EP 50: Surf-Casting The Fall Striper Run with George Bucci (Throwback Episode)

Miss the shoulder-to-shoulder blitzes where bass erupted at your feet? We dig into how to make moments like that repeatable by reading the beach, timing the wind, and picking simple surf lures that just work. With surf-casting standout George Bucci, we go past reports and chase what truly moves fish in the fall: weather windows, bait behavior, and structure.

We start with the forecast because it decides your odds. The first punch of a nor’easter can be electric, and a crisp northwest wind often drives bunker straight into the sand—exactly when you should clock out early and hit the open beach. George breaks down how to spot life quickly with birds, wash tells, and subtle color changes, then shows how to pattern it: find one cut that produces and expect the next cut to set up the same way. We talk practical scouting at low tide, using landmarks to fish the dark, and why moderate whitewater outperforms flat conditions.

Gear and lures stay refreshingly simple. A nine-foot rod with 20-pound braid and a 30-pound leader covers most scenarios; an 11-footer waits in the truck for distance plays. On top, pencil poppers own visible feeds thanks to a surf-friendly cadence that throws water and calls fish. When it’s quiet or current gets tricky, SP Minnows, Mag Darters, and bottle plugs track true without digging, and a humble black hair teaser often outcatches the main plug at night. We also get real about colors (bone by day, dark by night, chartreuse sometimes, gold is underrated), bluefish etiquette, and the hookless gaff trick for jetties.

Zooming out, we compare Raritan’s strength to the struggles in Delaware and Chesapeake, and why massive menhaden schools can keep bass offshore until wind and tide crack open beach opportunities. If you’re willing to walk more than you cast, scout smart, and fish those precise windows, the fall run still rewards the stubborn with unforgettable sessions. Enjoy the throwback, take notes, and if this helped you line up your next trip, follow, share with a surf friend, and drop a review with your favorite tip—what will you try first?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Throwback Setup And Weather Wreckage
• 5:00 Raritan vs. Delaware And Chesapeake Declines
• 12:00 Surf-Caster Mindset And Seasonal Patterns
• 20:00 Do Big Bass Stay Outside Three Miles?
• 28:00 Reading Wind, Bunker, And Fall Timing
• 36:00 Gear Choices For Open Beaches And Blitzes
• 45:00 Lures That Win: Pencils, SPs, Mag Darters, Teasers
• 54:00 Color Logic, Gold Love, And Bluefish Strategy
• 1:03:00 Scouting, Google Maps, And Long Walk Payoffs
• 1:12:00 Reds, Bunker Politics, And Menhaden Pressure
• 1:20:00 Practical How-Tos: Cuts, Knots, Line, Leaders
• 1:28:00 Event Plug, Final Tips, And Sign-Off

Transcript

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 0:00

It's time for a throwback episode that you cannot find online as of right now. Well, now you can. It's back from October 2022. We're gonna stay on this striped bass theme because the fall run is in full effect all up and down the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. And we're joined by George Bucci to talk about Starfishing, the fall strike bass season. This was a fun one. It's worth reposting. Let's jump in. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Fat Dad Fishing Show livestream and podcast. My name is Richard Natoli. I am the host of the show, and as usual, we are being guests by our lovely joined by our lovely and talented co-host, Ed Gobo, the owner of Captain Hank's Tackle. Ed, how you doing?

Ed Gobbo: 0:49

Good. You must be jigged or something.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 0:52

I I do you know I I had I've been waiting to do the lovely and talented for a while. That's how Letterman introduced Howard Stern. So I was gonna do it with George later, but I didn't have a chance to ask him if he'd be offended by the lovely and talented part. So anyway, we are we are here, and uh the story lately is just the weather. Florida got smacked. I know a lot of people down in Florida, and uh luckily, I know it sounds weird, but luckily it went south of Tampa. So Tampa, while damaged, kind of made it through. But I know a lot of people that are just I'm looking at videos where you know guys talking about spending um, you know, they're on an island and they're spending an entire 48 hours under a uh a kitchen table, just with the dogs and the wife just hoping that the roof, which is gone, you know, things don't go flying in where the roof used to be. However, the one guy he did say, but my boat's good. His boat was fine out in the channel, out in the uh in the uh in the slip. I saw another one where a guy on Instagram, beautiful boat, four outboards, these four three hundreds, and his boat is sitting in the middle of a cornfield, no damage. He just needs to get a crane to go pick it up. So some people lucked out, but it's been it's been brutal.

Ed Gobbo: 2:16

And now I think Skinner's the the road to Skinner's house got wiped out or something. He just pulled up a video.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 2:22

Yeah, it's I I feel yeah, yeah. I had it, yeah. It's it's not good down there, and uh, but you know, it's the I I'm looking at it from the fishing community side, and there are just so many people offering to help out and and everything. So we got to see the good in people again, but we're dealing with the remnants, and we unfortunately have this low that is stuck off the coast, which is just crushing the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. And I'm talking the whole mid-Atlantic and Northeast with these northeast winds as that low just kind of stalled there, and it's just the rain coming back around and just killing us now. Nothing like the like nothing like Florida, but man, is it ruining fishing? So it's cold, and it's cold, yeah. So I I'm not I haven't been fishing. I I'm not fishing this week. I'm gonna try Thursday. I may be heading to the Chesapeake, I don't know. All right, maybe up in the rarity, and I'm not sure. It's gonna be the one day where there's there's decent winds, and I'm gonna I'm gonna be in the kayak. If if not, I may just go surf fishing or land-based fishing, and just I'll go whenever the wind is, doesn't matter. Not so worried about that. So, what do you have coming up?

Ed Gobbo: 3:37

Not much, just been cranking out jigs. Another you know, the video that you put out for uh baiting the hooks. So that that kind of pumped up sales again. So just just making jigs, man.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 3:49

That's good. That's not the intent of the videos, but I'm glad that uh that you're getting a little extra business. For those that aren't aware, I did another video for Salt Strong and it's on rigging different baits for sheep's head and tog and and how to place them on the hook for better hook placements. So if you want to check that out, it's over on Salt Strong. You can see me essentially with this exact same background. It's just a it's a talking head video with with some close-ups on how to to rig some.

Ed Gobbo: 4:16

See those with those hooks, the close-ups are everything because I tried I've tried to explain it before on the stream, and it's like people kind of get it, but then once they see it and the way it packages, it's it's pretty sweet.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 4:28

Yeah, well, just be aware, you're gonna get knocked off soon.

Ed Gobbo: 4:31

So I've already been knocked off. I know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 4:33

Okay, just get ready. So let's just do I want to get to George quick, but let's go through the things that we normally go through first and want to bring up one of the reviews on the podcast. Again, people, thank you for the ratings and the reviews on Apple Podcasts specifically. That's the one that really is the driver of most of the people that are listening to the show. This one came from Captain Paul Three, fantastic show. Discovered you guys about a month or so ago and really enjoy listening to you and your knowledge of local waters. I'm a weekend warrior myself, so it helps me out a lot to cut corners and locate fish more frequently. Look forward to all upcoming episodes. Captain Paul, thank you very much. And again, anybody that that finds it in their heart, the the audio that you're listening to right now with a little bit of editing is exactly what's going to be on the podcast. Comes out at 12 a.m. every Thursday. So this will actually be on what's coming up with George Thursday morning at 12 a.m. So if you want to listen to it in your car, it's a good way to do it. You don't have to leave YouTube open and you know leave your phone on and you know the screens active, which is the the pain with this with uh with YouTube. You can just listen to it on a podcast. So so there's that, and want to recognize the people that are in the chat already that we can see. We have Bill D, who is a member of the channel. We have KB7771 also a member, James Flynn also a member, and then we've got let's see. Oh, that's me, fat dad fishing. We have Adam, we have Kenzo Jim, one of the winners from before, Rob Whidmire, and that Asian angler. So we have Kwa in there, David Cohen and AC Zero. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the show. The question, real quick: where's the video defining how to rig bait for sheep and tog? Go to Salt Strong on YouTube, and you can, it's one of their most recent videos up there, so you'll you'll see it. You'll see my ugly mug up there. Actually, I think it's a the the thumbnail is a picture of sheep's head on the bottom. Andrew Sokel is also it, so hello. And I think that that really covers it. And I want to bring one thing up on screen as we bring George on, and I want to show this before he comes on because this is going to be the first question, and I hope that he knows Matthew. What color sand is best on a full moon ebb tide in November? Asking for a friend. I saw that on Facebook. I was like, this guy, I don't know who this guy is, but I want to be his friend right now because that is awesome. That is awesome. So, so George, you want to tell us about the best sand color?

George Bucci: 7:22

I get that a lot from Matt. Matt's he's great.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 7:25

That is, I saw that. I I keep laughing at I was laughing so hard, and I I went back and looked at it a couple times because that is just the perfect type of question to put up there. And I wouldn't be surprised if somebody does want to know that.

George Bucci: 7:39

He sent me a few others behind the scenes that he messaged me that that I said, please don't ask those questions.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 7:45

Well, if he's here, he can ask any question, and and Ed'll be taking a look at it, and uh he'll be he'll be popping them up on screen. So, George, welcome. So happy that you're here on stream with us tonight. Really, really appreciate it.

George Bucci: 7:59

Thanks, Rich. How you doing, Ed?

Ed Gobbo: 8:01

Good, man. Good. It's nice to meet you.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 8:04

Yeah, we so we try to cover a lot of different topics, and we do a lot of fluke stuff, a lot of tog. We got some striped bass, sheep's head, but you know, one of the things that we don't do, I think, enough of is the land-based fishing. You know, Chris Matusan's been on a few times and he talks about the back bay striped bass, and man, he is he's on top of that. We have based side Dave, who really talks a lot of the bait fishing off of LBI, and he's been really helpful, and he's been actually hoping that both of those guys will be coming back because you know, striped bass is coming up. Oh, yeah. But George, you're you are one of the guys in New Jersey that when you hear surf casting, and I I say surf casting instead of surf fishing because I think it puts it at a little bit different level. True surf casters, right? You're you're a true surf caster, and yeah, just wanted to have you on to kind of share some of the knowledge that you have with folks.

George Bucci: 8:57

I think that label, I think that comes out of necessity for some guys, you know. If you want to be able to get big bass and you don't have a boat, you better you better get good at the surf. You're you're not gonna find some of the true bigger fish in the back bays. You know, you're talking 30, 40, 50 pounds, you're gonna get them in the surf.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 9:14

Yeah, and which is why I need to tag along with you because I still don't have my 50 pounder. Yeah, I actually I'm not even close. My my large is I think my PV is around 47 uh inches, inches.

George Bucci: 9:26

You uh yeah, I I just I you kind of stop after a while. You stop. Not not trying to sound conceited or anything, but I just I really I don't measure and I don't weigh them. I just kind of I try to get a photo and release them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 9:37

Yeah, I I don't keep any unless I gut hook them, but I don't really fish with bait anymore for striped bass, so it's pretty hard to gut hook one. I did have one not revive a couple years ago up in the raritin, which was really weird, but it was it wasn't a huge thing, it wasn't huge, it was it was still in the slot, thank god. Yeah, I could at least keep it in I think it was a I think it was a 28 or 29, but perfectly into that. Yeah. So let's let's start off with this. I I'd like to know really what's your opinion on the fishery right now, because that's that's always the big argument, big debate. Yeah.

