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Are you ready to question the familiar? Brace yourself as we challenge the notion that additional fishing licenses equate to more funds for the state, right here in New York. We'll pull back the curtain on the truth about the Wallop Breaux tax, daring to ask, is this proposed license just a scheme to fill the state's coffers? Join us as we probe into the real financial impact, the local tackle industry's repercussions, and the potential for these funds to be used for mere enforcement.
Set sail with us to the famous fishing haven, Moriches Bay, where we recount tales of fluking and the majestic sight of whales kissing the shoreline. Dive into the history of striped bass fishing, right from the heart of Mauritius. Witness the evolution of techniques, tackle preferences, and the transformation of the fishery over the years. We'll reveal the enigma of the shrinking striped bass sizes in the bay, set against the contrasting growth of those in the open sea, while questioning the effectiveness of the state's slot limit enforcement strategy.
As we navigate these waters, we pause to honor our dear friend, Gill Hubbs, a warrior who was taken from us prematurely. We remember his infectious spirit and his love for the chase of the big-sized striped bass. Join us as we reminisce about our shared adventures, the thrill of landing a massive albacore in Mauritius, and the secrets of successful fishing strategies. So, buckle up as we share a wealth of fishing wisdom; this is an adventure you don't want to miss!
Be sure to visit our friendly and informative fishing forums at www.nyangler.com
Hello, all this is George Scocca and you're listening to the New York Fishing Podcast. So as the push moves on for a sole water fishing license here in New York State, I've been doing a little dig in trying to find out different things about different things that are said, and I was really surprised this week when I was able to get numbers on Wallop Pro. Nowadays, with all this AI stuff, you can find just about anything at any given time. So I'm checking it out and you know, like part of this license issue is they claim that we will get more money from the federal government through the Wallop Pro tax, which is like I don't want to get too deep, but it's a tax that we all pay 10%. Everything you buy, you pay 10% of the tax. I mentioned it here a lot and the reason I do that is because everyone seems to forget it. It kind of gets buried. You know, like you don't know, when you buy a $200 real that if you didn't have Wallop Pro, it would only cost you $180. You just don't know that. So I looked into it and you know one of the claims has always been that if we have more licenses, we're going to get more Wallop Pro money and if you read it, that should be the case. I think it's kind of vague. It's believe it or not, it's the size of the state and which I think accounts for 60%, and then the number of licenses accounts for 40%, and they do this calculation. To me, the whole thing is nuts. Whatever your state pays in, your state should get back. That's what I think In the case of Alaska. They pay like a million bucks and then they get back 15 million because the place is so freaking big. I don't think that's fair. But the thing that I noticed was I went back to when we had a fishing license back from 2010 to 2015. If you look at those years, you'd be surprised to see that we actually didn't get more money. If anything, on a percentage, we actually got less money. And now I'm not saying, look, maybe this gets deferred and you don't get the money until years later. I wouldn't know why, but maybe that's what happens. But the question needs to be asked is this true? Are we getting more money and how much more are we getting? The other thing I want to bring up about the license is I don't want to talk about the gazillion of reasons why we don't need them and the I can't take a one. Why we need one or what we're going to get out of it? Because right now, the Wallabrow fund contributes a huge number. It's $32 million a year we get just from Wallabrow. On top of that, there is part of Wallabrow is the Sport Fishing Restoration Act. We get another $20 million. Well, at least we got that last year. I'm not sure what we got in years past, but we got $20 million. So we got $50 million last year to put into our fishery. And the thing is we're not supposed to have double taxation. Everybody tells me oh crazy, why are you even saying it? Well, because it is true. If you look at the Sport Fishing Restoration Act, you're going to see that a big piece of it is to provide access and boating ramp. You see, they had to do boating ramps because they whack your 10% when you go to get fuel Down on the water. So they had to throw the ramps in to justify charging the fuel tax. But think about it. So now we got $52 million For the last. From 2016 to—no 2015 to 2022, we received over $350 million. $350 million. I ask you have things improved? Do you have more ramps? Maybe you have one out in the North Pole, okay, if not, we'll shut down. And I mean, yeah, now it's open. But $50 million, you and I could do a lot with that money. I don't know what they're doing with it. They brag that they give $20,000,000 to the team that's trying to clean up the ghostpots in long-hound sound. Where is all that money going? That's the first question. That question is do they really need another $3,000,000, $4,000,000, $5,000,000, and are we going to see anything, any improvement? I'm going to say, if you can't do it on the $50 million and again, if you read rather well-it-bro, you're going to see that a big piece of it is access and management and education. Then you look at the sport fishing fund, access ramps, education. Now you look at the proposed license Ramps, education. My point here is do not believe in any sense of the word that a license will help our fisheries or give us more access or make it better for us. They will just burn that money. The way they burn the $50 million, I don't know what they do with it. Can't imagine $50 million coming to the state every year. Now look, here's the last thing I'm going to say. There's a huge thing here that no one seems to be really looking at. That is the fact that the last time we had a license, the industry took a huge, freaking hit Not so much the party and charter boat industry but the tackle industry and the local tackle industry. They took a huge hit, especially out east. A lot of people thought they could just go fishing. They found out they had to get a license. They didn't go. That's how it works. It takes five years, minimum five to seven years before you get it back to when you started the license. We don't need the license. I just don't see them doing any good. If they get all that money, why can't we put some into enforcement? Why not? No, they want to take, make us get a license and then use that money. Look to me, this is just a money grab. That's it for me regarding the saltwater license issue. Yes, I mentioned before about AI. I've been doing a lot of digging. I tell you what it's amazing, that I don't