buddy onthe boat.

(20:15):
What are you doing?
How are you approaching thatschool?

Rob Crossley (20:18):
So I'll approach it pretty slow and try not to
run in there hot and heavy andthen just start.
We'll just start firing andcast, you know trying to be, you
know, proactive with it, andjust start, you know pausing if
they're you know they're feedingin front, just you know, just
start.
You know throw over the, overthe pile, whatever bait they're
feeding on, and throw past itand then reel through.

(20:39):
You know, just burn through.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (20:41):
That's all I do, okay but you're,
you're, you're getting up aheadof it.
You're probably what matchingit, seeing which direction it's
going, getting around it.

Rob Crossley (20:53):
You can either get ahead of them, cut them off or
stay behind them and just youknow, just fish from behind.
I always felt that was better.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (21:05):
I always like coming up behind
them, coming up behind them andhitting them that way, because
then you can fish them and thensee which direction they're
going.

Rob Crossley (21:12):
Yeah, actually going they're fast because
they're gonna just keep onswitching directions yeah you
know, but yeah, that's the bestway is.
You know you can either there'stwo ways of doing it come up
behind them real slow or get in.
Get in front of them and thenjust you know idle and wait for
them to come closer and closerand then start bombing.
You know your jig in there youkeep the engine running yeah, I

(21:34):
keep it running.
I've never had a problem withit running, you know.
Okay, all right, I've seen.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (21:41):
I've seen a lot of different
approaches, most of them I justthink they're crazy and they
don't know what they're doing.
They get, I guess, too muchadrenaline, so you start pulling
up on it and they will run upthe back and they will run into
the middle.
Obviously, that's the worst,for no matter what you're
fishing for, that'll send themin 10 different directions and
down.
But the one that I see a lot isthey'll come up behind them to

(22:09):
come off to the side and thenthey'll try to loop around them
and they cut the engine dead andjust coast right into the
middle of them.

Rob Crossley (22:15):
Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (22:16):
That also sends them down.

Rob Crossley (22:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause you're coasting, they're
going to hear that.
You know they're going to hearthe boat coming.
You know waves are still likepushing either side.
Yeah, I don't, I don't see adifference there so how?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (22:31):
but that that's the question.
Then.
How far off are you stayingfrom these, from these feeding
frenzies when you see them longcasting?

Rob Crossley (22:38):
or are you just, you know, 10 yards, 20 yards, 20
yards, if that you know 10yards 20 yards 20 yards.
If that you know, I get uppretty close, okay, and just
start bombing them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (22:48):
Okay , all right, that's much easier
than I did it in the past.

Rob Crossley (22:52):
No, there's times where they're really finicky and
you know you want to stay withthe pack.
You know run and gun, you knowyou're going to get on them.
You might get two or threecasts on them and they're gone.
They're 50 yards that wayalready.
Then the guy just keeps moving,bouncing back and forth.
Then when they get really thickyou can just stay there.

(23:13):
The bait will just stay by theboat because it's like a shelter
for them.
That's when the elmies will justsit there and crash right at
the boat.
At that point you can just turnthe engine off and then fish
for them.
That way, you know, you mightpick two or three or four out of
the bunch there, and thenthey're gone I mean that would
yeah, that would be a nice.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (23:33):
You pick three or four out of one
bunch, then you're in good shapeyeah, yeah, I mean typically
it's.
It's maybe one for me by thetime you get it in and and get
back out there I for me, it wasalways.
It seemed like it in and getback out there.
I for me, it was always.
It seemed like it was always asingle here and a single there,
and then you're back on thethrottle and flying around.
But let me ask you this what so?

(23:55):
Just to qualify for people,what are they typically feeding
on?

Rob Crossley (24:00):
Spearing, spearing .
So their rain bait is mostlywhat they're feeding on.
But last year wasn't the rainbait problem, you know, there
was no rain bait.
They were feeding on babybluefish so that's what we had
last year with baby bluefish.
I've never seen that before.
But we've, you know, talked toGreg at Fisherman Headquarters

(24:20):
and I'm like what the hell isthis?
And he's like I think it's abluefish.
He goes I don't think it'sbunker because it's all silver.
It's silver with the big eyes.
I called the gym Jim Hutchinsonabout it and he's like I think
it's a bluefish.
Then the guys in the capeconfirmed it.
It was like yeah, there's babybluefish, something I've never
seen before.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (24:42):
That's the picture in the article
right.
Yeah, that's the picture in thearticle right.

Rob Crossley (24:46):
Yeah, yep.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (24:46):
Okay .
So that's why I asked.
I was like I'm going to looklike such an idiot.
I don't know what the hell thatwas.
Yeah, it's a baby bluefish.
Okay.

Rob Crossley (24:54):
Yeah, and that epoxy had a tactical angler's
clip, so it's not all the timeyou have to tie on.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (25:00):
Right If the fish are.

