EP 78: Cuddyhunk Stripers and Exploding Korkers

You can’t fish new water like it’s your home beach and Cuddyhunk Island makes that crystal clear. We sit down with Kwa to replay his first trip to Cuddyhunk, Massachusetts, a ferry-only island where golf carts rule, stores are basically nonexistent, and the striped bass game is built around rocks, current, and night bites. If you’ve ever planned a fishing vacation and wondered what to bring, what you’ll forget, or how fast gear can fail, this conversation is for you.

We talk through what real preparation looks like: building a packing list that covers food, backup rods, and the small stuff that saves trips. Khoa shares why wetsuits matter more than waders when you’re climbing slick rocks in the dark, why waterproof reels like Van Staal or ZBASS earn their price when you’re getting dunked, and how heavy leaders like 60-pound fluorocarbon become a smart move when every fish wants to rub you off on a boulder. There’s also the brutally honest moment when his Korkers fall apart mid-trip and there’s no shop to bail you out, plus the practical fix-it mindset that separates a ruined night from a recovered plan.

Then we get into the fun part: scouting the island by golf cart, reading tides, and learning to “see” the structure at night because you studied it at low tide. We also tell the story of a daytime topwater bite that seems to vanish until a drone goes up and shows hundreds of stripers cruising right where everyone just walked. If you want better results when traveling to fish, this is the blueprint: research the terrain, listen to the experienced people, and stay flexible.

If this helped, subscribe, share it with your fishing group, and leave a review so more anglers can find the show. What’s the one piece of gear you’ll never travel without?

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Transcript

Cold Open And Welcome

Khoa Nguyen 0:00

I think once once a year it's good to put together a guys' trip that where you guys can just throw all responsibilities in the back burner just for a little just for a couple of days and just become teenagers and guys again.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 0:21

Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad Fishing Show. I'm your regular host, Rich Natoli, and tonight we're going to talk about what it's like to go to a new place. Never fished there before. It's that time of year people are on vacation. I know most of you are probably on vacation right now. I am not. I had a full day of work today, my friends. And it was a very productive day, and hoping that this went into a very productive podcast tonight. We have Kwa coming back on, and we're going to talk about his recent trip up to Cuddy Hunk and uh place I've never been. We had George Bucci on last year to talk about it. He was on the trip. And uh and they were out checking for Kwa, some new areas. Uh I wouldn't say new species, but new areas, new tactics, new approach. And we're all gonna run into that. So whether you're going down to Virginia, you're going up to Cuddy Hunk, you're heading out to the West Coast. Hopefully we can talk about some of the things that Kwa ran into, give some advice, talk about it, talk in the chat, share your ideas, and we'll move forward from there. Before

Sponsors And Quick Housekeeping

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 1:22

we jump into it, let's go through the sponsors. If you're not following them, Great Bay Outfitters on Radio Road in Tuckerton, New Jersey, great kayak shop, probably the best one that I have been into in my life. I've been in many, not just in our region, in the mid-Atlantic, around uh New Jersey area. I've been in a lot of different kayak shops, and uh they they're literally at the top of the list for me. Whether or not Paul's a sponsor doesn't even matter. It's a place where I go to. It's a place where you can actually test the kayaks out on the water. And one of the coolest things about Great Bay Outfitters is that Paul loves tricking out kayaks. So as he gets new products in, new models, he's not only testing them and sharing the results online, but he's also tricking them out. He's he's powering them up, putting motors on them, doing crazy things with them. Uh, so if you want any of that done on your new ride or just upgrade your current ride, check out Great Bay Outfitters. Then we have Quad State Tune with Kevin Driscoll. If you have a Toyota truck, so we're talking the Forerunner, the Tundra, uh, what's the other one? Uh the Tacoma, probably the most popular one. If you have any of those great engines on them, but they can be better. And these engine tunes that Kevin has will get you better performance out of it. You'll get more torque, more horsepower, better throttle response. And if you're towing anything, you're gonna get better mileage, better shifting on the roads. And you may as well just do a very inexpensive upgrade to that truck, and you're gonna get a lot more out of it. Then the last one is me for real estate, Richard Natoli. That's my name. I work for Whikert Cornerstone Realtors out of Bluebell and Collegville, Pennsylvania. So I cover southeastern Pennsylvania. If you're looking residential, buy, sell, or invest. It's a tough time to invest, but you can still do it. Give me a call, email, or text 267-270-1145. Let me jump back. Quad stay tuned. If you want to reach out to Kevin and talk about your specific truck and whether or not his tunes will work for it, his number is 484-633-5975. All right. So with that, we're gonna jump right in. I know that we have World Cup Soccer with the USA coming up tonight, and we are going to bleed into that, but we're gonna bring on Kwa right now and get started and stop me screwing around. Kwa,

Trout In 100 Degree Heat

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 3:41

welcome back.

Khoa Nguyen 3:42

Hey, thanks for having me back, Rich. With how's everything been?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 3:45

It's it's been good. I'll just share what we were talking about right before you came on. I have not been fishing lately at all, except for freshwater. And I'm an idiot because I went freshwater fishing on Saturday, and it was about a hundred degrees, and I went just after noon. It was crazy, it was so stupid. I went down there, I'm like, there's no way looking at these trout, and I'm like hitting literally hitting them on the head with everything, and they're just sitting there, like, what are you doing? Like, get the hell out of here. Like, they didn't, they didn't even flip. I literally knocked them off the heads. Nothing, nothing didn't matter what was thrown.

Khoa Nguyen 4:27

I mean, that's trout for you, you know. You talk about 100-degree day, they just they they're just trying to survive, they're trying to find that cold water, stay not moved.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 4:34

There was no cold water. Well, it it was. I'll tell you, I was in the skip back creek. It was it was probably for the uh entire quarter mile stretch. It was probably 10 inches deep. Maybe there were some holes down to 18 inches. It was hot. I mean, it was hot, hot in that water. So yeah, there was no relief, no, no wonder. I got as soon as I walked down there, the guy turns around and is like, they're not biting. I was like, I know, I'll stay out of the way. He's like, No, no, I'm leaving. They're just not biting. I'm like, Well, I got a couple hours, I'm just gonna give it a go. Didn't work.

Khoa Nguyen 5:09

Surprise, surprise there weren't any floaters around, man. You know, those trout, they don't like that warm water at all.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 5:15

There were none. There were none. There was there was literally nothing going, nothing was moving around except for the frogs. The frogs were jumping around. So that was it.

