Ep 42: Crabbin' & Fishin' with Benji

Benji Crabbing and Fishing joins us to share his journey from passionate angler to charter captain, offering a wealth of knowledge about backwater fishing opportunities in coastal New Jersey waters.

• Benji recently became a licensed charter captain after years of preparation and learning from fellow anglers
• Late summer flounder fishing has tapered off earlier than expected this year
• Blackfish (tautog) fishing around bridges provides exciting action even in backwaters
• Sheepshead fishing requires patience but can be rewarding when combined with targeting other species
• Crabbing remains productive using chicken necks as bait in topless traps
• New Jersey regulations require hard shell crabs to measure at least 4.5 inches
• Building relationships with other anglers is crucial for expanding fishing knowledge
• Equipment for fishing and content creation doesn't need to be expensive to be effective
• Water safety should always be a priority following recent boating accidents

To book a charter with Benji, visit crabbinfishing.com or find him on Facebook and other social media platforms. Whether you're interested in catching fish or harvesting crabs, Benji promises a fun and educational experience.

Chapters

• 0:00 Benji's Charter Business Journey
• 11:13 Current Fishing Conditions
• 21:22 Blackfish and Sheepshead Tactics
• 29:54 All About Crabbing
• 43:16 Fishing Equipment and Content Creation
• 55:26 Building Fishing Networks and Relationships
• 1:06:36 Boating Safety and Future Episodes

Transcript

Benji: 0:00

It's just an exciting fishery, even in the back. You don't have to go out to the wrecks to have fun with fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 0:11

Hey everyone and welcome back to the Fat Dad Fishing Show. I'm your host, rich Natoli, and tonight we're going to be joined by Benji Crabbing and fishing. You see him all over social media, a guy that I am very happy to be able to call a friend, somebody that I've been out fishing with not enough times, but been out fishing with, and the first time I will tell you that I went out on the water with him. He outfished me and I don't know if he remembers it, but I sure as hell remember it. All right, so let's roll with this. Before we get started, I am going to hit the sponsors A couple of changes. The first one actually Great Bay Outfitters. For anyone interested in kayak fishing, you definitely want to be checking out Great Bay Outfitters, 955 Radio Road in Tuckerton. Paul, who is in the chat right now, is having a Labor Day sale. So the 28th through the 31st it's not only the Labor Day sale, but he also has the on the water demos. So look, we've talked about it on this channel a couple of years ago, when we did the episode with how to choose a kayak, and the number one recommendation is always get on the water and test it. You may think you're a Hobie guy. Until you get in a Hobie. You may think you're a Hobie guy. Until you get in a Hobie you may think you're an old town guy. Until you get in an old town you have to get on the water. Try it out. You have the opportunity at Great Bay to get on the water. And he also has the new Garmin Force motors that you can demo, which are pretty badass. So if you're thinking about powering a kayak head down there as well, he's going to have everything. Paul's going to have everything set up and ready to go 28th through the 31st. Make sure you get down there. It's a great way to spend your holiday weekend.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:58

Next sponsor Quad State Tune and Kevin Driscoll. You can contact him 484-633-5975. And we're talking about Toyota trucks, especially like the third gen Tacomas. You also got the 4Runner, the Tundra, even the Lexus 460 and 470. It's a tune for the engine. So you're going to get better mileage, you're going to get better performance, you're going to get better torque. You're going to get better torque, horsepower, especially for towing. So if you have any questions about how that package, that tune, can help you, make sure that you reach out to Kevin.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 2:32

And then the last one is me, for real estate, and there is a change, and I want to make sure I say it out loud because I do get calls from people that listen to the podcast and watch the live stream and I appreciate that. I'm actually working with two clients right now directly through this. I have switched over from Keller Williams to Weikert Cornerstone. My phone number is still my cell number. It's still the same 267-270-1145. Richardnatolicom is the same, but the email address is NatoliRealEstate at Gmail. So anything you need Southeastern Pennsylvania I've got team members that work in New Jersey and Delaware, all up and down the coast actually, and I even have somebody in Maine now. So if you need any help, just let me know. Happy to help you out. So, with all that said, benji, it's great to have you on Rich, it's a pleasure to be here.

Benji: 3:23

I'm excited. Thanks for having me on.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 3:27

Yeah, it's been a long time that we've known each other and I couldn't come and believe you until I swiped out of here over to Salt Lake and then everything kind of went on hold. But now I'm back and Ed and I had that start. I ended up getting cancer and not doing the show for a year and one of the things I wanted to do is make sure I reach out to the people that have been pretty important to me, whether it's being on the water with them, learning from them or just, you know, knowing them. I just want everybody to see the people that have had an impact on me, and you're one of them, and we've been fishing, but not often, not often enough but I learned from you and I got to tell you you are the hardest working content creator in fishing for this region that I've seen. So all you know I I have to tip my cap to you on that.

Benji: 4:21

Well, thank you, I appreciate it. I'm going to tell you a lot of, a lot of my recent education came from you. You know, in that short period of time and and yeah, you went silent, you had to go silent for a little bit, which was perfectly fine. You know, I kind of was reading through the lines of some things that, uh, you know. So I had some serious seriousness going on and I was patient. Yeah, I reached out and, you know, I kind of got the sense of things. And then, when you, when you broke the news to everyone, I, you know, I turned to my wife immediately and I said I knew Rich had something heavy going on, but yeah, you beat that and and you became a grandpa.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 4:57

So yeah, and I actually get to spend the whole day babysitting on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to it, and she is just a little over a year and she can already say fish, so I'm working on it.

Benji: 5:11

That's awesome. That's awesome All right.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 5:15

One thing I want to start with. We have to start here, because this is a big change from when we first met each other. You are now a charter captain officially the crab and fish and charter. And why don't you just bring people up to date on that? Because I got to tell you what I was thinking about doing a whole episode on crabbing because I couldn't get away from catching crab a few weeks ago, and yeah. So why don't you fill everyone in on what the business is, how to get a hold of you and all that stuff?

Benji: 5:45

Yeah, absolutely, thank you. Yeah, back in April. I mean, obviously this has been a long journey. I'm not one of those pop-up captains, charter captains. I've been doing my education, I've been studying, I've learned from Rich. I've been fishing since I was eight years old Believe it or's keeping me young. And you know, last april, or this past april, I went ahead, I finally took the examination, even though I was paralyzed, uh, and petrified of going through the, the, uh, piloting part of the, the examination. You know, for those of you who know, what it is.

Benji: 6:20

I actually I bought an online course for this. This November would have been four years that it's just been sitting in wait for me to go ahead and take this examination. But in all the time that has passed and talking myself out of taking this exam, I've been learning. I've been going on charter trips, I've been hanging out with kayak guys like Rich, I've been hanging out with kayak guys like Joe Phillips, who's in the audience tonight, and some other folks who are in here with us. I've been fishing my literal tail off, as you can see, just learning it, learning the industry, learning where to fish, learning where not to waste time. And I started in a different direction, like most of us. I started building a little bit of a following on Facebook and on YouTube this platform, instagram and TikTok, you know but I started building relationships. First, I started building resources, folks that I could lean on, folks that I could talk to and learn things from, share information with. And then, yeah, so this past April it came to fruition. I went through the number of steps, a couple of return messages from the United States Coast Guard, because you know I wasn't dotted or T wasn't crossed, which you know it should be that way. You need to have all your P's and T's in order. So it went pretty quickly. After that, once I got that thick package put together and sent everything over, I got that MMC credential in the mail. I happily shared it with everyone just to let you know. But even at that point in time I hadn't quite kicked off the advertisement of promoting the charter business.