Rob Crossley (25:03):
That's another thing, like if, if the fish, or
depending on like profile andcolors.
I'll just leave the tactileangular clip on and, just you
know, swap in and out, in andout, different color, different
profiles.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (25:16):
So you get a bit yeah, but okay, I
well I'm.
I'm glad that I asked thequestion, because I I wasn't
sure I was going to, because youlook like a look, as long as
I'm not the only one that didn'tknow, I'm good you could have
said like, as soon as you saidspearing, I was like that wasn't
a spearing.
Yeah, I don't think.

(25:37):
Yeah, all right, so I wasshocked, but that's interesting
because that's an entirelydifferent profile too.

Rob Crossley (25:44):
Yeah, but that's interesting because that's an
entirely different profile too.
Yeah, and that's why this AlbieDaddy right here kind of worked
really good last year, becauseit kind of fit the profile yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (25:55):
Yeah , albie Daddy, who makes that
UVT?

Rob Crossley (25:59):
UVT Fishing.
Okay, they're out inMassachusetts.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (26:02):
I'm not familiar with that one, but
that looks like you do they'rebig into tuna jigging.

Rob Crossley (26:06):
They make tuna jigs.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (26:08):
Okay , that's probably why I don't do
any more.
And I did the tuna 20 years ago.
I don't do that anymore.
Yeah, yeah, I can't cast thatfar, can't quite hit it, can't
quite hit it, all right, soyou're out there, you pull up on
it, you're throwing out the,the epoxies.
Tell me right now what was thebest story from last year?

(26:31):
Like, like, like.
Here's the thing.
There are people that are goingto watch and listen to this and
they're going to be like, notthe funny looking fish.
It doesn't quite look like abonito and it's got those weird
squiggles on it.
And, yeah, why would I want tocatch it?
You know, know they're, they'reso explosive.
They get so addicted to this youknow, like Scotty sevens is an

(26:53):
absolute maniac.
As soon as they hit, it's likehe's done everything.
It doesn't matter.
I don't even know if he's likesleeps.
I think he just sits up allnight twitching, waiting for the
next, you know, the nextmorning where he can break the
inlet.

Rob Crossley (27:05):
That's how I am, yeah.
So what is it about this fishthat draws you for this one to
two-week period every year?
I think it's just because it'san insured fish that you usually
don't get.
It's a change-up.

(27:25):
You're bringing kind of like atuna aspect of it.
You're running the gun and it'sa crazy bite.
You have albies blown up onbait going topwater crazy.
They pull drag.
Some guys are like you're justloosening the drag up.

(27:45):
No, they pull some serious drag, Like it's almost like.
You know, there's definitely 12pounds of pressure on these
fish easily, you know it's a lot.
That's a lot, but yeah, it'sjust.
I don't know something aboutthese fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (27:59):
They just get me fired up yeah it's,
it's almost like the I.
I kind of think it's similar tosheep's head right now for the
backwater guys.
Yeah, it's because you youcouldn't catch them before and
they were.
You know, everybody wanted themand I don't know.

(28:20):
I went today's monday, I wentyesterday and I couldn't do it.
I was like I caught a lot Ididn't catch.
I didn't catch any yesterday.
I was like I'm going to move on, maybe fluke.
And I moved on because it's notas what used to be special to
me to catch a sheep's head.
It doesn't feel like thatanymore.

Rob Crossley (28:42):
They're fun yeah, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (28:44):
But it's missing that one piece,
and that one piece is thescarcity there's.
It's not.
There's no scarcity thereanymore, as far as I'm concerned
.
But I think that's a, that's abig part of it.
But when you're out there, Imean how often.
One thing that I haven't runinto is I have never, in the
real close to shore, bites, I'venever pulled a bonito out with

(29:08):
these've pulled a lot of Spanishmackerel.
Actually, I probably caught moreSpanish mackerel when I was
targeting albies than albies,but what do you find is most
often going to be the bycatchwhen you're targeting them?

Rob Crossley (29:21):
The afternoon bite Just before sundown is when
you'll see Spanishanish mackereland the bonito mixed in.
Okay, when I've caught the mostyou know as a bycatch all right
so they're not on that earlymorning bite.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad (29:34):
Typically they're later by themselves.

Rob Crossley (29:36):
They get, you know , in in a big wolf pack, you
know, just feeding on all thatbait, you know.
And then late, you know, itcomes in waves.
You know you have that morningbite and then, and then you have
a late, the late morning bite,and then there'd be, like you
know, a lot of boat traffickicks up and and then you know
that dies, like the afternoonfight will come back on, maybe

(29:57):
like around one, two o'clockwhen the boat traffic dies down.
You know everyone's donefluking and they all go back in.
You can kind of separateyourself from the fleet and
you'll find them, you know, insmall groups.
And then you know, two hoursbefore sundowns when they go,
just like that do you know?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (30:14):
so when that bike cuts off, is
that just, can you tell thatthey're still there, they're
just not feeding no, they, theytotally shut off and they, they
probably book it offshore alittle bit okay, Okay, so
they're gone.
They're off the electronics andeverything.
They're just gone.
No sign.