know if you have much experience with it, but you're going to find it's like a moderate, every answer it gives you, like I was asking about the windmills. It would come back and tell me all these bad things and then say but don't forget, this is for the overall good of the earth, and this and that and the other thing. I want the facts, I don't care what you think, every single thing. There's a new one. It's called BARD and that is the Google AI. I'm telling you, this thing is programmed to never say a bad thing about anybody, unless, of course, you know how to use the correct prompts. But those of you that aren't getting into AI, you're all going to fall behind. It's so easy. I feel like my old self back in the 90s when people told me I was crazy and that the internet was just a fad and it was never going to make it. I knew it was, but nobody listened. I'm telling you right now this AI stuff, this is serious and it's here to stay and it's right at your fingertips Chat, gpt. I don't want to get too deep, but if you're listening, you're somewhat of a geek. No offense to me, I love you, know. It's great to be a geek and know what you're doing nowadays, but Chat GPT only has info up until 2021. But if you use this bard it's bardgooglerathercom you'll find that it has everything up until today. It's a whole different animal. So, yeah, but it cracks me up. Every time I ask a question it kind of gives me the other side. It's like a moderate response. All I want is the facts. I don't understand why even a search engine has to put its two cents into everything. I mean seriously. Yes, so this week I'm gonna have a jerk of the week. Maybe I'll try to do one every week. Probably wouldn't be too hard to find. But this guy is selling trout, which I'm not sure where he gets. I mean, I'm guessing he's gill netting him or somehow commercially catching the fish and he's selling them online on his Facebook account. So what do you think happens? Of course, you know, an ECO follows up and ends up. Long story short, the guy was caught with like $750 worth of illegally caught trout that he was selling on the side of the road, but he would advertise it on Facebook. Imagine yeah, maybe on the side of road I got some trout that I poached and I could give him to you know, $199 a pound, don't worry about it. Yeah, maybe I didn't have it on ice too long, but they're all freezing big, they're all in good shape. So, yeah, so he's. I don't know, they're giving him a fine. The truth is, I keep saying him it could be a hard because the name of the moron was not given it's always something when it comes to fishing. He had all different kinds of stories. You know, last week we had Eddie Carrol on. He was, he was a kid talking about keep saying kiddies, and it's 30s and when I was in my 30s I didn't think I was a kid, but now that I'm 68 he's a kid anyway. And he's talking about this paddleboard fishing and I'm like, oh my god. And then I'm here.
British Guy:Yes, george, I'm here right now. We came to hear from the leader of the sharks. His name is Mr Don Edward Minow and he will be speaking for the sharks we have heard it has been leaked to us that these sharks are threatening to start to bite people, so we have to hold on and listen in as the hold on. He's coming up to the the microphone.
Sharky:If I happen to be on. You know I was in that new region shark town. What a bunch of shit that was. And I'm here to speak for all the sharks. You know I'm great. Well, I've been to a lot of shit, I've been through everything. And I'm here to speak for the sharks about this new bill that that two human searing America trying to pass about. It's called a shark to bill and you're gonna try to stop us from eating fish that have caught on a fishing line. Now, what do you think we are? What are you big? We're not gonna let that happen. We're gonna eat whatever we want. We don't, we don't, we don't care what you people say. I mean I gotta go mine to cool, you know. Get, get us all together and maybe we'll study humans. Yeah, what do you think we can do that? Let's run around next to you, don't even know where we are off the look. Here is the way I see it. I get the shark back because you're just wasting your time. Well, you think you're gonna teach us, tell us what to do. We own the ocean, we're the apex predator, weed, anything we want. The way you think you're gonna get a bunch of guys who watched in DC and have money and waste for all kinds of money not gonna work. It's not gonna. We're never gonna let it work. So I'm here to speak for all the shark. I'm the only one who was. It was recognized. You know, you got Charlie Tuna, donnie. He's here for the tuna. You got SpongeBob he's Donnie, but it's bunge's. I'm here for the sharks and I'm telling you, if you best shark act, we're gonna go past past the best that's on the line and we're gonna jump in a ball and study people. I mean, these are your choices of you. People you need, but you gotta keep busy. You need other things to do, like stop people from finning us and stop people from laying those miles along. I see my buddy stuck on long lines. None I can do about it. I got a good line to. You know you want to work is a strike and I gotta do mine. There's not this sound a bell that it's time to start chomping on you guys. So think about these bills you want to pass. It could come back to fight juniors oh, there you have it, george.
British Guy:These sharks mean business. I for one will not be surfing in Montauk anytime soon. Back to you.
George Scocca:George, my good friend, great angler and also pretty good photographer, paul Paluzzo. Are you doing George good? How you doing Paul?
Paul Peluso:very good, very good good, good.
George Scocca:So I you know, I kind of follow you around on Facebook. You're definitely a Facebooker and haha, you know you always manage to catch fish. I see out there early in the season. You surf fishing. You catch them bad straight away in the spring and you sure as heck get out a lot, and some of your photos with the whales and all have been pretty amazing over the last few years. So I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. One is how do you see the fishing? How would you categorize the fishing in your area there in Meritch's Bay and in that whole spot?
Paul Peluso:Well, right now in Meritch's the fishing is should start to light up really good the next coming weeks, especially in the first two weeks of October. Last night I was out on my boat and I was over here by Union Avenue and Ocean Avenue and the bunker the peanut bunkers were leaving the canals. There was like pod after pod going towards the inlet and I'm like, oh boy, this is going to light everything up outside. So I'm hoping that we get a really good full run on the stripers and the bluefish. Fluking right now seems to be really good. A lot of keepers to ratio Really To shorts, yeah, right around the inlet area, right in the back in the east cut, in the west cut. Wow, last week I had like two or three keepers in like an hour. I was amazed. I don't fluke that much because it used to be sea robin, sea robin and I just couldn't deal with that.
