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

Late summer fluke fishing offers unique challenges and opportunities as water temperatures rise and fish begin transitioning from bays to inlets. With the right approach, anglers can still enjoy productive fishing despite changing conditions.

• Understanding beach structure is critical - focus on troughs between beach and sandbars rather than deep holes
• Lighter tackle outperforms heavy gear in the surf - 7' medium rods with 3000-series reels and 15lb braid
• Use lighter bucktails (3/8-3/4oz) with ball heads that won't dig into sand
• 75% of fluke strikes come on teasers positioned 18" above the bucktail or sinker
• Consider fishing at night when water is cooler and fish feed more aggressively
• Don't hesitate to use large baits - fluke will attack surprisingly large offerings
• Fish current seams and breaks around jetties where fish hold to avoid fighting strong flow
• Scented baits and clean hands make a difference - nicotine and gasoline are known fish deterrents
• Inlets are becoming increasingly productive as fluke begin their offshore migration
• Safety on jetties should be your priority - wear proper footwear and watch for waves

If you enjoy the show, please make sure to follow, leave a review, and share with fellow anglers. Check out the 71st Annual LBI Surf Fishing Classic running August 30th to November 30th with $25,000 in prizes and a new fluke division at lbisfc.com.

Great Bay Outfitters - Gear Up!
Your go-to shop for top fishing gear, apparel, and kayak essentials in South Jersey.

Quad State Tune For Your Toyota Truck
Custom engine tuning for peak performance for Toyota trucks. Improve power and performance today.

Richard Natoli Real Estate
Helping PA homeowners buy & sell with confidence—honest advice, expert guidance, real results.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:05 Welcome to Fat Dad Fishing Show
• 0:56 Show Sponsors and Introduction
• 4:15 Late Summer Fluke Fishing Update
• 13:39 Reading the Surf for Fluke
• 25:18 Gear and Tackle Selection
• 35:24 Teasers and Bucktail Strategies
• 45:25 Targeting Big Fluke with Large Baits
• 54:59 Inlet Fishing Techniques
• 1:08:06 Understanding Current and Structure
• 1:15:59 Night Fishing Advantage
• 1:19:41 LBI Surf Fishing Classic Preview

Transcript

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 0:05

Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad Fishing Show. This is the show where we take great, great pains to help you make those pictures of shorts look like keepers, keepers look like doormats and doormats look like whales, and we'll go into that tonight a little bit. It's a really super secret technique that Bayside Dave has down and he's going to share it later with you. Whether he wants to or not. I'm going to press him on this issue. So listen, if this is your first time here, welcome. Thanks for checking out the show. If you enjoy it, please make sure you hit a follow, leave a review on any of the podcast platforms, a like anything, but one of the most important things is share it out to people that may not see the show, may not know about it. That would be awesome. It helps us to get more content coming and more guests to come on the show. I'm going to quick hit the sponsors for the show. It's our regular sponsors. So Great Bay Outfitters, radio Road in Tuckerton If you want anything for a kayak, check that shop out. Check out Great Bay Outfitters. Look them up on Facebook. Great information there. Paul is always on there sharing intel, talking about the fishing in the area and he's got some great deals on these kayaks right now. So it's not just if you need a new kayak. They have used kayaks, they have the brand new Old Town. I think they still have a few left in stock. I think the EPDLs might be gone for the year, but it's worth checking out and you never know what he's going to get back in stock for used sales. 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 know one of the more expensive kayaks had one of those for a week. We had the Native Slayer LTE on vacation this summer, me and my family. My son loves it, my wife loves it and that's probably going to be the next kayak that we add to the fleet, the Fat Dad fleet. So check them out. Check them out on Facebook.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 2:04

Next is Quad State Tune. You can contact Kevin Driscoll, 484-633-5975. And let me try to do justice to this. I made a mistake last week and I said Dodge trucks. It's not Dodge trucks, it's Toyota. So if you have a Toyota truck, and actually these tunes are good for the Toyota trucks the 4Runner, the Tundra, even the Lexus 460 and 470. And what it does is for every single one of those you're going to get an improved throttle response, more torque, more horsepower. And if you have the third gen Tacoma, which does have the gear seeking or the gear hunting, where it doesn't quite shift into gear the way that you want it to, it'll take care of that as well. So make sure that you check them out. Call Kevin if you have any questions. He can walk you through it and then me.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 2:52

Your final sponsor for real estate, southeastern Pennsylvania, residential primarily. If you need commercial, I can hook you up with somebody. Don't worry, I'll stay in my lane. If it's not something I should do, I'm not going to do it. But yeah, if you're looking at real estate buy, sell, invest give me a call 267-270-1145, or natolirealestate at gmailcom. So with that we're going to jump in here real quick. I'm going to bring Bayside Dave on. Old veteran of the show. Good to see you, dave.

Bayside Dave: 3:25

Welcome back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 3:25

Thanks for having me Good to see you, brother. It's been. It's only been a little bit of time, but, man, things change Once you go into spring, into summer. I mean, it changes 10 times a year for the fishing conditions and the tactics. But we're heading into the late summer, so summer is, we're officially in the back half of summer and the water's warmer. Things have changed. And land-based fishing for no matter how much I want to talk about kayak and boat and all of that stuff, land-based fishing remains the most popular way to go fishing in the salt year round. So it seems like it's a good time to bring you back on and let's talk about how we roll into August. So the first question is how is your late July and how is your early August going so far? What are you noticing out there?

Bayside Dave: 4:16

I'm noticing. You know we had a real strong start. You know right now, you know, of course, it's summer down here in South Jersey, off the beaches, everybody's targeting fluke. You know the beginning of the season was on fire and up until about a week or two ago, you know a lot of the fish were big, a lot of the keepers were in the 20 inch plus range and even the smaller ones, I mean just big, fat, heavy fish. Last year was a horrible year. We had a lot of the south winds with the upwelling and the cold waters just chasing them out. And you know I basically stopped fluke fishing off the surf last year around July because I'd go to the beach for like four, three, four, five hours sometimes and pull up like two or three fish like 10 inches, 12 inches. It was just horrible. Fish like 10 inches, 12 inches, it was just horrible. You know none of the big fish came in, you know, off the surf, maybe into the bays a little bit for a little while, but then it just turned right off.

Bayside Dave: 5:12

This year has been a banner year, if you want to put it at that. Like I said, man, just just good heavy fish, good size fish. A lot of them were near the inlets. A lot of them were on the north end and the south end of the island, first off, which is pretty typical, and then on into the bays. You know I have friends who do take boats out into the bays and sometimes throw bayside dave in there with them. You know, yeah, we did really really well limiting out with some 20 inch plus fish constantly and right now it kind of slowed down off the surf. The water is really warm.

Bayside Dave: 5:49

I went out there yesterday and this morning. You know we had those horrible couple weeks there where we were just sweltering in the humidity and and the heat and oh my god, it's like I I didn't even go out on some of them days. You know I'm lucky, I live on the island, here I don't work and you know I can pick and choose. You know air weather, fishermen. You know I'll go out because I love it so much, but then on those days where you're just miserable I'm not having fun.

Bayside Dave: 6:17

So but now it started. It cooled off again. Everybody sees that. You know the humidity left and I went down to the beach yesterday morning and I actually had a sweatshirt on. I walked out the door. I'm only two blocks from the beach. So I walk out the door in my just a t-shirt and whatever, and, man, I had to throw my sweatshirt on. So I threw my hoodie on and went down to the surf and I left that hoodie on all morning and it was so comfortable. But that's when I noticed the water temperature. As soon as I stepped in the water I was like, wow, the water is warmer than the air temperature. It's amazing to feel, you know, that early in the morning and even, you know, through the early hours of the morning and into the noon hour almost.