Rob Crossley (30:31):
Yeah, because in the morning I'll chase them one
to two.
I'll start off at one to twomiles and then I would follow
them all the way to the beach.
And it was around like 10, 11o'clock.
They start pushing backoffshore.
So now you realize you're likeone back to where you started
and then, yeah, and then it justshuts off and then they're just
totally gone.

(30:51):
You know, don't know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (30:54):
That's interesting so so your star, I
mean that that's.
That's something that I don'tthink I've ever heard shared is
that you're starting a littlebit off and you're you're
catching them on their way in inthe morning.
You're following them, you'restalking them in, you're
stalking them back out and thenthey disappear and then they'll
be back for dinner and that'swhere you've had your drinks and

(31:16):
your food you've rested andyou're heading back out gassed
up.
Yeah, and burning more fuel.

Rob Crossley (31:28):
Man, and they're even more pushed up on the shore
.
You know you'll get them like.
You know you can cast into thewash sometimes yeah, I'll tell
you what.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (31:38):
When the albies are up in the wash,
that's insanity, it's fun.
Yeah, the surf fishermen, Imean that's like.
That's like throwing elbows,and it's never towards each
other, it's like they're neverangry, it's just trying to get
that position and and because itmoves so fast yeah, yeah and
they're in their own you knowtwo feet of water, three feet of

(31:58):
water.

Rob Crossley (31:58):
You know the right on top of the sandbar crashing
that bait and everyone just youknow going crazy, because it
doesn't happen very oftenanymore.
It.
It used to but not no more.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (32:08):
I would say land-based.
If it were me, I would befishing the jetties at certain
inlets.
It's easier there and that'stypically where I'll do it.
I've seen the blitzes on thebeaches but I was never fishing
at the time.
It only happened I think maybetwice, but it never fishing at
the time and it only happened Ithink maybe twice where they
were.
But it was absolute mayhem andit was hilarious because you see

(32:31):
all these old dudes likepushing they weren't pushing
each other like mean, they werejust kind of like shouldering in
, doing an underhand flip andthen the next guy's coming over
tom, like working their way downthe beach.
It was hilarious.
Whatever you know, ava jigbucktails, whatever they were
throwing, anything yeah yeah,but a lot of people weren't
catching yeah there weredefinitely yeah yeah, there were

(32:52):
definitely guys that werecatching a lot, and then there
were some that just weren'tcatching anything.
They were probably the guyswith bucktails or something, you
know.
They were fishing for somethingelse and this popped up.

Rob Crossley (33:01):
They tried to get in and that happens, you know.
Same thing on the boat.
You know I'll, you know, findbig, we'll find a big pocket of
albies and bait and you know, 10boats will be rolling in and no
one can figure out why theycan't catch them.
You know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (33:13):
Yeah .

Rob Crossley (33:14):
But you know everyone, you know we had one
fish last year and I don't knowif you what's his name, mr Zach
Flake, there does the flycharters, and you know he was up
there fly fishing with his guysand uh, one boat came in the
middle of us and he's like whatare you guys using Mojo's?
We're like, no, not usingMojo's.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (33:36):
No , but now do you want to try a
Mojo?

Rob Crossley (33:40):
Yeah, yeah, so he so yeah.
So he was trolling mojos for awhile and then I was finally
getting one.
I threw a jig in his boat andhe was like, oh okay, I'm like,
yeah, that's not a mojo.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (33:51):
No , that's a whole different thing
.
Well, that's what you get.
I mean, that's how people breakinto it.

Rob Crossley (33:56):
You just use what you got.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (34:00):
But I found one thing Look, if
you're going to have a jig fornearly any kind of fish, it's
the hobie epoxy.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean thoseepoxy jigs they were the hoagies
.
They're, they're awesome.
I mean you're talking stripedbass, weak fish, blue fish,
pretty much you can get flounderon them if you, if you want to

(34:20):
go for fluke with them, you canget those tuna.
I've caught tuna on it, mahi Imean it's pretty much anything
yep but you gotta fish it slowerfor some of those.
But but the point is, if youdon't have the, the hoagie epoxy
jigs, I would pick up some.
They're not cheap, so you know10 bucks now yeah, they're like

(34:42):
10 bucks each, 12, but dependingon where you get them.

Rob Crossley (34:44):
But they're really reversible.
What's that?
A 007 works.
You know, I've never used thatA 007.
It's like an.
It's an Ava jig, you know, it'sjust.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (34:55):
It's just a smaller, oh oh, oh, okay
, I got you.

Rob Crossley (34:58):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yes, I do have this Put a single
hook on there.
I don't use trebles, thetroubles just pain in the ass to
get up, you know, because mostof the time, like I can just
grab this jig and the hook willfall right out.
You know you can just move it adifferent, remover it and it
just pops right out and sendthat albie right on its way, you
know well, that and that's a.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (35:17):
That's a big thing.
You're not.
So let's, let's talk.
Well, let me, let me get thisquestion, this question, first.
This is in there, from JamesFlynn.
So this question what's the onething that you're looking for
that says it's time to starttargeting them, what, what,
what's going to indicate?
Now, let's say you don't haveyour network of captains
reaching out to you.
What are you going to look foras just the regular, everyday

(35:40):
fishermen that's going to say,okay, I'm going to actually
start targeting these fish rightnow.