George Bucci: 10:16

Well, and and you know, I'm gonna get probably get into a lot of things that are my opinion, and right or wrong, you know, it's what I think. Yeah, uh I've been told that I maybe I'm wrong, but I believe, you know, as you know, I think there's three large populations of striped bass. You have the Hudson River and Rarit and Bay fish, which are thriving and strong. I mean, I spent I probably spend more time up there in spring and fall than I do down in South Jersey now, just because the fish the fishing is so good. The Delaware Bay, and and I'm sure you know the from the Delaware Bay days, the Chunkin days and the Ripsays, that they're gone. They're all but gone. And the Chesapeake Bay is basically a shell of itself from what it was. Why? Uh is it the bunker netters? Is it the is it overfishing? I don't know, but that's not the same. And I think in the fall, what you have is you know, you get the migratory fish. Really, we're waiting for those Chesapeake Bay fish and Delaware Bay fish to come back down. Was do those Rarit and Bay fish even come down this far? I don't think they do. I think that maybe they'll get as far as LBI and then they turn and they go back and and they winter back up in that area, whether it's off the coast or in Rarit Bay. Uh, you know, I don't know. But you know, so waiting for fish to come down the coast now where it used to be in October, you would start to get good fish on the jetties and on the beaches. Now we're looking at, you know, the the prime time start for for good fishing is right around Thanksgiving now. And then it runs into December and and even January. I've I've gone on the beaches and caught fish in January.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 11:48

You know, it you bring up a really good point about do those fish even make it down anymore? And it really doesn't seem like it because I mean you you fish Raritan, I fish Raritan for striped bass, they're always there, they never leave. And and I'll tell you what, there seem to be more just resident bass now down south. And it's not, you know, I remember back in the day where it would clear out and there would be some residents, but seems like there's more residents and less migratory now.

George Bucci: 12:16

I mean, there used to be even more residents, uh, and I, you know, this is another opinion. I think that the that the bonus tag is allowing you know people to to keep a lot of these resident fish. So where you may have had a 20 or 30, you know, fish bite, you're only gonna see maybe 10 or less. And and this year in particular, usually in the summer, I can go in the back and and find resident fish anywhere. And it was a struggle this year to find resident fish in the back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 12:41

Yeah. Uh so you're not a fan of the bonus tag then.

George Bucci: 12:44

I have one. And it's why do you have one? It's break glass in case of emergency.

Speaker 3: 12:49

Okay.

George Bucci: 12:54

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna waste it. And I do eat fish, so I I will I will keep fish occasionally.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 12:59

Yeah, yeah. I I had considered getting one and just kind of rolling through them even though I didn't catch anything.

George Bucci: 13:07

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 13:08

Just to burn the tags, but they seem to never run out.

Ed Gobbo: 13:11

So I was just saying they print unlimited tags.

George Bucci: 13:13

So yeah, well, I mean, as uh, you know, for a fish that we're we're trying to get to to come back, you see some of these charter captains who just burn through twice sets of 25 one day after another. It's like we're we're trying to build back this, you know, the population of these fish, and and these guys are just you know, they'll show up to all the meetings and then they'll they'll go grab their 25 tags. So that drives that drives me crazy. You either want to save them or you don't want to save them, you gotta pick one or the other.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 13:39

Right. Rules for thee, but not for me.

George Bucci: 13:41

Yes, yes, yes.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 13:42

Yeah, well, you can't keep those two, but I'm gonna keep these 31 on this boat today. Which I I get it, it's their business. You know, I don't want to come down too hard on them, but at the same time. That's short-term vision, though, you know.

Ed Gobbo: 13:54

It is have you have either of you guys listened to uh Tony from the uh the guidepost, his podcast? No, I yeah, he's he's worth listening to. He gets real big into the meetings and stuff. He's down in the Chesapeake. Yeah, if you listen to him, there's definitely a real problem.

George Bucci: 14:11

Oh, yeah. I had a buddy that had a cabin down there and uh on the Potomac. He's he was to go down for years. He sold it. He said it's gotten so bad that it's not worth me trailering my boat down anymore, so he sold his cabin.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 14:22

Wow, that's that's a pretty big indictment of the fishery. Yeah, when you're selling a house, selling a cabin for sportsmen, you know. That's that's almost like cutting your arm off.

Speaker 3: 14:33

Right, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 14:34

Man, well, hopefully, hopefully he got something good up here to replace it.

Speaker 3: 14:38

He's got me. There you go. There you go. Well, I and I got him, so yeah, we we jump on that boat a lot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 14:45

You know, we have an interesting comment right now from Andrew Sokel, and I'd like your thoughts on this. And I don't know that we can really say if it's it's true or not, but there you go. My personal belief is the majority of the bigger bass migrate outside the three-mile line. What's your thought on that?

George Bucci: 15:09

I think usually when I see a comment like that, that's usually from a younger angler that hasn't seen the best of it. Yeah, you know, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, those years where you know, the ocean literally, you know, a mile off ocean city, it was bass on the surface as far as I could see in every direction. And you know, big fish, small fish. I and I've gotten into some big fish, and plenty of big fish inside of three miles.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 15:34

But do you think do you think it's changed at all? Because we we did hear my head. Who do who was it? Ed was it Captain Halkey saying that they were catching the striped, or maybe it was Legio. They were catching the striped bass out in the Hudson.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Yeah, uh, I think it was Joey.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 15:47

Was it Joey? I mean that's I think it might have changed. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know where I stand on it.

George Bucci: 15:55

I I mean, you know, uh when the population was stronger, was there were were those fish always out there and we just didn't know it, we didn't see them because you didn't have to go that far. I know guys that go 20 or 30 miles and will, you know, accidentally come across them, you know, accidentally come across them. But I my belief is that they've always been out there. And uh I think probably the best analogy I ever heard was a captain in Kate May told me that if you laid a map of the East Coast down and had a softball and you rolled that softball up and down the coast, that was the biomass of striped bass. He said, then it shrunk down to about a baseball. And he said, now put a golf ball and roll that golf ball up and down the coast. He goes, and that's basically what the biomass of striped bass has done. It's shrinking and moving up and down the coast. Now, I I also believe you know that it's broken up into a couple different groups, uh, so our you know, our golf ball might be more like a you know marble, a marble, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 16:51

It's it's beginning to feel that way. I mean, it's the the one good thing about New Jersey is you have that great rarity fishery. I mean, that is insane up there. I mean, you can literally catch them year round, and you catch nice ones year round.

George Bucci: 17:05

It gets crazy, but it's yeah, it's great.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 17:07

It does, but then down south. I mean, like you you talked about it, the rips are dead. I mean, yeah, how that that was such the legendary place to go. The rips, Cape May Point, and nobody fishes there unless they want spiny dogfish anymore.

George Bucci: 17:22

Just even chunking in the Delaware Bay, you know. I've had I had days where we had, you know, 20, 20, I think we had 26 fish over 40 inches in one tide.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 17:31

Uh yeah, that was a regular day. Yeah, that was not you weren't like, oh my god, I can't believe it. You're like, ah, we hit it on the right day.

George Bucci: 17:38

We couldn't fish two rods each. We had to only fish one rod each. It was yeah, it's good.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 17:43

I was telling Ed because he's such a young, a young buck. I was telling him when uh back in the day we were fishing the backwaters, and two of us, and we went down the you know, we could we had we started with four lines out chunking backwaters, and we're catching so many fish that we we went down to one each, and then we went down to just one rod, and then we had to stop for a couple hours, and we're just sitting there on the on the hook, and we're eating sandwiches and we're talking, and we're like, Well, let's give it a go again. And as soon as you drop the rod, it was on again. I mean, we were we were absolutely exhausted. I mean, you could have pulled out and this went on all day, all day, all tides, everything, and that's but that's the way it used to be.

George Bucci: 18:25

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could I could leave my house and say, I'm just gonna go for an hour or two, because I'm I'm close to like the ocean city area. And I could just take off for an hour and catch a a bunch of fish and be like, all right, that's enough. I'm gonna go home. I scratched that itch. Now it's you know, you gotta bounce around the spots, you gotta look here, look there. It's it's become more of a grind. And I don't mind that. I don't mind working for the fish. I mean, if if you're gonna be a land-based fisherman, if you're gonna be a surf fisherman, you better get used to working hard. Uh, some of the and that's I learned from from some really hardworking fishermen that that's what it was gonna take if you wanted to be successful. You you know, their attention to detail and the hard work that they put in, and uh so you start working like them, and next thing you know, you start seeing the payoffs.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 19:11

Yeah, well, so that that's I mean, that's exactly why we wanted you to be on because you know this stuff, right? And you can help people kind of get the right and mindset is part of it, you know. And and I think right now a lot of people go on social media and they see, hey, George caught something, they must be busting up and down the entire coast. I'm gonna go out there for my 20 minutes, I'm gonna bag my 40 incher, I'm gonna get my picture, and I'm gonna be back at the house in a couple minutes.

George Bucci: 19:36

And it's just it's just what they what they didn't say besides that picture was the the day before when I went and walked six beaches to see what they looked like at low, low tide, and and and you know, checking moon phases and what the tides are like and water clarity and what kind of baits moving around, what kind of wind direction I have, you know, and that all comes into play, you know. Uh, you know, especially in the fall. I think in the fall it's probably more important than than even in the spring. Just a simple wind direction, like the beginning of this Northeaster, which I believe was like Friday, it started. Friday night, if I if there was gonna be a window for me, it was gonna be Friday night. Sure, I you can go out and you can and and fish in that nasty weather, but I'm I'm 55 years old. I really don't feel like standing out in that much anymore unless, unless I I really know it's I gotta go. But like Friday night, the first day of those those blows really are the day you want to be out there. That's when you want to get started on on those big northeast easters. You know, you keep hearing all these northeast things, you know, you know, McReynolds got his fish on what September 21st of 82, and I think that was the first day of a nor'easter, you know, which coincided with a mullet run. But we don't see, you know, do we see those big fish in September anymore? I I don't know because I don't I don't go out there. Could be, you know, I'm not out there in September, I'm doing other things, right? But yeah, yeah, that first day, and then you know, as we go later into the year, bunkers bunkers swim into the wind. So, you know, when I see a northwest wind in October, late October, early November, I see a northwest wind. I'm probably gonna be on the beach somewhere. The that bunker's gonna come right into the beach, especially if it's like two days into a northwest, it'll everything will be right in front of you, everything will be right on the beach.

Ed Gobbo: 21:19

That's the way to do that. That's a nugget I didn't know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 21:22

Yeah, a lot of people will fish the south, the southeast wind, thinking it's pushing everything in, and it will to some extent, but it doesn't act, it's not where they actually want to go.