Khoa Nguyen 5:24

Yeah. But it's been a while. It's been a while to be on a podcast. Feels it feels different, just kind of like knocking the dust off the boots, you know what I mean? It's kind of feel like being back on a podcast.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 5:35

Yeah, well, you'll be back eventually. You guys are on you got your your break that you're on.

Khoa Nguyen 5:40

We're taking our little break. The boys are in baby daddy duty, you know. They're they're we're giving them their maternity leave. Yeah, you know, we've got Tyler's planning a wedding, so we're taking we're giving everyone a little breather, but we'll be back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 5:52

And everybody deserves it. It I mean, it takes a lot of energy.

Khoa Nguyen 5:55

Oh, you and you and me both know it takes a lot of energy. And you know what? Neither one of us getting rich off of this.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 6:01

No, and I'll tell you what, they they all have like big uh big family commitments, and the last thing you want to do is interfere with that. As somebody whose kids are both done like out of college, you definitely a fishing podcast is not worth missing time with the kids at all. I I miss, I still miss my son, is actually home right now. He's studying for he's studying for his L sets for for going to law school, but he's in the other room. But I I tell him to his face all the time, I miss watching you play soccer. And he plays in a men's league, and he will not let me and my wife go. That's our joke. I'm like, where are you playing? He's like, You're not coming. 22-year-old playing. Yeah, so I can I can understand not doing it for taking the year off. Um, but I am looking forward to the return episodes, I'll be honest with you. I there are very few YouTube channels that I watch and podcasts that I listen to that are not business related, like directly related to my business, and Tide Chasers is one of them. So everybody, you should know it's not gone, it's just on vacation at this time.

Khoa Nguyen 7:11

Pretty much. We're just on vacation. We'll be back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 7:14

Yeah, all right.

Why Cuddyhunk And Who Plans

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 7:15

So let's talk about the topic. It's that time of year. People are traveling, they're going all over the place. I just had some messages yesterday about somebody thinking about going to the Outer Banks. They were shocked, they were looking online for some, you know, where where to catch reds, and my video came up for Pamlico Sound.

Khoa Nguyen 7:34

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 7:34

So I was talking about that, but you went up to Cuddy Hunk.

Speaker 3 7:38

Mm-hmm.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 7:38

And we got to talk about that. So let's let's talk about how did you get it get set up with this?

Khoa Nguyen 7:44

Well, with the Cuddy Hunk tramp, this is a trip that George Bucci, he's been on your podcast plenty of times.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 7:50

Uh he'll be back, I think, next week, actually, talking light tackle weak fish.

Khoa Nguyen 7:54

Yeah, so he's been on this, he's done this trip every year, meticulously, and I I don't even know how long he's been doing it, but he's been doing it for quite a quite a good amount of time. And the opportunity came up where he said, you know what, let's put together a century advanced fishing staff staff trip together. So we round up all the boys, and you know what? I mean, big shout outs to George. He put this whole trip together for me. Like he did all the planning for the bookings, the uh uh the golf carts, yeah, literally everything. And he literally gave us lists of things that we need to have to be on this trip.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 8:31

And did you listen to his list?

Khoa Nguyen 8:33

Oh, to a T. Even down to a flashlight that he recommended, I bought it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 8:39

Oh, good, good. Yeah. Now, now, what were some of the things that he had mentioned that you should bring?

Khoa Nguyen 8:45

A couple things. If if in the woods ever looked up Cuddy Hunk, it's a small island, oh like what the Elizabeth Islands, I believe, off that kind of area, off in Massachusetts. So near Cuddy Hunk, you got Block, you got Cuddy Hunk, and you got Martha's Vineyard, and a bunch of other little islands around. So the only way on and off this island is by ferry. And there are there are literally almost no vehicles on the uh island, maybe two or three trucks, and then the rest golf carts.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 9:16

Yeah. So so I was gonna say Cuddy Hunk, you leave your car behind, you take the ferry, and then you you get a golf cart.

Khoa Nguyen 9:22

Yeah, you rent a golf cart, and then there's literally, I think George said there's only like 20 residents that live on the island full-time. And then you got this golf cart, and I think the the whole islands, I mean, you could ride around in a golf cart in less than maybe an hour.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 9:38

Nice. Nice.

Khoa Nguyen 9:39

Yeah, all right. So we'll get back to so we got the invitation from so the whole I think almost a whole year we started, we were planning, you know, recommending things. As we got closer, George started checking up on us, made sure we had everything we're done, we had everything we needed, and then we start discussing food because there are no restaurants on the island. There are there's a very small convenience store, uh-huh, and there's no taco shop. So you literally have to pack everything.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 10:10

Okay.

Khoa Nguyen 10:11

Yeah, so when you did when you did that, so we went through it, and you gotta remember everything you pack in is gonna cost you because you have to pay for it on the ferry. You got it. So say if you bring four totes, you gotta pay for each tote. So each tote's like five bucks. Yeah. So it adds up. So you gotta make sure you pack everything and everything. And there's a lesson learned in here. I thought I packed everything, and we'll get to that in a little bit later, but like but we packed as best you can. Pack as many lures you can. I brought the whole kitchen sink because I mean, George gave us a recommendation of a bunch of good stuff, and you know what the funny thing is, it all worked. Yeah, everything he said to pack worked. Two rods, always pack two rods. He said, you know, you you have your main rod and you have a back one just in case.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 10:58

Yep.

Khoa Nguyen 10:59

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 11:00

And now, what were you what was the primary target?

Khoa Nguyen 11:04

Primary target on block was I mean not block, cuddy hunk was stripers. That's all that's all. You know, I mean, from the history of Cuddy Hunk, you got the presidents that used to live there at the fishing club, celebrities, they come up there and they they sleep and they fish.

Speaker 3 11:20

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 11:21

Cuddy Hunk has so much history, it's insane. It just used we spent the whole day. I spent the whole day just driving the golf cart around and just looking at all the history. They used to have fishing stands out there bounted to rocks where you would climb out and sit. Like the the presidents and stuff would sit on these fishing stands, and then they would have a kid or a kid or uh like what do you call those um guys in golf that carry your uh a caddy? A caddy, exactly. They used to have a guy cut like a caddy, he sits in the front of the this fishing stand and he chunks lobster out.

Speaker 3 11:52

Really?

Khoa Nguyen 11:52

He cuts it, he chunks it into the water to draw the bass in, and then the guy fishing is over top of him throwing chunks down.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 12:00

Okay, so did you guys even consider on one of your card playing evenings, the loser had to chunk the lobster?