Rob Crossley (35:45):
So you, I guess.
So the best thing we do will be, you know where, you know, if
you're coming out of an inlet,go, you know, one to two miles
off the beach and see if you canfind some birds working on some
bait.
And then, or you can, you know,see if you can find those one
or two pop-up albies.
You know they'll showthemselves.
You know they're kind of likejust cruising, like porpoising,

(36:08):
like they'll just come up, youknow, up out of the water
they'll show themselves and thenthey'll find the bait right
away.
Usually the baits are, you know, not too far away and just you
know, start from there and thenonce you find them.
You're just going to befollowing them around pretty
much, you know yeah, juststalking them all over the place
until you lose sight.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (36:27):
Yeah , so, but you're looking for,
you're looking for the first bigpush of the offshore baits in
towards the beaches.

Rob Crossley (36:36):
Yes, yep, so storms so yeah, so at you know,
every year, usually at the endof august, we'll see this like
three day blow and it always haslike a big swell that comes
with it.
It's a northeast swell and itjust it's going to push all the
bait and the albies into.
You know, offshore to inshore.

(36:57):
You know it's going to pushthem off the wrecks.
And you know, once that storm'sover, usually it's game on,
it's always hit, that stormalways rolls through.
It's always like that latesummer storm.
We're going to have one nextweek.
Now we've got that hurricanecoming up Late August.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (37:18):
That could be it, that's it.
That's what everyone needs tolook for.

Rob Crossley (37:24):
Wait for that storm to roll through and then
start fishing, hopefully.
Yeah, wait for that storm toroll through and then start
fishing.
Okay, it's going to beeverywhere, hopefully.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (37:30):
Well , if they are, I might take a
day off of work to go down.
My wife doesn't listen to thisso she doesn't know, but I'll
just tell her I haveappointments, I'll run down.
Maybe I'll meet a client downthere, so I'm sure James will be
out there as soon as that thathappens.
So everybody watch the weatherand look for that, and now

(37:51):
wouldn't be a bad time to startreaching out to people that
might know for sure that andjust say, hey, if you hear, will
you just give me a call yeah,because this.

Rob Crossley (37:59):
You can miss this really really easily yeah, they
come in, they come in quick andthen you know they're like
pretty much unnoticeable, youknow, because there's not a lot
of guys that target this, thesefish.
You know right, you know up inthe kpa there's a lot more guys
that are, you know, do chartersand but there's not that.
You know most of these guysdon't care, you know they're
charter guys or tuna fishing orfood fishing.

(38:20):
You know it's not, it's notsomething that they advertise,
but there's are a few guys thatdo and you know, once they roll
in you got to jump on it becauseit can last one, two, three or
four days, and then you knowthey're gone.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (38:35):
Yeah .

Rob Crossley (38:36):
And then you won't see them.
But then you know, usuallywe'll see a good push in October
or November.
There'll be.
You know some pop-ups, you knowwhen you're bass fishing
there'll be.
You know some pop-ups, you knowwhen you're bass fishing
there'll be.
You know albie feeds, you knowa little, you know like a mile
off you're, you stumble into.

(38:56):
But yeah, the early the, thelate august, early september,
that's the big push and that'swhere you want to get on.
That's the big body to fish allright, and we've got.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (39:02):
So keep an eye out, guys.
We've got a potential startcoming, just like we see.
You see it with striped basstoo.
You get a certain storm at acertain time, and we've got.
So keep an eye out, guys.
We've got a potential startcoming, just like we see.
You see it with striped basstoo.
You get a certain storm at acertain time within a few weeks,
and that typically the wavecomes up, yeah, yeah, it just,
it just kicks it off and then itgets going.
But let's go back.
So you were talking about usingthose singles, those single
hooks in the inlines.
I also don't use trebles, forthe only time I use trebles

(39:28):
honestly at this point is if Ijust don't have time to switch
the treble because I bought theyeah, the the lure on the way to
the water, or if I'm doingfreshwater fishing.
You know, for trout, you know,like the old meps, things, yeah.
But otherwise I'm using singleinline because I haven't seen
really any difference in hookups.
But I have seen that you canlose a lot more fish with

(39:50):
trebles, in my opinion.
But even if you go beyond that,I think it is important to
mention to people the majorityof people that harvest albies
are don't rate them as a greattasting fish.
No, they have to do like magicto make it palatable.

(40:11):
So these are not fish,generally speaking, that people
like to eat.
So this is a time where youdefinitely don't want to be
damaging the fish.

Rob Crossley (40:23):
Um, you're not going to.
They're not a hardy fish,they're.
They're almost like a bunker.
You know you snag, you're goingto snag that a hardy fish
they're.
They're almost like a bunker.
You know you snag, you're gonnasnag that fish and then it's
gonna bleed out pretty fast andit's gonna die yeah, and and so
you don't need the you knowtreble hooks.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (40:36):
It's like, oh well, I'm gonna keep
it anyway.
In this case you're not.
So you know it's, it's a, it'sa good time to.
You know, use those, thosesingle in lines, because these
fish are not going into it.
I mean, there are some recipes.
I've heard people say that theycan be made palatable.

