Fishing Tips

If You Like to Cook—or Eat—Check this Website: Thought we'd take a moment to tell you about an interesting website: Sarah’s Cucina Bella. This may not be a site for us hairy-chested, macho, masculine, rough-‘n’-tumble fisherman-types, but I can guarantee you that if you put the ladies in your household onto this site, they’ll thank you for it. Sarah is a professional writer, has worked for newspapers as a reporter, and has written a cookbook. She has a warm, humorous style and writes about topics that any woman, especially a mother, will love.

OTOH, if you like to cook, Sarah has some wonderful recipes. In the fish department, here’s a list of what’s currently available for your perusal:

∙ Baked Tilapia with Warm Tomato Relish
∙ Beer Steamed Clams
∙ Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi
∙ Grilled Tilapia
∙ Easy Sauteed Catfish
∙ Light and Healthy Tilapia
∙ Lobster Risotto
∙ Sauteed Tilapia with Lemon-Caper Pan Sauce
∙ Seared Tuna with Sesame Soy Drizzle
∙ Smoked Salmon and Brie Sandwich

I'd bet all those tilapia recipes would work with any firm, white fish including cod, haddock, pollock, striped bass, fluke....

The website is: Sarah's Cucina Bella

Faviorite Jig/Plastic Combos: The photos below show my favorite jig/plastic combinations. Both use Got-Cha® Shad Heads; the first photo shows a Got-Cha® Shad Head combined with a Got-Cha® Shad Body; the second photo shows a Got-Cha® Shad Head with a Bass Assassin® Sea Shad. Notice that each photo shows the jig and the plastic lure before and after putting the plastic on the jig. You can see that prior to joining the two, I cut off a bit of the head of each plastic lure so that it mates flush to the back of the jig head. The Got-Cha® Shad Heads are excellent because they are keel-weighted to keep the lure from spinning on retrieve. I’ve also found that the hooks stay reasonably sharp requiring only a touch-up with the file before each trip. Newtown [CT] Bait & Tackle [www.newtownbaitandtackle.com] [phone: 203-426-6629] carries these or they can be ordered online from www.seastriker.com. Got-Cha® Shad Bodies [3” to 9”] are shaped very much like a bunker [menhaden] which makes them killers for stripers and bluefish. Order from www.seastriker.com.

The Bass Assassin® Sea Shads [4”] are fatter than the Fin-S and similar plastics. As a result they are much easier to put on the jig without getting a bend in the body that results in spinning and line twist. Newtown [CT] Bait and Tackle also carries these or they can be ordered online from www.cabelas.com.

An Excellent Loop Knot for Attaching Flies, etc.: The No-Slip Mono Knot starts with [a] an overhand knot; then [b] pass the tag end through the eye of the hook and back through the overhand;

[c] wrap the tag end around the standing part a few times and then [d] back through the overhand knot; [e] snug it up. As to the number of wraps the tag end takes around the standing part: For 50-lb. mono use 2-3 wraps; 40 use 3-4; 30 use 4; 20 use 4-5; all other sizes, 5 wraps.

And here are some tricks it's taken me two years to learn with this knot: [1.] Make the the overhand knot as small as possible...just open enough to pass the tag end through. [2.] Before starting to do the wraps, after you've passed the tag end through the overhand knot for the first time, move the overhand knot down close to the hook eye. [3.] Do not pull on both the standing part and the tag end to tighten. Pull only on the tag end while holding the standing part steady until the knot seats itself fairly well.

[4.] Test the finished knot by holding the hook and pulling on the standing part in some manner [hold the hook with pliers, hook it onto something fixed]; pull hard. [5] Every time the tag end passes through the overhand knot it must follow the same path; it's easy to pass the line through the overhand knot from the wrong side resulting in a knot that looks good but will slip under pressure; each pass through the overhand knot must follow the same path. [6.] The knot also works for putting a loop in the butt end of a leader. [7.] It also works for creating a dropper loop; just leave a long tag end for the bottom hook and loop the top hook to the dropper loop.

Nifty Fly: Here's a new fly...er, a fly that's new to me: Chris's Slick Willie. It's about 8 cm. long; tied on a 2/0 hook; chartreuse fuzzy stuff on the back (I don't know what the stuff is, but it's synthetic and very fine; I've been using marabou which seems to work just as well). There's a bit of very fine flash tied into the chartreuse.

The eyes are 1/50 oz. dumbbells and the head is cross-cut, white rabbit tied in in front of the marabou and wrapped forward and over the eyes. This is an attractor fly rather than a direct imitation, but both stripers and blues seem to like it. Apparently the fly was created by Ms. Christina Rodriguez whom I've been unable to locate on the Internet. If you find a contact for her, I'd like to have it; kindly email me.