Benji: 7:57

But that's where we are today. This is August. I've been getting some trips. They're starting to drip and dribble in, which is fine. It was a soft opening and that's what I'm expecting for this first year here. The name is Crabbing and Fishing. I do both. We do both. My wife keeps me supported and I'm going to tell you what. Rhonda, who's in the chat right now. Fellas, ladies out there, if you don't have a partner that supports you in your endeavor, you're in trouble. But my wife, she encourages me to do this fishing. All those clips that you see out there, it's because she tells me to get it done, and that's what we're doing. So now we're building the business.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 8:37

I got to tell you you and I have that in common, because I always I'm amazed when people say my wife wouldn't let me go fishing. I'm like my wife told me to go. She's like get on the water, you need to get out there, you need to do your thing. And you're in the same situation, and I'll tell you what. It's also difficult because you were like me. You weren't self-employed your entire life, so you came off of a salary job and you're self-employed, and that is a drastic change and that is not something you can do without the support all the way around. And yeah, we're both fortunate. We're both fortunate. Now you did a little better. Mine's real estate and yours is fishing. So I'm going to be jealous, I'm going to be jealous, I'm going to be jealous of that.

Benji: 9:27

Don't be jealous. I mean, coincidentally, I mean we're going back many moons ago. I sat in a course with the old Whiteford Real Estate Agency. But kind of like my college days I was real keen of the professor, if you will. So I kind of withdrew out of that. So I had aspirations of doing real estate too. So we are very similar.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 9:45

There you go here. This is a funny comment. So both of you guys are scoring some major brownie points with the wives from Paul. Now, paul, my wife is not watching and she does not watch. I'm scoring zero. It was funny, I said when I was running down looking for those other headphones. I said to my wife she's watching the Phillies. I said you want me to just put the, you know, on the big screen. I'll put on the live stream. And she looked at me like I just kicked the dog, like what, why would? And then she goes oh, do you want me to? I'm like no, I just mess with you.

Benji: 10:20

She did more than that. I heard her giving the business down there everyone. She did more than that I heard her giving the business down there.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 10:26

everyone, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she didn't want me to interfere because Trey Turner was just hitting a triple. So, yeah, I needed to leave her alone to focus. So, all right. So let's get back to your chartering, and I do want to talk specifically about crabbing at some point, but let's start on the fish side. Crabbing at some point, but let's start on the fish side. What is it that you're most often targeting at this time of the year, late summer into early fall?

Benji: 10:52

Right now I'm still getting folks who are inquiring about the bag bait flounder and I'm happy to take folks out. But I also do things a little bit differently, rich. I'll let folks know. Listen, you may not take anything home for dinner, but I can certainly show you and find some fish for you to catch, especially particularly if they're bringing little children with them, you know, youngsters to get into the game of fishing that we all love so much. I'm getting folks on the fish in the backwaters here, just like you have taught me, I'm using all the techniques and tactics and the fish are still in that area even today.

Benji: 11:22

I think some of you, if you follow me on facebook, you see I even find these fish in my crab traps. So they're where Rich taught me they were and sometimes they're where they're not supposed to be. But right now, yeah, focusing, still focusing on flounder in the back bay side of things and doing a little bit of mixed trips, because Toto came back in with blackfish. So you hit the bridge in between. You know when you have that slack tide period, so you really have to make it enjoyable for your patrons, if you will, your customers. I call them friends because everybody that I've taken out thus far. You know we're now texting, we're buddies and get next trips lined up and that's how. That's the type of operation I want to run. But yeah, it's usually a mixed trip right now, rich.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 12:09

Gotcha, gotcha. How are you seeing the fluke Now? Let's pretend that a hurricane didn't just go off the coast last week. Up until that, I don't even know if you've been able to hit the water again, since Most boats just started up this morning with a let's go out and pray approach to fishing. What were you seeing with the fluke in August? Or is it still one of those banner years? Or have you seen it tailing off early?

Benji: 12:34

I saw a tail off very early, quite frankly, right after May. I started struggling finding deeper fish on the beginning of May, right after the opener. I don't know what the reason for that was. I mean, we had, in my opinion, perfect water temperatures in the back bay. It warmed up gradually, not that the fish stopped biting at any point in time, but I was having a difficult time finding fish to bring home, which for me, it's okay. I like catching fish. If I go out and catch fish, that day was a win for me, but I haven't been out fishing since the storm blew through. I have been out crabbing, of course, but I haven't been out fishing yet.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 13:13

Okay, all right. Yeah, and have you spent any time on some of the secondary species, like weak fish or sheep's head?

Benji: 13:22

You know I got a couple. You saw there was folks out there. You know Facebook, I posted a couple sheep's head. You know I got a couple. You saw there's folks out there. You know Facebook, I posted a couple sheep's head that I caught this year. I've already what doubled or tripled my intake over the past two, three years with the sheep's head. So I found some new locations with that and again building resources, connecting with other folks where to target them. I've been out with Joe B on kayaks.

Benji: 13:42

I haven't forgotten the kayak so I still pedal around on those because it's easier to find the sheets that are tucked into a place to get to those so I do have a couple additional sheets, as this year as well, not from a charter perspective, but from a personal perspective, so we'll be able to add those to the repertoire as well as well. Now you mentioned weak fish, and then I told my wife earlier she's like he's going to ask you what fish haven't you caught on on at some point in time and I said, well, I have the perfect fish and that's the weak fish. I haven't targeted right but I love it.

Benji: 14:12

In my opinion, out of all the fish that I've caught, all the fish I've cooked and tasted, weak fish is the best tasting fish that's out there, great. But I haven't targeted and I said, I told my wife, I said the reason for that is you got to get up too early to catch them, you know, and the guys who are out there who are catching them in numbers, you know you got to be up at the butt crack at dawn, as we say.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 14:33

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a morning bite and evening bite, but if you get the right spot you're going to be able to catch a midday and it's it's. You know. I mean, just for anyone who's wondering, the spots that really work well for me are going to be in the backwaters, at least the outgoing section of a creek into a main current, and they're going to sit just inside that pocket where the currents has a little bit of relief and if you find a weak fish there has a little bit of relief. And if you find a weak fish there, take a note of where it is in the tide and the conditions, because they will most likely be there at the same time with the same condition. So the same tide the next day. It may be an hour later or a half an hour later, but they'll be there and they'll continue to go back over an extended period of time and there are just some spots that will always hold them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 15:24

There's a spot between Stone Harbor and Wildwood that still has them today and it's where I used to go as a kid on the boat. It's the same spot and every year that I've tried it, even when they weren't biting, they're just there. And I just described what the spot is. So it's a good way to do it. But you're right, it's the early morning and the late afternoon, early evening that's really going to produce, in my experience.

Benji: 15:56

You're absolutely right. Now, as far as the tide in here, I'm going to turn it on you. You're the host, but what part of that tide are you fishing for, rich? I know the area and the location vary intimately that you're speaking of, but what are we talking about? Tides and currents, with these?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 16:09

fish. So it's not. Let me clarify. It is not a specific tide. It is when you try that spot. If they bite let's say two hours after high they're they'll bite for like a half an hour, an hour maybe, and then they cut off and I think they leave and then it's the same amount. So if it was two hours after high, it's the next day two hours after high, so it can change. It can change. It's just once you get a good bite on that, like a consistent bite, not just a onesie, twosie I just happened to catch one take a note of when it is and the next day you can try and it'll.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 16:50

It'll happen for weeks and if people aren't aware, it's the same for specs. This is one you know. Everyone you know that doesn't really know fish. They confuse the two specs and weak fish. They're totally different species. But this is in one regard where they actually behave in a very similar fashion, especially in New Jersey. If you find the specs in New Jersey, write down what I just told you and do it, because you will nail those every day for two or three weeks until they just disappear, that's great information.