Bayside Dave: 6:59

But yeah, it's just, these last couple days finding fluke in the surf was just, you know, really wasn't happening. You know, wasn't getting a good bite. You know I I move a lot on the beach and that's what you have to do when you're surf fishing for fluke. You know, you look at the conditions, you look at the surf and you see, you know where the holes and the rips and the and the bars and the troughs are and all that stuff, but basically fluke. You know, I always try to fish in the troughs that form between the beach and the sandbars A lot of times. You know, a high percentage of the fish are in those long troughs. Sometimes they're a block or two long and they're hanging out in those troughs and that's where all the food is, that's where they're all feeding. You know the big holes that form outside the rips. You know in between where the bars are formed. You know that's where a lot of the water is exiting from the surf line. You know, as waves break over the sandbar they weaken in strength and they don't have the power to get back over the bars. So that's what creates the rips that go through the holes that go back out. And a lot of times fish aren't hanging in those deep holes. They're hanging in those troughs and they're hanging in the shallows where some of the shoals will form. And you know that's how it is.

Bayside Dave: 8:13

When you're surf fishing for fluke, you're basically looking to see where in the trough they're laying. Are they in the shallows, depending on the tide time you know low tide those shoals are real shallow. There might be only a few inches of water. They're not going to be laying there in that shallow water, but a lot sometimes as the tide is coming in and it's a high tide and you got about a foot or two in those shoals. You know in between where the sand, sandbars and troughs are formed, you'll find. You'll find fluke in those shallows or not. Sometimes you have to go go along into the troughs and try those areas, fan casting to see where they're laying. So it's a lot of moving around and you find them and you catch them and that's how it goes on the beach. But these last couple days, man, I'm just not finding fish.

Bayside Dave: 9:02

Three or four days ago I was up on the north end, near the inlet, near the Barnegat Inlet and that area, if you guys don't know, lbi the new South Jetty they call it they ran out along the inlet and they ran it out straight out into the ocean. It probably goes out maybe another 100 yards or so, maybe further than that, past the beach line, straight on out the inlet. But the old jetty actually came in on an angle from the beach and shot out towards the inlet. So that old jetty is still there, but that's below sea level, that's below the water line and it's only exposed at like super low tide where you can see the top edge of those rocks. On that it's like a 45 degree angle that starts out maybe 10 yards back from the tip of the new jetty and comes back on a 45 degree angle back to the beach line. So that forms what we call the pocket between.

Bayside Dave: 10:03

You know the new jetty that comes out and that it's like a triangular body of water, and fluke hang out in that, in that pocket that we call it, cause there's some rocks that are, you know, kind of fallen down or or whatever. When they built that, that new jetty, which is up pretty high, you know down in the water, you know down deep alongside that there's there's rocks that kind of are scattered around there and whatnot. So a lot of times you know the fluke. They come into that one area there that's kind of open, right right against where the new jetty is, and the old jetty meet, the rocks kind of drop off and there's an opening there and a lot of the fish come in there. They just kind of hang out in that pocket.

Bayside Dave: 10:40

So, even though the whole length of the island might be a slow bite for fluke, a lot of times you go up into that pocket and you're going to catch fish. But even lately they've been shorts. We're not getting keepers these last couple of weeks, not to say that they're not out real hot up until now it's actually pretty good, good bite in the bay still where the guys go out drifting the different areas in the great bay or in in the north end by the uh barnaby inlet area and and all throughout the bay where people go fishing for fluke it's it's still doing pretty well, but they're starting to leave the bay now. So now you're starting to catch fluke in the inlets and, like I said, that there's, if you're going to fish the inlets right now for fluke, of course if you're in the boat you can drift the inlets and those. That's great.

Bayside Dave: 11:37

But the the currents really change, as you may well know about inlets, as as the tides come in, as the tides go out, the speed of the current changes. As it comes down to where it's low tide on the beach, then the current will start slowing down, coming in the inlets and then it'll reach a point around two hours after the tide time on the beach. It'll be slack in the inlet and then it'll start running the other way. Tide time on the beach, it'll be slack in the inlet and then it'll start running the other way About two or three hours after that. That's when the current's really running. So if you're going to be fishing off the jetties or by us. At the beginning of the jetty a good stretch of it is a concrete walkway with a railing right by the Barngett Lighthouse and a lot of people fish off that walkway in the inlet. You know, fishing the inlet, so when the currents are running really strong it's almost impossible to fish those inlets off of the jetty or off of the walkway because you cast your rig in and it just goes flying with the current. You know. So you've got to cut time fishing off those jetties and that walkway if you're going to be fishing the inlet.

Bayside Dave: 12:47

The Barrington Inlet Guys are pretty successful and still catching some pretty decent-sized fish. I had my buddy the other day pulled 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 he said six, eight pounds. I mean this thing was a fat fish, but yeah, that's what's going on right now. Like I said, this is the time of the year when the fluke are leaving the bay. They should be doing pretty well in the surf but for some reason I think maybe because the water is so warm they're just not hanging out in the surf and I think maybe because the water is so warm they're just not hanging out in the surf.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 13:25

Yeah, I think part of it is. We did have that big temperature change which can kind of shut things off, turn them back on, move the fish. They're not gone. You know, I, unfortunately, was out it was last Wednesday I think. It was like 95 degrees and no wind. It was brutal. I mean dave it was, I was out solo 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 five bottles like those big bottles that you get in wawa, the ones with with the spout top that you squeeze the bottle, so you know mid-sized ones. I think I had five of those. Didn't have to go to the bathroom the whole day, not until I was back. So from when I hit the water at seven in the morning to when I got home at 6.30 at night, never had to. I was just sweating.

Bayside Dave: 14:18

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 14:21

Yeah, it was brutal. Now I'll tell you what. Now I it was a little weird day. I wanted to catch some nice fluke, but I wanted to get into something that Skinner and I had talked 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 was like all right, I'm going to prove that you can catch just as many fish without a teaser. All right, I'm going to prove that you can catch just as many fish without a teaser. And I caught two shorts. And then it's and it's getting late and I'm like this is ridiculous, like I was hoping to like do something. So I just switched rods to one with a teaser. I think I banged like 18. They were all shorts. The biggest, the closest one was like I think it was maybe 17 and a half, so nothing really close to the 18. Bangdom. You know, I think I got like 18 fish in the next hour. Yeah, I caught fish all day, and mostly on the teaser.

Bayside Dave: 15:17

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 15:21

Yes, yes. And then I caught caught about 18. I didn't finish going through the video to count them right, but I think it was around 18 of them 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 that there were no fish in the morning. All I know is I didn't catch really any fish in the morning but, it was weird, but I will tell you this.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 15:46

There's, there's a gentleman that'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 been pulling out five plus pound Luke from shore up to, I think, eight to eight and a half pound consistently over the past two weeks and he's just determined that he's going to. He's going to go for his double digit from shore, and every week they're getting bigger. So I'm just quietly sitting on the sidelines cheering him on.

Bayside Dave: 16:21

Well, I agree with the teaser thing. You, you know the rigs I I've been using. You know, uh, people use the uh, they call it the high low. Yeah, it's basically just a two dropper loop rig, that is, has two hooks set up above a sinker or a bucktail. I find that to be just too much when you're casting in the surf. So I just use a single dropper loop rig and I'll either put a bucktail on the bottom or just a sinker. And I tell you, more than 75 percent 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 fishing with a bucktail on the bottom, over the years it's basically 75% of fish are hitting the one that's up higher.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 17:10

And it makes sense. It makes sense from shore, especially because it's kind of tough to get a lot of action on a heavy bucktail in shallow water right, because you're pulling it almost horizontal, so it's going to be a lot of dragging on the bottom and that teaser is going to be set. You know, if it's up 12 inches off of that bucktail, I'm going to slant it, or I guess this way slant it 45 degrees and then it comes back down closer to the bottom. But it shouldn't be hitting the bottom.