Condensation in the Hatches: Our boat is in a slip from March to December. Especially in the hottest months, the interaction between cooler water and warm, moist air causes condensation in some of the hatches. This is most notable any place where something, a life jacket or throwing cushion, for example, is in touch with the bottom of the hatch. Leave it there long enough and it gets all wet, slimy, and mildewed on the bottom side. Obviously the way to avoid this is to allow air to circulate. We noticed in the Griot’s Garage catalog that shows up here from time-to-time that they sell interlocking, recycled PVC “flow-through garage floor tiles.” We got a batch of them and started lining the bottoms of the hatches:

The tiles are 12” X 12”; they interlock nicely and can easily be trimmed with a jackknife to go around fittings. We got these tiles in black as they are $4.50 each, but they do come in colors, including white, for $5.50. Thinking maybe add a few of them in white in front of the console as they are easy on the feet? So, the air circulation problem may be solved. www.griotsgarage.com or 800-345-5789

Want to Get the Fish Smell Off Your Hands? Try Windex. Get a large spray bottle to keep on the boat; just spray your hands with it and wipe dry…there’s no need for rinsing. Stuff works very well for quick clean-ups of all sorts. It’ll remove mildew. IMHO the stuff is lousy for cleaning windshields, but as a general cleaning product, it’s terrific. Keep a bottle at your workbench too.

Need to Check Wind Speed and Wave Height on the Sound? The National Data Buoy Center has a website that provides boaters and fishermen with reports on wind speed, wave height, water temperature, etc. directly from the weather buoys on Long Island Sound. To access, go to shoo-fly.org, click the Weather-Sunrise/Set-Tides link in the left frame and scroll down to the National Data Buoy Center link. For Internet access the Fairfield area the buoy number is FWIC3; for New Haven NWHC3, for the Western Long Island Sound 44040, and 44039 for Central Long Island Sound. Alternatively, the National Data Buoy Center has a toll-free phone line that you can dial to get the Sound reports: [888-701-8992]; requires a push-button phone or cell phone. Dial the toll-free number, press "1" and then enter the buoy number. For telephone access the Fairfield area the buoy number is 39423; for New Haven 69423, for the Western Long Island Sound 44040, and 44039 for Central Long Island Sound.

Want Something that Really Cleans? Keeping a boat clean without messing up the environment is just not easy. But thanks to the folk on the Maverick Forum we've learned about Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean. ME is a sponge-like, brick-shaped cleaning tool that really does the job. I bought a box of these [about $4.50 at Stop & Shop] and immediately tried them out on some spots that had been plaguing me on the boat: Get the sponge wet, scrub, and the stuff comes off very nicely. It really works! Guess it’s useful for appliances and other items around the kitchen...and you can use it on your car’s wheels but not on the painted finish…so it’s a good idea to read the directions on the box before using. This means boaters can use a combination of Simple Green for general surface cleaning and Magic Eraser for the nasty crud that SG won't remove. A lot better for the environment than the old standby mixture of Dawn and Clorox.

Tired of Messing with Epoxy? Try UV Knot Sense by Loon Outdoors [www.loonoutdoors.com]. For coating your fly line to leader connections, there’s nothing better, and it’s far superior for coating the heads on your flies. No mixing, no worrying about getting bubbles in the mix, no sloppy application tools [just squeeze it out of the tube]. The stuff runs very slowly so it can be worked into the shape you want. It doesn’t seem to yellow over time. The catch? It hardens only under ultraviolet light. This means you can use it only on a sunny day when you can take your coated knot or fly out into the sun…or you can buy a UV light for use in the house. TIP: I bought a bulb through eBay for $6.00 that screws into a desk lamp. Newtown Bait & Tackle [www.newtownbaitandtackle.com/] carries UV Knot Sense and you can try a tube of it for $6.95 [plus tax].

Leader-to-Lure Connections: If you've grown to dislike fiddling with improved cinch knots for those leader-to-lure connections that don’t require a loop, try the Palomar knot. This is very simple to tie and is highly rated by the IGFA for strength and durability…part of which is due to the fact that the leader is doubled through the eye of the hook…much stronger than a single pass-through. To see how to tie the knot, just Google "Palomar knot." Several sites will pop-up that will show you the step-by-step. TIP: If the eye of your hook is too small to pass the doubled end of the leader through, just run the tip of the leader through the eye and then pass it back through again.

Keeping Your Glasses Clean: There's nothing like salt water or fish slime to glop up your sunglasses. Once that stuff gets on there, it's difficult to remove; a cloth just seems to smear it around and make it worse than it was. Solution: We've discovered Flents Wipe 'N Clear anti-fog/anti-static, pre-moistened lens cleaning tissues. Available at Target and other stores, these wipes do the job: they remove glop and smears and they air-dry so there’s no need to carry a separate drying cloth. Works on glass and plastic lenses and will not scratch them. TIP: Keep a couple of them tucked up inside the lining of your fishing hat.

For More Information on Light-Tackle Fishing in Stratford, E-Mail us at:

  • Shoo-Fly Charters, LLC

    • Shoo-Fly Charters, LLC
    P O Box 1196
    Woodbury, CT 06798-1196 USA
    (203)263-2199