Benji: 17:23

That's my favorite fish that I just can't. I don't know. Like I said, I haven't focused on it right.

Benji: 17:30

You taught us, you taught me. You got to go out. You can't just target one species when you're going out, especially particularly on a kayak. You got to have a game plan. It's got to be one fish, two fish, three fish, you know. But in order to make a day out of it in the backwaters, you're going to want to put together a menu of what you're going to target and obviously make sure you have the right materials, whether it's grass, shrimp, as I see in the comment section there, or or maybe it's a pink plastic that you want to use, and then obviously, ultimately, you got to find the right spot in the location where the fish are at. You know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 17:59

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I just miss weak fish. You know there were. There was well over a decade where I wouldn't even try, just because not only were there so few of them, but I didn't want to catch one because I didn't want to kill one. You know, accidentally it's not hard to kill a weak fish when you catch it, even if you release it, and but now they're all over the place until those dolphins come through and destroy the entire school. I mean you can, you can catch, you can find millions of them in one spot and not just the little spikes. I mean some decent. You know 18 to 23, 24 inchers, not, you know, the huge ones aren't necessarily. You know the big tide runners at 30 plus. They're not around as much, but they are there, they're, they're around, you know, just not in the numbers.

Benji: 18:46

Yeah, there's absolutely enough reports that I've seen to to make me believe that there's fish around if you actually want to go out and target them. So, but that's the key folks. You got to go out and target the species that you're looking for, particularly the weak fish or or whatever the species is that you're you're heading out for that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 19:02

Right, right, all right. So let's, let's again, let's pretend that the hurricane didn't come through. It's the 25th of August and you're just going for a fun day of fishing. Let's say, you and I decide hey, we're just going to hit the water tomorrow. Where in the perfect world, where are you going? What are you? Are you taking a boat, a kayak, from shore? Cause a lot of people may not know this you do a lot of shore based fishing too. You, you are literally you. You cover the full spectrum of saltwater fishing. What are you doing? What are you targeting? What are you taking? What time are you going?

Benji: 19:36

yeah, I'm still right now. I'm taking the boat mostly because I love my skiff. I can actually take my skiff and all the practice with the kayak, again hanging out with you, joe billups, and some of the other fellas prior co-hosts you had going fishing. I can take that skiff. In places we've gone with kayaks with no problem, no worries, you know none of that, so I'll take the boat.

Benji: 19:56

If you and I were going fishing tomorrow, we're going to hit a bridge, we're going to hit multiple bridges and even though there's only a one fish keep limit with the tow tog or the blackfish, we're going to try to catch some blackfish and then we're going to poke around, see if there's some sheepshead in the same areas and then from there, you know, we'll figure out what we're going to do. We're going to take the popper for bait and we're going to have to fiddle the crabs. We're going to have the sand fleas and we're going to have everything we need for those. But if we were going out tomorrow, we're going to hit a bridge and see if we can find some blackfish, because that's my second favorite fish to eat. There's no more hardy fish for me, even at one fish. That's funny because they're so thick, they're so hardy, they're so heavy, there's so many ways you can cook them. It's just a great fishery for me. I even like that fishery.

Benji: 20:40

If someone tells me they want to take their kid out fishing and they're saying, well, we want to go find their fish, I'm gonna do my best to try and turn them and say, let's go try this fishery. Just because it's such a game and that's what hooked me on it. I haven't been fishing for blackfish all that long and I was hooked instantly. You know, no pun intended, I was hooked instantly. It's the thrill of that fish and getting it to hook. You know, getting that hook in that lip. Oh, my thrill of that fish and getting it the hook. You know, getting that hook in that lip. Oh, my goodness. And then they're so aggressive when you get a fight. It could be quick, it could be long, it's it's just an exciting fishery, even in the back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 21:16

You don't have to go out to the wrecks to have fun with fish right, I'll tell you a little story about tall talk fishing, and it actually involves my brother, who actually looks like he's in the chat. So so when we were little, we would always go fishing with my grandfather and my father, and it was always saltwater. That's all we did, and I don't know how this happened, but somehow my brother, my little brother, met. I think the guy was a cameraman for the Eagles and he had a house down there and he had this little skiff and he would always go out to a bridge and he would always tie up and just fish all day. And he came, this guy came over with my brother back to our house and he talked to my dad and he said look, I'd like to take your son out. This is what we're going to do. My dad's like what, okay? He said okay. So, uh, yes, they go out to the bridge and wouldn't you know it was tog fishing.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 22:11

And this is when tog fishing was not popular. I mean, this is what, 45 years ago maybe, and yeah, they were just slaying tog all day, and that I don't know if my brother would agree, but to me there was a change in my brother with fishing at that point and he got into it. Change in my brother with fishing at that point and he got into it Like, tog is definitely an underrated fishery, especially for kids, because you get the rapid bites when you're on them, you're on them, and even the small fish, it's like a small mouth. Even the small fish have a really good fight to them. And I, I wouldn't, I won't turn down a tog fishing trip at all. You know, even the one, the one fish limit, I don't care, I'll definitely go do it. And even if I decide I'm not going to keep anything, it's just so much fun. I, I just can't get it. And everyone likes to do the sheep's head. Now, okay, I I can't, it's just, it's too annoying to me.

Benji: 23:04

but the tog, I'll do the tog definitely, as she said it's it's, it's still a diamond in the rough for me. Like I said, I only have three careers, so I I'm not ready to turn that one loose yet. I just haven't had the time to get back out there. I've missed a couple of opportunities and invitations. But you know, I think I can convince you to try and try and hook up with one, unless you you know, unless you have enough under your belt I mean I, I have, I have caught a lot of sheep's head.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 23:37

Uh, I've caught double digits, some really nice ones. My problem is I just can't stand the process of just I. I get it's an unpopular opinion, paul's in the chat. I'm sorry, paul, I know you love Sheep's Head. You can keep them, man. I went out with Creely a couple of weeks ago and a couple of other guys and they're sitting on this bridge for like four hours. I'm like what the hell is wrong? I just I picked up and me and Perry we took off. We're like let's go for fluke. It's not even a good area to go for fluke. We're like we're not going to catch anything. But we went, we're just watching them, just hug in the bridge for hours. I was like I can't. I'm sorry, I can't do it. It's a fun fight but it's not worth the wait for me.

Benji: 24:23

No, you're absolutely right. And again, that's like you've told me, you've got to go multi-species. A couple of trips that I've been on and I call my professional net man because, like you, I stink at it, I can't even get the net in front of the seat. Who brought them in in the net for me? Thankfully he was there with me. He got to share those experiences with me with the sheep's head. I call him the sheep's head king. He's like no, I'm just getting better at it. I said, no, you're more to getting better at it. My friend, if I want to give up one, we would move. I wouldn't stay there all day or four or five hours because once the current starts moving day or four or five hours, you know what? Because once the current starts moving, like you said, like you know, like I just said, you've learned and you've taught us we got to go find something else. Let's see what else is out. There's nothing wrong with that yeah, I'm, I'm.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 25:16

I will tell you that my entire attitude changes if it is a multi-species day, you know, if it's fluke and then it, or striped bass and then it's sheep's head, you know's head, at a certain point in the tide absolutely Tog. If I'm doing tog at the same time, it's even better. Then I can actually stand it. I'll just fish the bottom and hope that I get either of the two and then I can move back on to another species. It's just the hours and hours. It was driving me bananas. I just wanted to jump in the water. I was like this is just terrible. This is just terrible.