George Scocca:But right now at the end of the season I don't know exactly when it ends, but the guys are out there every day and they've captured some good size fluke, yeah well there was a time years ago when Maritius Bay was one of the that and North Forkwood kind of the best areas to fluke and to find fluke and I don't know if you know that I used to keep a boat over there for years. I was at Center Island, yacht and then. But I also used to keep my boat at the Alma. I don't know if you remember the Alma fleet, but Ronnie Alma, I used to keep my boat over there and you know I mean the fluke in there was fantastic. But I can remember like as when I got out of there, I remember going there on a Sunday and saying I could walk from one end that is bay to the other on the boats. There was so many boats in the bay, you know, and you're hooking fish in three, four foot of water. Sometimes they go flying over the other side of the boat, you know.
Paul Peluso:That was what the problem was. I think so many people fished this area since I was a little kid. I've been here since the let's see 1968. So I've been, you know, living here in Shirley and Mastic and Santa Maritius area. But I've seen, like you said, boats where you could walk on them, and then everybody used to be a clammer in the 70s.
George Scocca:And so.
Paul Peluso:I'm out of the bay. I think that had a lot to do with why a lot of the fish, the population, dropped because everything lived off of the clams the clams clean the water that's a good point. The fish ate the clams and they had everywhere to go and it was fantastic.
George Scocca:Remember that flounder fishing over there. Oh, oh, my God that was the best.
Paul Peluso:The best in New York when we were kids like two or three at a time.
George Scocca:And. But big ones, big ones over there.
Paul Peluso:And the blowfish and everything. When I was a kid it was fantastic. We caught weak fish, blowfish, fluke, flounder, you name it.
George Scocca:Now you're seeing kind of fish we weren't used to right Sheep's head and laffyettes and all kinds of species we'd never seen before, but it is what it is. So hey, tell me about. You seem to always manage to be around whales, like you get some really good pictures of whales and some of them. It amazes me how these whales are like what, maybe 50 or 100 yards off the beach and nobody the people on the beach aren't even looking at the time.
Paul Peluso:I'm like what are they taking? Sometimes they do Sometimes, like there was one about a couple of weeks ago where I was right in front of Smith Point and he was he or she, I don't know what kind of whale it was it was about a 30 footer and this humpback whale was just coming up right near the shore in 10 feet of water. Wow, and the reason they're doing this is these, the pods of bunker. The amount of bunker that we're seeing in the last couple of years went from next to nothing to almost all year round. Almost any time I go outside in the ocean there's pods of bunker, which that never was 10, 12, 15 years ago and it came in in June and then it came in in the fall, but now it's all season long. We got the sharks and the bluefin tuna was running through it. I mean, I'm talking a couple hundred pound tunas blasting these pods of bunkers. My friends are getting aerial videos of these bluefin tuna, of the sharks attacking the bunker pods, and that's why the people are getting bit. The bait is so close to shore that the whales come in. I guess they come in from way out, I don't guess 30, 40 miles, wherever they live, they come all the way in. They eat the bunker, they do a couple of jumps, lunch feeding. Sometimes they get happy and they fly out of the water. Then they go back and people are wondering why a lot of these whales are dying If they're crossing a lot of these shipping lanes and they're getting hit by these big boats. I mean, everyone thinks it's the windmills. I mean I don't know how a windmill would be the same to sonar. It's not going to sonar off of the whales, but there's no science that's showing that most of these whales are getting hit by boats. I could see that they are calling pretty close to shore. I mean, even the regular anglers like me. We see the whales. I keep a distance of about 100 yards from them. I have a very good camera. It has a 300-millimeter zoom and I can get close sometimes. One time me and my wife this was two, three weeks ago we had the boat on off and we were just sitting. I saw this whale and it came up and all of a sudden it disappeared and they stayed down for about three minutes and you could just about count the seconds off. All of a sudden she comes back up. So she's right here again. So we just stayed there. She was diving down on the bottom and I don't know what was down there, but you could see it marked on the screen and she would eat whatever. She wouldn't come right back up, so we just sat there. Yeah, came within, I'll say, 25 feet of the boat, in the front of the boat. So she just came up very slow and just there, they are an amazing animal. Yeah, I really love them. I mean, they are, it's there, just awesome. Now, most of the ones I'm seeing are like the size of my boat 30 footers but every once in a while you'll get the mama and the papa. The 60 footers come through, they are amazing. Yeah, those are those. You say holy Jesus when they come by your boat. And that twice the size of your boat.
George Scocca:you're kind of like you're a little intimidating right, yeah, yeah, I'll tell you.
Paul Peluso:Most of the time, if you stay and you keep your distance with them and you kind of watch the way that they're going especially in the shallow water you could see their tail moving so you could see. If they're heading east, you go parallel with them. Don't cross their path. If they're going west, they do the same thing. Whatever way they're going, I try to just keep a distance and stay away with them and figure out where they're going to pop up next and you see another part of bunker. Go over to that part of bunker. Don't go in it, because sometimes they lunchfeed and that you know. I've seen videos where they came very close to hitting people's boats or landing on them or you know stuff like that.
George Scocca:It's it's that one guy got sucked in.
Paul Peluso:Imagine he jumped into.