Bayside Dave: 17:41

Right, people don't realize that when I tie a rig like that, I tie a lot of my own rigs. I mean, my teaser is up a good 18 inches from the bottom but not when you're pulling it in.

Bayside Dave: 17:53

On this angle here. All right, 18 inches off the boat is 18 inches off the bottom, but when you're fishing the surf you're still only about five or six inches off the bottom. With your teaser and the bucktails that I use, I don't use anything bigger than three-quarters of an inch and I always use the ball heads in the surf because the longer mullet-type bucktails they tend to nose into the sand and kind of dig into the sand along the bottom. But the lighter the bucktail you use, the better, because that's not going to stay on the bottom as you're retrieving. It's going to automatically start planing up off off the bottom. So I'll use a three-eighths ounce, a one, eight a half ounce, three-quarter ounce is the biggest I'll use.

Bayside Dave: 18:37

But I'll never start out with a three-quarter ounce. I'll always start out with like a three-eighths or a half ounce. You know, that's why you need a good super light rod that has some really great action, that'll throw that out there and get, get that to get that lightweight bucktail out there. But that's. I think that's the problem that a lot of people have, or the, or the thing that they shouldn't be doing is putting on a one ounce or an ounce and a half or a two ounce bucktail that's just going to drag on the bottom. You're better off just putting a sinker on it at that point if you can't get your bucktail out there.

Bayside Dave: 19:09

If you can't get your half ounce bucktail out there, your quarter ounce or three eighths, whatever out there, and and you still want to fish with a teaser rig, put a sinker on the bottom. That's all there's to it. One ounce, ounce and a half generally when I'm fishing with with sinkers off the beach. If I end up I'm not going to even bother with a bucktail. Today I'm just going to use my single dropper and I'm just going to throw a sinker on the bottom. It's a bank sinker. It's a one ounce bank sinker. If I need to, I'll go to ounce and a half. I find if I use a two ounce bank sinker it's just a lot more work getting that thing in.

Bayside Dave: 19:46

You know, the lighter the better, even if you can get like a three-quarter ounce sinker on the bottom. You know you got a. You got a good lightweight rod that has some good action on. It's going to get it out there. You don't have to cast out to england to get a fish, to get to get fluke. But as long as you're in the trough, 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 Fishing: 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, I think that brings up a good point, because you know a lot of people that don't do a lot of surf fishing. You know, there there's an image of what a surf fishing rod is.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 20:23

It's a 10 foot thick thing with a six thousand eight thousand class reel on it yeah and you're just you're chucking it, you know, and you're trying to get over the bars and everything like that. I I've seen what you fish with when you're going for fluke, even when you're going for striper like. I use the same rods that I use in the backwaters in the surf because I'm chucking lures. So I'm using a seven foot six TFO pro and a medium heavy or a medium and I'm using basically the same stuff. But, to your point, I do use smaller bucktails in the surf than I use in the back and even jig heads.

Bayside Dave: 21:00

I've been doing this setup a lot. I'll just use like a quarter ounce, three eighths ounce, jig head with with a jerk bait on there. No, no rig, no line, no, no dropper loops, nothing. I just clip this on and fish this. Yeah, this is actually a half ounce one. This is a little heavy. This is a little heavier than than what I normally use in in the in the surf. It's just something that I grabbed because I went downstairs and grabbed a bunch of stuff and it's already had a jerkbait on there. But this is a fantastic bait to use off the beach and I'll even do this on the boats too, when I get into the shallows.

Bayside Dave: 21:32

I don't, I don't bother with with the, with the bucktail teasers or anything like that. These, these jig heads work fantastic. Nice painted jig head with with the eye, big eye on it or whatever. But always make sure you know there's different jig heads. This has a longer shaft on it. These are the ones that you want they have. They make shorter shaft ones and they make longer shaft ones. Get the longer.

Bayside Dave: 21:54

The longer the shaft, the better, because it keeps your uh, it keeps your soft plastic nice and straight and the hook is back more near the tail, because that's where fluke start grabbing. Bait is from the back end. You'll feel a bite and then you kind of just release a little bit, just just kind of stop what you retrieve a little bit and just I call it giving in the bait, because what happens is a fluke will grab and then a fluke will gulp. You know they grab it all right, I got it, now I want to get it in my mouth. And that's when they get the hook in their mouth the mistake a lot of people make is I feel a bite, boom, it's gone. No, no, no, no, give it to the fish, let it grab it again.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 22:33

But yeah, I'll use this a lot, even off boats when we get to the rods, pull that back up on screen. Okay, I want to point something out on that. That jig head that you have is the look at where the eye is. 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 because then it won't, it won't dig and it won't turn it up. You know we'll put a tail up now. Tail up is good in some cases, but when you're doing a retrieve in like that, that's a decent spot to. It's at least a better spot to have it than the 90 degree bucktails which a lot of people use for most of what they're fishing.

Bayside Dave: 23:31

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 23:54

A lot of people make it work really well, but it's not for me and it's because one of the big things is the placement of that eye and what it's going to do. You know, when you're reeling that in and then you see some of the bucktails, they have a 90 degree and then they have that angled like 45 degree, so you can pick and choose. Yeah, you know where you are. I think that's a little excessive. Just buy a second bucktail, but uh, if when in doubt, get one of those well, as far as equipment's concerned, you know you were.

Bayside Dave: 24:20

you were talking about your, your lightweight rod, the 7'4", 7'6" 7'6".

Bayside Dave: 24:26

Yeah, I ended up with a 7'10". I have a Century Rods custom that I had made a good few years ago. It's a Weapon Junior and it throws from quarter ounce to two ounce. Yeah, and it's an absolute rocket ship. This is 7'10".

Bayside Dave: 24:44

I chose the longer rod because I could have gotten a seven foot one, but I chose the 710 because I 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 bit longer of a rod to be able to cast out. I don't know it, just just. I just feel more comfortable having a longer rod when I'm fishing for stripers and stuff. But I could have grabbed the seven footer, but I'm pretty happy with the 710.

Bayside Dave: 25:13

I know guys who use freshwater rods in the surf for fluke. You know, because I'm not throwing anything bigger than a half ounce, three quarter, maybe an ounce whatever, but that's all you need. You don ounce whatever, but that's all you need. You don't need a big, lone, heavy rod. It's six footer, six foot freshwater rod. You know that you're catching largemouth bass on. You can. You can go fishing for fluke with those things. So even if you're not set up. You know, oh, my only surf rods are 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 to catch fluke with a freshwater rod for sure.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 25:43

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

Bayside Dave: 25:52

That's all I use. Is that weapon Junior? Yeah, I do have a. It's a battle two combo six-foot freshwater setup that I bought. I didn't grow up fishing. I've only started fishing when I moved to LBI 12, 13 years ago, so I have no background in freshwater or anything like that. 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 went to the shop and I bought this battle three combo, battle no, battle two combo and I've actually used it for for fishing for food off the beach. But I just, I just love my, my weapon junior, so much. Sure that that's all I use. It's so lightweight and it's got such good action. It's basically a flick of the wrist and it's gone. Man, I just love that rod so much. But, yeah, that that's. That's basically all I use for food, fishing, for sure, off off of boats.

Bayside Dave: 26:46

I have a tfo professional. It's a, not a spinning rod, it's a conventional and I have a uh, a daewoo conventional reel on there. I love the push button when you're when you're adjusting depth. That's the reason why I got that, because I didn't. I just got sick of dealing with the spinning rod on and off with the. You know clicking that bail on and off every time I was adjusting depth right. So that's what I use on the boat.