Benji: 25:52

Well, I mean, in addition to just sitting there trying to get that bike at that touch, I mean that was in between my rudder issues. The current starts moving. You get a weight comes through, pushes off your spot. So I'm out there. I'm out there again with Joe B and I'm spinning around in circles because my rudder gets stuck on me. So, but I think we got that ironed out finally.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 26:12

Well, that would be good. Get Joe rescuing you. Actually, knowing Joe, he was probably just laughing at you. That's my experience. He likes to have fun and I love when he starts singing now.

Benji: 26:23

I think he told me get off the hamster wheel. I said all right, little Bill.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 26:30

That'll do it. That'll do it all. Right, let's talk a little crabbing, because that is something that, like I said, I was out fluke fishing a few weeks ago and it was just crabs and I was, like you know, benji would probably set me right on this and tell me why the crabs are in this spot, where I didn't think they'd be, and and then you tell me what I could keep and what I couldn't.

Benji: 26:50

What were you catching? Were they males or females? Let's start there.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 26:54

So it was actually both. It was mainly pregnant females.

Benji: 26:59

So I'm saying I'm trying to, I'm trying to. What I'm trying to do, folks is extract where he was. So I know he was closer to some inlet water. He was in a saltier area. That's where I'm going with that.

Benji: 27:11

That's when you start running into a lot of female crabs, particularly the egg-infested ones, if you will. But yeah, crabbing is a passion of mine since a young kid. My wife and I, when we first got married 15, 14, 15 years ago that was one of our bonding experiences. Again, my wife loves the outdoor. I can't get her to go fishing with me, with this person Perfectly fine. But she won't hesitate to go crabbing. She's been asking me to get this prop on this boat for several days now. Are we going to go test the boat? Are we going to test the boat so we can go crabbing? She will pull traps. It doesn't matter if there's 10 traps or 30, but it is. It's. It's kind of like flounder fishing with uh, crabs. Salinity again, not so much if you're looking for the male crabs. If you're looking for the male crabs, you want to get a little lighter salinity on it and then you want to set your, your line, your traps. If you want to do it the old-fashioned way, drop some hand lines. It still works. But just keep in mind you're out there to have fun if you're hand lining or doing it the old-fashioned way.

Benji: 28:12

But yeah, I grew up crabbing in in cumberland county, new jersey. I'm talking about down by the dairy farms. So dividing creek when, when, when beaver dan boat rentals was out there, and dividing creek boat rentals, which are both closed now. That's the area I was reared in, delaware Bay. I grew up down in far south Jersey getting eaten up by greenheads and you know, when the greenheads aren't there you got horseshoe crabs and vice versa. So a lot of obstacles and challenges with crabs.

Benji: 28:40

But you know we had one season my wife, my son, you know, in combination. It was one season Again. This was way before any thought of doing the charter thing. We had a season where we caught over 1100 crabs. Now, no, we didn't eat over 1100 crabs. We would catch so many crabs. I'm being I'd bring them home. She and I bring them home, we're cleaning them up and then I'm walking down the street, the coldest sack knocking on the door hey, you like blue crabs giving them, never let them go to waste. But that's how many crabs you would catch. And we just enjoyed that bonding time together. And you know we still do.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 29:16

Yeah, it's funny Paul saying that he's about excited about crabbing as I am about sheep's head. So I I love crabs and one thing that I thought about doing with the kayak is dropping some traps and then fishing and then picking up the traps later. And I was going to do that and I was actually scouting some places two years ago and a professional crabber got mad at me. I was apparently in his area and I didn't even I had a little hand line. I was just seeing what was down there. As I'm sitting there eating lunch, I literally just hand lining a dead fish on the bottom with some weights and he's like this is my area. I was like I literally have one hand line, dude. He got so mad at me I was like all right, all right, I'm out of here. I took off. You got to be careful with those crabbers. Creeley and I got swamped by some some crabbers a few years ago behind stone Harbor, of all places, because we were. I don't know what we were doing, we were just fishing, but they didn't like us.

Benji: 30:16

That's unfortunate. I mean in my, in my area, in these areas where I crab. Matter of fact, we were in a very tight uh Creek off of a river down here in nag harbor township and the commercial crabber was, once he got done he was up in his crab. We're running my trap line back and forth. He's like hey, you want this extra bunker? I said absolutely so. Fortunately I haven't run into any experiences. I guess you know. As you can see, I probably know most of the commercial crabbers, at least down in this area.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 30:47

Yeah.

Benji: 30:48

So I haven't had that experience, my bad experience, and again it's unfortunate because I'm a kayaker, I'm a boater, I'm a land fisherman, so I'm in all the groups right. So I get negative stuff from the voters. You know my fellow voters and that's you know. It goes with the territory.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 31:14

Yeah, I mean, it is what it is and I actually, you know, as I think about it, I think the one guy was mad because creely parked his truck where this guy wanted to park his trailer. Yeah, that was the guy behind stone harbor. So this guy couldn't just like drop the boat and then just pull forward. He had to pull out and down the road a little. That's right, that was that guy. The guy when I was handling. I don't know what his problem was, he was just. I think I was just too close to where he was and he was. He was definitely crabbing that Creek. I mean, there were buoys all over. I'm just sitting there with a hand line. I guess he thought I was stealing. I don't know. He thought I was stealing. I don't know, I don't know. I don't even know what size you're allowed to keep.

Benji: 31:50

Like I couldn't even keep anything. Well, new Jersey has size limit on it. They're always messing with our fish sizes, you know it is what it is. But crabs, four and a half inches on a hard shell crab is all you need for New Jersey. That's one thing I wish they would expand the range on. If they bumped that up to five inches, I wouldn't be mad, because and the reason behind that is we'd have much larger crabs here. You know, after the molt season and the average lifespan here, because of the four and a half inch requirement, I mean, a crab lives three, maybe four years if they're lucky.

Benji: 32:24

It's fortunate, we're fortunate that in egg-laden female crabs they drop, you know, drop 700,000 to a million and a half eggs every time. They do that, and they do that multiple times during a summer and based on the water temperature etc. So they're dropping those eggs. It's certainly important to put females back. But listen, I follow the state regulations. If they don't have eggs later in the season, I'm certainly not going to tell a client, hey, you should put that female crab back. It's a legal crab, it's over four and a half inches and, quite frankly, they're usually bigger than the males that we have here in New Jersey. But I'm not mad because someone wants to keep a female crab Four and a half inches. It's a lot of work after you've steamed it up, you know. So again, that's something that you know. I'm not going to go out and and raise a flag on it, but if they change that to five inches, I mean, I'm all for it. You know, sure you can do, yeah, you can self-police, but at the same time there's a lot of folks out there.