George Scocca:I mean, I'm done with that guy. He jumps into a ball of bait when there's freaking whales everywhere, right, all of a sudden, the next thing he knows he's in a whale. Well, no kidding. I mean, how stupid could you be? I don't know. I'm going to tell you a funny whale story, right? So I'm in Alaska at Tannacool Lodge, your choice, if you want to go to Alaska, and it was, you know, like it never really gets dark there until like I don't know two, three in the morning and your toast from fish, and all day you kind of shot, you had a couple of drinks. So one of the mates it's like 10 o'clock and a mate goes hey, have you ever taken a look at the whales at night? So we're like no, me, my friend Steve and the other people that were there. So come on, let's go. We're going to go take a ride. I'm like all right. So I think we're going down on one of the you know 30, 40 foot boats that he had there. But we go down there and we get in like this wooden dinghy that has like a 15 horsepower tiller, right, and this kid was, he definitely had too many, you know. So first thing I do. Now, you know, you go in the water. There it's freaking 48 degrees, you don't have a long time. So so like, are you sure this is safe? Don't worry, I do it all the time. I'm like we're to preserve, we don't need preserve, we just go right there. I'm like, oh, my God. So we get out and I'm telling you Plot. This is no exaggeration. I could have reached out and touched one of the. There were whales everywhere. There's whales all over the place there, so to find them is nothing. But literally one of them came up. That blowhole went and I felt like I was on the movie, like Moby Dick. I'm like, holy Jesus, I'm like I can get me out of here. And you know what they were laughing at. I didn't think it was funny at all. I'm like what if the thing makes a mistake? Noxious in the water. Anyway, yeah, they are pretty amazing. I won't take you to task on one thing, though. It is the windmills.
British Guy:So one day I'm going to prove that to you.
George Scocca:It's the sonar and the reason they are getting hit. Now you have look I don't want to get into the whole thing, but you had 72 whales.
British Guy:now that have died Right, 72.
George Scocca:Have you ever heard that in your life? No, no.
Paul Peluso:And I looked at the years and they had the amount of them and sometimes you could see 20, 30, 40, whatever.
George Scocca:Never like this, and it all started years ago. It started actually in 2017. Everybody blames this administration, but it's yeah sure they support it. But the thing is, this has been in the works for a long time. You don't just put up 3000 Eiffel towers in the ocean without planning it for a long, long time. Anyway, those that sonar is throwing them off. I spoke to a scientist I hope to have the podcast down a couple of weeks and he, like he's, has proof that the they're using sounds that they're not allowed to use. So, anyway, what are they doing with these sounds? Why would the hell would they be using? So here's what they do. They look for everything's about money, right? So when you got to build one of these things, the shorter it is, the less it costs. So they go around looking for high peaks and high peaks so they don't have to build it so high. I know I know too much about it. So, and you, of all people, you are going to be sick when this thing goes up. I don't know if you've seen photos or what it's going to look like, but they will. They have industrialized the ocean and the sad part is, I tell you, paul, nobody in New York is doing anything about it. New Jersey they already have lawsuits in place. Massachusetts they're selling them. Everybody else has something going on except us. We're just watching it happen. But that seemed to quiet down, though Thank God, I mean yeah, they just had one the other day, so we now 73 and that one I don't know if you saw the photo of it, but it was. It's floating right next to the stanchion. That no, yeah.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, yeah, so that's when I saw was on the beach and they buried it.
George Scocca:Yeah, no, this, this one is floating and again, I'm not arguing ship strikes, but hey, look, you know it's funny people. People are fun because you know, like you was saying, about the Beat. So the reason New York has the whales is because we have the beat. Jersey doesn't have these whales on their coast. You know what cuz? There's no bait there. We, we protected our beat and but if you think back, there was a time you can get a freaking robo go out and kill whales. So this you know, we, we killed all the whales for the oil or whatever right now.
Paul Peluso:Well, what they stopped us to protection started 1965. That was right years ago when I was born exactly. Now there's hundreds of thousands of them. I don't know how many humpback whales there are, but supposedly they all travel up north to go to Nova Scotia somewhere, up to eat the krill, and then they make their way back down yeah and the fall, and go down to the southern waters to have babies. So it's kind of neat. I mean that's why a lot of them are passing by like on this day today, in two and 2020. I had a really, really good whale. He was Right over here off of West Hampton and he was lunch feeding in the bunker pods and I didn't get out this morning. I was gonna go.
George Scocca:But that, a couple things to do, but yeah, well, you had a podcast to do right.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, well, that and a couple other things I got to do later, so I didn't get a chance to run out. So let me get you missing a great day of pictures out there.
George Scocca:Oh, I'm sure. So let me get your take on the health of the striped bass fishery. I'm curious what, what you think. I've been asking a lot of guys and I'm hearing different things you know, so I'm curious you know what you've seen in comparison to other years?
Paul Peluso:When we first started chasing those striped bass around here, I'll say in the early 2000s, I would catch a lot of bass in the bay. I'm talking in the numbers of like 20 to 30.
George Scocca:I was fishing there then, actually at the same time we were catching and most of the most of them were 36 inches plus well, it was 36 inches then, right, I'm telling you they were. Oh, I have them.
Paul Peluso:I had to make my unit 36 inches, because if you didn't, you had that mono on there, because I didn't even have braid at that time. Oh the tail would whack the mono and it would bust off and you would lose your fish we used to drag life.
George Scocca:Found it through that inlet oh.
Paul Peluso:God, I never. I never did that. Oh yeah yeah, the bunker for sure, but we never did. Though I never hooked a live flounder, I caught one.