George Bucci: 21:32

No, no, I don't know if you remember last year if you were paying attention to to what happened up in Seaside in in December. Like they they had we had a couple days of northwest winds when the peanuts were coming out of like the Rariton, yeah, and it was just insanity in in Seaside, lava lead, that whole stretch, Island Beach. Uh the bunker came pushing in and it was literally bass breaking is you know in every direction, as far as you could see. And there was also it was shoulder-to-shoulder combat fishing, but right what a good time that was.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 22:02

So I miss those days. It's been a long time.

George Bucci: 22:07

Oh, we'll happen again. It will happen again this year. You just gotta you just gotta know, watch the weather and and uh and pick those right days, save some vacation days. Like I got three weeks of vacations still to go. I'll be using every one of them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 22:18

So when so you're gonna okay, so the mullet run. Let's start. This question was already asked earlier. Has the mullet run started that you've noticed, or are you still waiting?

George Bucci: 22:27

Yeah, the mullet, well, the mullet were a little late this year. I I noticed the mullet were a little late this year. They kind of hung out right inside of the inlets from what I saw in my area. If now, after this weather, I expected that they were gonna be moving. They like to move on these big tides and big weather. I did go look today, but the it was like the water was Yu-Hoo. It was like whitewater you hoo, and I didn't see any mullet. I'm sure if I had looked a little harder in the in tight on the beach, they probably would have been some mullet washing up right on the beach.

Speaker 2: 22:56

Right.

George Bucci: 22:56

But yeah, I like to fish the mullet run. It's usually productive enough to go, and and that's just basically walking open beaches. Fine, it's you know, down South Jersey, it's it's a lot more difficult than anywhere else, you know, the rest of the state. South Jersey doesn't have much structure. It's like it's really shallow for a long ways. So you're gonna want to you're wanna want to throw like shallow swimming things. So, you know, I I like red fins and Magdarters. And and you're gonna fish them pretty close, you know, pretty close to the jetties, pretty close to the beach. A lot of the fish are gonna come right on the backside of that shore break. There really isn't much of a shore break. So I primarily will focus if I'm going to look for fish on mullet around the high tide, and I'm gonna look for those mullet schools or any kind of structure, and it's usually very subtle because there's the cuts aren't real deep, the troughs aren't real big here. So you just gotta kind of walk the beach. And there'll be times where you, you know, I'll walk a mile, you know, I'll go to a beach and I'll just walk and throw and walk and throw. Maybe I'll see a cut and I'll work that cut and you pull a couple fish and you keep moving, or a little groin or a jetty, and you work that and you pull a couple fish. But real, you know, just just shallow running things. And you know, if I'm gonna go at night, it's all there's always a teaser. I always have a teaser in front of my plug. A black teaser in front of a black Magdah is is pretty much standard or or a black bomber, if you if you don't need to cast it as far. But you know, and working it painfully slow. You know, I'm one of them guys. I am that guy that works it painfully slow that tells you if you're working it slow, work it slower. Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 24:36

Yeah. You're that guy that I have a hard time listening to. Because I listen to it and I know I should go slower, and I can't make myself do it.

George Bucci: 24:45

Rich, there's times where I'm not reeling. I don't even I you don't even reel. You're just kind of letting the the the waves and the tide kind of pull it, and you're you're not even, you know, your hand's not even on the handle and and they're hitting it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 24:58

Yeah, I it's it's one of those things. I know what I should do. You feel like you have to have contact.

George Bucci: 25:04

You you know, you you feel like if you don't feel it's swimming, it's not gonna get hit. But that's not that's not always true, right? They're just they're looking for that wounded slow thing that's that's crawling across the surface.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 25:15

Oh, right, and something getting wet washed with the current is definitely gonna look like it's swimming, it's gonna look injured because it's not moving naturally. So you're you're fishing all artificials, correct? Yeah, okay. So so when you go down, okay. There's there are two questions here. So two scenarios. So let's go with the first scenario. You're going down by yourself, there's not a ton of people around. What what what kind of rod and reel are you bringing down for that? And actually, and the next thing is is it different when you're going down when people are lining up for a blitz?

George Bucci: 25:49

Yeah. If I'm good, if I'm going local and I'm staying on the beach local to me, which is South Jersey, which I I consider South Jersey south of LBI. That's it. I'm probably gonna bring my my either a 7-6 or an eight foot, just something like maybe a 4,000 or 5,000 size reel. If I know I'm not gonna be in the water, I don't need a van stall, I don't need anything that's that's water resistant, waterproof. And I'll just I'll walk the beach. If I'm gonna be fishing in more of like a yeah, if I'm gonna go say north of north of Brigantine and fish, say uh Isla Beach State Park, Seaside, anywhere up there, I'm gonna bring my nine-footer, and I'm probably gonna have my advanced doll or or VR. A lot of times I'll throw the VR 125 because I'm not actually going in the water up there. So the VR on a nine-footer, a pretty stiff nine-footer, I use a Kevlar Nor'easter, which has got some backbone, but allows me to throw light stuff if I need it. So, you know, that that's about it right there. Those for the bigger stuff, if if for some reason and this happens, you know, in late October, you'll we'll get a push of big fish or gonna come by us. And if you get like that perfect storm where the wind's right and the bait pushes in, you're gonna hope that you have like the 11-footer in the truck, right? And have that ready for with a pencil popper that I can you know launch a hundred and something, you know, 100 something yards, which has happened to me, you know. Yeah, just lucky, right place, right time. Island Beach State Park fished all night without a touch. And as the sun started coming up, I could hear something going on in the ocean, and I swinted, it's just starting to get light, and I saw a whale come straight out of the water breach, and I saw the bunker falling out of its mouth, and I was like, Well, there's bunker close. And then I saw the bunker start spraying in other places, and I had one pencil popper in my bag, it was an after hours junior blip, and I and I I had my uh my nine-footer with me, but my nine-footer, it was overrated. The the plug was overrated for the rod, and I threw that plug as hard as I could, expecting it to blow up into three or four pieces, but it reached, it reached, and and right away I got a 45-inch bass, and then I got another like 42-inch bass, and then I hooked another one that freight trained me and took my plug.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 28:06

But I was thrilled that I could you know once you landed the first two, that one now you got the story. Yeah, you got the story. I landed the 47, I couldn't stop this one.

Speaker 3: 28:18

Yeah, yeah, it was a big fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 28:20

It was fun. I always had the I always had the problem where it's I can never quite reach. I can never quite reach where they are. I'm not the I had this mental block where I I don't put the rods to the test like I should.

George Bucci: 28:34

There comes a point where you know I'll throw normally, I'll throw normally, and then I'll say, I don't care what happens to this rod. I don't care if this if this line can't hold a full throw, and I and I throw it with bad intentions. Yeah, and you know, and there's a fine line between overthrowing and and short casting it and and really getting everything behind it and getting every inch that you can out of the rod you have in your hand.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 28:58

Yeah, I'm just you know, full disclosure, I'm not that guy. I'm just not a distance caster. And there have been a lot of times in the past, there were there were years between boat and a kayak where I was strictly surf and backwater land-based, and I was that guy, you know, you you're lined up, you're not shoulder to shoulder, but you got a good, you know, 40 yards in between everybody, all the way down, you know, like up in lava lead or something. And they're coming through and as hard as I can, and I'm missing them by 30 yards, and I'm just reeling in and I'm walking down to watch the guy next to me. I'm like, I'm not gonna even, I can't do it. I just can't make it out there.

George Bucci: 29:38

And it was you know, parts the rod, parts me, but hey, it is when it's as when you throw metal on and and uh get everything you can out of it. You know, you throw you throw a chunk of metal, you throw some kind of jig that'll get you every inch you can.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 29:51

That's usually what I do. I throw a Hopkins on there or something like that. I don't really like the diamond jigs, but yeah.

George Bucci: 29:57

It's interesting, is it in the fall, I don't really think. Think that distance is as much of a factor as like the spring in the spring for me in the spring when when I'm looking for big fish, it's all about distance. A lot of it is distance, and and you you better be able to cast far if you want to get some big fish in the spring, at least down in South Jersey, right? Uh either that or you or you better be prepared to to really get in the water and and get out there a ways, you know. So and I'll leave it at that. You know, that's that's you know, wetsuit stuff in hairy conditions.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 30:28

Uh did you see did you see the pictures up at Montauk? I didn't the two guys out there.

Speaker 3: 30:34

Yeah, yeah, I did.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 30:36

That'd take some stones to be out there in a nor'easter. And these guys weren't they weren't just standing in the water. I mean, they were down to their shoulders.

George Bucci: 30:44

Yeah, and and I saw a couple of the shots where they were just gone, and all you saw was the rods sticking up out of the out of the wave.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 30:49

Yeah. Oh my god.

George Bucci: 30:51

It's fun for about 15 minutes, and then I'm done. I'm done with it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 30:55

You know, the only time I did that and liked it was when I was fishing Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the summer, and you couldn't fish because everyone was in the water and they didn't have lifeguards, so you could go anywhere you wanted. So my buddy and I just grabbed our rods, we swam out behind them, and it's like up to our chin, and we're just surf fishing out beyond everybody because that was the only place we could safely do it. That was awesome until until we started catching sharks. And then you know, releasing a shark right at your face is not it's not fun, but yeah. Yeah. So so let's talk. Okay, so the the gear makes sense. So now you're using really nice you mentioned the one rod. So what what's your favorite types of rods that you would recommend to somebody who's experienced? And then is there something that you would recommend to beginners?

George Bucci: 31:43

I mean, if you were gonna if you were just gonna be surf fishing, probably an an eight foot or nine foot rod that can handle maybe a half ounce to three, something in that range. And and you gotta check the rods, you gotta go, you gotta use the rods. Just because the rating says a half to three doesn't mean that it's gonna throw half great and a and three great, you know. Some rods will throw that that half to three will it the sweet spot is one ounce, some uh others will be two ounces, you know. I think St. Croix is probably known for that, but they're nine footer, their nine-footers are like broomsticks to me, right? You know, they're it's like that, oh yeah, this is rated the half to three, and then you you go to try to put a half on it, and you there's no way you can feel it, right? Uh so you want to test your rods, but yeah, eight foot, nine foot, nine foot is probably a great universal size for you know, you can get away with spring and ball with a nine-foot rod, even an eight-foot rod. It's like you had you had mentioned, I think, before we came on, standing in a lineup of guys with a with a nine-foot rod and guys kind of giving you a funny look. And you know, in the spring, when we kind of get to some of the more popular spots that get crowded, it drives me crazy when a guy gets into the lineup with like a seven-foot rod, and we all have our tens and eleven's and he hooks up, and I'm down current. So and he's got I'm hooked up, you have to get out of the water. And I I tell him if you can't fight it from where you're standing, then you need better gear because I'm not moving.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 33:07

A nine foot. A nine foot will do that too. The the thing with my nine foot is it will handle, it'll handle a 50-inch, uh 50-inch fish. Yeah, and I don't have to move, but it doesn't look like it's going to. No, I can understand it doesn't.