Bayside Dave: 27:13

Is the the tfo professional? It's a light, it's a pretty lightweight rod. I can't I don't remember what is, uh, that the. As far as the weight is concerned, I just know I bought this and I love it. But yeah, off the weight is concerned, 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, I mean any, any rod that's seven foot, you know, even six foot six. I would say, go for a seven foot rod, super like, like a medium something that's, that's rated for like quarter ounce to two or three ounces.

Bayside Dave: 27:43

Is is basically what you're looking for, and probably a 3000 series spinning rod, a spinning reel. 15 pound test braid is all you need. You can even go lighter. I know my, my one buddy, just does 10 or 12 pound. You don't really need a leader on 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 long or maybe two feet. I I kind of like using the leader, because sometimes if I just throw on, like I said, if a lead head or something like that, I mean a, a jig head, then I feel like where I have some leader I can grab, but there's many different. You know, talking a little bit more about fluke and what they, what they will hit, you know they hit everything oh yeah, I mean they're.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 28:30

They're incredibly aggressive, they're going to hit whatever now you were. You said earlier in the year you're going to do a little experiment with fishing, with what was it? Was it swim baits?

Bayside Dave: 28:40

I just want to try every lure that I have for fluke. Last year a buddy of mine buddy of mine was using these jerk baits, these hard plastics, and he was catching a lot of fluke with these. So I actually caught fluke a few times with this one. And then earlier in the season I'm fishing for striped bass in March off the surf and I'm using this Hydro Minnow and I'm using this hydro minnow.

Bayside Dave: 29:06

Yeah, and I got two flukes. Grab the tail of this thing. I mean, that's a pretty decent size lure for a fluke to be hitting. And I had a 12-inch fluke on this thing and you know they're very aggressive feeders. If you know about fluke and what they eat in the wild or whatever you want to call that. You know there's been large fluke that have, uh, you know, snapper blues in their belly. Yeah, spot that have croakers in their belly.

Bayside Dave: 29:36

The other day, a week and a half ago, I was in the in the great bay drifting around with a buddy of mine and I pulled up a I think it was a 24 inch fluke and he caught up. He coughed up a croaker that he must have just eaten because the thing was still moving. So I put it on a hook and I threw it down there and I caught another fluke with that, with that 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 you want to catch big fluke, throw some big baits. When I was at a they're like buckets pride.

Bayside Dave: 30:12

He gave me one. He sold me one of his short fat metal lips. He said dave, if you get on fluke, throw this, he goes. They will get this, he goes. I've caught many fluke with this metal lip. I have yet to use it and I I do have in my bag when I go out. I'm imagining you. You want it to be in more shallow because I don't know how deep that thing is going to run right and again I've seen fluke come out of 12 feet of water to hit rainfish on the surface yeah fluke.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 30:52

Like I said, they're very aggressive feeding feeders very aggressive it 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 they come up top and they jump I mean they'll jump out of the water too, yeah.

Bayside Dave: 31:07

I've seen it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 31:10

Yeah, but you got to try that. You got to try that bait and let me know how it goes, because I mean that really, think about it. The best bait to use, especially right now, at this time of the summer, is a whole spot in my opinion. You know, if you're going to use live bait or anything, actually, if I like we talked about it with scotty, you know, several shows ago both of us are bringing live spot for a tournament, if we're, if we're in a fluke tournament, because that's where you're going to get the biggest fish bigger ones, yeah the size of those things.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 31:40

I mean they could definitely use. You could definitely use those bigger lures, the. The question is, can you work them in the right spot without getting frustrated? But from shore that could be perfect, especially in the surf.

Bayside Dave: 31:53

I mean, there's some good soft plastics, there's some good paddle tails that you can put on some decent-sized jig heads and drop down. That'll be the size of a spot or whatever you know stuff that you fish for striped bass with or whatever you know. Some of those big paddle tails, some of those big soft plastics. You know that that's in my arsenal as well when I'm going to try to target, fluke with, with whatever I can, and that that's one of them. I I wish I would have grabbed it. I it's down. It's down in my fishing room.

Bayside Dave: 32:22

It's a soft plastic that a buddy of mine at Beach Haven West Marine Center it's basically a boating place but they do a lot of lures and stuff for the boats too he gave me this. It's a soft plastic, it's pretty thick, it looks like a paddle tail, but instead of a tail it's got a spoon spinner on the end of it. Yeah, pretty big and it's pretty fat. And you put it on jig heads and he said he was catching with it. And the thing is big and it's fat and, like I said, it has the metal spinner on the end and I didn't bring one up either. But you can buy those little metal spinners that have like a little screw on the end, and I didn't bring one up either.

Bayside Dave: 33:04

but you can buy those little metal spinners that have like a little screw on the end of them yeah, so it's like a, like a dart spin yeah, and you just clip off the end of your uh, jerk shad or whatever your your soft plastic and just screw that on there and you got that little metal spinner behind it and I had I. I was using it the other day and and the surf got too rough and I didn't I, it was just too lightweight. But it also is in my arsenal now. The problem with me this year is I haven't been getting out as much as I normally do or otherwise. Otherwise I probably would have caught a lot more food this year and probably would have used a lot more of these lures that I want to use. So I'm running a little late getting all this stuff done because I just had I've had a crazy summer.

Bayside Dave: 33:48

I've been so busy doing this and that and some priorities that I want to get into. Nothing too bad, but it just just stuff that kept me busy and I I just didn't get out as much as I normally do and and shame on me I gotta get out there and start doing this stuff, man, which I will.

Bayside Dave: 34:04

But yeah yeah, that's the main thing right now. We're trying to get them flukes man.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 34:09

So here's an interesting thing. So this is not shore base, but I want to bring this up. You know we're talking about they'll eat anything. So Stephen Duda, 26-inch flounder on a Stretch 30, trolling for stripers the day before Christmas. I love that it's off the Ferris wheel in Wildwood, just a legendary area to fish. Are you familiar with what a stretch 30 is?

Bayside Dave: 34:30

Yeah, that's those tubes right.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 34:32

Well, no, well, I guess there could be. The ones that I'm thinking about are who makes it? I think it's Mann's and it's got 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 a fluke comes all the way up to the top to hit a stretch 30. I've never caught one on a stretch 30. I never even thought to try it. I don't even think I own any anymore now that I don't have a boat. But yeah, they'll hit a lot of different things and that's just a really good example.

Bayside Dave: 35:06

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 35:20

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

Bayside Dave: 35:23

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 35:37

Yeah, the smaller one, the smaller ones are going to be taking over again because, to your point earlier, a lot of the bigger fish are moving out. But I'm going to tell people there are still going to be big 28-inchers in the backwater, even 30-inchers, 10-pounders are going to be in the backwaters and along the beaches all the way up until we can't fish for them anymore. They just are. They are every year and, like I said, you know, my one, buddy, is going to be on the show at the end of August. He's catching eight pounders in the backwaters, you know so, and these are all land-based. He's not in a kayak, he's not on a boat.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 36:18

He's land-based and the pictures are. I just love them. I don't have permission to share anything else but that, so I won't.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 36:29

I respect his privacy, but he's on his own personal mission for that double digit and he's getting closer and closer. All right, so okay, so we've covered Fluke, but there's more going on. You know, I'm getting texts today saying you know'm I'm getting, I'm getting texts today saying 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 think we've all heard this one the tarpon that are that are up well north of us at this point for a good few years now with the tarpon.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 37:03

Yeah, so I mean there are different things that we can target. You're starting to get albies that are approaching. They're going to be in soon. I haven't heard much going on with the albies.

