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Surfcaster's Journal Online Magazine, Suffolk County, NY (2026)

05/26/2026

Edition 94 just dropped: but there's only one way to access it.

You have to sign in as a subscriber. No free preview yet. So if you want to get the "drop on this drop" you're going to want to head over the website (link in bio) and sign in.

We put out authentic, hard core, non-AI slop by anglers who actually fish- and hold up the old school ethics. And we always will.

Go escape the machine learning hellscape and read an article or two by humans. Learn something. Feel something. We are the voice of the Surfcaster!

www.surfcastersjournal.com

05/14/2026

Crazy nights, are not great, or even good nights. They're crazy.

In his latest article, Tyler Harper discusses his findings related to what makes a full-on bonkers night in the surf. Not just a decent night. Not even a great night. Instead, a night that you'll only get a few times a year...or even less.

The article is really strong and it's worth the subscription to absorb this one alone. Do it. Link in bio.

Here's an excerpt.

"To reiterate, an expanded viable feeding zone is merely a necessary condition for a crazy night: even if the wind and surf and every single variable that matters at your spot are perfect, 99-percent of the time you are going to have a good or great night, not a crazy night. Sometimes, given this fishery, you won’t even have a good night! It is also worth noting that, in my experience at least, my craziest nights have not always conformed to the exact conditions that are typically best at a given spot (remember, there’s an element of luck here). One of my most memorable surf trips came on a night I almost stayed home: the spot in question generally only fishes well in full-blown storm conditions, and, even then, it is extremely wind dependent. This night, the wind was blowing the “wrong” direction- a direction that had never produced before, and has never produced anything other than okay fishing since- but the surf was ripping, creating fields of frothing white water, and it was pouring rain.

An hour in, just as I was getting ready to pull the plug and cut my losses, my heavy Super Strike needle got walloped. For the next 90-minutes, I had fish on almost every cast, the smallest in the low 40-inch range, the largest considerably bigger. For reasons that remain unclear to me to this day, a sizable pod of larger fish decided to move in that night and put the feed bag on. In the years since, those exact same conditions have repeated many times, but the epic fishing never has. But even though the circumstances that brought that school in to feed remain a mystery to me, one thing I believe in my bones: that bonanza only was able to happen because of all that glorious white water."

04/30/2026

A good fisherman, is a good outdoorsman.

In his latest column, Al Albano discuss what hunting for whitetail deer has done for his fishing.

It's a reflection on what it takes to be not just a good fisherman, or outdoorsman- it's really a rumination on what it means to be good at anything!

It's in the current edition, even in the free preview, and you can find it at the link in bio.

Here's a snippet-

"For those in our readership who are relatively new to surfcasting, I want to make it clear that even with 30-years of experience, finding fish patterns and capitalizing on them as they are happening isn’t always easy. There are micro-patterns that are local to your area. Experience gives you the “where and when” to check up on these. But there are also macro patterns such as: “the whole Long Island Sound seems off.” With the state of today’s fisheries, I feel like the macro patterns have become more important than at any other time in my lifetime. But both types of patterns are significant and need to be accounted for.

The only way to do this successfully is to spend an awful lot of time fishing and pay attention to what you hear “on the street” about general areas. In my view, if you are getting out less than three-nights per week, it’s virtually impossible to put a plan in place that will yield consistent catches. If you are relatively new to surfcasting, three-nights is still not quite enough in my view. I can say this because yours truly is often fishing only three- or four-nights per week (sometimes less) and even with my experience, my numbers have been leaving something to be desired. To borrow a concept from my hunting approach, two out of every three fishing trips could be considered scouting missions, with the third trip ideally being a catching session. "

04/22/2026

Bigger is Better- End of Story?

In his latest column Toby Lapinski discusses how larger plugs can- and sometimes cannot- yield bigger fish in the surf. It's an impactful article filled with tips, philosophy, history, and stories. A must read!

You can check out the whole thing at the link in bio. In fact, it's part of the free preview- you don't even need to be a subscriber!

Here's a snippet to get you started...

"I clipped on a 10-inch maple needlefish, waded out to my rock without the use of a light, and made a cast. In the moonless night I masked the location of my cast as best I could in the hopes that he wouldn’t see where and how I was presenting my lure, and after several cranks I was tight to a fish. In short order I landed a low 30-pound bass, never took it from the water, never turned my light on, and proceeded to make another cast which produced a fish of about 25-pounds. The guy saw me but didn’t seem to notice what I had done– or didn’t know how he could make it work for him- as he kept doing his thing, catching some schoolies and not adjusting his approach. With my drag clicker removed before the season began, and by doing my best to limit any excessive body language which might give away the size of what I was catching, I landed several more 20- to 30-pound bass before my “friend” decided to leave. He waded to shore and made his way down the rocky beach.

Once I felt that he was far enough away to no longer be able to see my casts, I dropped the needlefish just up-tide of where he had been casting. The plug splashed down, sank, and made its way towards the bottom. I kept enough tension on it to stay connected and initiate its swim. It swung across the current, ticking the tops of several boulders, and got smashed. I set up and began fighting a heavy fish. A few minutes later I eased a large bass to my rock, grabbed its lip, and secured my rod. After removing the plug, I gave the fish a quick measurement against my surf rod– a hair over 50 inches- and set her free without turning on my light or removing her from the water."