Benji: 33:24

One thing, other thing about the size of crabs, there's this misnomer and we we tend to do this as people also over the fish. Right, we see people, or we say people, whoever it is, oh, you're keeping undersized fish, you keep an undersized crab. But you gotta understand that some of those crabs could potentially I don't know anybody's heart. I know what they're keeping the crab for. But I can't just automatically say you keep undersized crab because you can keep a peeler crab at. I think it's three inches. You can keep a three inch crab and a peeler crab. The only way that you can tell that that's a peeler crab or not a peeler crab there's on their flipper paddles how they swim. They have three different colors. You have to look for it's. It's white, pink and red, and what those colors tell you? It tells you how soon they're actually getting ready to molt that shell that they're in. But really that's still a free game crab.

Benji: 34:17

If you're going to use it for bait stripers, love them. Joe b knows, uh that you know a particular fish likes uh those small crabs, those peeler crabs, a shutter crab, peeler crab. They're different than a soft shell crab and even a soft shell crab doesn't have to be four and a half inches. A soft shell crab if you you happen to scoop it up because it's unlikely you're going to get one in a crab pot or on a, certainly not on a hand line. They don't have to be four inches for a soft shell crab, but if you're able, if you get to scoop one up, it only has to be four inches. You know a lot of folks playing policemen and they're not really 100% on the regulations that they're trying to enforce. It's great that we do that.

Benji: 34:57

But let's have our P's and Q's right while we're doing that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 35:00

You know it's funny. I could certainly make an estimation of whether or not something's four and a half inches, you know, or a four inch crab, or it's undersized, but you just blew my mind. There's pink, white and red flipper. Okay, I'll take your word for it. It's a good thing. I'm not keeping anything as far as crabs, and I'll go out with you and I'll let you show me what I can keep.

Benji: 35:23

It's kind of like a you know, I know this is a family show, but it's kind of like a pregnancy test. When you look at it, you're looking for a line on that small crab. It's only a line, and it tells you one color or the other. Again, it just says well, there are three weeks. It gives you an estimate that they might be three weeks away from shedding that shell, or they might even only be four days away from shedding the shell, depending on what color that line is.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 35:48

I never knew that. Never knew that. Well, here's a question for you. It's a good one. I was going to ask it's from Joseph Kiley what's your go-to bait for crabs? And they're saying you have to know all the secrets.

Benji: 36:00

Well and I'm happy to share them because you still got to be able to get out there and get them. Same thing with the fish. I'm happy to share any information that I learned. It's not mine, I don't own these crabs. There's plenty that go around. I fish, there's plenty that go around. But anyway, the way that I've crabbed and I use these open top traps, I use a chicken neck mostly, as long as I can get them in bulk supply from a local butcher shop, you know, at a decent price. I've even used drumsticks for crab. In my own opinion and in my experience, you can use native fish If you're in an area that's heavily populated, it would say white perch even some fluke racks. I mean you got to be careful with that. But any fish racks that you want to tie into a net or a trap you can use those. But my go-to is a chicken. Net is chicken for catching crabs.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 36:51

Yeah, that's what they use down in Maryland.

Benji: 36:54

There's a place for bunker, but I believe that's for your hotel style Like we can get a $2 crab pot license and we can put two pots out per person. That's where I think you're going to mostly benefit, using bunker or an oily, oily type fish, maybe a blue fish, something that you got left over. You throw those in there where it's on a stick overnight. You got to check that within three days, by the way. That's where you're getting the benefit of that oily scent, putting that slick out so you can go and catch your crabs. But to put those on a hand line put balker on a hand line or a perch rack on a hand line or a trap I won't do it. I just haven't had success with it and I've caught a lot of crabs.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 37:35

So how long are you leaving those traps out, the traps?

Benji: 37:38

that I'm working like these topless traps. We literally drop anywhere from 20, sometimes 40 traps in a line. Sometimes I've got a half mile line that we're running and by the time we get to the end, rich, we turn right around, we race back, depending on which way the current's moving and or the wind, wherever that wind and the current's putting my float. That dictates what side I need to pull traps from A little bit of science. It's not rocket science, but there's a little bit to know about it.

Benji: 38:03

So you're not pulling a trap from underneath the boat but, to answer your question, by the time we get done, drop that last trap. We're flying back to the beginning and starting over and if the current's moving, we got water flow, crabs are going to be in your trap. So it's immediate as soon as you turn around and you run that as many times as you got Most crabbing charters, even a couple of competitors down here in the area, three-hour trip, you know, and catching hundreds of crabs in those three-hour period. You know time, you don't need a lot of time to catch crabs. Now again, if you want to crab, yeah, you can spend all day and catch yourself a dozen and a half, but the people I know want to catch crabs and then they want to go home and eat, have a feast.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 38:49

Right, yeah, I'm in that group. Why not? Why not? So let me ask you this what's the weirdest thing you ever caught in the trap?

Benji: 38:57

I've caught everything from eels Again. I had that little baby flounder yesterday or day before yesterday, last season, a few seasons ago I think Facebook followers they saw that post. My son pulled up a 19-inch keeper in a crab trap and yeah, he went home. Like you catch some oyster crackers, you catch any fish out there. You would on the hook A lot of times. You get some of them. Real micro black sea bass will be in there, but everything out there you're fishing for they like chicken yeah yeah, yeah so much, much so I'll tell you what.

Benji: 39:32

So much so I've caught so many flounder in the crab traps. I'm one of these times you know people use bacon to catch flounders. And the other thing, because of the action on it, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna slide a chicken breast, a brown, boneless breast, out of the refrigerator on my way to make sure it's not paying attention, and I'm going to slice some slivers off and I'm going to take that and try that for flounder or fluke fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 39:57

So I'll tell you I think I've told this story before and anyone that's fished Delaware Bay back in, I guess, the 80s it was big, it was raw chicken Was a big fluke bait and very successful. But every year there would be issues because of multiple people being hospitalized for salmonella poisoning because they were baiting the hooks, they were catching plenty of fluke on them and they weren't washing their hands. They're just rinsing their hands in the salt water and then eating their lunches right, or they're touching their mouth or they're having a cigarette or they're putting in a chew and all of a sudden they got the raw chicken in their mouth. And yeah, so I actually talked about that on here. It's a great, great bait for fluke, as long as you keep in mind that you are literally handling raw chicken throughout the day and by the end of the day it's usually hot raw chicken. So, yeah, I would absolutely recommend using it.

Benji: 40:59

Yeah, yeah, hand sanitizer that's what you call a staple on the boat. Got a nice big jug of hand sanitizer. Yeah, gotta rinse it off. I got some crap going on with my hands. Talking about blackfish earlier, I, I, I got I got that, uh, green crab issue. This started back in april. I'm still dealing with it. Whatever that excretion is that they, if you don't wash them off and rinse them when you try to save them for the next day, I'm still dealing with it. So, yeah, you got to be careful with that stuff. So I'm wearing plastic gloves or latex gloves and everything right now these days trying to get this thing cleared up yeah, it's like an acid from them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 41:35

Yeah, I know I've had them dead in my car. Yeah, it can really ruin a car and it can ruin your hands. I, I really don't like green crabs at all. They're like, they're terrible. I, I mean, I use them. I use them all the time for dog, but they're one of the least favorite things to handle the green crabs. And, uh, eels.