Bayside Dave: 37:14

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 37:18

Yeah, I can't wait for that, and I haven't been on the water nearly enough. I just went out last week once. I'm doing a lot of solo fishing. A lot of the guys that I used to fish with just aren't around fishing when I can fish. So I've been doing a lot of solo and just kind of like messing around on the water. But I got to get more. Just like you, I got to get out there and just take advantage 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 go fishing for fluke in August. What's the next thing that you're going to be targeting from shore?

Bayside Dave: 37:50

Well, they I mean there's kingfish in the surf. They haven't come in real strong yet, but they are there. You know, kingfish, you know that 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.

Bayside Dave: 38:03

Yeah, exactly, they're easy to catch. They catch themselves there's no skill. You make tacos out of them, or whatever.

Bayside Dave: 38:10

It's good when you're hanging on the beach or kids want to reel in fish, that's fun and all that stuff. But there's still striped bass around in the evenings and at night around the jetties around the lighthouse in the deep waters in the evenings and at night around around the jetties, around around the lighthouse, you know, in the in the deep waters, in the bays by the sod banks, go at night, go go super early in the morning before first light, go go in the evenings as the sun is gone and the light is starting to disappear. There's striped bass around all summer and I had a guy three days ago sent me a picture. He was off the jetty in the Barnegat Inlet. He was throwing a bottle. It was after sunset and it was getting really dark and he had a 44-inch bass I'm sorry, 34-inch bass and that's just a beautiful thing, man, and we do that here down on LBI a lot in the evenings.

Bayside Dave: 39:07

I got a buddy of mine, ricky Razzle. He's 21 years old and he's an absolute maniac. All he does is fish, work and sleep. He lives at home with his parents, he works in a restaurant, goes into work at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, gets off of work at 12, 1 o'clock and then just drives to LBI and fishes all night. And the kid, he's an absolute animal and he, he is, he does it all the time and he just knows when and where. Oh, it's going to be slack tied. I'm going to bring my, I'm going to bring my shrimp net. We're going to, we're going to drag out. You know, we're going to drag, gonna drag some shrimp off off the rocks, put them on on circle hooks and throw them out there and we're just gonna slam bass all night.

Bayside Dave: 39:47

And he does, yeah it's a maniac or or I'm doing live eels tonight. All right, get some live eels after work. One o'clock in the morning drives the lbi, throws live eels in the inlet, off off the walkway and and he's, he's banging, he's banging bass all night. So so, but you know during the day you're not going to be really doing that. You might get lucky. You know, yesterday actually someone got a 30-inch bass up by that north end throwing like a topwater 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 striped bass off those rocks, tails and stuff. But as far as off the surf is concerned, you know it's, yeah, it's, it's. There's not a lot of not a lot going on right now other than the fluke and the kingfish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 40:51

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

Bayside Dave: 40:59

you know the sheep's head are in good again this year. You know I'm hearing reports every day sheep's head, uh, off the rocks and stuff like that, you know. So that's another thing that we're targeting. Thank God we had that season open up again, you know, for the TOG, but even so we've been getting trigger all summer here and for at least a month we've been getting sheep's head, if not longer. So yeah, that's another thing people are targeting for sure and loving it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 41:27

Yeah, I, I haven't gone for talk yet this season. I'm probably going to wait a little bit longer. I like to do like a clean shift from summer into fall winter, and that's where I consider talk. You know, spring for me is striped 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 excited about it. I actually last weekend I pulled the tog gear out which has been in storage for a year and 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 to something all the way.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 42:05

At the beginning you were talking about the currents in the inlet and it made me think about something that I think is worth sharing. Most people probably know this, but some people may not, and let me tell a little bit of a story and I'll bring it around to fishing in an inlet and what you can learn from it. So when I first got my kayak the current kayak I have five years ago maybe it was I used to run inlets quite a bit, so I ran out of seeking inlet one day and I fished offshore, actually went all the way up the coast of it I was fishing offshore came back and I started to come in back in the inlet. Now I didn't run with the tides. So now I'm coming in against the outgoing tide and it was ripping right, which is exactly what you're talking about. 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 calm day, 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 forward, but I had a lot of stamina back then. So I was like, all right, it's going to kind moving forward, but I had a lot of stamina back then, so I was like, all right, it's going to kind of suck, but I'll just keep going, keep going.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 43:30

But what I did is I watched two other kayakers not be able to do it and they got swept out. Now, as I'm coming in, I started to go up the middle and I realized I can't do this. So I just turned parallel to the beach and went south. And the reason I went south is because if you look at Epsican Inlet, there are jetties on the south, so as they're getting swept out and actually they had to 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 up to the jetties, the fishermen as I'm coming by, they're waving.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:02

I'm like I'm sorry I to the jetties, the fishermen as I'm coming by, they're waving. I'm like I'm sorry I got to get in. They're like no, go ahead, go ahead. They're like kind of cheering me on. What people need to remember is these currents. You get current breaks around structure and when you have jetties along an inlet, if you have a seawall along the inlet, you have a current seam there, which means you're not going to have the full force of that coming in. So I was able to actually come in at about a mile and a half to almost two miles per hour on the way in, where these other guys couldn't make any headway at all and had to get picked up by boats Wow that's great advice.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:38

Right. So think about that. For fishing it doesn't. I won't say it doesn't matter, it can matter less.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:44

You can get around the currents if you fish those current seams and in very close to the structure. And it makes sense, because if you had those incredibly strong currents, you're not going to have a ton of fish sitting out in that current anyway. They're going to be sitting behind structure, so they're not burning calories trying to fight it the entire time. Yeah, so bring it in tight, and one of the best things you can do for fluke from shore if you're especially on a seawall, just it's, it's essentially vertical jigging. Just drop it to your feet and walk down, walk down the seawall and just, yeah, the entire way and you will catch more fish right there than you will by casting it out as far as you can and battling that current, getting snagged, like if you go up to Manasquan and you're going to get snagged if you throw it out there too far, too often and that current just rips it under something. So just, I wanted to come all the way back to that because it's still, it can still be fishable, not always.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 45:40

Sometimes it just overpowers you and there's nothing, yeah I think you and I had a day like that where we we gave up because it was, it was just nothing going on. And I think I went to manasquan inlet and it was one of those days where it's like there's there's no relief here at all. So I just kind of hung out there for a little while, watched the crazy people and then I left. But yeah, it's something to think about. Get the current breaks and you're going to get a current break along some of those jetties 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 in that current, they're going to tuck in behind something. So if you can find that, fish it no-transcript current.

Bayside Dave: 46:51

And the closer you are to the rocks, the the less the current is, is the slower the current gets because, like I said, it just breaks it up because 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 here at the waterline but it goes out on an angle. You know you'll have a pile of rocks and then it'll drop down another pile or a couple of rocks here, here and there. So that's all structure that's down there. That's breaking up that current, all structure that's down there, that's breaking up that current. And when you get that strong current, like you like you were saying rich, those fish will hide from that current by going downstream, the down current of of that you know and and kind of hide, hide in behind those rocks, get into those pockets there. And that's when I I'm telling people that's what you want to look for when you're on these jetties is, look for those pockets, look for those rocks that are kind of sticking out a little bit further than than the jetty is, and get down current from there, because that's where the fish are going to be hanging out and you can target them down there, right and that and that's for like the tog and the trigger and for the sheep's head and whatnot. Now, when I'm I I love your point of using the current because I do that all the time when I'm fishing for fluke in the jetties, in the inlets, off the jetty, I'll cast up current as far as I can go, as far as I can go out, it'll depend I'll do different distances, but I'll cast it out, I'll let it drop down and just let the current drift the rig down and then and then reel it in and cast back up current again a little further, a little closer, or whatever I'm. I'm kind of used to fishing that that inlet off that jetty, knowing where the rocks are right. I know if I go closer I'm gonna get snagged. So yeah, just like you said, use those currents as a that you're drifting like the boats are doing, but you're just, you're just standing up. You know you're standing on the rocks and it's not like the surf where you're just casting out and drawing straight in. Use that current, cast up current, let it, let it drift down, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and then retrieve it, get, get it back out there again, and even for tog.

