Big Rocks And Scabellys
Lots of shop news today…
As many of you know, this upcoming weekend is our annual Winter Sale. The sale will be running all weekend (January 28th and 29th) in the shop and in the online store. The shop will be open 7:00 am to 7:00 pm each day. The online store will be open 24 hours each day. To get the discounts online, use the code "WINTER23" when checking out. We will have sales on the following:
- All Grumpy SandStorm rods, including the hot new 7’10” model.
- All Grumpy Apparel, including our new joggers and hats.
- All S&S Bucktails Products, including the "new-the-site" John Skinner Tog Jigs.
- All Yo-Zuri Lures.
- All Berkley Gulp!.
We will have in-store only specials on certain items also, like all Chatter Lures Trolling rigs (Side Trackers, Splash Bars,daisy chains, etc). There will be other in-store specials, and if you want to see what they are, you are going to have to stop in.
There is also a HUGE reason you are going to want to stop in. John from Scabelly and Russ from Big Rock lures will have tables set up selling their stuff. The line is going to start forming early. The first guy in line may already be outside. Ok, I may be exaggerating a little there, or maybe I am not. Anyway, those sales will be on Saturday only and will start when we open the doors at 7:00 am. They will last for as long as they both have stock. We are limiting the sales to 3 Scabellys and 3 Big Rocks maximum so the whole line has a chance to get plugs. The line will start at our second door, near the Shel E Caris picture (see picture below). Please have the line form to the north, towards the Seaside Park Service Center. All Scabelly and Big Rock sales will enter this door. The other door will be used as the entrance for those not buying Scabelly or Big Rock plugs, and as an exit for everyone. Beyond these instructions, we will not be managing the line.
We received the first half of one of the two big winter orders we make each year. It was over 65 boxes of product. Some was new items, some was restock of existing items, We will start with new:
We added Tsunami Tidal Mullets to our inventory. These soft plastic paddletails work great rigged on a jig head or with a swimbait hook. This type of lure is a hot item down south for snook, redfish, sea trout and flounder. They will work up here for striped bass, bluefish, weakfish and fluke. I would bet false albacore will find them enticing too. They come in at a reasonable price point so you won’t feel so bad fishing soft plastics when the bluefish are mixed into with the bass. An added bonus is these lures are scented, so no need to add an extra scent.
We also added another Tsunami Tidal product, their Tidal Fluke. These lures are similar in style to the Zoom Super Fluke and Lunker City Fin-S Fish. Weakfish love this style lure, but so do striped bass, bluefish and fluke. Rig them on a jig head or a swimbait hook, and work them slowly with the occasional twitch and they will prove themselves deadly. As with the Tidal Mullet, these come pre-scented.
Are you one of those people who always lose your surf tools. Does it get annoying buying your 3rd or 4th lip gripper? We added Tsunami Saltwater Grade Floating Fish Grip. Reasonably priced, and it floats, making recovery much easier.
Going somewhere? Need to take a rod with you, but don’t have the room for a one piece or even a traditional two piece rod? We just added a very small number of Tsunami Classic Series Travel Spinning Rods. A very small number. If you want something like this, come buy them quickly so Scott and I can convince Ray to order more. Or, on the website, for the ones we don’t have in stock, click the “Email Me When Available” button and fill out the info in the following screen. I can see how many of those are clicked, and let Ray know there is a demand.
We added some Heddon Saltwater Super Spooks in the store and online. Spook style lures work at times much better than a regular popper, or even a pencil popper. The Heddon is the “OG” spook lure. Right now, we only have one color, Bone. But, like the rods above, if you want us to get in other colors, click the “Email Me When Available” buttons and I’ll pester Ray about it.
We also had a bunch of restocks. These include, but are not limited to:
- Tsunami SaltX Reels (still at the new lower price)
- FJ Neil Plug Bags – Most models and most sizes restocked
- Trailhead Tire Deflators
- Many, many Tsunami rods, both boat and surf.
- Swim shads from both Storm and Tsunami
- And many more items.
As far as the fishing goes, you would think it’s the middle of January, so the striped bass are gone. You would be thinking incorrectly. As of the middle of the week, there were still small striped bass to be had in the surf. Chris, from last week’s report, sent in some more pictures (below) from mid week. In his own words “Still out front, kettles and small 2-3” profiles. Dead slow retrieve and crawling the kettles.”
The weather hasn’t been very cooperative since Chris’ report, so we haven’t heard much lately. But, with how mild this winter has been so far, we wouldn’t be surprised if we get a couple nice days and hear of some more mini-bass being caught in the surf.
Some of you who have visited the shop recently may have been wondering where Ray is. Well, he has been calling out sick for the last few days. We have some theories why he was out, and the two top theories are as follows: 1) he didn’t want to help check in and put away the big order that arrived this week. 2) He wants to defend his title of the person who missed the most work during the year. He was easily 2022 champion, and right now has an outstanding lead. He claims he was really ill.
