The Weekly Salvage
(5.23.24) 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…
Pods | Red Top Podcast - How to Target Big Fish in the Surf with Calvin Toran-Sandlin —> A glimpse into the more extreme niche of wetsuit surf-fishing, with all the spine-chilling benefits of bumpin’ brown sharks and grey seals in the fog. Still probably less dangerous than crossing lines with the wrong crew at Bell Road.
Scales & Tales Podcast - Mike Bucca of Bullshad Swimbaits —> Mike discusses the beginnings of Bullshad and what it was like going into bait building full-time before the swimbait “bubble”. He also shares an interesting story about the Texas freeze in 2021, which affects Mike’s pricing strategy to this day.
Vids | Rigging Bench - Spring Loadout and May Full Moon Strategies —> There are a few golden rules in fishing: 1) don’t leave fish to find fish 2) you can’t catch em from the couch 3) if its blowin’, were goin’ and 4) if a guy’s got an air freshener, tackle racks and a cot in the bed of his truck, you should probably hear him out. Boulder-fields. SW winds, cloudy full-moon tides. Big baits. Bingo.
Coastal Worldwide - 200lb Yellowfin on a 22ft Boat —> Dream scenario for all my diehard small CC jig n pop brethren out there.
Reports | OnTheWater / FishermanMag / SaltyCape / HullTruth / StripersOnline
Q&A with Dylan & Blaine from Coastal Worldwide Fishing
Q - What is the inspiration behind the Coastal Worldwide Brand? And what's the ultimate goal for your youtube channel and adventures?
A- Dylan and I created the name Coastal Worldwide to build a brand around our travels. We did not want to have a name that could restrain us to a certain area. We want to be able to teach other anglers about other fisheries/techniques across the globe, so that they may be able to implement those techniques into their own fisheries. Longterm for our YouTube is for us to travel the world while taking our audience along with us. We want to become knowledgeable and skilled in as many fisheries as possible. You can never stop learning.
Q - Between land-based shark charters and offshore pursuits, what's been the steepest part of the learning curve? What traits do you think define the best multi-species anglers you've come across?
A - The steepest learning curve for all the fishing we do is the amount of research off the water that goes into our fishing adventures. It isn’t enough to just buy gear you think will get the job done. Its about the little finite things that will matter when you have the fish of a lifetime on the other end of your line. The #1 trait that someone can have when it comes to becoming a great multi-species anglers is obsession. Every prolific multi-species angler we have encountered doesn’t just love fishing, they are obsessed with every little detail.
Q - Out of all the crazy experiences you've had the last few years, what has been the most rewarding adventure and why?
A - In May of 2023 Dylan hooked a 200lb+ Yellow Fin at an oil rig in our home waters on a popper. The fight went on for over an hour and a half….and then the reel foot broke on his reel. Even with the reel foot break, he got the fish within 2 pinwheels of putting a gaff in it when the line popped. We spent the next 10 minutes looking at the sonar watching his fish literally sink to the bottom. From then on we had a chip on our shoulders. One of us simply had to get a 200lb class yellowfin in our boat in our home waters. Countless hours of research on rods, lures, reels, and terminal tackle went into the effort. In February of 2024 we had our shot once again. We were headed 90 miles from home towards Venice Louisiana to an area that reports were saying had monster yellowfin everywhere. Roughly six miles out from our destination, we look over and there are tuna busting out of the air about a half mile away. We turn on these fish and Blaine gets up to the bow, rod and popper in hand and hooks up. After a 36-minute fight we landed the fish and immediately knew she was 200lb. This was and still is the most rewarding trip we have had.
Q - I know you guys run a gear-review channel as well...for us junkies, what's some of the coolest trends or technological developments in the offshore space that you are excited about?
A - Our gear review channel is still new and we are trying to get our hands on more interesting and innovative gear to review. That being said, a reel that we now use is the Okuma Makaira 20000 size spinning reel. Daiwa and Shimano have been #1 back and forth for as long as anyone can remember in the jig and pop world, but this reel from Okuma should not be underestimated. These reels feel bullet proof while holding in your hand. The torque conversion is unmatched when it comes to reeling through pressure on a fish, which you cannot say about most spinning reels. It has a preset knob like a conventional reel where you can set preset drag pressure, so you never have to guess how much drag you are running, you just know.