George Bucci: 33:19

Yeah, I can understand when you foul hook something. Maybe you get it on top of the head or you get it under the chin or at the side. Yeah, um, yeah. I can't stop this fish. It's either bigger than I think or I got him hooked more funny. All right, let me get out of the way.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 33:31

Yeah, but I I'll tell you what, if out of respect for people, I actually stopped, you know, when people are lining up, I would just kind of move out because I I could handle it, but it was still still at the lower end. I was pushing the lower end of what I should have been out there with. And the last thing I wanted to do was start having to move down the beach, yeah. You know, because then you're that ass, you know, and no one's gonna ever want you back. So I think people have more respect for me, at least I hoped, when I just reel in, I say good luck, and I just walk way to the end, yeah, just try to get whatever comes off the tail end of the of the movement. Yeah, but you know, that's that's what happens when you're you know I think I think a lot of people need to be a little bit more aware, you know.

George Bucci: 34:14

I obviously shouldn't have been standing in the middle of the these guys, and you you know, and I can understand people that yeah, maybe they stumble upon uh a good bite and that that's the only rod they have. That's that's fine. And I don't mind helping people, you know, I don't mind moving out of the way for people. You know, I you can usually tell right away somebody is kind of new to it and they happen to stumble into a good bite, or somebody told them about a good bite, and then you you know you help them out, and then you you also help them out by saying, Hey, you know, if you if you want to do this on a regular basis, maybe you ought to think about this or this, this kind of gear or that kind of gear.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 34:46

Yeah. I definitely have to up my my game on the on the surf gear. What about you, Ed? You you have any of your stuff?

Ed Gobbo: 34:53

I have my dad gave me his St. Croix Triumph. I think it's 11 foot. So I have that, and I got a nine-footer, but I don't I honestly don't put an effort into start fishing. Like I take the boys, we go, you know, pro fish bites for kingfish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 35:10

Uh you're looking for tight lines, not necessarily big fish.

Ed Gobbo: 35:13

Yeah, I'm not, I never really got into it. I never put the effort into it.

George Bucci: 35:17

There's something about something about, and I've you know, you catch fish all over the place in boats and everything, but hooking a decent size striped bass or even bluefish in a surf is it's just a whole different thing. It's like a whole different element to me. I love it. I love it, I'm sure, and I think anybody that's done it and done it successfully will tell you the same. I'll take that every day over a good boat trip, a good surf trip over over a good boat trip.

Ed Gobbo: 35:43

See, and like the thing for me is I like I said I never put the effort into it, so I never got the experience. Yeah, right. So I'm just gonna get rariton in the spring. Right. I mean, if I who knows, if I catch a fish, I might it might be my new obsession. I don't know. I just I don't have any any experience with it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 36:01

Yeah, you go you go up and uh into the rarity and in the springtime, you'll you'll get your experience real quick. You'll you'll get to know whether whether you like it or not quickly.

Ed Gobbo: 36:10

Yeah. Well, I guess we need a plan for that, Rich. I'm I dude, I'm I got the gear. Uh you know, I got waiters and it's my job is now fishing.

George Bucci: 36:19

So yeah, it's such a large area that you know you can find spots that aren't crowded. Like, you know, you just like Sandy Hook's a huge area. Uh you can find spots in there, and you you know, even further up and in, and if you were willing to drive a little bit over onto the New York side, there's just tons of space, really. You can you can fish and get away from people. Some of the places require a lot of walking, and I prefer that. I'll I'll take that half mile or mile walk just to get away from everybody. And then you find out that there's 20 guys there, you know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 36:50

Right. But but but they're now your 20 guys because they went through that effort as well. So yeah, you at least got something there. They you know they weren't driving right up.

George Bucci: 36:59

You know, yeah, you know you're not gonna get the weekend, the weekend warriors aren't gonna walk, you know, right for a half an hour to get to a spot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 37:06

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So so let's let's talk about this. When you're when you're heading down to let's say you're going somewhere you've never been there, and you're going, it's it's during the day, whether that's the best time to fish or not. Let's put that aside. You're walking down a beach for the first time. What are you looking for for striped bass specifically in the fall?

George Bucci: 37:26

In the fall, I'm gonna be looking for bird, bird play, most likely. I'll be looking for bird play, even birds just sitting on the water, birds flying and picking on the water in the surf. Depending on the water clarity, my I'm looking for dark spots and and bait, maybe bait balls that are in the wash or or just in range. Maybe if I don't see any of that, I'm gonna look for structure and I'm gonna start to probably panel some structure, whether it's jetties and groins and cuts in the sandbars. You know, and that happens pretty often, you know, in the fall where you think it's gonna be good and you you go, you take a ride, I'll take a ride for an hour and work some beaches, and you know, uh everybody can anybody can look at some of the surf camps, you know. And in the fall, it's it's funny because I I I'm just constantly pulling up surf cams and it's like, oh, I see a bunch of birds, you know, and then I'll call a buddy and you do you see the surf cam in this town, and we'll both look at it and be like, all right, let's go. And then you get up there and the birds are gone.

Speaker 3: 38:19

Yeah.

George Bucci: 38:20

So but yeah, I'll do that that's mainly what I'll do. I'll I'll go up there and look for that. And you gotta try to figure out what kind of bait you have moving around. You know, it could be it could be peanut bunker, it could be there, could be herring, you know. You get later in the in the fall and into the even close to winter, you start to get herring adult bunker. And the the sand deal days, boy, I miss them. The sand deal days in uh up north were fantastic. 2011 was just amazing with the sand deal bike, but we we really haven't seen that. It's been a peanut bunker bike mostly in the fall, the last few years.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 38:52

I mean, they're all over. You can't get away from the peanut bunker now.

George Bucci: 38:56

No, you can't even run, you can't even run a plug through some of the spots in the back. You'll just have you'll have peanut bunkers stuck on every hook.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 39:02

Yeah, yeah, or at the very least, you have the scales sitting right on the tip of the hook. You're like, well, that's not gonna help me hook something. You gotta clean them off. Yeah, clean them off left and right. So, what what are the lures that you're using? So, what's your first lure for uh to say top water?

George Bucci: 39:15

I love my I love pencil poppers. If I'm fishing in the surface pencil popper, they cast great, you know. You cover a ton of water, you know, with a with the right rod, you know, with the right rating. You can you're gonna max out your distance with a pencil popper. And especially if you've got fish on the surface and you know they're on the surface, the pencil popper, you know, and and I heard you, I think, talking to Scotty about the whole walk the dog thing. And that's basically what pencil popping is. It's a walk the dog saw thing, but it's not as much of the the wrist action in the surf. You have the you know the butts between your between your legs and your your hand is up over the reel, yeah. And you're kind of just shaking it, you know, you're shaking it. And once you get the cadence down on that, they really throw some water. And I've I've caught a lot of fish on pencil poppers. I probably own more pencil poppers than any other plug I have in the bait in my basement. And I and I got a you know, a lot of stuff down there, but I'm like a pencil poppers are my thing. I love them. You know, I make them, I I I like using other people's. But that's gonna be if I see fish on the surface, that's my go-to. It's gonna be a pencil. If I don't see anything, then I'm probably gonna throw some you know, swimming type plugs. The SP minnows are safe, always, always gotta have one in my bag because they cast great, they swim great, you know. Wood's good, but plastic is fantastic.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 40:36

Yeah, but you don't you don't quite get the I don't know, you don't get the same feel. I like the wood.

George Bucci: 40:41

Yeah, oh yeah, I sure I love I love the wood, but it you know, if distance matters, you know, the wood's not gonna cut it. No, you know, uh I do I love throw, you know. I it's funny because I I make plugs, I make metal lips, and I I basically I give them away, and I've given away, you know, a ton of them. And guys catch fish on them, they catch a lot of fish on them. They get they catch more fish than I catch on them for sure. Uh so I I give them away and I get all these pictures, and I go, well, I must be out of my mind. I'm I'm giving away these plugs, and these guys are catching. I gave one to a to a guy up in Rarit, and I and he I got up there, I think I had like one fish or two fish, and I'm just getting one picture after another with my plug hanging out of different fishes. He's like, this thing was slaying. And I'm like, damn.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 41:27

That's awesome. Oh, I mean, it's frustrating, but it's still at least you have that where you're like, Well, I had a part in that too, I guess.

George Bucci: 41:33

Yeah, no, I I loved it. I I went up last year with a guy, and uh I gave I made a joined and I gave him the jointed, and uh I didn't have one in my bag. I didn't have one of my joined in my bag, and he had one of my joints, and he and he was standing next to me, hammering fish on it, and I was getting frustrated as hell. I and I was I was starting to get angry. I was like, you know, this is ridiculous. You know, I made that thing, and and you're standing next to me, killing on it. And then I ended up trying to overcast and I got a wind knot, had to cut the line out, and it just you know, things start to snowball, and uh that was that was the day of the shirts catching the sheep's head.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 42:09

Oh yeah, George. I yeah, Ed was in the same position where we went out to test some prototype lures that he made, and we're both using the same thing, and I'm literally right next to him, and I was baling the big sheep's head, and he just kept looking at me and I'm like, At least it's your lures, they work awesome. That's what he wanted to hear. He's he was like one of those, like, I'm really happy for you.

Speaker 3: 42:35

Yeah, yeah, I get that. I get that really happy thing, toe.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 42:41

Yeah, but you got to bring your own lures, man. You can't be making them and not bringing them. You have to be able to represent yourself.

George Bucci: 42:47

You're on foot, you can only carry so many things, you know. So it's like uh, you know, it's like where's who gets cut? You know, um I lay everything out, I go who gets cut, you know, and I'll have them in the truck, but a lot of times, you know, a 15-minute walk back to the truck is not gonna, yeah. It's like, you know, I can't run anymore. I'm overweight and I'm 55. I run about 20 feet and I'm laying on the ground to try to catch my breath.

Ed Gobbo: 43:09

That's me. Yeah, I'll be laying next to you. We got a question in here. Dean's asking you about refinishing plugs for friends.

George Bucci: 43:17

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, Dean Dean happened to come across a uh a rather expensive plug builder's plug, and and it was beat up, I guess, from the rock. He asked me to refinish it. So I sanded it down and I didn't put my respirator on or anything like that. I couldn't breathe for two days. And I called him, I said, Don't don't ever, don't ever hand me somebody else's plug to refinish. Now instead of taking it off, probably the smartest way, I just decided to sand it down. So I had to sand down the finish and sand the paint off it, and I didn't realize how many layers that plug builder put on his plug. I was covered in in dust and and uh I blew my nose and it was a epoxy. I basically epoxy dust came out of my log.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 43:57

That's no good. Now, now, how did it look when you were done? And did Dean end up catching things on it?

George Bucci: 44:02

Now it's it's down to the wood and it's sitting in my basement, and I just walk by it and curse at it every time I go. I haven't painted it yet.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:09

So so Dean, he's cursing at you every time he walks by through his basement.

Speaker 3: 44:13

He knows, yeah, he knows.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:15

That's awesome. Ed, you've had experiences like that too, I know, with the fumes because we've been talking, you're like, I gotta get out of this garage.