George Scocca:That was a miracle, so I well, you know what happened one time. I was there fishing that inlet and I saw all these flounder on top of the water like swimming. Yeah, I'm like what the hell? Why are they up? And then also I've seen his bass come up and eat one, and at the time I forget what the limit was. It was a small flounder and I was like I gotta try it and it became pretty popular. I'm sure a lot of people have done it. Do you remember the?
Paul Peluso:Steve Petrie that Petrie fish he used to have.
George Scocca:I swear I still have one.
Paul Peluso:I have one too. I used to throw that thing in the inlet and I'm telling you it used to work. I used to love that thing. I can't find it. He had a small one too, and that's. I haven't both. I still have them. I called them up one time. This is several years ago. Do you have any more of those? He's like no, I stopped making them. I'm like oh man.
George Scocca:Yeah, he was good friends of my brother Phil, yeah.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, I used to see him at the shows. I would always ask him when he's like yeah, you're the only one that's still asked about that fish. Because, exactly you said, you see the flounder on top of the water in the inlet and the striped bass are trying to mouth them and coming up and they're going around them and I would throw that thing in there and I would catch the striped bass. It was crazy.
George Scocca:Yeah, you know, it's funny because you mentioned Laura's had come back. I'm thinking about the mojo spoon, right, think about the spoons that we had 30 years ago. They were the same. I mean, I look at them, I have one of the old ones, wow. And yeah, I don't know why I keep. I keep a lot of my old stuff.
Paul Peluso:I'm probably never gonna use it, me too. I like that too.
George Scocca:I keep it, I keep it.
Paul Peluso:I'll keep it forever, yeah.
George Scocca:So, but yeah, that's funny. Now Everybody's using them, you know, and but anyway, so so you're so. So what do you think of the striped bass fishery now? I agree, back then it was size right.
Paul Peluso:The size has gone down and the amount in this bay right here in Mauritius has gone down dramatically. Outside, though, on the bunker pods the fish. You see they've gotten Gigantic, where most of the fish you hit out there are 30 pounders to 50 pounders Right, and if you catch it right, you could, you could, you can now several of them right. So we're going from like 28 to 28 pounds. You know this.
George Scocca:Yeah, the way they're managing the fishery is for us to eventually have a small fish fishery, because that's what that's what the commercials want and they figured out keep us busy and we'll be fine with that. We're not allowed to keep a big fish anymore.
British Guy:No.
George Scocca:So little bit at a time they're gonna take that away. Yeah, I know, look I'm. You know I'm a conservationist. Well, I'm not gonna say you know that, but I mean I've always fought for striped bass. I didn't agree with with the way they went around reducing the slot and calling an emergency and all that stuff. You know I'm a believer. Go back to one fish at whatever size you want to make it. Make it 32 inches, one at 32 and over, and you know a lot of people look, nobody likes the look of her 50 pound bass hanging right, but yeah, but the truth is that bass has Produced a lot of fish already, and how much longer does it have to live? Well, aren't we better off protecting the smaller one so they could spawn three, four, five, ten times, whatever.
Paul Peluso:Anyway, yeah, I think they should protect them all, believe it or not. And you know, maybe a couple years of putting them as game fish and they'll be back all over the place. It worked in the 80s and I couldn't believe the amount of fish that used to be in here because nobody really targeted them anymore and you know it went down dramatically. I do see it coming back the last couple of years. We seem to see a few more than usual and, like the the week fish did are showing up. You know, people actually catching them again. They seem to be pretty easy. But I'm kind of glad and to see Robin's went down and I know you know what it's funny.
George Scocca:You say that Because I see that even on a North Shore where, where I fish, it's traditionally paved, you know there are a lot of sea robins around and you know we'll get them like two, three pounds over here in the North Shore, but, um, this year they weren't a heck of a lot of them. That there weren't a lot of fluke either, I mean, they were fluke, but they weren't. We don't. We don't get them the way we used to it. You know I do. The sound is like this big giant Bay and a little bit at a time I'm. What's happening here has happened in every Bay in Great South Bay, it happened in in Marich's Bay. I mean, the cut helped Marich's Bay.
Paul Peluso:Dramatically. Oh, that thing cleared out the water. I brought back a lot of fish and a lot of. Fire island needs one of those, I mean that brown tide that used to be in here, although right now, from the last hurricane, the Bay was still a little brown, it's still a little mixed up. Yeah, I hope it clears out so that we could get some really good top water fishing next week. So what's going on?
George Scocca:So years ago, when I had my boat there, I would fish, a spot was in the West Cut and they called it the onion sack.
Sharky:I don't know yeah.
George Scocca:I don't know if you're familiar with that area.
Paul Peluso:But oh, definitely the thing is gone. But yes, they did. I remember that little onion sack thing that was there, yeah, so I would set up anchor in there.
George Scocca:Everybody thought I was nuts and because it was like you know, there's like that bar there that builds up and and everybody be passing by me, headed out going fish. You know, coming back from fishing, I'm like they're just running over all of these bass and I would cast Lord Chet from B&B tackle God rest his soul. He, he taught me that fishery and I would anchor and I would throw Bombers and you would see those fish come running sideways. I so wish we had video and cameras back then. I mean, wow, oh, those were, those were great days. So so you seem to agree with pretty much everyone that there's like this gap in the fishery. I don't know too many people that get too many keepers. I mean, you know it's. They're targeting one year class. I believe it's the 2015 year class. So because that was supposedly the good, why a wine number? I young of the year, but good. But you know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't think they're that good that they can just pick and choose. They just got to pick a number. Let's make it one over 32, with a good season, and let everybody take a freaking fish to eat. I don't understand that again. So let me ask you this what about? What about bluefish over there? Have you, you guys, have you been inundated with blues?