(40:57):
I've never heard anyone say Ihave an awesome way to do it,
yeah no, Benito, yeah,absolutely Benito yes, and
that's where people get screwedup, because they confuse the two
.

Rob Crossley (41:09):
Yeah, they confuse the two, and Benito is great
for a sashimi.
So you get that fish on theboat, you bleed them out real
fast and put them on ice andthat fish is amazing yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (41:20):
But that's not the case for this.
So I just wanted to bring thatup because, look, it's not a
trash fish, this is a sport fishthat people just don't eat.
So just be careful with them.
You do have to handle themgently.

Rob Crossley (41:37):
Yeah, and it's not a false.
Albacore is different from analbacore.
They're not the same.
An albie has nothing to do witha tuna family.
It's a mackerel family.
That's why they're oily andthey taste like shit, but it's a
hard-tailed fish.
It's similar.
It is a hard-tailed fish, soit's kind of like a tuna, but

(41:57):
it's not.
People get that.
No.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (42:01):
And it doesn't have the same.
It has a really good fight.
Oh yeah, it doesn't have thestaying power or anything of a
tuna the sizes are different.

Rob Crossley (42:15):
An albie here, is like five, six pounds.
Eight pound albies is a goodone.
They're a little biggeroffshore, but those big fish
don't come in close.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (42:26):
I would love to get out there and
get some bonito.
When those albies come in,though, because those are good.
I remember catching those whenI was younger, and we would just
eat them and throw them in thecooler, and when they got cool,
we would just cut them up andhave them for lunch.

Rob Crossley (42:41):
Yeah, and if you're out fluking right now,
bonito are everywhere.
I don't think they're going tobe on top right now, but you
have to jig for them.
You'll see them in schools.
They'll school up like abluefish, you know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (42:53):
You ever do that, you ever go out
and target them.

Rob Crossley (42:55):
Yeah, yeah, every once in a while.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (43:13):
You know, if I get bored with fluke
and I'll just go out there andfind, you know, a patch of 60,
60 gram tuna, jig, you know okay, or you can use an epoxy jig.

Rob Crossley (43:17):
Are you slow pitching at all or are you just
doing yeah?
Yeah, you know slow, you knowreal.
This is the content you knowslow, you know slow pitch up and
down, up and down.
Or you can do a speed jig.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (43:23):
Don't hit a speed jig too yeah, so
the speed jig, though, istypically well, no, I guess.
Yeah, if you drop it and justreel it real quick.

Rob Crossley (43:32):
Yeah, drop to the bottom and just reel it up real
quick and you just give it, likeyou know, a motion of, like you
know, jerking the rod and yeah,it's a lot of work.
You know, tuna guy, it's a tunathing, but you know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (43:43):
But it's, it's effective for those,
but, but I think that's a.
It's a good point, though, thatthe bonito you can catch them
the same exact way when they'remixed in with the albies yes,
yes same with the spanishmackerel, but if you're, if
you're going for bonito, it isnot the way that you're
typically fishing for them foroffshore.

(44:04):
Yes, I mean it's, it'sdifferent, it's a lot of it, I
think, has to do with the depth,because you know once they get
inshore they're under 30 feet,under 50 feet of water.

Rob Crossley (44:13):
They're just kind of moving yes and they're
attacking the base and bait ontop right, right, so you're not
so much.
You know they're, they're,they're probably more mid-column
.
You know, whatever they'refeeding on the baits mid column,
you know it's not not up topand especially not that deep of
water because, like the ratsright now they're in like 60
feet.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (44:34):
Yeah , 50, 60 feet, yeah man, I want
to go now.
Yeah, it's almost time I'mready.
It's almost time I'm I'm readyto go.
I gotta work on getting theright rod though, because I
don't have one.
Let's go back to the rod realquick.
What action do you have on thatrod?

(44:54):
Are you using the fast action?

Rob Crossley (44:56):
Fast action.
Yeah, you want a fast snappytip.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (44:59):
Fast or extra fast, but you want to
stay away from the moderate.

Rob Crossley (45:03):
Yeah, yeah, because you're going to lose a
little distance.
Yeah, I like to throw a littlehard one.
Cast an epoxy jig and look fora little snap at the tip where a
moderate rod.
You know you have to let thatrod load up, you know, let it do
its job.
But yeah, fast action is allyou need.
You know 7.6 is all you need.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (45:26):
That's the difference.
You're using rods that are notgoing to snap when you load them
up.
I don't.
I don't have a rod that I stilluse, that I trust, to fully
load on something.
It's a whole different thing.
I I have some customs fromyears ago that I I used for a

(45:48):
long time and I fully.
I mean I whipped those thingsand I got everything out of them
that I could.
But these, you know, like eventhe tfo that I typically use for
most of my inshore stuff, Idon't trust that thing.
You know it's rated up towhatever ounces.
I'm like I don't think so, Idon't think it.
I don't think it's going towork.