Ed Gobbo: 44:24

Yeah, the the the when I do my plugs, I uh the the well it's not epoxy, it's uh the clear coat I dip them in, it's pretty nasty.

Speaker 2: 44:32

Yeah.

George Bucci: 44:33

Oh my god, I have a I have a fan blowing it, so I'm doing everything in my basement. I have all my you know, I have a basically a wood shop in my basement, and I have a dust collector, and I have all the you know, the respirator, and I have everything I should be wearing, but a lot of times I get lazy. I only need to sand a couple of plugs, I don't need to put this on, you know, and then I'm coughing that up for two days.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 44:56

And now Dean can make fun of you for years.

George Bucci: 45:00

Dean Dean has more of my plugs than I have.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 45:02

Yeah, yeah, really.

George Bucci: 45:04

Yeah, it's great because he has yeah, he I'll show him, I'll be like, Look at these three I made. Oh, I want this one, and he grabs it, and then you know, two days later, I made like a purple little pikey last year, and I called it grape drink, and uh immediately he started slaying on grape drink. So then I thought, yeah, yeah. Which I love. I love it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 45:24

You need to start carrying more of your own. I do, yeah, I do. But to your point, it's a small bag. All right, so we've got the the top water covered, yeah. And then you're using the the swim baits in the middle, you're using something like the SP minnow.

George Bucci: 45:37

SPs if it's shallow water, you're you know, you I always there's always a Magdarter in my bag. Okay. Uh and Magdarters come in three sizes, so depending on the bait sizes, you know, the the middle version is usually the safest bet. I I think that's a five-inch. Yeah, I think the four and a quarter, five and six inch.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 45:57

You know, the six inch are you trying to match the hatch or are you trying to or are you trying to make it like something that stands out?

George Bucci: 46:05

I think I think that the uh the magda probably matches several things, you know. It's peanut bunker, it's any any kind of smaller bait in the wash. And it's such a subtle swim on a Magda. It's such you work them shallow, you can work them slow, and uh you know, you can work them fast, but they don't they won't dig into the bottom most of the time unless you're fishing in really shallow water. And and nine out of ten times, if if it's at night, I I have a teaser in front of that. And it's funny because you know, you I fish mostly just black teasers at night, black hair teaser, maybe a little bit of flash in it. I I tie those myself with a black Magdarter, and 90% of your fish will come on that teaser.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 46:46

Yeah, you know, I'll just share this. I again I don't consider myself to be like a really great surf caster. I know what I'm doing, but you know, a lot of people will make fun of you if you put a teaser on. You know, it's the the whole big joke. You know, how many teasers are you gonna have on in front of your your diamond jig, right? I al I would always put them on for uh a striped bass, and I had this Chenille sand eel, and it was only about three inches long, and I caught more fish on that in I think it was two years ago. And now I'm down to the last one. I can't find it. It the company that made them is out of business, so I have my last one left. So I'm not using it.

Speaker 2: 47:24

Send me a picture.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 47:25

It's really messed up. I've even gone to expert fly tires and nobody knows what the hell the material is, but I'll show it to you. But anyway, send me a picture. I caught more fish on that teaser in fluke and striped bass season than on the regular bucktails, on the regular jigs, on the SP minnows. They were and they were it's only it's only like this big, it's like three and a half inches. Yeah, the plug is late.

George Bucci: 47:50

The plug is just a vessel to get the teaser out there, yeah, a lot of times. I went one night, I I went to just decided to go walk the beach locally, and you know, not even a beach that I'm it's productive for me, it just felt like getting out and walking the beach. And I was throwing just a Magdarter and a teaser, and I hit a couple small fish, like 20-something inch fish on the Mag Darter, and nothing on the teaser, and then out of nowhere I got hit, and it was uh it was like four 40-something inch fish, and it was on the teaser.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 48:17

Yeah, yeah.

George Bucci: 48:19

The bigger fish ate the that little teaser.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 48:21

That's awesome. I love that. Now, what size teaser hooks are you using when you're tying those up?

George Bucci: 48:26

Uh oh god, I I don't even I'd have to go down to my basement and look. I have you know boxes that I just I I want to say there are four aught.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 48:37

Okay, that's what I was gonna ask.

George Bucci: 48:38

Okay, yeah, not big, not real big, right?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 48:42

Yeah, my unfortunately, mine was only a two-ought, so I was always amazed when it hooked anything. Yeah, because that I mean that's really small for the size of those mouths. But uh it worked well. But here's a question that I want to put up there from Sky. Do you like using bucktails at all in the surf?

George Bucci: 49:00

It's funny. I used to be a huge bucktail guy, I loved bucktails. You know, you go to Montauk, you better have bucktails, and you know, I I every time I you I go up there, you still throw bucktails. Around here, I've kind of gotten away from it, and it's funny because I that's kind of how you you know, you I want to say you cut your teeth fishing the jetties with bucktails, and bucktails are very productive, you know, with a just a twister tail on it. I don't carry them as much anymore. I I usually have one or two in my bag because they don't take up any space and there's lots for them, so I might as well put a couple in there.

Speaker 2: 49:33

Right.

George Bucci: 49:34

Uh but I don't I just don't pull them out too often. I mean, and you get conditions like we have right now, if the water is just even a little bit cleaner, a bucktail would be the way to go. And there's been times where I should have had a bucktail and didn't, and and that's you know what the guys were catching on. You know, you get big water like this, a bucktail's gonna want you, you know, what you're gonna want. You get big water if you're fishing inlets, you know, I might as well transition this. If you're fishing inlets, you know, if you're a jig guy and you like throwing the you know three-quarters or an ounce jigs, that's a good idea. But in heavy moving water, you're gonna want a plug that holds in heavy moving water. The SPs hold remarkably well. Uh the Mag Daughters will hold pretty good, but you know, you get into the super strikes, the super strike bottles are, you know, th for big water and hard moving water. I always have one or two of those in my bag. I'll go through a handful of them a year. I I'm horrible, I lose so much stuff. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I lose. It's amazing.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 50:35

I I can't help it. I I yeah, I lose a lot of stuff.

George Bucci: 50:38

I'm not I'm not a I don't use swivels between my leader and my main line. I I like to tie direct, you know, and a lot of times my eyesight isn't what it was. So if I have to tie in the dark, I might as well just throw that plug into the water.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 50:52

I've done that. Yeah, you think I I think so I I can tie an FG knot in the dark. Wow, can do it. However, if you mess it up just one loop, yeah, it's one cast and your line doesn't go anywhere. Yeah, and it just just the the leader goes flying off with the plug. I've done that.

George Bucci: 51:11

I have a pigtail, a little pigtail in the end, and that's it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:14

Yeah, exactly. You're like, God damn it. Yeah, I've done that with you know $15 lures.

George Bucci: 51:19

I was in in the spring one one or like right before dark one year. I had a buddy next to me, and I I think I tied three bad knots in a row and was hooked, I'd hook up and fight the fish for a couple seconds, and then my leader would part. And I just was I was tying bad knots. I you know, finally he handed me a leader with a swivel on it and saved me that night. He saved my ass because it was a good bite, and I just I was frustrated. I was ready to go home.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 51:46

Yeah, you got in a r you got in a rut, so you're just gonna screw it up every time now because now you're pissed off.

George Bucci: 51:50

I I don't know what I've I still don't know what I was doing wrong with my knot that night. You know, I I just I came home and I was like, all right, let me do this. The next day I sat there and I said, All right, let me tie this knot. Everything like pulled everything and everything was good. I I don't know what I was doing wrong.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 52:02

What kind of knots are you using when you're doing that?

George Bucci: 52:04

I'm just I just go uni to uni. I keep it simple. I can do that with I can do it with my eyes closed, and basically that's what it's like when I tie a knot. It's like having my eyes closed.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 52:14

Yeah, I I'm starting to use the uni to uni, especially if I'm not gonna be winding it through the guides.

Speaker 3: 52:19

Yeah, no, I don't go through the guides, so yeah, it's in the backwaters.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 52:23

I do. I I go through the and like tog fishing, I put a really long leader on there just because I don't feel like tying an FG over and over, so I tie the FG knot, you know.

George Bucci: 52:35

Yeah, it's uni-to uni is so it's so easy to do, and it's it's strong, you know. They hold. I I've had them hold with you know 40 plus pound fish fish, and and they they hold.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 52:46

My understanding is it's the second strongest knot for a breed to leader. So I mean you're probably not losing much between the FG and the uni to uni, to be honest.

George Bucci: 52:56

No, the leader will probably snap before the knot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 52:59

Yep, yep. Here's another question for you. Let's get back to your pencil popper. What colors do you prefer?

George Bucci: 53:06

You know, usually it's uh white or white. So I yeah, I like white, bone, yellow. I like the brighter colors, you know. They don't have to be anything fancy. There, I guess there I have seen times where certain colors are working, maybe a red head or something, you know, weird like that. But I think that's I think the pencil it's more of the the commotion it's causing. It's more the action of it, the you know, a reactionary strike and not like a color trigger of any kind.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 53:34

Right. So you're you're not using Wonder Bread?

George Bucci: 53:37

I I have them, you know. I uh I'm as I'm guilty like everybody else. I like cool paint jobs. So you know, I will I will buy the cool paint jobs and I I I even paint some stuff. I like painting cool paint jobs, but you know, when it when it comes down to it, if like I'm like if I'm going uh say up to the canal and I need to make some pencils for the canal, I'll I'll pump out like four bones or four whites, you know, and have nothing catches like bone, bone is but bone, white.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 54:04

Those are it's the best. It's the most versatile color. Yeah you know, for the simplest color, it's the best. I mean, if you can only have one color, it's gotta be white or bone, something like that.

George Bucci: 54:15

And and and I I think color is more catches more of the you know our eye than it does the fish's eye. I it's either you're either bright colors or your dark colors, you know. At night you want your your darks, you know, you get those those dark nights. I like dark colors, and you know, you get your bright days or bright nights, you want the bright colors. So I think there really isn't much of a difference as far as I'm concerned between like yellows and whites and and and you know the beautiful pinks and uh all that stuff. They're just bright colors. Maybe the only one that I I may think is is chartreuse. For some reason, chartreuse sometimes is the is the color that you want. You know, when I'm throwing jigs with with rubber, it's chartreuse, um, parrots. You know, those those bright greens sometimes will trigger some strikes.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 54:57

I love greens.

George Bucci: 54:58

Yeah, me too.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 55:00

Pinks and greens. Well, white, it's always predominantly white. I mean, Ed yeah, I tell them all the time I I need bucktails, the pinks and the greens. That's what he makes.

George Bucci: 55:09

But you would think if chartreuse is working, I would bet that if you if you had a white on, it would have probably done the same thing.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 55:14

Most likely. Now, there have been some days where I've been out with Ed. Ed is good about telling me just to switch up my colors, and there have been some days, it wasn't for striped bass, but for other species, where I'm not catching anything, and he'll he'll tell me, like, switch the color, and he'll say, put this color on, and I'll grab that color. And he's catching the whole time, and and it does work, but something inside me says the color, I mean, the colors are definitely more for us than the fish, but I I think sometimes it does matter, and I'll tell you, the the I have noticed that with with TOG for some reason. I seem to get better bites on TOG. Striped bass, I don't know. I I just throw out whatever I have in the bag and I just cycle through until I'm I'm starting to get something, yeah. You know, but I don't like Wonder Bread though. There's something about it that bothers me. Really? Even though it's white, it's white. I should love it, you know.

