The Weekly Salvage
(5.21.25) Fishy News from Around the Northeast and Beyond
The maritime rule of salvage has its origin in Roman law, which dictates that one who preserves or improves upon the misplaced property of another is owed compensation, even if the service was not requested. Let’s get out the internet trawler and get to work…
🎙️| SeaBros Podcast: Justin Braun of Chatter Lures —> Justin & the bros discuss the new age of side trackers, productive BFT spreads, building a small business in uncertain times and how to build products that can withstand the bite from the most powerful fish on the planet.
🎥 | The Sardine Run —> It’s just so beautiful…I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Fishing Reports | OnTheWater - FishermanMag - HullTruth - SOL
Renew your HMS vessel permits here.***
Local Knowledge: The Good Cop, Bad Cop Routine
A classic trope in televised police procedurals is the questioning technique of the bad cop and the good cop. The bad cop comes in hot, harasses the prisoner demanding answers and, on occasion, threatens physical abuse with the lit end of a cigarette. The good cop is patient, then enters the room to comfort the prisoner, offers them a cup of coffee, and gets him to let his guard down. Once the inmate accepts that cup of joe, they’ve got him dead to rights.
It all reminds me a bit of the system a good buddy and I used to fish club bass derbies (to very mild success) back in the day: one with all the subtly of an elephant on amphetamines, the other like a church fart, silent but deadly. But seriously, when fishing with a friend, getting the most out of your combined efforts to find and trigger fish is the name of the game, and this ‘questioning’ technique can sum up to greater than its parts.
In the freshwater realm, the terms ‘power’ fishing and ‘finesse’ fishing are usually at the opposite ends of the Venn diagram. But in a team setting, you can combine the two to comb totally distinct parts of the water column, structure/cover and perhaps even classes of fish. Take the combination of a buzz-bait and drop-shot for example. One is loud and obtrusive, and known for getting the ‘right’ bites. The other is silent, subtle, and catches multitudes in varied depths. Both are effective in their own right, but together they become a more effective means of covering water, and in this case, are also complementary ‘follow up’ baits after a missed strike.
In the Striper fly fishing scene, the ‘Doc & Feathers’ technique is something of a cheat code. Typically a guide tosses a hookless version of the dildo-shaped plug over some juice-y rock structure, calling fish to the surface, giving a fly-angler a visual target to lay down a nice streamer just as the fish come into range. Sporting? Maybe. Effective? Absolutely. This system can easily be expanded to incorporate bait-fishing too. A pencil popper and a live mack. A buck-tail and a few slowly drifted chunks…why not.
The key is in the contrast of silhouette and intrusiveness: one angler is taking large but calculated risks, while the other plays it safe and patiently waits for a high-probability opportunity. In tuna ‘run & gun’ scenarios, after hours and hours of chasing ‘up & down’ feeds with poppers and stick-baits, its often the case (in my experience) that the helmsman ends up getting tight right off the stern, usually on a soft-plastic jig dropped as his anglers fire away on the surface after the school has retreated to the depths.
So next time you're out there trying to crack the case of where the bite’s hiding, don’t just go in guns blazing or sit back and whisper sweet nothings to your spinning rod. Mix it up. Shake the tree and rake the leaves all at once. Just ask Detective RonZ Swanson—he may not say much, but when the moment’s right, he always lands the perp. Or the forty-pounder. Same difference.
Case closed. Book ‘em Danno!
Is New Jersey the New Striped Bass Mecca? (Salt Water Sportsman) – “Jersey politicians did one thing right a few years ago: They got the Omega 3 bunker boats out of state waters. That has allowed a vast biomass of menhaden to proliferate throughout the year in Jersey waters. This draws behemoth bass into the bays, river systems and alongshore to fatten up on omnipresent adult bunker. Walk up to the beach, and black clouds of bait are present in the surf and nearshore from spring through winter. During the fall, massive schools of smaller baits such as peanut bunker, bay anchovies and spearing push out of the backwaters and inundate the surf line. From October through December, sand eels choke the surf waters.”
7 Lures for Late May and Early June (Saltwater Edge) – As striped bass activity intensifies in back bays and rocky shores, and bottom fishing gains momentum, the article highlights seven effective lures to enhance angling success. These selections are tailored to match prevalent baitfish and fishing conditions, ensuring versatility across various scenarios. The lures are readily available and have been proven effective for this time of year.
Circle Hooks for Eels (On The Water) – “If you spent all your surfcasting years before 2020 using J-hooks and swinging for the fences when a striper ate your eel, the last few seasons may have been an adjustment. Some anglers have abandoned eels altogether due to circle hook frustration and eel price inflation that has the slimy baits costing as much as $3.50 apiece at some shops. However, eels are too effective not to use, so we polled some of the striper coast’s dedicated eel fishermen on their go-to hooks for this essential striped bass bait. For offering up eels to the heavyweight bass of Block Island on three-way rigs or weightless, Captain Joe Diorio ties on the BKK Hybrid Heavy Inline Circle, opting for 7/0 for small eels and 8/0 for large.”
Fishing’s Most Dangerous Animals: The Impalers (Sport Fishing Magazine) – “My wife, Denise, and I were fishing off Hannibal Bank [Panama] in December 2000. I happened to be on one boat with one of my buddies and my wife was in another boat. A friend of ours hooked a 650-pound blue marlin and brought it to the boat — very green — in about 15 minutes. Denise was filming all this with a video camera. So she’s leaning over the side to catch the action as the crew goes to tag the fish, thrashing at the gunwale. Suddenly the SOB jumps straight up, and its long bill goes through Denise’s bent forearm, running between two bones and on into her right breast — and all the way out her back!”
Looking for more information about a product after reading The Weekly Salvage?
Try using GearSay, the first generative AI tool specifically tailored to help you find the right fishing tackle.
Thanks for reading The Weekly Salvage, until next week!
Have feedback or want to learn more?
Reach out to us on IG @Blowin_We_Goin