Rob Crossley (46:09):
TFO is a fast action rod.
It has a nice snappy tip to it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (46:15):
It does, but it's a different
thing.

Rob Crossley (46:19):
Break on fish and casting the brakes.
It's one of those things.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (46:26):
I don't own St Croix anymore.
St Croix anymore.
St Croix used to not break.

Rob Crossley (46:30):
Used to not break.
Yeah, those premier series rodswere, were great, you know.
But those avid rods and emojisI don't know, they just went a
different direction and I justnever recovered from it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (46:45):
I almost bought a mojo.
Until I tried one.
I was like this, there's, thisis not, this is not right, and
I'm not hating on saint croix,saint croix, I'm not either.
But damn you know, I don't knowwhat, what, what they're
thinking there yeah, there,there is a big difference in
quality, though the only, theonly rod that I hate on, the

(47:07):
only one that I truly hate on,is ugly stick and the and it's
not ugly sticks fault.
They for what they are.
They're exactly what they saythey are.
They're like the nearlyunbreakable rod family rod yeah,
but.
But what always bothers see Icould talk to a rod guy about
this.
What always bothers, see Icould talk to a rod guy about

(47:28):
this.
What always bothers me aboutthat is fishermen have bought
into that being the mostimportant thing.
A breaking rod should be likethe least of your concerns on a
fish.
Because if you're breaking a rodon a fish and look, I got very
good friends who will say, ah,the rod broke because of the

(47:49):
fish, I'm like, no, it didn't,it was you.
Oh well, it did this movement.
I'm like, so it was you.
You didn't accompany themovement with the proper
movement of your hands and youhad too much drag and you tried
to horse it this way, or youhigh-sticked it and people high

(48:13):
stick all the time and don'trealize it.
But the ugly stick, yeah, itprobably won't high stick, but
it also it.
It also is just such terribleaction.
As far as for the way that Ifish, at least noodle, it is a
noodle and I just try, I try andI listen.
I say this I have an ugly stickliterally in my truck right now
that I do bring with me forfresh water.
I bring an ugly stick as one ofthe two rods that I always have
on me.

Rob Crossley (48:34):
Because you know it's not going to break.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (48:36):
Well , that's why I have it.
If I want to go for a catfishand I'm going to grab some bait
and throw out one thing, that'sthe catfish rod or the carp rod,
because I can set the dragtight.
I can literally stick it in ain a in in between the rocks on
the dam and it's not going tobreak yeah, it won't break.

Rob Crossley (48:56):
We'll lock it up and stop that fishing right,
exactly, but I'm not.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (48:59):
I'm not using that for what I'm
tossing no no so yeah I just hadto bring that up, man it's.
I think that the rods make alot more.
It changes your experience.
On the water, yes, and a fishlike an albie.
You're going to feel thedifference between and it's not
price, but you know, let's justuse price as the gauge a 400 rod

(49:23):
is going to feel a lotdifferent than that $70 rod.
They both can work, but theexperience of it is so much
different.

Rob Crossley (49:32):
So much different.
It's crazy.
And the confidence you're goingto be able to, you know, have
with that.
You know it's a better rod andyou know the more versatile that
rod is going to be.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (49:43):
Yeah , I use it for my fluke.
Once.
I have a really inexpensivecustom that I use all the time
and I really like it, but it'sheavy and it wasn't until I
decided I'm just going to startusing my slow pitch another
custom much more expensive butstill not top of the line.

(50:04):
And the difference is it's likenight and day and you think
that the slow pitch, this littlethin rod, is not going to
handle a cow nose Ray.
But I literally boated a largecow nose Ray on this little
thing and you know I I don'tknow that I could have done it
with the bigger rod.
I think it actually probablywould have snapped it.

Rob Crossley (50:24):
We snapped it, yeah, cause?
Cause the probably would havesnapped.
It was snapped it?
Yeah, because because the itwere locked up.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (50:28):
you know the the locking point of
the rod's gonna, you know, bewhere that rod's gonna break,
you know or again you can, youcan feel where that is, you know
when you're at that point andit gets to that point and it was
just a weight thing, you knowthis is where it's gonna you
know more likely gonna break,yeah, but that's where slow
pitch comes in you know it'sgoing to, you know more likely
going to break, yeah, but that'swhere slow pitch comes in.

Rob Crossley (50:48):
You know it's great because you can parabolic
and you can really put the heaton a thing.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (50:52):
You know, I love that thing.
I use it.
I use it when I shouldn't justbecause I I I like it, it's fun
and that's why it's fun to fishwith.
If I were in a tournament Iwouldn't necessarily use that.
Yeah, that's where I get moreserious and I use what I'm
supposed to use.
But you know, I'll try to catchthings on that that rod, just

(51:13):
to catch them, yeah yeah, I hearyou so we're coming close to
the hour.
Do you have any like any bigtips for anyone that wants to
get into this style of fishing,any like experiences that you
want to share with it?
I the one thing I would say.
I know it can get frustratingfor people starting out and if
you're not on it, you're not onit yeah, well, yeah.