04/22/2026

We have some scumbags perpetrating a fraud… report them!

04/15/2026

Spring Fling Merch Drop is Live!

Loads of stuff on the website right now: link in bio. Lots of new stuff, and the most hats we've ever had on the site at one time.

REALLY limited stock on many shirts, hats, and hoodies so don't wait.

It's go time!

04/14/2026

Rich Troxler is a legend—and in the latest edition of the magazine, he proves it.

In “Goldie Lock Zones, Classic Plugs, and Bite Oddities,” he brings together a handful of sharp, hard-earned ideas into one seriously compelling piece.

It’s informative, it’s entertaining, and it’s waiting for you at the link in bio.

Here’s a snippet:

"One of the things I frequently see on the beach is people walking up to the water’s edge, rearing back and firing off their plugs into the ocean without any idea of where those plugs will land. In a blitz, it may not matter, or if the ocean is relatively flat, then again, it may not matter. But if you are fishing in pre-storm conditions, or a strong onshore blow, where the ocean has kicked up to the point that the bait fish are having problems negotiating the wave hydraulics, and the striped bass have moved in for dinner, then knowing where your plug is going to land does matter.

For my first example of a Goldie Locks Zone, I’m going to match up the Super Strike bottle plug to one of my favorite places to fish in the surf, which is the side of a submerged point. In my neck of the woods, the prevailing sweep tends to be left to right, so I prefer to fish the left side of the point. Without going into too much detail about structure, there is usually a hole or depression at the side of the point where the sand that produced the point once was. This makes a great place for striped bass to pin bait up against the side of the point. If you ever watch waves break down the sides of points, you'd notice they break in lanes and roll into shore. They break much later in the deeper hole or depression area to the left of the point. This is why surfers love points, because of the way the waves break."

04/08/2026

This is a Last Wave you don't skip.

In the latest issue, new author Max Eicoff delivers something different—big fish, something unexplainable, and a tribute to a father gone too soon.

Read the full story right now- link in bio. But here's a snippet to get you started.

'At this exact moment I began my retrieve- after just one crank- the largest natural light I had ever seen in my life exploded just down the beach where I had spread his ashes. This light was unlike anything I have ever seen before, it was the brightest violet, celestial thing I have ever seen. It was like a stun gr***de for a second, dazing me, as if someone shined a bright flashlight in my face. I was totally displaced from myself for a second or two.

As I came back to reality from the shock of this light, I realized that my rod was doubling over and my drag was creaking. After a short battle on the sand I slid up my first fish of the night, 40-pounds on the dot! A quick picture and off she went. I stood there in disbelief for a second, kind-of staring off at the rock pile where I spread Scott’s ashes and the light exploded. It took some passage of time, but coming back to reality, still in disbelief of the absurdity of the coincidence, I made a second cast. A couple cranks in and there it goes again, rod doubled over, creaking drag, and a stocky 42-pounder up on the sand.

I knew this was no coincidence, overwhelmed I shed a couple tears and yelled “Thanks Pops, keep ‘em coming!”'

03/30/2026

The latest edition just dropped: and it's a good one!

Issue #93 is live at the link in bio—and marks the start of our 17th year as the voice of surfcasting.

Featuring:
Al Albano
Dave Anderson
John Skinner
Toby Lapinski
Jerry Audet
Jake Hardy
Dennis Zambrotta
Rich Troxler
Tyler Harper
Devin Acton
Max Eicoff

Thank you to our subscribers for making this possible. With the season here, we’d love to have you join us if you aren't already subscribed!

fishing

03/09/2026

Back in edition #88, Dave Anderson- aka - weaved a story of a trophy fish hunting a spot he called "Pinto Rock." Dave also self-illustrated the piece himself.

It's a combination of instruction and story that is oh-so-Dave.

You can find the entire article in our archive, which is available to all subscribers. It's a must read- and right now, as the season draws near, is the perfect time to do it.

And if you haven't grabbed your FREE beanie yet, head to the link in bio to take advantage of the offer- we're running low!

Here's a snippet:

Night has fallen and the tide has drained out, leaving more of the boulder field exposed and compressing the ceiling above the Pinto Rock to its lowest point. As the tide begins to move again, the striper returns, this time part of a pod of 9 fish, she is the biggest and she takes up the lowest and rearmost position in their posse. It’s hard for me to guess whether or not a fish could remember an exact location or if they just come back to areas of likely success, but this pod of fish comes in with the tide, gliding with little effort, as the quickening current ushers them along.

As logic, fortified by video evidence, dictates, the blackfish surrounding that rock are likely to be on the down-current side, out of the moving tide, hunkered down. As the pod of stripers moves across the boulder field, each of them rounds any boulder in their path with a purpose, like an armed policeman clearing a crime scene. This is the ambush predator that we should be thinking of when we swim a plug or plastic through these zones.

Your big fish has shifted to the outer edge now, setting herself up on a crash course for the hooded overhang at Pinto Rock. Like bombers in formation, she can see the rest of her clan spread out across the scene. And then, she arrives, she cuts in tight, flushing several of the dormant tog from under the overhang. One of her schoolmates, has come around the rear just in time to intercept, a 14-inch tog falls victim in a violent clash of flaring gills. Mayhem takes over, frantic blackfish are fleeing in every direction as the rest of the predators converge.

Surfcaster's Journal Online Magazine

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