Benji: 41:59

I hate eels yeah, that's, they're tough. I use the eels for striper, you know, yeah, whenever it's. You know you're supposed to use them, but man, I hate trying to get them things on the hook. And and even if you get them on the hook and you're using the swivels like you're supposed to, oh my gosh, you spend more time, you know, unraveling your line with these eels and you know they're just tough. I I've yet to figure out. Maybe somebody in the chat can tell us how do you grip up us eel? Good enough to get him on the hook quick. I only got to move fast.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 42:29

But Well, so I'll tell you how I do it and hopefully we don't get people mad at me. First of all, you keep them on ice. So you dunk obviously disposable towels, old rags, you dump them in the salt water, you throw the rag on top of the ice and then you throw the eels on top of that. You throw another one on top to kind of sandwich them in. They won't stay necessarily very long, but if it's really cold in there they get really slow. Then when you want one, you just reach in and you just grab around that top one until you have one smack its head. You don't have to smack it hard and it'll just kind of be real slow and lethargic.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 43:07

Just bait that up, you put it in the water and it is up, it is awake and it is just going crazy within like 15, 20 seconds. So like an instant revival on them. Just put them right through that bottom lip and that. So that's how I do it. A lot of people may not I mean not, probably not with this channel, but you know, peta, people won't like the smack its head part, but it is what it is.

Benji: 43:31

I didn't think about that. I mean the same thing with the crabs put on ice before you. You know, do what you got to do to get them prepared, but yeah, I didn't think about that. Put them on ice, chill them down, slow them down. I do use a rag and I'm telling you, maybe my rags have a satin in them or something, because I still can't hold on to them no it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 43:45

I mean there's nothing you can do with an eel. I mean there's nothing. The only thing that can even get the slime off of you is sand. As far as I'm concerned, like you got to just put sand all over your hand and just scrub sand in the salt water. That's, I mean, that's how I used to wash it off. But, yeah, the rags and the rags get slimy and then it's done. But that's what I do. And and look, say whatever you want about me, I, I, I'm going to use a rag because I don't want the slime all over me. Call me whatever you want, I just I'm beyond that now, man, I just don't want it. And then, and then, when you grab them by the head, and sometimes they wrap around your arm and they back up, oh my God Then you have one going up your shirt, around your neck and you can't stop it. It'll just keep going backwards. I can't stand eels.

Benji: 44:35

I. I can't stand eels. I'm not a fan of any type of reptile. I don't like frogs, I definitely don't like snakes, and an eel fits right in there. I know it's out to salt water, I can't do it. It's a necessary evil to catch a striped bass, so it's just you can make them cold. I like folks all the time getting mad at me because I don't put the fish on ice right away. I put my fish on ice right away.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:57

I put my bait on ice. Yeah, you put the important stuff. I don't put fish on ice right away, I'll actually bleed them for a really long time. I'll let them stay alive in the water for as long as possible, then I'll bleed them Hopefully a shark doesn't come get them and then I'll throw them in on the ice.

Benji: 45:12

It's just the way I do it I've had, uh, I got one of those big I don't know, one of those big cooler sack bags. If you want it, I've had. I put water in there. It's cool water. I've had tog last me from abseeking all the way back to my home base up near depra, new jersey, so almost back to philadelphia, and they're still alive and kicking Like they were never, you know, hooked and pulled out the water. I'm like, yeah, I know that you like to bleed your fish. I'm like, but you can't get a fresher fish than this one right here, like that's what.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 45:44

That's the way I look at it. Keep it alive, unless it's a shark. I want to keep it alive as long as possible. Shark yeah, I'm going to gut that thing as fast as possible, but no, no, like a fluke. That's why I always have fluke. To get attacked by sharks is because I try to keep them alive on the stringer as long as possible. You know, I'm not jamming it through the gills and hurting them. Sometimes I'm just putting it through the bottom of their lip, like in the in between the jaw bones, and just piercing it through there so that they can swim and stay alive.

Benji: 46:14

It's really fresh you've had four too many shark encounters with those, uh, sometimes hard to find fluke. I tell you that goodness I.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 46:22

I thought maybe I would put a camera underwater on one of them and on the stringer someday, just to see you know how many come by and don't actually grab it, and you'll appreciate this because of all the content creation you did. The frigging camera leaked, so this underwater camera one of my DJIs is dead, so there's a $400 mistake. So I'm down one good camera.

Benji: 46:54

Listen, losing cameras, I mean mean again. I've lost the equipment on the kayak. You know, hard lesson learned. I've lost a gopro.

Benji: 47:02

With that, I lost the three out of four fishing poles that were with me uh I even then I went to, uh, these video sunglasses and went to set the hook on a striped bass and knock the glasses off and down there at the bottom somewhere like it's just the amount of video equipment you know for all the videos that you see going through some video equipment to get that stuff together. And a lot of times you don't even see a lot of the stuff because I'm like I'm afraid to take. I have it, I'm afraid to take it back out there. I'm like I don't want't want to lose it but I'm not using it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 47:36

That's like me and my drone. I got a drone and I rarely bring it on the water because it's such a pain in the neck to land it, because you have to land it in your hand when you're on a kayak and it's really hard to land a drone in your hand when you're moving Because once you say land, it's going to land. So if you miss it it's in the water and those things you know they're not waterproof. The mine is not waterproof at all. So, yeah, I know the whole thing. I don't, I don't like bringing out all my cameras, so I very rarely post videos anymore. I I'm more just video for myself at this point and I just focus more on this show.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 48:12

But yeah, that was an expensive mistake. I was really disappointed. I'll tell you what scared the hell out of me, because I didn't even notice until I got home after a two hour drive and I had just thrown the camera in the back of the truck and it's laying across the back seat and the lithium battery starts smoking right when, right when I get in the driveway. I was like, oh my god, and so, yeah, so I had to take it out. I I was lucky I could pop the battery out and I just let it sit in the middle of the driveway. And you know it didn't. It didn't ignite or anything, but it was. It was damn near close.

Benji: 48:49

But the the camera's dead, totally dead I would tell you what listen for, for content creation and just sharing the experience of these different fish. You know, I've had the $300 GoPro and I've got a $20 chest cam camera and the pictures that I've posted, the video that I've posted. You can't tell the difference in quality from those videos at this point, you know, based on the technology and things. So anybody who's looking to to video your, your catch, or video your outings, you don't have to spend a ton of money to be able to capture your, your, your moments, especially when you're taking your kids out, things you want to remember. You don't have to spend a lot of money on the video equipment. You just you get something, uh, clip it on yourself when you're on your neck tie or or whatever. You know where your necktie would be and you can rock and roll with it, put it on, loopy, loop and you have yourself some some memories, you know, until you erase them or get rid of them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 49:42

Yeah, that's a good idea. Well, you know, we should do a show just on how to create on the water content, whether people want to start a YouTube channel or just do, you know, do Facebook or any social media thing, or just do Facebook or any social media thing or just collect the things, because there are a lot of things that are overblown, that people think you have to do, that you just don't have to do. It's a lot easier to get things wrong. Now, if you're gonna do a full YouTube channel, that's different. There's a lot of YouTube-specific stuff that you have to do if you really wanna grow a channel and grow your social media presence through YouTube. But if you just want to be able to get some decent videos and grab some cool pictures from those videos which, by the way, is how most people do it they just video and then they screen, grab something out of there we should probably we should sit down sometime and just kind of go through that so that people can see the best way to do it.