Khoa Nguyen 12:10

No, only if those stands were still there. There are remnants of the stands, like there's holes still in the rocks and then some lumber, but like the the you can see the where 70, 80 years ago there was someone standing on that rock on a fishing stand. One guy chunking lobster, the other one's just catching fast.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 12:28

That's awesome. I mean, it's just to think about that. You know that there's there's no way they're ever gonna allow that landscape and that view to be obstructed by fishing stands anymore.

Khoa Nguyen 12:38

No.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 12:39

But yeah, so the the old timers can't say that we've gone soft. We're we're actually, well, you guys were actually wetsuits out in the water climbing onto rocks, whereas you know, they've got their little caddy going along.

Khoa Nguyen 12:52

So we'll go back and go if I get back into the gear. So uh

Packing List For Rock Surf

Khoa Nguyen 12:55

another recommendation that George says we must have is wetsuits. You gotta have a wetsuit. I mean, one of my one of us bought a pair of waders. Yeah. Waiters are cool, but like during the day, but when you're at night fishing on top of a rock, waders is the worst thing you want to have. You get you get knocked off, and I mean, we're not in like talking about like six, maybe ten feet of water, you know, sometimes, but like even if you're in like four feet of water and you get knocked off a rock, if you get knocked off and you fall flat, your wader's gonna get filled up with water and you're automaticallycome a parachute underwater. Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 13:31

Yeah, that's that's no good. I've I've had waders fill, and they don't sink you, but any current that gets in there does pull you.

Khoa Nguyen 13:39

Yeah, you turn into a parachute, you can just get dragged out.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 13:41

And it's it's it's if they're near preen, they're damn near impossible to get off under the water. They do float a little bit, so it's kind of neutral. Well, they're already neutral buoyancy, but they do float a little bit, but it doesn't help a lot.

Khoa Nguyen 13:54

No, so the wetsuit keeps you dry, keeps you warm, keeps you afloat, and the moveability of a wetsuit is so much easier. You're carrying a rod, you got your your surf belt, and then you got your uh surf bag on you. It's just you try to minimize everything, and then you hundred most important thing is corkers. Yeah. 100% need corkers.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 14:18

Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. So there's no stores on the island. So zero stores. You want to talk about your situation?

Khoa Nguyen 14:25

Yeah, yeah. So I got a pair of corkers. I mean, they're probably like maybe five years old, and I I I've used them here in Jersey for barn it and things like that. Like, I've never put them to like abuse abuse. These three, four days we're there, I beat the crap out of them. Yeah, they were they were they were used for what they I were I we were walking through rocks. The whole island's made of rocks, like softball-sized pebbles, like round pebbles that will break your ankle.

Speaker 3 14:50

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 14:51

So we were walking through those, and then like first night, first night we chilled, second night I fished with the guys, third night we fished, found fish, did really good. And that was the night I what happened is my corker separated the boot. The whole thing just fell apart, disintegrated, just from climbing up and down rocks like every day.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 15:10

You know, and then so you had you had the boots with the attachment on the bottom?

Khoa Nguyen 15:14

Yeah, I had the boots with the attachments on the bottom. And yeah, the there were a lot of times on corkers when they when they break, they usually what happens is the uh the attachment stops stops clicking in, right? So they keep flopping off.

Speaker 3 15:28

Yep.

Khoa Nguyen 15:29

And George knows this. He brought a giant roll of duct tape every trip. Every trip he has a giant roll of duct tape. That's how that's how experienced you know he is. He has a roll of giant duct tape. Yeah. So the duct tape couldn't help me because mines didn't separate there. Mine separated back by the heel. So the boot literally fell apart itself.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 15:48

That's not good.

Khoa Nguyen 15:49

Yeah, that's not good. So I was pretty store. No, there's no store. So I was pretty much out for the next two nights. I fished where I could and just being very careful. But like, yeah, literally the other two nights, these guys, let's just say they had a fantastic, crazy night.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 16:06

And you got to hear all about it the whole time.

Khoa Nguyen 16:08

Well, I oh every night, every night, every night they would come through at like 1 a.m. The way George times these moons, he has certain hours that everyone's fishes. He runs around, he whistles, like wakes everybody up like he's our mother. Yeah, get up, time to go. And then he's like, get in, car, let's go. And then they those guys crush fish. They had two 200 fish nights.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 16:30

All right, well, hold on. So George is here. Here's his comment. It started falling apart too. Corkers have a great warranty, fill out the warranty for him and send it in.

Khoa Nguyen 16:41

Oh, I did that, George. And what they they said mines were so old and outdated that they're either only going to give me what the cost is at the time, 80 bucks, or I could take 30% off my the new set. So I I think I'm gonna get the same pair that Dwayne has, which is the ultralight new corkers that they have coming out.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 16:59

So yeah, you may as well. And I know mine, I've had mine for a long time. There's no and I had the boots too. The problem with the boots though is that they don't flex at all. But I I uh I got them because you know, in New Jersey, I I was always wearing the stocking foot waiters, so you had to put them in something. Yeah, and corker, you know, but I needed corkers too. Yeah, but man, they get heavy and they don't flex very well. But I thought I thought originally when you had mentioned it to me that you had just the strap-on ones.

Khoa Nguyen 17:33

Oh no, I brought a pair of strap-on ones as a backup, but I realized what am I gonna strap them to?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 17:40

Oh, you didn't okay.

Khoa Nguyen 17:42

Yeah, I didn't bring an extra pair of like timberlands or anything like the wear, so I can strap them. I brought them, and for some reason I bought a hat, I had a pair of dive boots, like those real like neoprene dive boots, and I thought they could strap to them, but they didn't, they like they not enough structure, not enough structure. If they I would have rolled my ankle, and I've already rolled my ankle during Thanksgiving, so I'm not rolling my ankle again.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 18:01

100%. I I have a pair of those types of boots, and they're I actually have the what are they? I think they're NRS, but they're they there is zero structure and zero support on those things. Yeah, yeah, there's no way that those would hold corkers. I mean, you would literally snap your ankle. Yep, exactly. You'd snap your ankle. All right, so two rods, a whole bunch of gear. What kind of gear at this time of year did he have you bringing as kind of like the primary? What were you like, is it plugs? Is it a few years?

Khoa Nguyen 18:27

Yeah, mostly plugs, mostly with their own plugs, a lot of mostly subsurface stuff. So like you know, like darters, needlefish, things like that. You know, he has his certain colors that he loves. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna disclose his favorite colors because those things crushed.