Bayside Dave: 49:09

I cast out a lot more for tog than I do fish close, especially with those with the slower currents. Because, like I said, that that that jetty doesn't go straight down, it goes out on an angle out into the inlet and even the structure of the inlet itself, the sand or whatever you want to call that. That doesn't go straight up either. There's like a slope that goes down from the jetty down to the bottom of sand and whatnot. And so you've got to remember that the fish might not always just be uptight to the jetty, they might be down where those little rock piles are, down at the bottom of that slope. And I catch a lot of large tog out there and I'll cast out a little up current and just kind of let it drift in and it'll drift in off the bottom. You know it'll be out past the rocks, 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 rocks and then it'll stop and then you tighten up your line and let it sit there and I catch a lot of big tog doing that.

Bayside Dave: 50:14

What really helped me out was a buddy of mine who spearfishes and he knows the structure of that entire jetty and he, he contacts me almost every other day, dave, over here by this, by that you gotta. You gotta see this hole, you gotta check out this spot. He's tells me so much information about what goes on underwater because he's down there looking at it right and, uh, it's, the guy's helped me out so much. There's a couple spots on that barnigan inlet, off that jetty, there, he says, where bass just hang out, and I'm not going to give you all the secrets, but there it's. It has to do with the structure, it has to do with hiding from the currents. You have to look for those pockets, you have to look for those little pieces of structure, of of sand or of the rocks, where the fish will protect themselves from that strong current, and that's where you're going to target them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:05

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

Bayside Dave: 51:09

So keep that in mind, yeah, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:12

And you have to do some experimentation. You know, sometimes time on the water really does help, and this is one of those. So let's talk specifically about TOG. So for TOg, what you often see on the jetties is people just dropping straight down. They're using their conventional setups and they're just dropping straight down.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:32

When I fish a jetty for tog, I'm very rarely right up on it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:39

Now, sometimes I will, but there are multiple rock walls in multiple inlets where I fish about 20 yards off because the rocks on the bottom have fallen onto the drop. So that's where the big drop in depth is and there's boulders down there and you can see that. You can't even really see it very well on the electronics unless you're really dialed in, but you can see it. When you can see like an eddy just kicking up out of nowhere about 30 yards down current, you're like all right, well, based on this depth, it's somewhere up here and you just you scout around a little bit and then all of a sudden you find hard bottom and then you get a little snag. You're like, okay, I found it. Yeah, you mark it visually, however you want mark it, and you just keep hitting that spot and so most of the tog that I catch in the backwaters or backwaters meaning not out front on a boat. So anything inlets and in it's not right on those rocks, it's out. Where it doesn't look like there are any, there are.

Bayside Dave: 52:43

You just don't know it because you're not right up against the rocks. Yeah's what I was saying about how I like to fish that, that jetty, and off that walkway I'm not casting, I'm flipping. Yeah, about 10, 15 yards and just let me get to the bottom there and sometimes the car will just take you into the closer that. You're just on the outside of those rocks and on the outside of that structure and those big fish are just swimming around in there. And and you're right about how the eddies are forming where the walkway corners off going, coming in the inlet into the bay, but by the lighthouse there when you have current running sometimes you'll see where the all right, the currents run this way goes around the corner, it creates an eddy and it starts cutting back around that eddy. That's formed especially the high when the current's really ripping. That's formed especially the high when the current's really ripping. That's packed with fish pack it is. And and I get all that info from my, my diver buddy, you know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 53:32

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 are created equal. However, let's say you have incoming and you have a bridge and you're fishing behind a bridge, if you can get right where that eddy has it. So an eddy will typically have that big turn in like you talked about. But then there's, so it's warmer water, you have the cooler water, which is more oxygenated, coming in from offshore. So it's coming in the inlets, it's going to mix around that bridge, it's going to pull, so it pulls everything together More oxygen in the water, which they want, along with the swirling currents which they want because that pushes food into a certain area, and current relief, so they're not fighting the current as much. So it's things like that also that you want to look for.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 54:32

Don't forget the biggest part of why we talk about how summer fishing is different than spring it's the temperatures, it's the water temperatures, and it's not just the heat of the water, it's the oxygen in the water quite often is the problem. That's why if you catch a striped bass in the summer, it has a much higher mortality rate on the release than if you do it in the winter. The cold water has a lot more oxygen. It's a lot easier on them. They're not, as stressed, all of these fish at this point I shouldn't say all weak fish have a pretty good tolerance. Fluke have a decent tolerance, but they're at their upper ranges of where they're really comfortable. They're just about to move out of their prime feeding temperatures, so keep that in mind. They are looking for more oxygen and cooler water because it's going to make it easier for them to survive.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 55:26

So look for areas that will give that to you, and if you can find an area that's going to give 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, you have structure, you have the clean, cool water of the ocean coming through. I mean, what else are you going to want? I mean, you have the depth there 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 like that, fish it Absolutely.

Bayside Dave: 55:55

Yeah, and and and I think you're making me, you know you made me realize that these last two mornings where I wasn't really finding any fluke bite off the surf, it was basically the last few hours or a couple hours of outgoing tide and that water was really warm and I was actually considering going out the last couple hours of incoming this afternoon to see if any of that cooler water turned 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's basically what it is. And we get that in the bay a lot too. You know you're in one area and you're not catching any fish, but you know, as soon as the tide turns around and the current starts bringing cold water in, you're going to start catching fish. It's not that the fish weren't there, they just weren't feeding. And people don't realize that. You know it's.

Bayside Dave: 56:49

You know you hear the old adage turning on a bite. You know, especially when you're bottom fishing, for like a tog and whatnot, you know sometimes those fish are just down there and they're just hanging out and there's not really feeding. And then you just start giving them, you know, some stinky, yummy smelling tasty morsels down there and they're just hanging out and there's not really feeding, and then you just start giving them you know some stinky, yummy smelling tasty morsels down there for a while and then one of them grabs and then the other one grabs you're turning on a bite. So I think that's what happens with the fluke is in the surf as well. You know there's there, it's too warm, they're just hanging and you know, once that cold water comes in, I think that'll turn that bite on.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 57:25

And, um, yeah, well in the over the overnight bite it's still going to 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 to a couple of people uh, it wasn't this last week, I think the week before. They're like, yeah, you keep saying to fish at night, but I just just don't. I don't know, it's not for everybody, but it should be for everybody to try when you have the opportunity. Because when you get a night bite going, oh my God, it's, it can be, it can make you wonder why you fish during the day sometimes.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 58:02

And you know, I I had mentioned it before I fished for when my kids were little we go to the shore and it was look, I'm spending the day with the kids and the family. You know, I got little kids running around the beach. I don't want to miss that. But I also have to fish and there's something in the meat that it's. It's a requirement for me to live. 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 still don't fish at night, nearly, I guess, because I feel like I'm getting old.

Bayside Dave: 58:37

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 58:41

oh yeah, fluke at night is the best time. I've caught more fluke at night than all days combined and I probably fish 20% of my time at night. You take that 20% of fishing at night versus the 80% fishing during the day. More fish were caught in that 20% than all the rest. Yeah, people don't think fluke feed at night and they do. Oh, they absolutely do. Yeah, they're just like everything else. They can see it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 59:05

Look for shadows if you can shadow lines, but they're going to be in the same spots. The only thing that will change is if they're, don't mistake it, for there has to be light. It can be pitch black and you're still going to catch them in your normal spots. But if you can find a spot that sets up really well for that tide and all the conditions and you add a light, a consistent light that's been on the water I'm talking backwater, so I'm not talking the surf right in the backwaters. So a bridge light, a dock light yeah, I mean that's, that's the thing that'll kick it over the edge that can be a great spot.