Paul Peluso:I would all of well, no, no no, this, this is what this could be. The other issue which I I think used to happen now the bluefish used to be so thick over here that the whole month of September, yeah, I couldn't get a bass because I couldn't get through the bluefish and I remember going on to have videos and pitches of I can't tell you how many bluefish we would catch and they would rattle up, they would ball up the bait into like Pots and remain really tight ones and attack it and make all of the blood and everything come into the water and the bass would be underneath or around it or whatever, and they would scoop up all the rest of the stuff. So yeah, without the bluefish Corralling a lot of this stuff up, the bass sometimes come, you know they like that. The bunker pods get spread out from storm, they willy-nilly. You'll see them here and you'll see one there, but no concentration of them where you could. You know right, one or two right off of the pod. So it last couple years that was a pain in the neck. But the bluefish, you know, if you don't catch them in the first week of May when they first come through here in the day, you know those big gorillas.
George Scocca:Oh yeah.
Paul Peluso:They disappear. And then you know, now they they're catching the snappers right now. The kids are all, they're all around the docks.
George Scocca:Yes, you know, the sound is loaded with big bluefish and. I'm talking about, you know, I think the the WICC winner this year. I think it was a 20 pound fish which was the first time in like forever since I can remember.
Paul Peluso:I'm just as go wow.
George Scocca:Yeah, that's a pretty big fish. You know that things get a kick your butt. I had a kid on the podcast last week and this kid paddlefish, paddleboard fishes right, that's like a new thing now. And he's, yeah, and he hooked up. He thought he hooked up on a bass or but he was in a bluefish Tournament. Sorry, thought he had a bluefish. He had like a seven foot shark. That thing comes up next to the paddleboard. I'm like this kid is out of his mind. I had him on, I had him a good he. You know good kid you can tell conservationist kind of kid. You want fishing, so so, so what are your plans now? As far as a full, you don't really do a lot of black fish in or sea bass, do you?
Paul Peluso:know, not really. I'm not really good at anchoring up on the wrecks, to be honest with you. You know what? What my boat? I rather just I'm more of a Run-and-gun type of fisherman like I love to chase the Albees, like that's my. Like that, yeah, you hit them right in shore on a little 4000 real and you're in. You're in for a really good fight. The lines is ripping out, you know.
George Scocca:So do me a favor, tell how are you? I'm gonna take it away. I do. I use a 2500, right? I use a 20 pound braid tied to a 10 pound Floreau and I throw the smallest deadly dick that I could find and I crank it as hard as I can like across the top.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, I do the same thing, but I have 30 pound test. I usually use a full 1000 because I have a whole bunch of them right and I try to get up like if they're coming like towards me, I try to get ahead of them and cast it at them and really that seems to be the easiest.
George Scocca:Oh yeah, yeah, you know the best feeling is when you see that one peel off you have to see that.
Sharky:Oh my god you go.
George Scocca:Okay, you know you see him peel off and he's going at it. You know that that, to me, is one of the best rushes in all fishing. No, it's actually the way I like freshwater fishing.
Paul Peluso:So Because I get that a lot in fresh water this one. I still have the vision of the Albee. I use this very small little Al gags popper I don't know where I got it's old and I usually see him at the shows. They're basically giving them away. Nobody wants these little tiny poppers and we rose out in Montauk and casted it out to this, to the pot of Albe's, and I'm reeling it in and I could still see the Albee this big With the biggest Albee I have. A court out of the water crashes into the. I knelt it was. It was on Adrian's boat, captain Adrian's boat, and then Angelo Paluso was with us. This, this Albee. I should have probably took it in and waited, but you know we throw them all back.
Sharky:Yeah.
Paul Peluso:Way over 10 pounds. It was awesome I caught on this little plug. I always keep them on my boat just just in case they get really crazy. Yeah, but you could get them on a popper, but I always have. You have to have a little white Treble on the back with the head.
George Scocca:I would think you're gonna need something small like that because I mean, that's the only way that I have ever been able to catch them. And then you know like sometimes you know they they show and they kind of stay, but so often they chase and bait all over the place they pop up. You had a pop of the run over and then I know all of a sudden they pop up. We just move. You're like I should have stayed there, you know.
Paul Peluso:But if you watch it, sometimes they do a circle. If you do stay there, they come back.
George Scocca:I agree, I agree with you. It's funny to say that because I did notice a pattern a couple years ago. I'm like I wonder if I stay. And I and it did, but it didn't work the next time I went.
Paul Peluso:But yeah, that's fishing for you every time you think you figure about it.
George Scocca:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, let me uh, if you were. So I got a friend of mine, he's got a nice, he's got a 31 stiger somewhere over there in Marietta's and he's not the most successful fishman. He's a good fishman but he's not great. So what would you? I suggest that he be the what. What should he be targeting from here right now?
Paul Peluso:Yeah, right now, right there's very moment. There the bass and the bluefish should start to show up again. The albisa should be out there too. I know they're getting them in Montauk. I know they're getting them out east. I did see them here a week before the hurricane. I by the time I wasn't. I was playing with a whale with my wife that one. I came up really close to the boat and all of a sudden these albees pumped up. I had nothing really ready, so by the time I picked up all my stuff and got it going, they were, but I did see him. I did run out the next day.
George Scocca:Nothing, I know they were to the west because I was fishing South to Jones and when we were floating there were guys killing them. They were freaking everywhere you know. Yeah.
Paul Peluso:I'm doing really good in Montauk now on the albees and the, the best striped bass. I see that guy, steve Missy, he's been catching him again.