Speaker 3 18:43

Okay.

Khoa Nguyen 18:43

Yeah, him and Mark had the colors dialed in and they work really well. So with the colors they recommended, totally crushed. 60 pound floral, because there are all the rocks and things like that there.

Speaker 3 18:53

Yep.

Khoa Nguyen 18:54

Yeah, and definitely you're you gotta be fishing a vansthal or a z-bass, one or the other, because we are dunking, we are swimming, we are using our fishing rods as walking sticks.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 19:03

Yeah, I was gonna say, like that, that is a prohibitive thing for a lot of people, right? I mean, there are there are some older reels that you can get away with it, but they're very heavy. And the last thing you want is when you're waiting is to have a heavy reel, like a pen. Like old pens, you they actually will work pretty well. You do have to strip it down, but it's very easy to strip those down as compared to you know a modern reel.

Speaker 3 19:28

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 19:28

So, okay, so you're talking the waterproof reels, you're mostly subsurface.

Khoa Nguyen 19:34

And then Britt, you pack a few pencils because George George said that once in a while you're gonna wander around and you're gonna see some birds, and you may run into a daytime blitz, a daytime bike.

Day Blitzes And Night Striper Bite

Khoa Nguyen 19:46

And I happen to run into one of those by myself, just kind of like bored, bored during the daytime, everyone's sleeping. Uh, and I'm I just get to jump, I jump in a golf cart, and I'm just I put the rod in, I just got cruising around looking. And I I f saw one or two birds just kind of just just flying around, and I'm just like, I wonder. So I jumped on a rock, took a few casts, literally, I think it was like 9 30 a.m. in the morning or something. Yeah, made made one cast, boom, hooked up right away. I was like, holy crap! And then that's when I text the guys, I was like, get down here right now. There's a right in front of the house.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 20:19

And did they?

Khoa Nguyen 20:21

Yeah, they rolled down. They rolled down. But I mean, the it wasn't it wasn't fast and fierce. It was literally, I think I banged four or five fishes back to back to back on topwater. Yeah, and then they came down, just as they came down, the bite kind of died off. Right. But here's here's the funny part, right? So they they they came down, they they started walking up and down the beach casting, casting, casting. No fish, no fish, no fish for like two hours. And then I was like, you know what? I'm gonna put the drone up. And this is where you see my drone footage. So I popped the drone up, and this is we're all done already. We're saying I'm just chit-chatting, you know, shooting the shit. I put the drone up, fly the whole area that we were fishing. Hundreds of fish. Literally, just swimming, cruising, in between rocks, they just mind your own business. I if you ever if you see my Instagram or seen George's Instagram, you see there's a George castes past one, brings right by its head a pencil, and it just denies him. It ignores him. It just goes right over his head. He didn't even care about it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 21:17

That's like me trout fishing. Yeah, so what's what what size class were the fish?

Khoa Nguyen 21:24

They're they're mostly schoolies, 28 to 32-ish. The ones that the guys caught at night and we caught, they're they're a little bigger, up like 33, 35.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 21:32

Nice.

Khoa Nguyen 21:33

One couple, George caught a could be decent one, Mark caught a real decent one, Dwayne caught a decent one. I had one on that I hooked up, and it it felt like a really good one. It had giant headshakes, it had like the whole makes up a big fish. Big head shakes, uh hard runs. I was fishing the elite and the Z Bass 25, and I had the drag pretty much almost locked, and she was ripping, she was screaming at drag. Off of it, and she would not stop. And the the thing about the fish up here, they're smart, they're not dumb, especially the big ones, too. And I've experienced this. She went right for the biggest rock.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 22:12

Oh, yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 22:13

Yeah, right for the biggest rock. And then she just and then I knew she was going for that rock because I saw that rock during the daytime when we were scouting, so we knew that rock was there. So I locked drag even more, and then she pulled the hook, and then I I've I posted photos of my hook. That's a 6X mustad, and she bent it out.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 22:32

Yeah, I mean that's the thing. You know, it it brings up a a point for for people that are thinking about going to a different area. So you're using 60-pound fluoro, right? I I guarantee you, most people that are surf fishing the mid-Atlantic aren't using 60-pound fluoro for any other reason besides they've always used it, right? Because you don't need it in you know, sandy beaches, you don't need it. There's nothing to break off on, right? Yeah, right. You can pull in a 50-pound fish on a 20-pound leader. You could just take a little longer and finesse, but yeah, but but George knew the area and he was able to tell you look, we're we're gonna be in rocks, we're gonna be around heavy structure, you've got to have them. And I think that's you know, we could bring that in as one tip for people. You you really should spend a little bit of time and take a look at where you're fishing, not just the species. Because it makes all the difference. You're you're catching schoolies, you're gonna need in a lot a schoolie. Let's just say 35 inches down, right? Not the 35 is a schoolie, I don't think it is. I think they're actually smaller, but let's say 35 inches down, because that's basically where most of your fish came in, right? But you you need a you sometimes need a 60-pound leader because you're rubbing off of rocks, and there's not there's not a damn thing you can do about it. If they're if they pick up and turn left and that's where the boulder is, well, they're gonna wrap it a little bit. Yeah, so you better have something. And I I I know that a lot of people miss out on that part of their scouting.

Khoa Nguyen 24:02

And that's where the whole game plan, I've always said that I mean the thing is most important is if you're ever gonna go to a new place like this, either you talk to someone that's been there or you have someone. And luckily for us, now we George and Mark, they've been there plenty of times, so they had a lot of experience there and they knew exactly what they're getting us into.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 24:20

Um I'm gonna say right now, I bet you if George went on his own the first time, I bet you he didn't go with the 60-pound fluoro. I I he probably didn't, you know, and he's been going for a long time, so it was probably he first started going before it was easy to find all this stuff online, too. But yeah, I mean, most people don't think about that stuff. You think, you know, I and I do this. Yeah, he started with 40.

Speaker 3 24:43

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 24:44

Yeah, 40. So so, like, you know, if I'm going down, I I did this my first year. I went to Outer Banks. I just went with the same fluke gear that I had up here, thinking it'll work, or not fluke, weakfish gear. And I figured it'll work for the specs, but I didn't take into account any of the environmental factors, right? So here I go, I I head out in a kayak. I'm like, well, I can't use my kayak here. I just came hundreds of miles, hundreds of miles just down OBX to southern outer banks, down to Avon, and I can't even use my kayak because I didn't research it. You know, I just figured, hey, I'll go fishing, but I didn't realize that the grass in the grass flats was it was only two feet deep, and the grass came up to within six inches of the top, which meant no drive. So there I am out with a drive that I couldn't use. Yeah, which was I it sucks. Well, yeah, because it's the extra weight. Yeah, I ended up just leaving it up, but what I should have done is just left it in the truck because I could just stand and use the paddle to pull myself, you know, like like you pull around the flats. But had I known that, I would have brought a pole instead of instead of a paddle.