Q - If you were constrained to a small center console, you get 150-gals of fuel a day, 2 casting rods and a perfect weather window for the next 10-days anywhere in the country, where are you headed and how are you fishing?
A - We would fish right here at home in the Gulf Of Mexico. Bouncing from oil rig to oil rig in search of big Yellow Fin Tuna. Our attack would be to artificial fish whether it’s poppers, stickbaits or jigs. The 2 rods would be a speed jigging set up and a popping/stickbait setup.
Lightning Round
Favorite popper and color? FCL Labo Ebi Pop in the SA color.
Best boat name you've come across? Necessity.
Bucket-list trip? Dogtooth Tuna in Fiji.
Preferred method of caffeination? Reign or Bang Energy drink. (oh hell yeahhh)
The Timeline of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Resurgence (SaltwaterSportsman) - “Perhaps no geographic point in the bluefin’s resurgence is more dramatic than what has happened starting in the past 10 years in the North Atlantic off the United Kingdom. Bluefin hadn’t been seen in these waters for more than 60 years, so when giant tuna began leaping and feeding just off the coast in 2014, eyes popped and jaws dropped. ICCAT had prohibited even incidental harvest for northern European countries. But by 2023, the first commercial bluefin fishing in more than 60 years was officially underway. So was a limited catch-and-release fishery. The bluefin were back.”
How to Fish the Rare Double Brood Cicada hatch (MeatEater) - “The thing that always seems the most unrealistic about these pestilent scenes to me is that people are always running away from the clouds of insects instead of running towards the bugs with their fishing rods. Every angler knows that a massive insect hatch can create some of the best fishing of the year, and in 2024, anglers can actually expect some of the best fishing in over 200 years with the double emergence of the Brood XIX and Brood XII cicada hatches.”
Choosing the Best Transducer (BDOutdoors) - “Years ago you got what you got. Today, we can choose a transducer with the beamwidth to fit our specific needs thanks to some serious tech development by the sharpies at Airmar, the undisputed king of transducer design and manufacturing. If you spend more time searching the bottom in a few hundred feet for groundfish like rockfish, for example, you’d be better served by a transducer like the B175H, with high frequency (130- to 210-kHz) and a narrow beamwidth, which is designed to deliver the best bottom discrimination. Or let’s say you plan to try deep-dropping for swordfish and you want to be able to pick up fish and squid hovering 1,500’ below the boat. In that case, a low frequency transducer that delivers wider beam widths and CHIRPs in the low frequency band (40- to 60-kHz) would be the ticket.”
Fishing Big Rubber (FishermanMag) - “Let’s say you want to fish the deep edge of a reef or rockpile, or you want drift down a river or over a big hump, this is where rigging on a jighead comes into play. This gives you the versatility of dialing in the perfect weight for the situation, I will fish any weight from quarter-ounce up to about 2-1/2, any heavier than that and I’ll switch my method. Cast the eel and jig combo out and reel it slowly back to you with occasional subtle twitches, this is a deadly method for fishing deep structure or along the bottom of a river channel. When fishing strong and deep currents like you might find at Montauk or The Race in Long Island Sound, that’s where the three-way rig comes into play, just like you would with a live eel, bunker or bucktail, just using the plastic eel instead. You can rig them on 3/4- to 1-ounce jighead or simply thread it onto a circle hook.”
MEMORIAL DAY MEANS SOMETHING (FieldEthos) - “Some think Memorial Day is just a day off work during a great time of year for a barbecue. While both may be true, Memorial Day is meant to honor military personnel who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. Since 1970, this national holiday has been observed on the last Monday in May. Say “Happy Memorial Day,” to someone who lost a son, daughter, spouse, sibling, or friend, and silence is the best response you can expect.”
Bait Monkey: Inkredible Squid Imitations
Thanks for reading The Weekly Salvage, until next week!
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