George Bucci: 56:11

Yeah, wonder bread gliders and then yeah, wonder bread stuff. I like it. I do like it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 56:17

I I liked I did fish one that was butterfinger. It was called a butterfinger. It was it was yellow, it's almost like a school bus color. Yeah, yeah. That that was I like that. I do like actually yellow pencils.

George Bucci: 56:28

Well, I guess that's kind of like a goldish yellow, which I I do. I any I like putting a lot of golds when I make plugs. I I like a lot of golds, a lot of gold, like golden purple. A lot of fish you hold it. Like if you hold a bunker up, it's got like that gold bunker like uh shade to it, especially you you know, you move it in the sun, you can see iridescent, yeah. Yeah, so I try to do a lot of that when I'm making stuff, a lot of golds and and you know, a lot of silver and purple too. Mixing that purple in, I think for me is works good.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 56:57

Uh, you know, I I'm glad you said that because the one thing that I've been saying for years, I've said it on here before, is the the gold gold color is so underrated up north and in the mid-Atlantic. You don't get you never hit the water down in Florida, down in South Carolina, in Texas, unless you have a gold spoon. It's not silver, you're not using silver down there as much, but up here it's all silver. You know, you got a silver Hopkins. I'm like, I just want a gold one. Just give me a gold one. And when I fish a diamond jig, I try to get the ones with that little that little gold paper on it, which just comes off after it hits two rocks. But yeah, I I like the gold. I I love something that has the gold and gold flecks in it, you know, the for the soft plastics. If it has some gold flecks, I just I I don't know why. I I like the glitter of the the gold in the water, and maybe it is because of the bunker, you know, they do have a little now.

George Bucci: 57:49

Yes, they're mostly silver, but they're well they get yeah, they get the adults, they they they turn that silver kind of fades and they turn more of a uh like a darker color.

Speaker 2: 57:59

Yeah, yeah.

George Bucci: 57:59

They get that they still have those white bellies, but you know, they get that goldish purple to them. Even weak fish, you get the spike this time of year, you get spiked weakfish in the wash, and there's a lot of things eating those spike weakfish, and they got that gold purple color to them, too.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 58:13

Yeah, they're all moving out of the back now.

George Bucci: 58:16

Yeah, yeah, they'll you know, you especially you go up north and you you get those in the surf, and you get these bluefish blitzes in the surf where you know it's just weak fish are washing up all over, all bit bit in half, and and you got heads and tails washing up all over the place, and that's always a good time too.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 58:34

I I actually I love when the bluefish come through. Now, do you now do you have a and mainly I say that because there's usually striped bass right with the bluefish, right? So how so you see a bluefish blitz coming down the beach, what are you doing? Are you going at the blue fish or are you looking on the edges or behind for the uh the striped bass?

George Bucci: 58:54

I'm good with the bluefish for probably a handful of them, and then I'm over it. And then I'll probably slide to the direction that they've come from, or they're moving, you know, let them move away and keep working that water behind them because you know it's obviously the striped bass are just gonna be cleaning up, the cleanup crew comes in and they're gonna eat all the those parts that are left behind. Yeah, uh, you know, all everything that's floating down to the bottom. Those blue fish, they I've seen them where you can see them coming, like the bluefish coming from down the beach. I was at Island Beach one one time and I saw them. I was I fished all day without a bite. And I was about to walk off, and uh, an older guy, his guy had to be 80 years old, he said to me, uh, are you leaving? And I said, Yeah, I'm leaving. I haven't had a touch all day. And he said, Don't leave, they're gonna be here. And I was like, What is he talking about? So I said, Okay. I walked down on the beach and I fished for about another hour. Nothing was going on. I said, That this is ridiculous. I I'm listening to this guy. And I turned and I started walking off. And as I was walking off the beach, a guy is running onto the beach with like a boat rod. And he goes, They're coming, they're coming. And I go, What's he talking about? And I had I'm one of them guys. I had my binoculars with me. And I pulled my binoculars and I looked down the beach, and all I saw was this giant cloud of birds coming down the beach. And I was like, Well, here we go. What's this? So I stood there and I watched, and it got closer and closer. And up on the bar, I'm looking at the bar. It was a wave of adult bunker came over the bar, straight up onto the beach, and were beaching themselves. And it was 15-pound bluefish all over them. And it was just, it was just like, you know, my pencil popper, they were ripping it up, like physically just ripping it apart. And after a few fish, I was like, all right, do I try for bass behind these things? Because they came through, it lasted about a half an hour, and they just kept right on going down the beach. I said, Do I try for bass? And I said, Oh, hell no, I'm not going to try for bass. I ran and jumped in my truck, drove about three miles, ran back out on the beach, and there they were coming again. And I did it.

Ed Gobbo: 1:00:53

I love it. You were the crazy guy running down the beach.

George Bucci: 1:00:56

Yeah, and I was like, I'm done with this. I was like, now I'm done with this. There was nothing, there was no paint left on that pencil popper. They they ripped the the the grommet, the belly grommet out. Like the the the yeah, the through wire was partially pulled through the hole, the hook holes. There was no I love them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:01:16

I but what I would have done is probably after I don't even know if I would have made that run the three miles, but tip of the cat.

George Bucci: 1:01:26

I ran to my truck and then drove past it and then and then ran back on the beach. And uh, you've been to Island Beach. I don't have a path to drive on the beach, so I just it's a long run.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:01:35

You know, that was I was a little you know in a little better shape at the time, so I was able to ran up all the way back to the parking lot on down at the south end of Island Beach.

George Bucci: 1:01:46

That's not a little bit at the time I was at the walk-on, I was on the walk-on section by the maintenance shack. If you're familiar with it, I was at the so I I had to run all the way from there. I ran back to my truck at the maintenance shack and then drove down to like the bathing beach and then ran out of the bathing beach and got them again.

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

That's awesome. So when you're there, okay, so you you get back into do you then wait for the the bass to come behind?

George Bucci: 1:02:08

No, I was at that point, I was exhausted. I was done. I'd been there all day. I'd been there literally from sun up, and this didn't happen until like late in the afternoon. Yeah, that was the only action I had, but I'd have been kicking myself in the ass had I not listened to that older guy and and just said, Oh, you don't know what you're talking about. I love listening to some of the older guys, you know, they they they they know they have more knowledge in their pinky than I than probably all of us together. A lot of these guys have seen it all.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:02:36

You know, I start sharing when they get older.

George Bucci: 1:02:40

Yeah, yeah. Well, some of them do. Yeah, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:02:43

Well, some are gonna take it to the grave, but some are just like, hey, let me just give you this little bit that you don't know.

George Bucci: 1:02:49

Yeah, there's it's interesting because there there was a dude. There was a I would always fish this one spot in like on Abseekin Island. I'll just say that. Abseekin Island, which is you know, Longport, Ventor, Margate, Atlantic City. And I would go and uh fish in the morning at sunrise, and there'd be these same three old guys that parked at the end of the street, and they would have their coffee, and then they would get out and fish the same area. And finally I walked over and I said, Why are you guys fishing this same stretch of beach? And the guy he says, Well, right here there used to be used to be a pier right here. And I said, Get out of here. I don't remember every oh, it was years ago. Used to be a pier right here. The pilings are still down there. It catches a lot of sand, and we catch a lot of fish around that. And and all three of them are gone now, and I still go walk that area and still get fish in that area now.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:03:38

That's awesome.

George Bucci: 1:03:39

I mean, they cover most of it, like they do, they cover everything with sand now. But you know, after this, I I would I would suspect it's probably going to be exposed. That area will be exposed, and there'll be some good fish in there in the next couple weeks.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:03:50

Oh, that's awesome. Those are the kind of spots I like to find.

George Bucci: 1:03:54

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:03:54

Have you ever done that? Just go and look at the historical satellite images.

George Bucci: 1:03:59

Yeah, I I spend way too much time on Google Maps and Navionics and uh everything, you know. I sp I mean a lot of the back, especially you, you know, the back bay is amazing. You know, you go, I'd love to fish this point, and then you look at it, you go, hey, you know what? I might be able to get there if I kind of walk this crazy pattern out on the marsh. And it, you know, it's a maybe, maybe it's a half a mile straight line, but it takes you three miles to get to it. And you asked, I'll actually sit there and have to watch my phone and go, okay, there's a creek coming up. I gotta turn right here, and then walk a hundred yards that way. And I go, Okay, now I can cross this creek, you know, and you get out there.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:04:33

I get in trouble when I do that.

George Bucci: 1:04:35

Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, you know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:04:37

It's I I've lost doing that. There is I right behind Brigantine. I went out and through the marshes, and the next thing I know, I'm like stuck, stuck, like up to the hip. One leg is one leg is on solid ground, and the other one is to its hip, uh, to my hip in the water, in the the muck. And I was stuck. I was like, this is ridiculous. I'm not this flexible, so it kind of hurt. My my knee is in my chin. But that's I I I love looking for new spots. I mean, Ed Ed's been with me when I've just gone scouting, and Ed Ed definitely loves it too. I mean, he'll just take off and disappear in the kayak down a creek, and he'll come back half an hour, 45 minutes later. He's like, Okay, here's what I found, and here's when we're gonna fish it.

Ed Gobbo: 1:05:22

Yeah, that's the best part about the kayaks. That is the absolute best part because you can get in a place of boats even people on foot can't get to.

George Bucci: 1:05:30

Yeah, I I used to kayak yeah years ago, I think it was like 2001. I got a kayak from a rail place, and I did a lot of that, and I got out of it for a while. And I just got another kayak, a pedal kayak, and I was gonna say I've seen your your kayak. I I was on it, I think I've been on it three or four times the whole year. It's just I'm always I always have an excuse. I'm like, uh it's blowing a little too hard today. Uh it's gonna be too sunny today.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:05:58

We'll get we'll get you out, we'll get you out next year. And I see also in chat, Greg Antel is in there. He has one too, I believe. Yeah, yeah. He needs to get out there more often. I've never met him. I've never met him.

George Bucci: 1:06:09

Yeah, we keep talking about he and I keep talking about going out together. We just haven't lined it up. Uh so maybe Baritan this this fall, we can we can do it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:06:17

Well, let me know when you guys want to head up. I'll I'll I'll head up with you. My job right now is literally fishing. Fishing is my job now. So I I'm I'm free. I'm free to go with you as soon as this COVID gets out of my house and I'm free to interact with humans again that are not on live stream, I'm out on the water. We'll do it. Awesome. Awesome.

Ed Gobbo: 1:06:39

There's still plenty of fishing left through this fall, man, even in the kayaks. I can't wait.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:06:44

So and that kind of brings me to the next thing, George. When are you looking and saying, you know, if you looked at a calendar right now, when are you saying to yourself, okay, this is when it's gonna start getting serious, and I'm now locked in on striped bass for the fall?