Khoa Nguyen 25:56

Instead of a paddle, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 25:57

Yeah, which was bending every time I tried to push off of something. But yeah, so I think that's that's one thing. Make sure that you do some research on the specifics and what you might need to change, because while they may be the same fish, maybe even the exact same fish, right? Like you you could have been catching fish that are down in Jersey at another time of the year. Same fish, they they travel that that far. But the conditions are gonna be much different in the environment. You're you may have to adjust your your tackle approach in order to get them.

Khoa Nguyen 26:28

Oh, 100%.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 26:29

All right, so so you've got you're going subsurface, you've got the the correct reels, the correct line, the correct gear. What's the next thing that we should know? And this is put in the story of Cuddy Hunk. Like, tell us a little bit more about you know stuff that that happened.

Khoa Nguyen 26:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. All right, so I mean, we got there, hauled, but when we got there, I mean, I get George worked with this guy, Dale, that has golf carts. We as soon as the ferry pulled up, all three of our cot golf carts are already parked there waiting for us. It's like clockwork, everything's like no, no running around trying to figure out where's our golf cart things like everything was already placed, loaded up everything into the golf carts, and we drove to the house. And yeah, we went to the house, uh, we stayed at Pete's Place. It was an amazing, like literally. It's a bunch of little like I guess by-level houses. And so four of us stayed in one, and then two, and then George and Mark stayed in a separate one. So, but we were right next door to each other, so it's it's cool. Like we would run back and forth, yeah. All the food we and food-wise, I mean, we're men, we don't really cook too much, so we kind of almost live like cavemen. So Mark even says it, the kraut. One of our buddy Bobby brought six pounds of like kibasa and like a bunch of kraut.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 27:50

That must have been pleasant.

Khoa Nguyen 27:51

Yeah. And then we had, and then uh Mark Mark Mark's mother-in-law made these amazing empanadas, like three sandwich bags fulls of like giant gallon bags. Those things were we were we were pigging out on those. We had sandwiches, ham and cheese. I brought steaks and potatoes and eggs. I like I'm the like I'm like the one that likes to cook. So I made like steak, egg, and potatoes for the boys and for breakfast and things like that. And we just, you know what? It's kind of one of those things like as a teenager, you you know, your boys knock on your door, and then they'd be like, Hey, let's go ride bikes. So you'd spend the whole day riding bikes and just hanging out with each other. And this to me, this is what it felt like. It felt like a bunch of friends just hanging out on a trip and just enjoying life as boys. Like we left everything home. And out here was just us hanging out. We played, you know, we played, we we hung out, we watched, we watched soccer, we watched the games together, and we just hung out pretty much. And then most of the days that's what it is. We just chilled, hung out, ate, explore the island. And this is this is where George kind of shows his experience because we'll stand randomly sit there, and then he'll see a bird fly by, and then he'll look at me like, Come on, let's go. No rods, nothing, just our shorts and a t-shirt. Yeah, we'll jump in a golf cart, and we'll drive the whole island and scope out every single spot.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 29:17

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 29:18

He's like, it's low tide, we can go look, see what rocks are out there, see what the tide looks like, see how dirty the water is. Because you know, he knows how many cycles it takes to clean. He, you know, he so he's we're watching, we're checking out all the all the regular places, and then we're just making sure he's like, All right, tonight looks good here. We might stop by here, maybe here. So he so he's like our I would say the wedding planner. He's already planned the whole night's trip before any of us even said anything.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 29:49

Yeah, he's Julie Cruz director. All you just get on, he's gonna tell you where to go and when to go, and he's gonna get you there.

Khoa Nguyen 29:56

Yeah, yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 29:56

And and you guys had success. That's also I'll I'll tell you what, I haven't been on a trip like that ever, where it's just a bunch of guys that just go to, you know. I the only time I ever did it is like maybe overnight head down to you know, when we had a place in Stone Harbor, just me and like a friend fish all night, and then you sleep for three hours, and then you you know gas up the boat again and go back out. But that was that was it. Yeah, but it sounds like it was a bunch of teenagers running around almost getting in trouble but not getting caught.

Khoa Nguyen 30:26

Yeah, that's exactly us. There was literally six of us with three golf cart golf carts, and we're like zooming around the whole island just just doing random stuff. You know, we'll run down, get like blueberry ice cream, and just run back the ice cream in our hands, and like we're like kids, literally just running around golf carts, just running amok.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 30:44

Well, now I'm jealous. Now everybody's jealous.

Khoa Nguyen 30:47

Yeah, it was an amazing time. Like, honestly, if we didn't even catch fish, I would have enjoyed every minute of it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 30:54

Well, that's the thing, yeah. And and were there were there any yeah, because the experience itself and fishing a new place has this kind of like to me, it has kind of this this crazy allure to it. Like, I I don't know if I'm gonna catch fish, but it's kind of like a test. Yeah, you know, now you had George there who who knows all the spots, right? He's been there, Mark has been there, and he knows all the spots, but were you able to kind of pick up on anything that translates back to our area? I know it's not the same, you know, topography and everything like that, but was there anything that was different up there that you think you might try out down here?

Khoa Nguyen 31:29

I mean, they're pretty close. I mean, the fish-wise, it's like I mean, during just just like during the fall, daytime you might find a topwater bite, a pencil bite, or something like that. Nighttime's the right time, you know. So, I mean, it's kind of like the spring here. Yeah, uh, might find a bite during the day, but most of the bites at night. And you know, it's it's pretty much the same routine, minus the uh the physical quality of

Ropes Rocks And Staying Safe

Khoa Nguyen 31:54

this area. It's not it's that's one thing I'm gonna say is I was not physically trained for this. Yeah, like like I started walking more, I started hitting the gym a little bit, trying to get, but like this place will test you physically.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 32:07

Yeah, well, I mean, even just going out in the water in the dark and then having to climb up a rock in the dark.

