Hellooooo November!
And with that, October is over. What an end to that month with localized flooding in the area from back to back storms. It didn’t seem to stop the fish though, see below…
We were busy in the shop. Both in store and online we added MaiTai teaser rigs. There are days when the fish are targeting small offerings, and the only thing they will hit is a teaser. Don’t want to tie your own? These are complete teaser rigs. Tie to the end of your line, add your preferred lure (Ava Jig, SP Minnow, Mag Darter, etc), cast and retrieve. And hold on. Adding a teaser can make what seemed like a dead sea come alive when you add one to your line.
Those teaser rigs work especially well in front of an ava jig, and this past week we got in plenty of those. Enough to last through the fall run, so when other places run out, Grumpys has you covered.
Bob has been busy building rods. Somehow, mixed in with all the customs he is working on, he has managed to get some spec rods done. We have a number of Black Hole Challenger Bank 701L blanks built by Bob for tog jigging. They even have a nice little blackfish sticker on them, to Ray’s delight and Bob’s chagrin. These are not listed online but are available in the shop. If you need one shipped to you, hit us up on the Contact Us page and we can work out getting it to you.
Bob and his apprentice Connor, known around the shop as Chaka, have also cranked out a bunch of 9 foot ODM Evolution Surf Rods. These are built on ODM’s top of the line surf blank: one piece, rated ½ to 4 oz, moderate action, and come in a chameleon color that is, quite frankly, pretty cool. Each has a slightly different color and style thread wrap, so come in and pick out the one you like. While we could ship these too, shipping would be very expensive, dare we say cost prohibitive, so we prefer you come into the shop for one of these.
Bob is now working on the 8 foot ODM Evolution blanks that just came in. No spoilers, but what he is coming up with for these is going to be special.
As far as the fishing goes, the back to back Nor’Easters we just had put a damper on participation. We mentioned at the start that, if you were really jonesing to fish, the back bay shoolie bass fishery would be an option. We were not wrong. Not only were the “diaper stripers” cooperating, there were a couple of larger fish caught. And, in the “Believe it or not” category, a 49 inch bass was caught by someone fishing the canal with a white chin wrecker jig and a green crab. White chin wreckers, not just for blackfish anymore.
While we are on the subject, the canal has been on fire for shore based blackfish. Green crabs on a white chin wrecker are all you need. And maybe one of those 701L rods from above…
Our online sales manager sent us this short video of what was swimming around in his back yard during the storms. No, he won’t say where he lives…
As the storm died down on Sunday, the surf fishing for bass picked right back up. Anglers who got out before sunrise got a few bass on clams. As the sun broke the horizon, ava jigs and bucktails were the ticket. We had a few good reports.
Later in the day, Bill Suha stopped by to weigh in this 29 inch, 8.1 pound striped bass that fell for an ava jig out on Island Beach State Park.
Some of you who stopped in the shop this weekend may have noticed our “Ray” giving out Halloween Candy. Jenni was very proud of the candy selection. She was, unfortunately, also very sad when we told her Halloween was over. She perked right back up when we reminded her the fishing is only going to get better in November.