George Bucci: 1:06:58

Well, I mean, I'll I'm gonna get started pretty soon, probably this this week. I'll probably get started this week where I'm gonna really start to put some time in on some beaches, check out some structure locally for sure. It's easy for me to just go local and check everything out and decide where I'm gonna start to put in some time. Then I'll also be taking the ride up and I'll go to my, you know, just traditional. And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and I'm I'm pretty much I fall right into that. Like I go to the same spots regardless. If they haven't produced for three years, I'm like, well, 10 years ago I did great there. So I'm going back there. And you know, me and a buddy, we we have this running joke, we keep going to the same spot. I don't think we've caught a fish there in our last like 30 trips. And we get there, and I'll take like five casts, and I'll be like, Why are we here? You know, why did we come here? He's like, I have no idea why we're here. And I'm like, This is ridiculous, you know. Then we leave, but I'll I'll go north and I'll go just to some of the spots that I know. It's tough, you know. You get to the point where it's like do you waste time looking for something, or do you go to where you, you know, traditionally have had fish? I'll just I'll stick with my tradition and go to where I usually have had fish in the past. I go, I have my spots at Island Beach State Park, Seaside Brick, and right up the beach and and you know, Asbury and into uh Raritan.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:08:14

You know, for that for me, that was one of the most difficult parts about you know, when I was just doing surf fishing for years in a row, it was I live in Pennsylvania, so I'm driving two and a half hours. Yeah, and and I like I do like fishing South Jersey, so which takes longer to get to South Jersey than it does to the Raritan. The Raritan, I'm there in an hour and a half, it's gonna be two, two and a half hours to South Jersey, but it's really tough sometimes to to know I'm gonna be in the car five hours today, yeah, and I'm gonna be fishing. You know, do I really want to spend two hours going to a beach I've never been to and just hope that I can find the structure there? So I know what you're talking about. You want to go places where you're pretty confident.

George Bucci: 1:08:55

Yeah, yeah. It's funny. I have a buddy that that you know, he lives up, he lives up there by the Rariton, he fishes the Raritan, and you know, he'll come down here and fish, and he's like, I love it down there, man. I love all that backwater you guys have, and I'm like, I'll trade you in a heartbeat. I love the Raritan Bay right now. So it's kind of like you know, the grass is always greener on the next yard.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:09:16

Yeah. Are are you there's a question in the chat, are you fishing down in Cape May County?

George Bucci: 1:09:21

I I do go down, I I do go down to Cape May a little bit. Cape May County is you know is pretty big, but I'll I'll I'll work Cape May, I'll work the beaches, the inlets. There are there are some spots that you know there are holes and cuts that kind of just they're there every every year. Right. And I'll work that. And even you know, the the point around Cape May. This time of year, you know, if you're working the those jetties, which I think most of them were covered with sand. I haven't been there in a little bit, but if they're exposed this time of year, there's great weak fishing, redfish, you know, all kinds of stuff like that around those jetties down there. And I do I do I'll look for reds. I'm horrible at it, but I'll look for them. You know, I get frustrated and I give up pretty quickly.

Speaker 2: 1:10:08

Yeah.

Ed Gobbo: 1:10:08

Have you have you found any?

George Bucci: 1:10:10

I I went once this year and I and I I fished for about three hours. I fished about three hours and I didn't see any mullet. And I got frustrated. I was like, there should be mullet. There should be mullet on this beach. There should be mullet. I had got reds on that beach before, and I was ready to walk off, and I looked down and and I was in literally, I was in ankle deep water, and all the mullet were around my feet. And I was like, Well, son of a bitch, where there they were. I'm looking behind the backs of the waves and they weren't there, and they were right at my feet. And I was like, Well, then there should be reds here, right? And I didn't, I and I fished it another hour and without a touch, and I was like, All right, this is this is ridiculous. Now there's no water here.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:10:47

It's a tough fish to go for because there's so few, as far as we know, there's so few. Every year people are catching them.

George Bucci: 1:10:56

But well, I mean, you look at some of the the you know, some of the guys from the past, like this in the 60s and 50s, where they it was common where they had big reds, you know, they called them channel bass. They had big reds, so they get 40s and 50 pounders on the beaches here. And you you look into that and you look at the i I try to look to see okay, what time of year was that? And I found all that information, but they're just they're those big reds aren't there. Not yet. I think that day's coming.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:11:21

I I do too. I've uh I've spent a lot of time talking about on this this stream that I've been really looking for redfish this year in the back. I know where I know there are I know of about a dozen spots that hold them in in in particular inlets or just outside of inlets, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for residents resident reds, yeah, to see if they're actually residents here or if they're just pushing through like they used to back in the you know, even in the 70s and 80s, I remember as a kid going down to the point stone harbor at Hereford Inlet, and you know, the real surf casters there just, I mean, they're tossing it a mile and they're bailing just bull reds, I mean, all day, and it was really quiet. They didn't tell anyone, they just bail reds all day, they put them in these huge coolers, and I think it was September, October.

George Bucci: 1:12:15

You know, right before this blow, I got I got a phone call that there was bull reds about a mile off the beach on bunker, and you know, and then I said to the guy, well, that's great information when there's five days of weather moving in. So, what am I gonna do with that? You know, but yeah, I and I have been hearing for years about big bull reds off of Cape Bay on bunker schools, but never really had a chance to look into it. But yeah, I think that day's coming where it I think we're gonna start seeing more and more of them, especially there's so many of them down south now. It's it's you know, we're gonna just you're gonna see them expand their their horizons.

Ed Gobbo: 1:12:51

I don't see to add to add to that though, I I think they're here. I just don't I don't know. I think there's there's more here than we know because from the research I've done back in the 30s, 40s, they were stacking them like cordwood because they were tearing their linen fly lines, they hated them, they wanted to catch stripers. Yeah, they used they used them all for fertilizer. I think I think there's a lot more here than we know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:13:16

I just the only the only thing I'll say about that is I I do know how to catch them. I'm not amazing at it, but I do know how to catch them, and I have not caught any in the back when I've gone specifically targeting them where they should be.

George Bucci: 1:13:31

Ed, you think it's kind of like you know, like 10 years ago, maybe 15 years ago, this there was sheep's like because I remember as a kid seeing sheep's heads swim around the poles, yeah, never even thought to try for them. And now there's this, you know, the the sheep's head craze, I you would call it. Yeah, everybody's sheep's head fishing, and you're seeing tons of them caught. Well, they've been those fish have been here for years. Guys have changed their tactics and and changed the way they're fished for.

Ed Gobbo: 1:13:54

Look up in New York, there's Sheep's Head Bay. It's it's named Sheep's Head Bay for a reason, you know. I I don't know. I I think like you said, people just never fish for them, and now that the tactics and the tackles out there, they're they're fishing for them.

Speaker 2: 1:14:08

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:14:09

I hope so. I hope so. They would be awesome, you know, as the striper continue to move north, which I think they are. I think the bulk of the biomass is north, and I don't think it's necessarily anything that we did wrong, it's just that they are more comfortable up north now. So they're just migrating and living north. And if that's the case, I'm very happy with a smaller population of striped bass if the reds start coming in.

George Bucci: 1:14:36

We fought this, we fought this battle to get the bunker, you know, bunker back when bunker was, you know, almost non-existent. You couldn't find bunker schools anywhere. I think that was a double-edged sword for us. You know, we got the bunker back, but now if you don't find those those bunker schools, you're not going to find the bass. The bass are always going to be with the bunker. I think that's part of the problem with our fall surf fishing now, is these fish aren't coming in short of forage like they used to. They're not coming in and feeding on the crabs, and they're not coming in to feed on the everything that's around the jetties because there's massive schools of bunker out there and they're just hanging on them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:15:10

Oh, yeah. They're going over the OC reef and it's eight miles off. It's like, well, I can't touch them. No, you know. Yeah, that's so frustrating. Yeah, so back in the day.

George Bucci: 1:15:21

We got the bunker back, though. We got the bunker back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:15:23

Yeah, we got the well, Omega's doing their best to get rid of it.

George Bucci: 1:15:26

Yeah, they're they're doing I've been watching them.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:15:28

Yeah, they're they're all over. It's like it was back in the 90s with them. I mean, I'm seeing more of them this year than I've seen since the 90s. Yeah.

George Bucci: 1:15:36

And they're taking bass with them. Yeah, absolutely. Bass, cobia, everything. Yeah. Reds down there. Yep.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:15:44

I keep trying to get the the guy who does the the Menhaden Defenders.org, you know, trying to get the get the get Omega out of the Chesapeake. He won't answer me. So I guess he doesn't want to come on and talk about it, but it's a I think it's a big problem. Again, it's not an anti-commercial thing. I get it, but these guys just rape the water when they go through. I mean, they they destroy everything.

George Bucci: 1:16:09

I believe they I think they went over their their quota. They went over their quota in the Chesapeake Bay, I think it was last year or the year before, and they didn't care. They just they paid the fine. Said we couldn't get out in the ocean, so we'd rather pay the fine.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:16:21

Yeah, and it's Maryland doesn't do anything, Virginia doesn't do anything, DC doesn't do anything. They just let it happen because you know it's a lot of money. Yeah, it's a lot of money, a lot of money. Man, so we're we're coming up close on an hour and a half here. So, what what have we not talked about? I mean, this is great conversation as far as I'm concerned, but are there any things that you want to share with people that you know want to get out there on the and get on some bass?

George Bucci: 1:16:47

So, if you if you don't have a boat, you want and you want to catch fish in the surf, you know, time putting in the time. If you're gonna go, if you think you're gonna go for a couple hours and just walk up on a random beach and throw for an hour and catch fish, you know, yeah, you can catch fish. But if you're if you're serious about it, you really want to catch fish, you got to put some time in. You got to be willing to walk, you gotta be able, you gotta be willing to to you know, rifle through your bag, try different things, be able to read the water. You know, if you can't read the water, you should probably go at low tide, go at low tide during the day in an area you plan on fishing in the dark and scope it out, see where the bars are, see where the cuts are, see where the water is moving, because a lot of times you'll have that water coming down the beach and it'll hit a spot where it just wants to turn and go out. And you'll see that water ripping out, and you're gonna want to fish. And it's a lot of times, you know, when you're I'm walking the beach, say, like island beach, I'll walk and I'll fish. There's just cut after cut after cut, say every you know, a couple hundred yards. And if you find fish, say, say there's two bars and a cut, sometimes they're all sitting on the like the left side of that cut. You know, you'll find them sitting on this ledge, you know, just inside of this cut, and then you move down to the next cut, and if you work the same way, you're gonna find that they're sitting the same way, they're sitting on that left side of the cut again, you know. So a lot of times what you find and what you figure out will carry on.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:18:13

That's a good point. I think a lot of people forget that when you're surf fishing, it's the same as regular, it's any other kind of fishing. If if the trend is that the striped bass are on the the wind protected side of a marsh, you fish the wind protected side of the next marsh and the next marsh and the next marsh, and it's the same thing with the surf, they're they're gonna set up in preferred areas, they act, you know, it's not like they're individual fish with their own personalities, you know. They act the same under the same conditions or similar conditions. And I think I think a lot of times we give fish way too much credit, they're not smart, they're really not. And they they should be predictable. So if you if you stumble on a bite and conditions that are that are causing a bite, you should look to replicate that in the same conditions in the same time frame, and and that should work, you know. At least that's your first thing. So to your point, if they're on the the right hand side or the south side of the cut on the outside of the bar, you should be caught, you should be tossing there first.