George Scocca:Do me a favor, let's get back to so. Let's say the guy's green and you know he can get whatever he wants, whatever you want live bait.
Paul Peluso:If you could get live bait, if you could catch it, or you could buy the spot from that guy over here in Tom Corselli. He's got his little spots over here and I think it's in the hearts, cold Marina. I'm not sure which one he's in, I forget, but he's got those, those live baits. If you could get them on a hook and get them down in the inlet, you know. So what are they? Peanuts? We're gonna catch a peanuts. I love peanuts. Peanuts is great right now. Yeah, you know, speaking about live bait, that's what me and Gil used to do. We would go around, we net the peanuts or the bunker, the adult bunker, and we go drift through the inland or over by the breakers that used to be his thing and a bunch of those peanuts, and you go right over to the corner of the breakers when they weren't crazy. When the breakers, you know, two or three foot, it gets a little crazy. You don't want to play in there.
George Scocca:Yeah, it's one in there, and hold two seconds, the thing is gone, yeah, so Now that, now that you mention it, for those of you folks listening, I met Paul, as well as so many people I still see and speak with, through my website, norriscom. It was literally like the first website ever. There was no Facebook or anything in those days and we, we managed, we put together some crew I mean I look on Facebook now and everyone is still friends and they all met through Norris. Then there was one one guy there who you all friends with. We all managed to get the fish with him every now, you know, at least once or twice or whatever, and he was the alcoholic Gill hubs, and he was, sadly, gill went through a tough time, but let me tell you he was a warrior and he ended up. He passed away, he died of the same deadly horrible disease and my brother died of. And you know my memories of gill way. He was always a great guy, always fun. You know nothing. I never saw him with all the all the shit that goes on On on websites and especially norris, than the day. You know he never, never, you know, responded, retaliated, you know, in any way, and he was a great guy. And so, paul, so oh, and I think I mentioned to you. All the years I'm fishing with my son, I mentioned to him about gill and he goes. Oh, he goes. You know, I I still that's. You know, I have my personal best on his boat and I was like what you know, like I kind of forgot it, and he goes. Yeah, remember I had that 30-something pound of my son, he had me maybe 10. And yeah, so those I have many memories of Gil and I'm sure you'd like to say a few words about him.
Paul Peluso:Oh, definitely he was the main guy that used to do live bait over here. If you wanted to catch a big fish, live bait is the way to go. And he was the master at finding out where these bunker were, no matter what time of the year. Even when they leave the canals and they disappear, he still knew where they were. I mean, this was before there was pods outside. We could just go and snag a couple and run back to the inlet. They were being these little coves up the thing and he would be like there they are right there and I'd be like where, right there, I can't. He said I'm telling you they're right there, throws a net, boom, we get a whole bunch of bunker, go to the inlet and we were catching big-sized striped bass all the time. He always caught the bait. He would go out extra early especially if he had people on his boat, like three o'clock in the morning, just to make sure that he got that live bait and that those people were going to catch some really deep and size fish. He was a man at that stuff. He was a really good guy. We did a lot of fishing side by side for years over here, so I'm going to really miss him. He was a good friend. We did Florida trips together and caught some big tarpon.
George Scocca:Yeah, I saw those photos, I was like hey. I'm jealous of you guys.
Paul Peluso:His brother, warren, put together a trip for us that was unbelievable. We had five days of fishing. It was nonstop.
George Scocca:That's great.
Paul Peluso:I don't know how he did it and the cost, how he put it together. I was glad that they invited me to go.
George Scocca:Yeah, really I know that feeling. I went through a little bad of it myself, but luckily I came out on the good side.
Paul Peluso:People, go for those screenings, man, that those things are very important. A lot of people of our age. They don't do anything and then, oh, that guy's gone. That guy's gone. I had a friend. He just died two days ago. Michael Lee, sorry, he had an answer too. I know Great guy. He's a family man. You would never think anything was wrong with the guy. Happiest guy ever. He got cancer.
George Scocca:It's a big, long battle, like Gil, look we're all going to miss Gil and I know I missed a good old days in Norway. You guys kind of make it up on Facebook but I can't. You see me. I'm on there very rare, maybe once a week. I get on Facebook and I check how everybody's doing. I mean I'll probably get into it a little bit more. Only Kusty, new York Angler, kind of, is asking for it. But we're growing over there. I love the group. There's a lot of the guys there that used to be on Norris. It's cool.
Paul Peluso:It's kind of a it's nice that it's the people's names too. They all got their own names back. It's not the alcoholic, it's Gil Hubbs. Yeah right, exactly. You know who the hell you're talking to. Sometimes you have no idea, oh God.
George Scocca:It's still that way, right no?
Paul Peluso:but at least you can see their names. Oh, this is Carrie. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I know that.
George Scocca:But look, I don't know if you saw so last week and everybody's busting my balls about two weeks ago. Now this is the third time this has happened to me. So somebody sends me a note saying that your account is hacked. Everybody thinks that I was hacked. It's not hacked. The guy somebody made up a copy of me. They go, they take his shit off the site or from Facebook and then they make their own page. Then they go and they look somehow they can see your friends list or whatever, and they contact all your friends and ask them to sign up with them and then the next thing you know now it's pictures. I have no idea this is happening. People think I'm asking them for money. So I get a phone call and it's a friend of mine who goes. You know, george, if you were in bad shape, you know you'd give me a call. I go what are you talking about? He goes well, why would you ever go on Facebook asking for $5,000? I go what are you talking about? So he talks. So I look at the post and it's me Well, it looks like me right and saying that I got hurt and that I don't have the right medical coverage and I need $5,000 to get this work done and I'm like I'm looking at this thing. I mean, facebook took it down pretty quick, you know. But so those are my experiences on the?
