The Weekly Salvage
The Weekly Salvage
(8.15.24) 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…
🎙️| Cut & Retie Podcast - MapQuesting the Way to the Striper Pit —> Fishing guide and Hot Water Music lead singer, Chuck Ragan, joins the podcast to discuss why his favorite golf club is a fishing rod.
🎥 | Kayak Albies on Cape Cod
🎥 | Fogged in Yellowfin in NJ (30 Line Productions)
Reports | OnTheWater / FishermanMag / SaltyCape / HullTruth / StripersOnline
What’s on the Rigging Bench - August Edition
August angling opportunities in the Northeast are as broad as they are hard to choose between. Depending on your locale and weather conditions, you could have more than four or five of the major target species (not even including the Bluewater variety) on your radar on a daily basis. While I can’t offer any tips on how to deal with paralysis of analysis and choosing what to fish for when (beyond the prevailing weather, accessibility and your PTO balance), I can offer a menu of tried and true setups for scratching a good fish or two in the Summer doldrums.
Hard Tail, Light Tackle - It’s hard to beat the excitement of chasing a new arrival to our waters. Albies & Bones are filling into Cape waters in new and old places, with plenty of peanuts and sandeels around to keep them occupied for months to come. To get the authentic sizzling drag experience, downsize the gear to a 7’ ML rod, 3k reel, 12lb nano-braid and 15lb flouro, and sling a 20g metal (like the Shimano current sniper) into the fray.
Finicky Tuna on Top - It’s hard enough to find fun-size BFT crashing on top these days, but getting them to eat can oftentimes prove near-impossible. The Siren Antidote 130, paired with a slim 80lb mono shock leader and PE6 braid (for longer casts) is what the industry’s best have proven to be the odds-beater.
Mixed Bag Jigging - It’s no secret this season’s ‘best’ rec tuna bite has been jigging the 20-fathom line south of RI, with all manner of jigs having their hey-day on the 32-40” class of fish. Two proven methods: 1) slow-rolling a white/root-beer 3oz 8” BG RonZ, a smaller but sturdy enough package to find the hinge and 2) a 120-150g ‘streaker style’ metal in pink/sandeel, fast-twitched in the lower 40ft of the water column. 60lb leaders and 10k size reels seem plenty capable for 95% of fish anglers have been encountering.
Rip, Stop Stripes - To beat the Striper lull in the Summer heat, finding moving water can make all the difference. Timing a trip to the rips an hour after slack will not only help you see how the current seams develop, it’ll give you plenty of time to figure out how fish are setting up. Few presentations are as effective as paralleling casting the breaking water with flashy SP minnow-style plugs on light-tackle setups, letting the current drag your baits back into the wash where bass lie in wait.
Grass & Gills - With sweetwater temps peaking, big bass are only going to expend energy if the chase is worth the calories. This means bluegill patterns will excel in most natural lake environments. Around thick grass and pads, the SK Poppin Perch is a personal favorite, tied on straight 50lb braid and a flipping stick (remember to count to 3 on those hook-sets…)
Deep Droppin’ Smallies - Summer Smallmouth patterns can often seem like a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, but with the advance in electronics/FFS, one August staple is drop-shotting deep structure. Especially when baitfish are present, I like a finesse ‘reaction-strike’ style of fishing, dropping a nose-hooked 4” Senko on a 3/4oz tear-drop weight as close to located fish as possible. You’ll only get about a 1:4 drop to bite ratio, but those bites are usually of solid quality.
How Fly Fishermen and Big Swimbait Anglers are the Same (Wired2Fish) - “At the end of the day, the “whys and hows” of what big swimbait and fly fishermen do are exactly the same. They might actually be the same anglers at heart and not even know it. Honestly, they have a lot of uncanny similarities. They both are into high end gear. They both are looking for apex fish in a system. They both are looking to have an interaction with the fish that is visible in some manner. They both are scoffed at for doing things unconventionally. Any even if they don’t have enough interactions they still consider the fishing to be good even if they don’t catch one.” —> Even in this time of great division, we can find community and solace in the skunk, especially when the fish aren’t pummeling the only baits you want to catch on (12” glide-baits and Humboldt Squid Flies).
Tuna Fishing at “The Dump” (OnTheWater) - “All of this structure, contour changes, and varying currents load The Dump with massive amounts of bait. Whether on bottom or at the surface, it sustains some of the largest creatures of the marine ecosystem. My charters have been spoiled with mahi of all sizes, giant and recreational-sized bluefin, feisty yellowfin, longfin, massive schools of wahoo, monster sharks and a variety of marine mammals gorging themselves. The area is notorious for setting the stage for what NationalGeographic-level trips are made of.”
The Golden Giants of Uruguay (AnglersJournal) - “For truly giant golden dorado, nothing compares to Uruguay, specifically an area known as the “Zone” below the Salto Grande Dam on the Uruguay River on the border with Argentina. Multiple world-record dorado have been landed in these tailwaters. The abundance of food that’s flushed through the dam’s turbines, combined with the highly oxygenated water, creates a uniquely rich environment presided over by outsized apex predators that seem to grow larger and more plentiful every year.”
El Diente Del Diablo (FieldEthos) - “While buying a bag of “mota”off Mario the day before, we struck up a conversation about fishing the waters in the area, looking to tap into some local knowledge. He mentioned it was lobster season and the reefs off the coast of our rental house were prime hunting grounds. He offered to take us out the next day to a spot he called El Diente del Diablo, “The Devil’s Tooth,” about a mile off the coast. I asked about licenses. Mario laughed. “The water belong to us. The government has no say how I feed my family,” he replied after collecting himself. I immediately liked the guy. We reported as ordered geared up and ready, or so we thought. Expecting Mario to roll up in a fully powered panga, we were surprised when he and his buddy walked up under their own power, gear in hand. We didn’t anticipate a mile or so swim to the outer reef, but for Jon, there’s no backing out of a challenge, regardless of the possible consequence, so Plan F was initiated.”
Thanks for reading The Weekly Salvage, until next week!
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