George Bucci: 1:19:17

Yeah, you know, you work that until work that until it's dry and then move to the next one and do the same thing. And I think you'll see, you know, it's not always gonna work, doesn't always work, but a lot of times you know, you will see that pattern, and you you just stick to that pattern. I mean, and you also you just you can't give up. I I can't tell you how many times I've walked down the beach and not done anything. And you know, and I when I'm up, you know, in certain spots, I'll I'll walk, you know, a mile and a half, two miles, and you get to I'll get to the end of my walk and find that they're sitting in a hole, like loaded in in the one hole, right? And and just sit there and beat the hell out. I did it one night. I walked away from my buddy and I got all the way down to this hole and it was dark. And you know, I worked purposely worked to this one spot and I got there, and it was the end of my that was it, the end of my walk. I'm gonna turn around and walk back and work the water back. And I hit a fish, and I was like, Do I flash my light and let him know? And I was like, No, not yet. And I hit another fish, and I go, All right, two fish, I'm gonna flash my light. And I flashed my light, and then I hit a third fish, and he came running down. I said, It's loaded in here, and we just sat there and beat the hell out of him. Well, he decided he wanted it's gotta be better further, so he went a little further and it was dead. It was it was just that one spot where they were sitting, and then it was interesting because we left that and we started, we were like, Okay, we're done. And we started working our way back, but we fish our way back and we had fished the whole way back, too. So what happened? I don't I don't know, you know, I don't know how that happens, but you just you don't you don't give up, you know. If you plan on fishing, you're you you work that tide to the end and and stick with it because a lot of times it'll pay off. But I those wind directions, those wind directions this time of year, Kay, getting that bait in on the beach, you know, beginning of nor'easters, beginning of storms, and when I see that wind go northwest, I'm gonna be on a beach somewhere.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:21:04

So I I never I never did that. I I love fishing before nor'easter, I love it, or just as it starts. Yeah, oh yeah. I just love that, but I've never really targeted the northwest. So that's that's some good information there.

George Bucci: 1:21:19

Yeah, I mean the bunker the the bunker swims right into the wind, so it usually brings some light to the beach.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:21:25

All right, people. If you didn't know that, yeah, I mean you gotta write that down because that was that was from my nugget from earlier. Yeah, I didn't I didn't even I've never thought about that. I never thought about that ever.

George Bucci: 1:21:36

They're filter feeders, those are they swim with their mouths open, so and they're on the surface. If they're on the surface, they'll swim into that that wind current. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:21:45

Yeah, all right. Here I got a couple of questions I want to make sure we hit before we end here. From I feel fishy. This one, just to put it in context, you're fishing at night. So are you marking in some way, shape, or form where the cuts are so that you know where to fish when you're going out at night?

George Bucci: 1:22:01

Yeah, a lot of times I use landmarks behind me. Like if I'm walking somewhere, I'll turn around and and see what I have behind me. And I and I forget a lot. I used to put like uh there was a couple spots where I would put stuff, like you know, maybe put something in the sand up by a dune or something. Gotcha, but then I found out like some of the like some of the locals that that knew I was doing that were moving my shit. You know, so then I pitched it in the wrong spot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:22:26

I I would say also you can usually most moons you can usually see the cuts too.

George Bucci: 1:22:31

Yeah, you can see the white, you'll see the white water, you know. If I I'll see whitewater to the left and whitewater to the right, and I'll stand there, I'll stand there for 10 or 15 minutes and wait to see maybe a settle come in, and then I'll know where the edges are, the edges of that bar are the edges and where that cut is, where the deeper water is, and then you can start working it. As an i I really don't like it too flat. I don't want it, I don't want it flat, flat. I you gotta have I want a little bit of white water or and and even you know, up the moderate white water. That seems to be a little more productive. You know, it kind of I guess confuses the bait in the in the wash and uh right get those fish feeding. And then you you know, once you get into the like Thanksgiving and you're you're throwing like metal and teasers for you know those fish. Uh you know, I think like Betty and Nick's usually has a thing every year, like Thanksgiving. It's and that's usually a metal and teaser bite where guys are just lined up trying to get free t-shirts.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:23:25

Right. Well, I'm in. Yeah, I'll go for a free t-shirt.

Speaker 3: 1:23:30

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:23:31

One last question. What type of line and pound are you using for fishing these artificials?

George Bucci: 1:23:38

For in the fall, you well, my nine-footer, I'll I'll have 20-pound brave with 20 or 30 pound liter, usually a 30-pound liter. When when I know I'm gonna be going for bigger fish, like in the spring, or even like up to Rariton, I may up that to a 30-pound main line. And even like in the spring, I use a 40-pound main line. And a 50 or 60 pound leader for the spring. I mean, I I not that I can't handle a big fish. A 20-pound braid should be plenty if you get your drag set right, and I'll sit there and I'll I set all my I set my drags. You know, I I hook it up to the fence and and pull it, and and you know, I get it the way I want it, where I know what's gonna pull that line out. But yeah, 20-pound braid this time of year, 20-pound braid, 30-pound leader's fine. You know, especially on an open beach. If you're fishing some kind of structure, you know, I would suggest you go a little heavier. If I'm fishing a jetty, you know, help that leader, you know, quirkers. And and I have a I have a hookless gaff that I use that I take on the jetty. It's basically it's it's a gaff that's got 300-pound mono wrapped several times and then epoxied on. So if I get it on a plug, I get a plug and I get that, I can just reach in and and hook that mono onto the the treble hooks and pull it up without actually sticking a gaff in it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:24:56

You gotta be kidding me. No, I've been looking for something like that for years.

George Bucci: 1:25:01

I'll send you a picture of it. Yeah, it's a hookless gaff.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:25:05

I've been trying, I was even talking to a guy who makes gaffs. I'm like, I I want something that I'm not gaffing the fish that's gonna let me get it up on these high jetties.

George Bucci: 1:25:13

Yeah, it doesn't work as well. If I'm throwing a buck tail, there's not much I can do with a hookless gaff because I need some books to grab hold of, but yeah, it works great with plugs.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:25:23

I'll put a teaser on there and then you can do it.

Speaker 3: 1:25:25

Yeah, you yeah, you can, yeah, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:25:28

That's awesome. Is there anything, Ed, is there anything you wanted to uh put in there? I I've been trying to watch the the questions.

Ed Gobbo: 1:25:34

Uh I think we got a lot of I mean uh Dean mentioned uh the demo day on October 16th. Yeah. Check that out. Uh other than that, uh I mean, I think we've hit pretty much everything. I don't I don't want to bleed George Dry. I want to get him back on another for another episode, so I don't want to beat him up too bad.

George Bucci: 1:25:56

The demo day is October 16th at Bayview Park, 6805 Long Beach Boulevard in LBI, and there's gonna be, you know, Sentry's gonna be there. Um I fish with all century rods from Advanced Fishing. They they supply me with rods. They're the best rods in the world. If you never fished a sentry rod, you go to the demo and try them out. But there's also gonna be tons of custom plug builders there, some of the best plug builders around. I think Darby Creek's gonna be there, GRS, uh Lights Out from Massachusetts is gonna be there, uh, plug bags, custom plug bags, dark star. There's gonna be some jig guys there, and a food truck with funnel cake. And I'm gonna miss it. And I and then my whole thing was the funnel cake.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:26:39

I was gonna say I'm going for the funnel cake.

George Bucci: 1:26:41

I just want to that was my whole plan. I just want a funnel cake, but uh, I have to go to South Carolina that weekend. It was rescheduled, it was supposed to be yesterday, so it was rescheduled for two weeks from now.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:26:51

Well, South Carolina, I mean it's not like you're going somewhere terrible, it's not like you're going to Camden.

George Bucci: 1:26:56

It's not a fishing trip. Oh, yeah, it's not not good.

Ed Gobbo: 1:27:01

Turn anything into a fishing trip.

George Bucci: 1:27:03

It's true, and I've done that. Doesn't usually work out too good for me.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:27:07

Yeah, I I was talking to my wife. We have our anniversary coming up, and and we're trying to decide are we gonna go somewhere like in the mountains, or are we gonna go and she's like, well, we could go somewhere around the coast. And she was talking about she's like, You can bring a fishing rod. I'm like, I'm like, that's a trap. I'm like, there's no way in hell I'm bringing it. She's like, why? I don't mind. She's like, I'll just read a book or something. I'm like, uh-uh, we've been there like 25 years. I'm I'm too smart for this.

George Bucci: 1:27:32

I did it on a cruise ship. We pulled into Belize and I had a uh I had a captain pick me up at the dock. I I vanished for a day. She was fine with it, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:27:43

Yeah, Belize is something different. You if you get a chance, uh it was amazing.

George Bucci: 1:27:49

Yeah, bonefish? Uh no, uh Snook. We could I wanted to go we were gonna go for tarp and we went for Snook up in the uh the the the into the jungle. We went in this like crazy winding in the Belize River, I think, way up. Uh there were guys trolling with like line tied to their toes. It was just insane.

Speaker 3: 1:28:10

Tell you to his toes, guys. Yeah. He was driving the boat with a line tied to his foot. Yeah. I was like, wow.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:28:18

That's awesome. Yes, that's awesome. But it worked. It worked. Yeah. Oh, great. All right, guys. So I I think at this point we're gonna we're gonna close this one down. Um, I want to thank George. Thank you so much for coming on. Oh it's awesome that you were you were able to come on and answer a bunch of questions. And uh man, I learned a lot. I want to get I want to get out there and and break out my uh nine-foot surf rod. That's all I have that I have in uh the rotation right now. Um and get on some of these fish, definitely, especially with the weather the way it is. I have no reason not to just go down and you know get on the sand.

George Bucci: 1:28:56

Yeah, just shoot me a message if you want to come down, we'll get out.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing: 1:28:59

Yeah, absolutely. Um, as far as for next week's show, everybody, we do not have a guest confirmed yet. Uh, but I'm gonna put this out to everybody here. Um, I would like to have somebody come on that is an expert in sea bass fishing. And there are a couple people I've been talking to, but not quite sure that we can sync up on schedule. So if there's somebody that you know or if you are that person, it would be nice to have somebody coming on to talk about sea basses. It really kicks off in uh when we get going there. So just let me know, Rich at fatdadfishing.com. And in the meantime, I I'm gonna tell you the same thing I say every week, but I know the weather is pretty bad. But do whatever you can, get out there, get on the water, get some tight lines. We'll see you next week.

George Bucci: 1:30:00

Whoa.