Paul Peluso:Yeah, you got to watch that. You just got to watch who your friend? Yeah, some of these people are crazy hackers. I don't even know what you know. Like you said, they're trying to get money out of people. I had that same similar thing but didn't ask for money.
George Scocca:But some guy none of that happened on Norris right, you know they just called every name on to the sun and would threaten you. Remember, remember good old Jack Cohen, oh my God. He started out as Megalodon and then we had some great guys. Come on, I'm the best one who I wish I tell his dad, I don't know who it is. Who is the professional?
Paul Peluso:Exactly, I want him on my podcast every single week. Who is the professional? I will tell you about it.
George Scocca:But you know what? We couldn't be as good as him. That's the problem. I actually went on Norris reading some of the stuff and I'm like I wonder if I can get somebody to do something like that. But you can't. That has to be in you, you know.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, I don't know who it was. I never found out, so I don't know if Glenn knows who it is. No, he thinks he knows, but he won't even tell me. He's wrong on my side. He doesn't know.
George Scocca:Yeah, that's what I said. He's going to be listening to this, Glenn. All right, Glenn, we know. You know who the professional is you better? Come clean there, mr Dutton, give it up. That was the best storyteller on the face of the planet. If he had a YouTube channel back then, oh my God, that was so great.
Paul Peluso:I fished it hard for two hours At the bottom oh yeah, yeah, he's really.
George Scocca:He was great, but anyway, we're never going to know who it is. But kind of like we're never going to find out where Hoppers buried. Same thing.
Paul Peluso:No, there was a bunch of characters. They were all good. A lot of the guys were good. Remember, we just have the barbecues and we'd go to the beach and everyone would show up. Oh yeah, they mojo from from New York, he's still with me on New York, england.
George Scocca:Mojo's there. Oh, he is the best man, him and his wife. He's got a video up there. You would die laughing. He gets, he gets boarded by DEC, right. So they pull up to the boat and he whips out this freaking stack of cards and they're all business cards of different DEC offices and he's showing them to the guy. Right, what after the next? And the guy goes what do you collect these? He was like no, I know, bobby got the blouse and Joey, this guy and that guy and I'm telling you, man, that guy couldn't wait to get out of there. He just he was like I can't take my card. I got to go, you know. But all right, paul, look, this has been great, and you and I, we all got to get together. One day I'm going to get that Norris crew back together. We're going to do one of those, one of those crazy charters.
Paul Peluso:That would be great. I'd like to do another blackfish trip. That was that's when I used to go. I was with the best we went on. Those, those were the, those were the good days.
George Scocca:With Desi.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, I just saw Desi the other day. I saw him at the Bradstock over here. Oh nice In years. Yeah, he got married. I didn't even know he got married.
George Scocca:Oh yeah, yeah. Well, he's on Facebook, I would think.
Paul Peluso:I didn't see. Sometimes, if you don't, you know, like the things that don't show up in your field.
George Scocca:Yeah, I don't even know I haven't seen her in years.
Paul Peluso:Yeah, I ran into him I was like Desi, oh yeah, he's doing well.
George Scocca:You know he had a little health care too, but he's great now. So that's what he told me. So, anyway, all right. So it's a go, look for the bass and the blues, and the Alps should be showing any day. We're going to. We got a rough weekend coming up. It's going to blow. They said it over the weekend.
British Guy:I think it's going to turn on next week.
George Scocca:I think it's really going to turn on.
Paul Peluso:That's what I got on my reports. It was like the 25th on, everything went crazy.
George Scocca:Yeah.
Paul Peluso:So hopefully you will see what's going on. I wish I was out there right now, so All right?
George Scocca:Hey, look, make sure you stop by New YorkAnglercom when you get a chance. And for those of you that don't know Paul, we used to call him Pablo. That's how we'd know Everybody.
Sharky:And did they still call you yet?
George Scocca:Oh, okay.
Paul Peluso:I stopped because. I thought they know me as Paul, they know me as Pablo.
George Scocca:That's great, that. That was the beauty of Norris. So, all right, hey look, thanks again. It was great speaking with you and we definitely got to do it again.
Paul Peluso:Anytime, I'll let you know. You'll see my pictures and the officials when I'm catching them. Oh, you know what?
George Scocca:Yeah, you know what, before we go, make sure you send me some kind of pictures or something so I can get it to the podcast.
Paul Peluso:Sure, whatever. Whatever one you want, just let me know.
George Scocca:Send me a well, and you would have put an actual fish. You got it All right, brother. I'll talk to you again soon and thanks a million. No problem, thanks, george, all right, well, that wraps it up, folks. I'd like you all for tuning in. Please subscribe to this podcast, reach out to me at georgeonmyanglercom or go to anglercom and feel free to ask me any question you like. Next week we're going to have a really good show. We have a new weekly guest. His name is Joey Guggen and you're all going to love him. You've all met someone just like him before in the past and I'm looking forward to introducing him to our listeners. I'm also going to have on Tim Regan. You have him and my other good friend over at the Fish Guy. Photos provide us with some of the most unbelievable marine photography we've ever seen, ever in the history of this state beyond a doubt. So yeah, I'm going to have him myself. I know I'm going to be asking about a drone. I want to get my own drone and he seems to be a really good. I mean, doesn't seem to be. He's excellent. So tune in next week. Thanks again, please subscribe I appreciate all the support and get out and enjoy this full fishery right after this big blow coming. Things are going to really turn on over the next few weeks. Thanks again for listening. Until next time. God bless America.