Rob Crossley (51:36):
So the gear, you know, starting with the right
rod and reel, obviously you'regonna want to have the right
setup.
You know, anywhere from a 10footer to a 7.6 half ounce to.
You know, one and one and ahalf-ounce fast action,
something that you're going towant to start with, a 3K or a
4,000-size reel, 20-pound braidand 20-pound leader.

(51:57):
Fluoro is a good start, youknow.
Then you're going to, you know,buy a handful of epoxy jigs.
You know, maybe buy a pink oneand a silver one, a chartreuse.
That's three main jigs youreally need.
It's only really neat.
I don't really throw softplastics because the fish here
are so picky they don't reallybuy.

(52:18):
It's different in the Cape,where you guys are using those
albie snacks.
It's not needed down here.
Just a plain old epoxy jig or007 or one of those helix or hex
, hex, diamond jigs, whereverthey are yeah, or deadly dick.
Deadly dick works fine.

(52:38):
That's a good start.
And then you know when you'reon the boat and you know kind of
wherever you're coming from, ifyou're going going out the mask
on, or you know you're goingout boring good light or
wherever.
Just you know kind of go to anarea where there's a close
enough wreck, maybe you knowlike one to two miles, and and

(53:00):
see if you can find fish.
If there's nothing there, thenstart moving yourself, you know,
closer to the beach and thenjust you know, once you find
them, you know it's kind of likegotta be patient, you gotta be,
you know, closer to the beachand then just you know, once you
find them, you know it's kindof like you've got to be patient
, you've got to be, you know,pretty calm with it and you know
kind of understand what they'redoing, because they're just
going to constantly keep movingfollowing the bait.
You know they might, you know,go through a whole bait pile and

(53:22):
go right on to the next.
Right, yeah, just be patient.
And you know you're going tofind your cadence.
You know you're going to castinto these feeds and you know
you can burn it in right awayand see what happens, or you can
cast and let it sink and thendo an immediate retrieve and see
what happens, and once you getbit, and then you kind of just

(53:43):
repeat that process over andthen you know you go from there.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (53:52):
Now let's say you didn't have your
boat.
Where would you say you knowyou would?
In New Jersey.
Let's just talk New Jersey,because that's really what we're
talking about right now.
And then the New York guy.
I know there's a bunch of NewYork guys.
Next week I'm going to sharewhere all I got the stats of Rob
.
You wouldn't believe like howmany people in different
countries are regular listenersto the podcast.

(54:14):
It's crazy.
It's crazy, but New York isactually.
We have more New York peoplethan New Jersey people.
So you're going to have toadjust because I don't think Rob
knows the inlets and thebeaches along the shore there.
But where would you be going Ifyou just had to guess?
Where do you think you're goingto start seeing these show up

(54:35):
first this year?

Rob Crossley (54:40):
I'm not going to give away the good spots, but
Sandy Hook's a good spot to no,just general areas.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (54:45):
You're going to go all the way up
north.
That's where you think it'sprobably going to kick off.

Rob Crossley (54:54):
With me.
I'm not going to go chase themup north, no, I'm just going to.
You know they're going to behere.
You're going to have your bodyof fish.
You know it could be off, youknow Sandy Hook, or it can be
off Long Branch.
You know Matalucan area, butthey'll all come in at once, not
going to just be, they're goingto be up and down the coast,
you know either way.
But yeah, I'm just going tostay local and uh okay.

(55:18):
Most likely be on the boat.
I won't really target them toomuch on the beach unless you
know I'm on the beach that day.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (55:25):
They just happened to be there.
All right, the land-based guys.
Your estimation is you probablygot an even shot, no matter
where you are.

Rob Crossley (55:34):
Yeah, fishing off the jetties.
John Skinner, where does hefish?
Off Long Island Sound?
Yeah, it's a little differentfor him he's a seven-foot rod.
They come in super close.
Here it's different If can usea seven-foot rod and then come
in.
You know super close and youknow here it's different.
You're going to, you knowyou're going to need, if you're
fishing off the surf, you'regoing to need a 10-foot rod.
You know you want to be able toget that distance because you
know most of the time they'rethey're going to be on that past

(56:06):
that break and you're going toneed a 10 footer or nine and a
half to get the distance.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (56:12):
Or start waiting.

Rob Crossley (56:13):
Yeah, or start waiting.
You know, depending on the day,but the conditions always
change.
You just gotta be ready for it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (56:21):
I think that's the big thing.
You gotta be ready for it, andI do again, like I said at the
beginning, I've this fishing.
It is freaking amazing when youcatch, when you catch on to
them and you get a bite going.
The run and gun is insanity.
I mean, talk about adrenalineand it doesn't really what for
me.
You, you know you think you gotyour down time between spots,

(56:45):
but to me that's the mostintense time because you're
trying to figure out where arethey going to come up.
Where are they going to come up?
So you're like looking around,like you're looking for a sniper
or something.