Khoa Nguyen 32:14

Well, yeah, there's this one spot, and I'm not gonna blow it up to let and not blow it up, but like I'm not gonna You don't have to get specific. Yeah, no, no, but like give the surprise of what it actually is. But like it's a spot where the only way you're getting down to the fish, you're gonna have to grab a rope and repel like you're off in a helicopter. Like down a wall.

Speaker 3 32:32

Yeah, yep.

Khoa Nguyen 32:33

You gotta repel, you gotta repel down, like like literally scale down a wall, a bluff with a rope that's been tied there for how many years we don't even know.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 32:41

Uh-huh.

Khoa Nguyen 32:42

And then you have to repel down. One guy's got to go first, then we hand the rods down one by one, and then if we repel down, and then you fish, tired as anything, and then you gotta climb back up the bluff with that rope.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 32:58

Yeah, so see, that's that's something where you don't want to be the heaviest guy. And if you're any of the other guys, you want the heaviest guy to go first.

Khoa Nguyen 33:07

That's me. I was the heavy guy.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 33:09

Did they make you go first?

Khoa Nguyen 33:11

No, I I I I asked them to go first so I could see how they do it. So I can't wait to go. Oh, there you go.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 33:15

Yeah, so I could see.

Khoa Nguyen 33:17

I watched, and then sliding down that that that spot in a wetsuit makes you look like made me look like a fat seal rolling down.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 33:24

Yeah, well, that's what I look like when I put one on. I don't even have one that fits anymore. I got rid of it. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, James is in the chat saying he's screwed. He's not he's not going down that either. That would be the night where I just kind of wave and go on to the next one. Because he got to get back up.

Khoa Nguyen 33:41

Yeah, you gotta get back up. I mean, the very first time I had it, I got down there, I I had I had fear in my eyes just looking down that bluff. I'm just like, if I let go, I'm gonna die. Yeah, that's but but after after George pushing me a couple of times, just you could do this, just do it. And then it became it became normal. Once you get the rhythm of it, it became very normal, and I can get up and down pretty easily.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 34:05

So all right, so no hesitation when you go next year. No, no, no. Are you going again next year, you think?

Khoa Nguyen 34:10

Yeah, if I get the invite, I'm definitely 100% going. I I wouldn't I wouldn't miss this for the world.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 34:15

I I love the fact that like right now, striped bass in, let's say, New Jersey and Delaware, it's a resident bite, right? But it's it's a the numbers just aren't anywhere near what you're gonna have up there. It's a resident bite up there, right? I mean, they're not migration fish, right?

Khoa Nguyen 34:35

A lot of them are migration fish.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 34:36

They're still migrating.

Khoa Nguyen 34:37

A lot of the ones we caught had lice, sea lice. A lot of things.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 34:40

So I thought they settled in by now up there.

Khoa Nguyen 34:42

Um, but they do have their residential fish that are there, and it's just like you know, it's just it's it's tough because the week before us, there's a group of guys that went up there that George knew, and they didn't do well at all. You know, they caught a few fish, and that was like, okay. And then, you know, I mean, like, like I said, George already booked next year by looking at the moons. He already he he he some he somehow he looks next year, he's like, All right, I need these dates, that's it, done. And he already locked it in. He already locked the uh the place up already.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 35:16

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. That that's a level beyond me. I I honestly I just go whenever I can go, and then I try to figure it out after.

Khoa Nguyen 35:26

Dude, it's like it's crazy because like I think I I don't always say I'm the best or know anything, but like I know a good amount, but just the few hours or days just sitting there, and then everyone sees sometimes they see George as this kind of rough guy that doesn't help people. Oh, when you get on his sweet side, he will help you to the end. And he's an encyclopedia. Like, I turned into a kid listening to like Yoda, like I turned into a giant sponge, my ears were so big, and I was just everything that came out was scientific. Yeah, why is the current going this way? There's two different sweeps going this way. You're gonna want to cast this way and let your plug swing this way so you can retrieve it so it looks right. Because if you swing this way, you throw that, cast that way, it swings opposite way. Your plug's not gonna swim right. And it's just like I'm like, what's going on here?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 36:22

I it's a good point. Like a lot of people like to act like they're the best, you know, and they know everything and they they won't listen. And you know, I've been fortunate to be with to be out on the water with with guys that I like to just shut up and listen because you know, even like there are certain things that I think I'm really good at, but it doesn't mean I know everything. And you know, out tog fishing with Mahalik and just kind of like listening to him, not saying anything, just kind of listening and watching what he's doing. George put on a clinic for for Chesapeake Bay fishing, it was ridiculous. You know, you just kick back and watch, but I think like there are just way too many people that don't do that. There they just have to be the best, and they can't listen to anything. And what's funny is usually the older people or people with YouTube channels like me. I already know everything. No, you don't. You don't, you should be on the water with some of these guys and and really see. Yeah, and I think I think that's a big part of it. You have to be, if you're going to a new place, you have to be open to listening. But you also, I would say this too, you also have to be able to filter out stuff, right? Like I I remember going to OBX and stop by a shop and just to patronize, I like I don't need anything. I I literally have I can't even tell you how many pounds, like dozens of pounds of leads that I have, like weights, then not weights, jigs, right? Tog jigs. Tog jigs, yeah. I probably have 35 pounds of them, 40 pounds of them. I don't need I don't need stuff, but I show up at local shops and I just buy something stupid just to do it. And I'm down at OBX and I show up and they're like, What are you doing? I'm like, I'm gonna take the kayak out in the sound, gonna get in there like, well, where are you going? I'm like, going in at haul over. And they're like, Okay, you're not gonna catch anything. I was like, Well, what's the best tactic that you would suggest for you know, fishing mid-morning into early afternoon? They're like, I suggest you go back to the beach and just hang out with your family. I was like, All right, like you're not gonna catch anything, so I go and limit. Yeah, I just go and limit on the specs because you don't so you have to be able to filter too, right? And these guys, I know that they're good fishermen. I've seen one of them online. He is a good fisherman, but yeah, he was giving bad advice. So, but I still listened and I did pick up a tactic that he said would work later in the day, and it worked perfectly at noon in 96, 95 degree water. It still worked. So, yeah. What what other things, what other tips do you have? Or what other things happen that we can kind of learn a lesson from? We know we know bring new corkers.

Khoa Nguyen 39:06

Bring new corkers, duct tape. When you have free time during the day, scout. Always know your landscape. Like it's really good. Yeah, we talked about that. And it's it's literally every few hours, every different tide, George would take the golf car and run around by himself. He would just every few hours, like non-stop, he would just cruise and just look. Cruise and just look. It's uh and you learn your landscape. You learn every rock that you see during the day, you gotta visually be able to see it at night.