Benji: 50:33

I'm chuckling. I said that between you and Paul up there at Great Bay Outfitters and I'm about to fall off my seat. He's helping us out with his own personal reefs for us, so I appreciate that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 50:47

Yeah, I've dumped stuff. I talk about all the time. I went over in the Raritan. That was bad. I lost almost everything, and I on purpose too, because I the fishing lines were all caught along along my, around my legs and I couldn't break the the braid, so I ended up cutting loose two rods. Another one was just gone, lost a camera, lost an underwater camera that was just sitting in the cockpit. It wasn't attached to anything, so when it was and I was totally upside down, so that's gone. And then the worst one was Benji.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:21

I launched in a sound and it was maybe two feet deep, three feet max, where I was when I turned or when I reached behind me to put the rod in the rod holder and I missed and I was like oh shit. And I missed. And I was like oh shit. And I saw it. I was like, oh, all right, I'll go get it and I'm looking at it. And all I did is glance to my right to grab my net. And I looked back and I couldn't find it again. I searched, I searched forever. I could not find it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:50

I mean, it's literally 10 feet from where I launched. It's like knee deep and some kid is watching me and I looked at him. I said he's got this big surf rod. I don't know what the heck he was going to do with it. And I said are you going to be here for a while? And he's like, yeah, he's like I dropped my fishing rod. He's like I saw, I saw. I was like why don't you just cast over here and drag the bottom and catch it and keep it? I was like, and just so you know, it's a $200 reel on there, it's all yours. I don't want it back, but if you're here when I get back, just let me know if you got it or not. And he's, and wouldn't you know? He's he. I got back at the end of the day he was over there crabbing folks.

Benji: 52:43

There's a lot of places that you can. That's why I get people wow, you know, people laugh at me. I mean, but again, you see all that content. I mean, I, you know, I catch fish on four dollar reels and 26 fishing poles and I have a lot of fun doing it. So I can, you know, and I'm not knocking If maybe one day when I graduate I can, I'll spend a lot of money on the equipment, but right now what I have works for me. I, you know, everybody has their own personal feel, right, every rod's not the same. You know, I got a rod that's heavy, power, fast action, tip. I love it for what I'm fishing for. I got another one, medium, medium, heavy, just fast action. Again, I catch the same exact fish on it. You know I'm talking 19 inch togs, 19 inch blackfish from land. That's a big fish in the back. You know, it's just sure it's. No, it's not a double bit.

Benji: 53:30

Yeah, that's a big fish on that pole. That that pole handled it perfect. A lot of the poles, when I find them I'll go out and I'll buy a second one if I like it, just to have up on the rack, because if and when that one goes, I got it, most of my poles. By the way, I know you've seen a couple of my post poles have just completely exploded on me. Some of those it's not because it's cheap, it's actually had some stress on it that it shouldn't have had and it finally just gave way and that's why I have those backups for those particular poles.

Benji: 54:02

But I was about to say about the crabbing, stone Harbor, avalon, seattle City, any of those places where you can find a municipal boat ramp. You can launch from there. If you've got a boat, there's land-based opportunities for you. If you want to learn some of those areas, come, hang out with me. Crabbin Fishing, it's crabbinfishingcom. You can book a trip there. Check me out on Facebook and again, I'd be happy to come out with you. We're going to have fun. First and foremost. You want to come out and be grumpy. I don't know, you know. I don't know if we're good to pair up for that. So, but we're definitely having fun and getting out there. We're going to catch crabs, we're not just going to go crabbing at least I'm going to try to talk you out of that. And if you want to go fishing, I'll take you fishing that sounds good.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 54:45

You busy on friday I may be.

Benji: 54:47

Are you available?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 54:51

I might be. I'm meeting a client down in new jersey, but after that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm tempted to bring some fishing stuff down.

Benji: 54:59

Well, I'll put some fishing stuff in there. I will block off my Friday date because I've got a couple trips scheduled, but Friday's open at the moment.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 55:11

All right, I'll text you when we get closer. I don't know what time I'm supposed to meet him.

Benji: 55:17

Yet I don't know if billy ackerman's still in there. Billy ackerman still owes me a fishing trip. I don't think we need to go up to uh, montauk or where. I mean not that you owe me a fishing trip, but we, we owe each other an outing. You know this is this is going back four or five years now rich. So billy and season, we'll say we got to get out and do fishing. We haven't done it yet, so we got to make, we got to get on point and on purpose and get that done.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 55:38

Yeah. So let me just tell you a little something about Billy Ackerman. Love the man, but he owes me a fishing trip as well, and he's owed me a fishing trip for years. We need to get him on the water. Whether he always has an excuse, he sports and all these things, we don't care, billy, just get out on the water there might be some folks on here don't know me as the charter boat captain or what have you.

Benji: 56:06

But, like I said, I like to have fun when I take folks out and I don't mind sharing information. When I post a picture, I'll tell you what will irritate me. If I don't know you, if you don't take the time to get to know me, I do have a difficult time sharing. So if you're going to ask someone, you know where that location is. Where did you get this, this, that and the other thing? At least introduce yourself. Try to build a relationship or a rapport with folks you know before you start asking information. That's any relationship you know. And fishermen, you know we're protective but we will share. But you got to go about it the right way. That's my PSA on how to find fishing information. Otherwise you got to pay for it. You know I don't know Rich never talks about it, but Rich invited me out on that kayak trip and rich, he had a series out there, a couple hours worth of his time, that he put together fat dad fishing I. I bought the. I bought it.

Benji: 57:05

I'm not afraid to buy education stuff to learn how to fish. I go. That's why I go out on these charter boats and part of party boats. You know six packs to learn these things. I'm not afraid to pay for that education. That's sometimes what you need to do, folks. You go out and do that, buy that, buy your education, get the folks build relationships. You learn more than just how to catch fish. You know where to go if you got a boat or if you're going to get a boat in the future. But you know you got to make the investment is what I'm saying. You know Dad Fishing. He's got that out there. I was looking at it earlier. I look at it every year when flounder season is coming around to see what I missed, what I may have forgotten, and I put those techniques and tactics together.

Benji: 57:46

I learned a lot of stuff from Rich. He had a guest on a couple of weeks ago, john Skinner. I ordered and watched John Skinner's video series on catching fluke. I bought his book God. I had an opportunity to meet him up at a, up at a, a fishing show, and then I you know I got to mention my friend. You know, nick Haneshevsky. Nick Haneshevsky, you know salt, listen, he knows and has seen thousands of people. Right, he's on TV and whenever shows are there 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, whenever it is, but it doesn't matter the venue or where we are. When I walk in a room, nick knows me. He shouts out my name hey Benji. So I don't care what other people think about him. He'll always be a friend to me because he knows me. When I walk in the door somewhere and I've learned a lot from him Frank Mihalik, one of my neighbors he lives in the same neighborhood teaching me things about blackfishing.