Bayside Dave: 59:48

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:00:04

I don't think I have any glow at all in my in my uh kit because it gets really expensive when the dogfish turn on and uh you can't get away from them you see that, that's good, you see that one.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:00:19

Do you ever go out on the on charters or anything for tog in the fall? Yeah, so go out on the Ocean Explorer or the Big Mohawk and just wait until somebody drops low and they start the dogfish bite. Talk about people getting pissed quick, yeah, and I know some people that swear by it. I swear it's the best thing for catching trash fish swear it's the best thing for catching trash fish, it's.

Bayside Dave: 1:00:46

It's funny because that you say that about the dogfish with with the glow and all that. Because I was out on the charter last year, the year before, and I was using, I was using the tog jigs and I was using a uh, a chartreuse, and this, this old salt on the boat, looks at me. He goes. He goes you're gonna catch nothing but dogs with that. And he goes. He goes, scrape the paint off or use. And he hands me black ones or just regular unpainted lead ones. He goes just use these. He goes don't bring the dogfish near us, kid, I'm like all right I didn't know.

Bayside Dave: 1:01:19

And he's like you don't need color to attract hog. He goes. You give them food, they're going 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 start catching dogfish. We're going to hate you, okay.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:01:30

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't go that far, but I've seen it happen where you know.

Bayside Dave: 1:01:35

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:01:48

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

Bayside Dave: 1:02:00

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:02:09

Yes, I agree. And the cow nose rays are definitely coming close for frustration for me.

Bayside Dave: 1:02:16

I tell you a good-sized cow nose ray will spool you. The smaller ones fight like bluefish and they're a lot of fun, but a lot of times it's just yeah, just grab the spool and snap it and people don't cut your line when you want to, when you want to get rid of your, when you want people that do that drive me crazy. You just snapped off, you just cut off 50, 50 yards, 100 yards of line that's out in the ocean. Now Grab your spool, snap it off at the rig and get all your line back in. Don't cut your line if you get snagged.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:02:55

So in a kayak it can get a little dicey because of the weight of them and the violence of them. So I bring it up as close. I hate doing this with fish but I let it play itself out as much as possible and then I'll pull it in as close as I can get and I will just reach out without high sticking and get it as close to its mouth as possible and I won't even try to 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 will cut that line as close to its face as possible.

Bayside Dave: 1:03:30

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:03:34

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

Bayside Dave: 1:03:43

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:03:46

And it must have had 100 yards of line on it and I remember I was with my dad, so it was a long time ago, and we pulled it up and he went to cut it off and he cut both and then just started pulling in the other line and it took forever. Yeah, I mean it was like a huge. It must've been a whole reel worth of stuff, almost probably 150 yards of braid on it.

Bayside Dave: 1:04:08

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:04:16

Yeah, yeah. So what? What other tips do you have for folks as they come into August? I mean, we've got some options. We're going to talk everybody. You know Spanish, mack and Albies and everything. We're going to talk about that in the upcoming weeks. But let's you know just from shore Jersey, new York, delaware you're still on fluke for now. What about the weak fish? Are you focusing on them at all right now?

Bayside Dave: 1:04:42

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that before and I thought about it and I we got some guys starting to catch the weakies. Yeah, we're not getting them a lot of them off the surf yet, where we're generally getting them in by the inlets and not by that pocket and stuff along the jetty, we get the weak fish in. They'll hit'll hit. You know. Everybody knows they hit the pink. They also hit white. You know paddle tails, split tails, gulp, they hit all that stuff. You know it doesn't have to necessarily be pink, it could be white too they're. They're down towards the bottom more. They run in schools. You know we've had them many times along along that pocket off off the beach side of that jetty where we got we're pulling in weakies and all of a sudden it stops. Just move down, because the school just moved down and you're going to start pulling in again, you know, yeah. So yeah, targeting weak fish is really good and, like I said, you know off.

Bayside Dave: 1:05:36

You just got to be careful on jetties, man, if you can get this, if you can get the corkers. You know it's so easy to slip and fall on those jetties, you know. That's why here on the Barnegat Inlet we got a nice long concrete walkway with railings and people catch a lot of fish off that walkway. So don't risk yourself for fish. You don't realize how easily you can get hurt, break equipment. You know, when you're out there on those rocks, even if it's a beautiful, beautiful sunny day with dry rocks, they all have moss on them. There's always a chance to slip, misstep, jumping from rock to rock or something like that. Where it gets a little further apart or the rock has an angle on it and you jump on it and you just kind of slip and fall down. I mean you don't want to get hurt out there, you want to break stuff. I mean I wear corkers out there in the summertime with my shorts and stuff. I don't go out to the tip anymore where the rocks end up being wider apart and more of an angle and all that stuff. I'm not risking myself anymore out there, even on nice days.

Bayside Dave: 1:06:48

And you got to watch what the water's doing. You know you got swells coming in those inlets and they'll break on those rocks and just get to keep those rocks soaking wet with some big swells coming up and that'll make you slip and fall. And then when you got a higher tide and some of those. It gets real choppy out there and you got some decent waves crashing over the top of them rocks. Just because you got corkers on doesn't mean you ain't going to slip. Water takes your feet right out from under you and I've seen it happen. It almost happened to me a couple times where I just moved and I had corkers on and it was basically shin-deep water that just shot over the rocks and I don't know how I didn't fall. But yeah, you're not invulnerable in. You're not, like you know, invulnerable just because you're wearing spikes on your shoes.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:07:28

Man, yeah, the uh the.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:07:30

Avalon ninth street jetty is is a good one for that, when, when those waves, I mean there've been people stuck on the end of the ends of these jetties because of that. Yeah, the Avalon one was always interesting because if the, if the, the swell comes in the right direction and it's heavy enough, it'll, it'll actually wash everything off and onto the beach on the other side, and I can't tell you how many times I've had gear that is all set up on the dry side, on the beach side, and it ends up 30 yards down the beach because the water just rushes over and then there's, when it's doing that thing, you get this, this gully on the other side it just runs all your gear out.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:08:10

Yeah, how many times little kids would run down in there. You know they're protected. They're not getting hit by anything because they're on the beach and they're. They're picking out lures and everything. Tackle boxes for people.

Bayside Dave: 1:08:22

Got to be careful up there definitely last year we had two people rescued off off the tip of the uh the, the south jetty, because the water level was so high that they ended up climbing that tower and they lost all their equipment and a helicopter had to come out and fly them in and fly them in because even at low tide they the water was so rough they just couldn't get in.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:08:46

Keep an eye on that shit man. The other thing is, typically the end of the jetty is not the best spot. If you're fishing the structure Now, you can have some deep holes, typically off to the sides at the tips, but that's typically not for many I would say most jetties. That's not the best place to be fishing it Because there's no current relief or anything. There's no, you know.

Bayside Dave: 1:09:11

Yeah, not if you're trying to target that fish that are, you know, feeding and surviving by those rocks. Right, maybe the pelagic, you know. If you're targeting striped bass or false albacore and you want to get out there, for sure, yeah. But if you're fishing tog and sheep's head and all that stuff, you're absolutely right. The whole thing is going to support those fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:09:36

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

Bayside Dave: 1:09:51

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

Bayside Dave: 1:10:12

Oh he's, he's fantastic. But yeah, I use the uh, the bunker oil. I forget now, jesus, there's a real thick one. I'm sorry my brain isn't working right now, but yes, I've used it. I've used it on lures, I've used it on soft plastics and it works fantastic, even when I'm bait fishing. I'll just, I'll just pour it on some clam or pour it on some bunker and just just juice it up a little bit and even if it's not staying on the bait, it's getting sent in the water. And it's the same thing with lures oh well, it's going to wash off in the water.