Speaker 3 39:37

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 39:38

Because you're making your way out there. So when you hook into a fish, you know exactly that rock is still there, or there's a rock that you've been looking at at low tide during the day that you know you can swim to later and get on top of it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 39:49

Right, or you know it's gonna break the current and they're gonna have you know fish behind it. Yeah. That's a good point. And and George knew the area and he was out there checking it out. Yeah, yeah. I think it's yeah, it goes back even to the first point. Like you gotta be prepared. And if you're just there to go fishing and screw around with friends, yeah, well, you're not gonna fish 24 hours a day. And if you are, you're you've you've gone into it determined to grind. But you guys didn't do that. You went in determined to catch fish, right? And come up with plans and understand the the area.

Khoa Nguyen 40:23

So when it was at night, you were able to find the the place you're you were able to push yourself to your limits at night and fish hard and then just nap all day.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 40:33

Yeah. Did you ever see those guys in New Jersey that mark the beaches at low tide? And they they walk down and they like put like sticks or something. Yeah, yeah. Do you ever see the dudes that walk behind them, the old timers?

Khoa Nguyen 40:45

No, I haven't seen them before.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 40:47

Oh my god. This used to happen in there was this one dude in Avalon when I was growing up. So I'd just go and drive down, not drive, I'd ride a bike down to the different beaches that I knew had good structure. And there'd be guys down there at low tide, and that's why I'm there looking, and they're marking it off with sticks. And then the the this one old guy would just walk down and take the sticks and move them a block. So they're they were they were totally off. But it goes back to your the reason I bring it up is it goes to your point. Like you need to be able to visualize it. So don't just throw sticks down, like visualize it. Stand there and look at it, look what's behind you, look what's in front of you, find that spot, and then you know, you can't just put sticks on the ground and and hope that you're gonna find it.

Speaker 3 41:29

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 41:30

Because it's all gonna look different, it's all gonna look different.

Khoa Nguyen 41:33

Yeah, yeah.

Public Access And Best Terrain

Khoa Nguyen 41:34

So aside from the fishing, I mean I I honestly think it's a really good family vacation spot too, because during the day, there's beaches to swim at, there's the cutting hunk fishing club where you can go in there and just see the history of like old presidents that's fish there, giant fish that's hanging on the wall, things like that. There's an old tree by the cemetery that plug builders have been hanging plugs on there for years, and you see some really old plugs hanging up on there.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 42:00

Nobody's stealing them?

Khoa Nguyen 42:02

No, no, no, no. This place is just so safe. It's been like they don't even have an officer on the island. They have a safety patrol guy that just drives around in a little uh golf cart.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 42:15

In a shorts and in shorts, yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 42:17

Do you have a whistle? Yeah, he had a whistle. We left there, he had one of those or like orange fluorescent or green fluorescent vests on, too.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 42:26

Dude, I so that's hilarious, but that's my kind of place.

Khoa Nguyen 42:30

Yeah, it's it's literally there's a bunch of people, but you know what? It's it's super safe. We left all our rods out on the decks, all our gears on the decks. I mean, we're talking like two, three thousand dollar combos just sitting on the deck. Yeah. Um, and and we feel safe, doors are unlocked.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 42:47

Well, let me ask you this. What what is it like accessing the water from there? Like, is it a lot of private property that you have to work around? Is it no beach?

Khoa Nguyen 42:59

Most of it, majority of it is all public beaches. Okay, yeah, so I'll do but you definitely do need a golf cart because you're not gonna walk to these beaches. Golf carts are definitely a hundred percent necessity to make around the island. The further you get out, like the west side, it gets that's where like the rougher terrain, things like that.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 43:20

So now where where did you find the the best fishing? Like what side of the island? What what were some of the the factors that really made the difference?

Khoa Nguyen 43:29

The factor that made the difference that I feel is the rougher terrain that it takes to get to it, the better the fishing was.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 43:35

Yeah, was it was it more structure off in the water too?

Khoa Nguyen 43:38

Yeah, 100%. A lot of boaters, okay. Um lot of boat fields. I mean, you hear people talk about it, the pyramids, things like that. You know, that's it's reading, it's one thing. Like before I even went, I ordered the book off Amazon by DJ Mueller. It's a book that he wrote that he fishes Block Island and Cuddy Hunk. I read the Cuddy Hunk section and read about. All the different areas pretty much try memorize the map that was written out. So we had you get places like churches, you got high flyer, you got pyramids, you get the bluff, the west end, the oyster creep oyster lake, things like that. You won't know until like you're actually there to see it all. Like George said, half the island is private property owned by the uh Spaulding family.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 44:24

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 44:24

Yeah, so the other half is pretty much all public.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 44:28

But I mean if but that's pretty good. I mean, when you can access half, I mean that that's that's a pretty good amount of space that you can get onto on an island. I mean, you think about New Jersey and Delaware and Maryland's the worst. You can't get anywhere. Like try fishing fish in the Chesapeake, it's damn near impossible unless you can find a park. Right. But yeah, so that's awesome. So half of the island is pretty well fishable. Yeah, but I mean you could probably get to the private stuff, you just can't walk through the private stuff, right?

Khoa Nguyen 44:57

Yeah, you can't you can walk it.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 44:59

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 45:00

But you can't like I mean George says we act we access all of it. And yeah, you know what I mean? But like if you legally if you go on the beach, the the the rock side of the ocean side and you walk all the way up. Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 45:22

Yeah, exactly.

Khoa Nguyen 45:23

You can't just drive on there. Right.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 45:27

I think that's fair. Yeah. That's fair enough. I mean you're there to walk the the beaches anyway and look for the sign and and and all that. So you know, unless you're just a lazy fisherman like I am in the surf half the time. I just want to pull right.

Khoa Nguyen 45:42

And just and just fish outside the uh out front of the uh the fishing club.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 45:46

Yeah, yeah. It's like it's like the dudes that go surf fishing and they only stick right by the tailgate. They don't move. Yeah, they turn on the grill on the tailgate and they just sit there for eight hours. Yeah. I sometimes I'm like that, but this is not the place to do that though. Sounds like a great trip though. It sounds like it was awesome. Sounds like you weren't with the right guys. 100%. Man, I I'm jealous. I think a lot of people are jealous.