Rob Crossley (56:52):
Yeah, and you can go a half hour and not find them
.
And then all of a sudden theyjust, they just pop up.
You know, yep, they feel likecrazy.
And then you know, then they'regone and then it's like you
won't see him for two hours andyou're like I was trying to go
south.
And then you go south and it'slike they're everywhere and then
it's just like what the heckhappened?
You know, it just died off hereand now you got to go south.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (57:12):
I can't tell you how many times I
went.
So I used to go out this is along time ago with my buddy
Jason, when I lived in StoneHarbor for a summer and he and I
would go out every day and wewent out.
We went out of Townsend when wewere around that time of year
at the end of August.
So we're going out of Townsendand we're out there and we're

(57:35):
just, it's kind of the run andgun thing.
We had a habit of notcommunicating with each other.
So he's driving or I'm driving,the other one's looking and
you're on the bow of this boatand all of a sudden it's like 15
minutes, nothing.
You're just kind of, you knowjust real slow rise and fall,
looking and looking.
Next thing you know you'regoing like full speed.

Rob Crossley (57:56):
You're on your ass , you're sliding down the walk
around.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (58:00):
You're getting wedged in there.
It's like, oh, I found him.
I can't get up, so yeah.
But but it was like always thatadrenaline Cause you never knew
when it was going to pop offagain, and when it did, you just
had to be ready for it.

Rob Crossley (58:12):
Yeah it's, you know there'll be right off the
beach and the next thing youknow they're.
They're a mile off the beach.
You know kind of cruise aroundand you just keep on looking and
it's away from the pop up.
You'll see the birds.
You'll see like three or fouror five birds and they'll just
start picking away.
They'll fly real erratic andthat's when you know there's

(58:36):
fish under them All right.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (58:37):
Well , people got to get ready.
It's going to kick off soon.

Rob Crossley (58:46):
Yeah, be patient, and patience is the key.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad (58:48):
Patience until you get get there, and
then it's kind of focusedintensity yeah, yeah otherwise
you're just wasting your time.

Rob Crossley (58:54):
Yeah, then it's recent yeah, but you know, a
good day for me is 10 fish,maybe maybe a little more 10
fish.
10 to 12 fish is a good daythat's a good day, a bad?
I think that yeah, like a quickafternoon, like right after
work, is probably, or like threeor four fish, a little bit more
harder to find because thewater's not so clear yeah, and I

(59:19):
will say this before we go,though it's when they're in.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (59:24):
I'm not saying it's guaranteed that
you're going to catch them, butyou have a really high
probability of finding them.
At least it's not like you'regoing out and just hunting and
you may not find something.
I mean that could happen, butwhen they're in they're in and
you're going to be able to findthem.
At the very least, the birdswill show you where they are.

(59:45):
Some of the best time actuallyto go, my opinion is when you
have pretty substantial seas.
You know so you're not alwaysgoing to see them themselves,
but you'll always.
The birds will always find themfor you, yeah yep and blind and
blind cast and totally fine.

Rob Crossley (01:00:04):
You know, if you, if you don't see these birds
breaking, I mean, uh, the albiesbusting surface and you just
see birds just casting the birds, those fish are there, they're
just subsurface.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (01:00:13):
And they'll come up.

Rob Crossley (01:00:14):
Yeah, they'll come up.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad F (01:00:15):
They'll absolutely come up Well, I'm
looking forward to well.
Again.
For those that haven't seen it,it's August 2025.
Need for Speed FalseAlbuquerque Tact tactics and
gear in the fisherman magazine.
It's the new jersey edition.
Again.
We have a lot of guys in newyork and new england that watch
and listen to this.
Just go online and just go tothe new jersey edition.

(01:00:39):
You have access with yoursubscription to all three, so
you should be able to go in andread this article.
It's good information.
I'm going to follow up with youand see how you're doing.
Hopefully I'll get out on abike and I'll be able to share a
story or two, but it's notlikely that I'm going to be able

(01:01:00):
to.
It's tough when the bike comesin and I'm two and a half hours
away and no boat to get on it.
And I'm two and a half hoursaway and no boat to get on it.
But I'll be living vicariouslythrough you and all those other
guys down there really beatingthem up.
So thanks again for coming on.
I really appreciate it.

Rob Crossley (01:01:16):
I appreciate it, thank you.
Thanks for the invite.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (01:01:18):
Yeah , and next week everybody.
I think he, I think I hope Ihave this right.
He just entered the chat.
Benji crabbing and fishing isgoing to be on.
I think that's next week.
I got to double check.
So we're going to go into thattalk about his charter business,
see if he's going to be gettingout there with his boat on

(01:01:39):
these Albies.
If I had to guess, I'm going tosay he will figure a way to do
it.
So hopefully we'll have somecontinued coverage coming up on
it.
So he just said in the chat yes, he will.
So all right, thanks again, rob.
Everybody, thanks for tuning in.
Until next week, until nextepisode, everybody, get out
there, get on the water and getsome tight lines you.