Bayside Dave: 1:10:45

You don't know how sensitive fish are to odor the scent. If you're, if you're fishing, if you're, you know, plugging the surf and you squirt some scent on there every now and then, keep plugging, you're getting sent in the water and that's going to attract the fish. Tom from surf, city bait and tackle. The owner. He does a lot of research, reading and all that stuff, and he found that there was a project where they tested the sensitivity of different fish to how much, how sensitive they are to scent. And just for the sake of explaining it, if you put a drop of bunker oil in an Olympic sized pool, one corner, and there was a straight bass on the other corner. He senses it. That's how sensitive they are to scent. So, joe, that's a great question and, yes, that does work.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:11:33

Yeah, and I'll throw something out there. If I'm using an unscented plastic, I, 100% of the time, scent it, and I do it for two reasons. Well, first of all, the time scent it, and I do it for two reasons. Well, first of all, you have to be careful about the scent from you. Right, and there's no scent on the bait, well, there could be a scent on your hand. So I'll tell you this anybody who's watching or listening to this, that smokes or chews tobacco and touches it with their hands, that is a detractant for fish. I've heard that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:12:06

That's great point. Yeah, so the nicotine. I believe it's actually the nicotine and not necessarily the smoke from smoking. I think it's the nicotine. So if you have that on your hands and you bait up, they now have that. So you're now detracting from them biting that bait or, if they do bite it, holding onto it so you can mask your scent. So I will typically not typically I always put Procure on any new bucktails before I use them the first time, even if I'm using gulp, because it kind of gets rid of and I don't smoke or anything. But just for the sense, if you keep your rods in a garage and you also keep gasoline for your lawnmower, gasoline is a detractant. So that is now getting into the fibers, it's getting into the plastics, so you have to be careful about that kind of stuff.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:12:57

And in your line too, yeah, and your line too. So I put it on everything, no matter what. If it's unscented, definitely it always has it on there. And every new bucktail and every new lure I'll put it on anyway, because I don't know what kind of manufacturing scents got on there before I bought it. So I think it's, it's always a good thing. Procure is the one that I go to as my go-to, but i'll'll throw if I don't have anything. I always have cheddar oil.

Bayside Dave: 1:13:24

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:13:27

That's all I use. Okay, so I always.

Bayside Dave: 1:13:30

I use that as my backup.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:13:32

I put Procure and then and I will use shedder oil more as the masking thing and sometimes I will put it on my hands a little bit just so that I get that scent on there if I'm going to be changing out a lot of tackle or a lot of gear throughout the day. So I would always recommend doing that. It's worth the investment for just a few bucks to get those scents and, as you said, they can smell it and there are certain scents that will push them away and there are certain scents that will draw them in.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:13:59

So at the very least, you know that you are hopefully trying to cover up what they don't like that, look, it's just part of our normal life and, you know, gasoline in the garage it could change the bite, so try to at least offset that.

Bayside Dave: 1:14:16

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 this thing. These are multiple joints that he makes and attaches them all into where it's hard to see, but these are all different types of hairs that he uses, different parts of the tail and feathers and stuff like that, and then he put a little grateful dead because I'm a dead.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:14:50

oh, that's awesome does he sell these?

Bayside Dave: 1:14:54

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

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:15:06

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

Bayside Dave: 1:15:22

It's not just one single type of hair and he's, he's, he's making this, this different type of teaser that you can put, gulp on, because if you, if you put, if you buy a regular teaser, a lot of the hairs are tied along the shaft. Yeah, he figured out a way to tie it where it's facing the other way and then he flips it back over and there's still plenty of shaft with the bucktail flop over that you can slide the, the gulp on, and the part that it's the design that he came up with and, uh, the guy's an absolute artist.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:15:52

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

Bayside Dave: 1:15:54

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 that started in October and ran through the first week of December, where you target striped bass, bluefish, kingfish and tog. Also you can get red drum black drum there are special prizes for those and weak fish. Red drum black drum there are special prizes for those and weak fish. But now we're opening it up on August 30th and running it to November 30th and we added fluke to the targeted species. Where there's going to be, let me see, we have weekly prizes and we have grand prizes. There's prizes for, there's a. There's a largest fluke bite for women, seniors, juniors, it's it's 40. The registrations are going to start very soon. There's going to even be an online registration for the first time.

Bayside Dave: 1:16:56

You go, you come to the one of the three bait and tackle shops on lbi, you go to surf, you go to surf city bait and tackle, you go to jingles bait and tackle or you go to fishermen's headquarters and and register for this derby. It's a 13-week derby. We also have with the striped bass. You know there's there's daily prizes, their weekly prizes, there's a grand prize and there is also what's called we call now the Surfmaster Award, where you can catch photo release fish over slot, because you know the slot is small, it's 28 to 31. How are you going to compete for 13 weeks when you're only catching fish up to 31 inches? Well, the Surfmaster Award now allows you to take a picture and send it in, but we're only doing it for fish 38 inches or larger. We're not doing the 32s and the 36s because we're trying to protect these fish from being mishandled. We, the first year, we did it. We opened it up to 31 and bigger and there was just way. So there was so many fish turned in constantly. We're doing it this way where it's 38 inches or larger. That way, you know, just keep an eye on the leaderboard. So if you see there's a 41 inch fish in the lead and you catch a 39 inch fish, just throw it back. Don't bother keeping it out, taking the picture and sending it in, all that stuff. So, uh, the, the, uh.

Bayside Dave: 1:18:15

The prize for that surf master award is is a, is a mount of from a taxidermy company called reinhardt and they will do a mount of your fish, and last year was a 44 inch bass and they did an absolutely from a taxidermy company called Reinhardt and they will do a mount of your fish and last year it was a 44-inch bass and they did an absolutely beautiful replica mount of this fish and gave it over to the winner and he has it hanging in his home now. So there's $25,000 in cash prizes to be won. Go to lbisfccom that's Long Beach Island Sir Fishing Classic. Lbisfccom that's Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic. Lbisfccom. To the website that's being updated now. That will be updated with all the new rules and regulations and prizes will be all up within the week with all the new stuff.

Bayside Dave: 1:19:00

Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic on Facebook and at Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic on Facebook and at Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic on Instagram. It's going to be just constant information all throughout the derby and I'm hoping that people will sign up for it and get their chance to win cash prizes, even if you only come down. It's a 13-week tournament derby we call it. Even if you only come down a couple weekends or a couple days, here and there, you have the chance to win a day prize. You have the chance to win a weekly prize. You have the chance to win one of the grand prizes just because you caught a decent-sized fish. So I'm hoping you guys will consider registering for this. This is the 71st year of the classic. We call it the Derby and, like I said, lbisfccom for all the information. Awesome, thanks for letting me plug that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:19:56

Of course, I was going to let you go without doing it. That's great, so great to see people sign up for that. Dave, thanks for coming on you got a free hat.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:20:04

Oh, there you go and all that stuff. All right, beautiful. No, no problem, no problem. So, everyone, get on there, get signed up. Next week, next Monday, we're going to have Rob Crossley on If you are a subscriber to the Fisherman Magazine New Jersey edition well, actually, if you subscribe to any, you can still see the Jersey edition. There's an article in there by Rob on just Albie Fever. They're going to be coming in probably by the end of this month, unless they come in a little bit early and he's got a great article in there. So he's going to be on and we're going to start talking about catching those albacore, the false albacore and the and I'm sure we'll talk Spanish max and all those others that are going to be racing through at the same time. So that'll be next Monday. I'm looking forward to that one. Again, thanks for coming on everyone. Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next week. Until next week, until next episode, get out there, get on the water and get some tight lines.