Khoa Nguyen 46:11

I think I I honestly think, you know, like I mean, with you, your work stressful, everyone else's work stressful. I think once once a year, it's good to put together a guy strip that where you guys can just throw all responsibilities in the back burner just for a little just for a couple of days, yeah, and just become teenagers and guys again.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 46:33

Yeah, I so here's a here's a comment bow tie killer going to Kip the Peak at the end of September, five days of kayak fishing. I'm going too now.

Khoa Nguyen 46:42

Yeah, might as well.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 46:44

Yeah, I'm gonna show up. Yeah, it's things like that. Like, I I gotta it's not just me, but like I have to advocate for everyone. You really should do it. I haven't done it. It typically when I would do a trip, it would I'd do it solo in the past. Yeah, but that's an entirely different experience. Yeah, you know, if I were solo, maybe it's just my personality, I wouldn't be repelling down anything in the dark.

Khoa Nguyen 47:07

No, definitely 100%. If you're fishing this place, always have an extra person with you.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 47:12

It's yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not putting a wetsuit on, I'm not going across those rocks. Uh I'm just not doing it, you know, if I'm solo. If I'm with somebody else, yeah, if I'm with a bunch of guys, absolutely. Now I'm mobile and I'm all over the place. You know, maybe I'm just maybe I'm just too scared of everything.

Khoa Nguyen 47:30

I mean, what do you expect? You're in a wetsuit, you're climbing rocks, and they this they it's known to have sharks. I mean, we're in an area where there's gray whites and big giant browns.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 47:40

Yeah.

Khoa Nguyen 47:41

You know what I mean? That you could you flopping around in the water, you could become shark bait any day.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 47:46

Yeah. That's the least of my concerns. But yes, yes, I could definitely see that being so I had an argument with somebody about sharks this past weekend. I'm like, what are you worried about? They're like, I was like, you know, do you realize how many thousands of sharks? They're like, that's the worst thing to say. I'm like, okay. They don't realize how many around them when they're swimming at the beach, how many browns. But yeah, yeah.

Weakfish Tease And Final Sendoff

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 48:11

Well, hey, I want to thank you for coming on. I'm looking forward to getting more of these stories. You know, Eric Cohen has come on. He's talked about his trips to the Amazon. Gotta get more of these because I think people like to hear what else is out there. I'm sure that there are going to be people listening to this podcast that have never been to Cuddy Hunk. I'm sure there's going to be a lot that have never never heard of it.

Speaker 3 48:33

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 48:33

And now might be interested in it. And it's one of it, it is one of those places if you do some research, it it is an actual destination to go to.

Khoa Nguyen 48:44

Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 48:44

You know, it is a destination fishing uh location to go to. But you know, to your point, if you were gone without any prep and just picked up one weekend and decided to go, it would have had an entirely different feel to it.

Khoa Nguyen 48:59

Exactly.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 49:00

Yeah, so if you're gonna do it, do it right.

Khoa Nguyen 49:02

Do it right. It's I mean, honestly, if if you're a striper fisherman, this has to be on your bucket list. You know, it this sits in there with Montauk, sits in there with the canal, sits in there with Block Island.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 49:15

So Montauk actually is on my bucket list, and it's not for striped bass. No, it's actually for no, it's for shark.

Khoa Nguyen 49:23

Okay.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 49:23

Yeah, so back in the day in the 80s, when I was doing a lot of shark fishing, it was always Montauk. That's all of the you know, sport fishing magazine, all the shows that had anything about shark, it was Montauk and the Great Whites off of Montauk. So yeah, Montauk's on there. I do want to also do the striped bass, but number one for me, I want to go shark fishing off of Montauk in a boat, not off of the the rocks, but you know, that area because of the way that the I actually I don't even know if it's still like that, but it used to be a great destination for for offshore for for shark. Yeah. So well, thank you again for coming on everybody. Tide Chasers Podcast will be back. Just they're resting, they're spending time with family. We're hibernating, we're hibernating, hibernating for now, getting a little fishing done, getting a little work done, and then they'll be back playing again. I don't know exactly when. I don't think you guys have announced the date or the time yet, but no, not yet.

Khoa Nguyen 50:24

The boys are still enjoying their daddy time. So until they're ready, we'll come back.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 50:28

That's good. Well, I'll just say we all miss it, but uh, there are plenty of episodes to to keep listening to online, so everybody do that. And uh, I think George is, I have to confirm, I think George is gonna be on next week, and we're gonna talk about some light tackle weak fish. And I'll tell you what, Qua, I have so that is that is my favorite inshore species is weak fish. I do you know how hard it is to find somebody who knows what they're doing that wants to talk about it?

Khoa Nguyen 51:00

No, there's only two people I know that really knows weak fish. One is George. Yeah, and the other is Frank. And you know, not not Mahalik, the other Frank. Okay, so I can't pronounce his last name, but Okay, I think I know who you're saying. Yeah.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 51:15

There, and there's one captain who's really, really busy, but they don't like talking about it. And I didn't talk about it for a long time because they were so depressed in the population. But I I gotta talk some weak fish because I just I love them and I fish for them, you know, almost all the time. I just usually don't talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so if I'm fluke fishing, I am usually, usually, especially on a solo trip, I'm gonna spend half my day going for weak fish. So very excited to talk about that. Um, everybody, thanks for tuning in. We will be back next week. I am going to say right now, just as an expectation for everybody, there may be a week coming up that I can't do. Uh, we have granddaughter number two on the way, and we're getting close. So uh if that is happening, this ain't happening.

Khoa Nguyen 52:04

We're gonna put it off. Yeah, yeah. Family first, you know?

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 52:08

Yeah, but we're gonna run uh the full schedule up until because I mean, hell, it could happen on a Tuesday. Yeah and then uh it doesn't interfere. So I don't want to start canceling stuff, but just want to give everybody the fair heads up. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. We'll be back next week. The weather has cold off, tons of rain, but once that water clears up again, the fluke are going cra well, they were going crazy. Uh really picked up seeing some great fish inshore, offshore, all throughout the mid-Atlantic. Striped bass are still hitting. It's a night bite.

Khoa Nguyen 52:38

Sheep's head are feeding, they're on the feed.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 52:40

Sheep's head are on the feed, yes.

Khoa Nguyen 52:42

Even though I haven't been out all year yet, not a single one, but I have I have guys.

Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing 52:47

I had some texts yesterday you may have gotten from the same two people that I was getting yesterday, some nice ones in southern New Jersey. So uh yeah, so we'll be back. We'll see you guys soon. So get out there, get on the water, and get some tight lines.