Benji: 58:42

You know equipment. You know fishing rods, hooks, things of that nature. Building relationships, building resources, not just asking people questions. You know where'd you get the fish? How do you get the fish? You got to build a relationship, build your network and my network is pretty tight. You know rich. Rich is in that, that circle of mine, which is very, very small. So build yourself your lower decks and resource.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 59:05

Yeah, I'm going to agree and I'll tell you, nick Honoshevsky is we're talking right now about him coming on sometime in the next next few weeks, hopefully talking right now about him coming on sometime in the next few weeks, hopefully, especially before the tournament the beach bash kicks off. I have to agree, you invest in some knowledge and if that means going on a charter with somebody, do it, pay that captain and learn from them. The best captains are the ones that will talk to you and will teach you. They're not necessarily the ones that are teaching you the second that come on, but they're the ones that if you show an interest and start asking questions, they'll share information. They're not going to tell you, you know, hey, take my numbers, you know, just come right back to this spot, but they'll explain why they're fishing certain bottoms, what they're looking for at that time of the year. You know, skinner was awesome Skinner. He shares everything. He was awesome. Nick shares a ton of information and he's got just this wide expanse of information that he knows about every freaking speed. You want to talk weak fish? We could do an episode just on weak fish with him. We could do it just on bonito. We could do it on any fish with him. So that'll be interesting to figure out what we're going to talk about when he comes on.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:00:18

But I agree, it does come down to the network. You need to be able to reach out to people. One of the reasons I didn't fish this past weekend I thought it was going to be bad, but because I reached out to two people in different areas of the state of New Jersey and I said is it worth it for me and these other guys to come down? And they said no, not for this. And the one said only if you come at this time and it's going to be a crapshoot. So we stayed at home. I saved the four hours in the car two down, two back for that. But I'll often get a text from those guys and they'll say look, this just changed. So next time you hit the water, try this and it helps. Time on the water is important, but your network helps cut down the amount of time that you have to be out there with trial and error.

Benji: 1:01:09

Absolutely, absolutely. Like I said, rich was. I called him sensei and mentor for a long time. I don't know if it made him smile or got on his nerves, but that's the relationship that Rich and I have. Over the years that relationship has grown. I could ask him a question. He'd respond because we built a relationship. He's not doing that just because I bought his course. It's because I invested that time.

Benji: 1:01:30

We went fishing in a group of us on uh, what was it? The osprey or what have you? They put the invite out from uh one of the fishers from the shows here and you know, again, just like-minded guys getting out together, sharing stories, sharing techniques and tactics. You know there's, there's a couple other tight resources that I have, as far as you know. That that's concerned that I'd like to mention.

Benji: 1:01:50

You know, over in Atlantic City side of things, you're out seeking Captain Josh is fishing in charters. Yeah, I'm doing the same thing, right, but they're not my competitors, they're my friends. We help each other out. If he's full, he's sending me people. If I'm full, I'm sending him people. And then down here in Summers Point, where I'm pretty much base, I've got, I got D&D fishing and charters over there. You know, these guys aren't competition to me and that's what how our fishing should be. Our groups, we need to help each other out and stop yelling and screaming at each other all the time and racing past each other in boats and kayaks and things like that. Take care of each other, and that's how I feel about it. It's nothing for me to share some information.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:02:31

I've seen more drama in fishing. It is embarrassing to watch some of these clowns when they just start bitching and whining about the dumbest thing. That's my spot. Come on, man. First of all, it's not your spot. Second of all, I'm older than you. I've been fishing it since I was a little kid. So if anybody's spot, it's my spot, but you can't have it because it's a public area.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:02:56

Like all of that and the drama online. It's like just get over yourselves. Yes, you catch this fish. Congrats. I'm really happy for you. So did the 17 other people next to you. Like, just get over yourselves. Create a network of people that enjoy each other. Enjoying, helping each other that's what I like about it. I don't get involved in all that stuff. You know we get people that troll this channel and I really don't get upset. It's like, okay, I know you just watched and, by the way, I just got that ad revenue. So keep bitching, keep keep engaging, because YouTube sees your engagement. It just elevates the content for the next guy. So, all right, you don't like me. You don't like my guest? Great, tell me about it. Please tell me about it. And tell me about it again. And when I say something defending myself or somebody else. So you'll comment again. So the algorithm loves me even more. So I don't know, man, it's just, it's just crazy.

Benji: 1:03:51

You understand it, and that's why I just simply say thank you. I mean, you know, some of these guys are like oh my goodness, I don't know how you handled it, I would have lost my mind. I'm like what? I can't get mad. I mean the moment you get mad at a negative comment. And this is in life too, folks. Here's my life lesson for you.

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

Look the moment you accept it. It stays with them. They got to keep it. Yeah yeah, fish is too much fun for to have drama in it.

Benji: 1:04:19

I, I just, I just won't do it, won't do it. But that one you just said, though, about that oh, this is my spot. Why you're fishing here? La la la. I'm like well, you're fishing because it's a challenge, right? Well, if I'm in your spot, go find another spot so you can now be challenged. You know, those are the types of things that I think so. But, rich, thanks so much for having me on. I really truly appreciate it, and everybody who who joined you know this evening.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:04:42

Yeah, thank you for coming on. By the way, I plan on doing trying to get together another trip on the Osprey or another boat this fall for TOG. I had a lot of fun. I'll be honest, the last time that we did it for TOG, I had a lot of fun. I'll be honest, the last time that we did it I wasn't feeling well that whole day. So I tried my best but I was just. I was really off my game and I'm looking for I feel great now and I have no reason to think I won't feel great moving forward. So you know, that's what happens when you lose 70 pounds you feel, you feel a little better. So I'm looking forward to doing a trip this fall, early winter, and I think the Osprey was a great boat, great captain and crew. Yeah, I, I, I think, I think we got to get that together and you got to be on that again and we'll get what's Paul saying in there oh yeah, you won there. You did win, didn't you? That's right, you won the rod.

Benji: 1:05:33

Paul took care of me on that one. I got that tsunami rod. I appreciate that very much.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:05:39

We're going to have to do it. We'll do another one this year and maybe you and I can team up on it and we'll try to get as many. Let's try to fill the entire boat. That would be a lot of fun.

Benji: 1:05:49

Let's do it Awesome.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:05:50

Let's do it.

Benji: 1:05:50

Awesome, let's talk soon. And if you're available Friday, you know, let's catch up later this week, or what have you? But go ahead and do your thing. Yeah, I'll shoot you a text this week.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:05:59

We'll figure out if we can get out on Friday, yeah. So thanks again for coming on. I'm going to be announcing guests coming up shortly. I will mention that we're going to have Kayla Hale in a couple of weeks of hail. In a couple of weeks we're going to have some of the larger, some, a couple of other large named YouTube fishermen. Um, that has some really interesting things. I haven't reached out to him yet just because of what recently happened to him, but I do want to see if we can get captain uh, joey Leggio back on. Um, for those that aren't aware, uh and I a link in here for a GoFundMe.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:06:38

Captain Leggio, he's been on the show before a couple of times. We've talked striped bass, we've talked about cobia fishing and he had a boating accident about a week and a half ago I think it was. They hit a wake. They were sheep's head fishing. They hit a wake in the backwaters. He went overboard. I believe it was a prop strike across his arm almost lost the lower part of his arm. Luckily, they were able to rush him to a close restaurant that was on the water and there were three emergency nurses there that were able to apply tourniquets and keep the arm that was dangling alive and through surgery he's going to keep his hand, it looks like. But he's a captain. He is not fishing, he is not able to take people out. Great guy, wonderful, lovely family. So he has zero income coming in for him right now. So if you can throw any support his way, please do so. There are links already on the Fat Dad Fishing Facebook page.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:07:42

The last podcast episode. I'll get one into this later too. But even just a couple of bucks I'm sure will mean a lot to him. But I wanted to have him come on anyway. But I'm wondering if I can get some of these guys together. Let's talk about the crap that happens when you're on the water, because way too many crazy things happen. We had a tragedy in Barnegat Inlet just yesterday with with a death of a fisherman from Princeton and pretty bad injury to his son, but it looks like his son's going to be okay. So I think maybe some water safety stuff might be something good to talk about coming up. So we'll see about that. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. Benji, thanks again, man. Um, I'll, I'll be texting you soon and everybody, until next week. Everyone, post hurricane, get out there, get on the water, get some tight lines.