By Zeno Hromin

This originally appeared in the Fisherman Magazine, Long Island Edition

Surf Fishing Tips from the Pros:

 Don Musso, legendary maker of Super Strike Lures

We are all in for a treat this month as Don Musso; one of the most respected anglers on the East Coast shares his knowledge with us. For those of you who might not know, Don is the mastermind behind Super Strike Lures. He has had a tremendous influence on the design of lures we fish with today and not just his own but his competitor’s too. But if you think all these accolades have gone to his head you’d be sadly mistaken. One of the most friendly and unassuming surfcasters on the beach Don can often be found during September on either Montauk’s rocky south side when bass congregate to feast on white bait or on a south shore chasing the mullet. Here are his thoughts on how he prepares for fishing in September

Each Labor Day brings a renewed promise of hope for the upcoming fall run. What is your approach to the traditional start of the fall run?

In September what you really look for is the first Nor’easter. You are looking for pretty heavy winds, 25 MPH or more, and a cold rain at night. What that does is drive all the mullet out of the bay. If you just get the winds without the cold rain the mullet will come out in small, scattered schools. These pods might or might not be harassed by the fish because they are not densely schooled. If you get a cold rain you want to get up the next morning and park yourself on the beach .You want to fish the west side of the inlets: Cedar beach in Fire Island Inlet or Point Lookout in Jones Inlet for example. What happens is the bait will come out of the inlet and hug the shoreline pretty tight. Popping plugs are hands down your best choice but I love to use my own small metal lip swimmer. It’s 4 ½ inches long and runs about six to eight inches under the surface, weighs about an ounce and a half and casts fairly well.  It takes a tremendous amount of fish when mullet are running.

You are able to cast 4 1/2-inch metal lips in a Nor’easter?

Think about it. You are on the west side of the inlet. That means the wind is coming over your left shoulder. All you need to do is cast slightly up-wind and the wind will take care of the rest. This plug is not used with a steady retrieve but maybe two turns of the handle and then you twitch it and make it swim and dart. It’s been deadly for me.

Too bad we can’t buy that plug in the store. Can we substitute a plug on the market that can be as effective?

Yes, but as with any metal lip you will need to tune the plug to do what you want. Experiment with it until you find the desired action. As far as the size, for years I used 7-inch metal lips but I found that my 4 ½ to 5-inch plugs catch a lot more fish than the largest version. Another plug that works great during a mullet run is a pencil popper because you will have snappers coming up along mullet schools slashing at spearing and pencil poppers are great imitations of this behavior.

Are you a subscriber to the “mullet run=blue lure” theory?

Not really. I like either white or blue with pink sides on the metal lip. Pink is for the iridescence that shows on any baitfish along its sides. Colors don’t mean too much most of the time but there are nights when the fish will not touch anything but a particular color. You can’t carry them all in the bag but that’s why we have beach buggies.

One more question regarding the south shore, if I may…we established the “event” that will push the mullet out of the bay but what happens once everything settles down?

These Nor’easters are more like two to three day events and you want to get up after the first night of a howling Noreast wind and get to the beach in the morning as mullet runs have always been better morning than evening affairs. If the wind goes hard into the northwest the action will be poor because the fish will move off the beach. Once everything settles down you will usually find mullet very close to the beach, sometimes in white water and you can’t even see them unless the fish chase them to the surface. What you don’t want to do is waste a million casts in water that doesn’t look like it has life in it. Instead find where the fish are pocketing the mullet. If you see mullet going down the beach and all of sudden you see them going back, then regrouping and trying again you can bet there are fish down there herding these mullet. As soon as you see some tails slapping around on the surface it’s the time to start fishing. I like light south winds because it takes away the crystal clear water we experience on north winds and you get a little white water action going. Anything hard out of a southerly direction will pin the weed onto the beach, so we don’t want anything hard or prolonged.

How important is to find structure on the down tide of these inlets in order to be really successful instead of just getting few fish?

Good question. Look for points and preferably a bowl just before the points. Fish love to pin the bait in there before they get around the point. Years ago I used to go to Long Beach and observe the mullet wrap around each jetty and then swim tight to the beach to the next jetty and then wrap around that jetty on to the next and so on. It’s like an ant colony. So I look through my binoculars and find the places that seem to have the most action and go there. So yes, structure is very important but you still have to find the mullet first. The pocket at the West End II jetty can be an absolute bait trap when bass push the mullet in it, especially if the wind impedes bait movement around the jetty.

Anything else on the mullet run?

Concentrate on outgoing water.  That’s the tide to fish the south shore beaches. The last few years we haven’t had good mullet runs like we did in years past when schools were 30 feet long and five or six feet wide. It’s just not happening any more. We used to have mullet runs that went on for a few weeks. These days you are lucky if you get a week. I’ll stick around these areas until maybe the second week in the September and if nothing is happening then I will run out to Montauk and strictly fish there

Montauk is a big place………come on, cough it up!

 I’ll fish Browns, Kings and once in a while I will go into Driftwood. I don’t really venture into Caswells until late October or early November. As everybody knows you fish the lighthouse on incoming with darters, bucktails and bottle plugs, preferably on a southwest or easterly wind. Then you go over the north side and fish the stretch from the North Bar to the lighthouse on the outgoing. You can catch the bottom of the tide on False Bar and then run over to Shagwong and still catch the bottom of the tide there. On the south side fish the coves on high incoming and high outgoing and rocky points on the last of the outgoing until you can’t stand the pounding of the waves any longer on the incoming. Then you get out of there.

Tell us about usual bait scenario at Montauk?

In September, the Montauk bait situation is absolutely wonderful because you got snappers chasing spearing and the ruckus they create make pencil poppers very effective. Then you have anchovies, which is your white bait and don’t forget baby weakfish. But there is a downside to all this bait. If the fish are really on a heavy feed during the day it kills the nighttime bite. These fish are there from daybreak to sundown feeding on white bait, they are so loaded they don’t bother to feed at night. Even the guys that fish live eels at night have a problem hooking up. Take a good look at the stripers during a blitz next time. Their bellies are almost ready to explode.

Can it be because the bass can’t locate the bait at night instead of loss of appetite?

No. These fish feed so much during the day that they have no need to do it at night. In fact, if you fished Montauk long enough you will notice that these blitzes usually last for approximately 3 days and after the third days it starts dying down. Then you got to wait a day or two until the fish start to feed again or until you get a new school of fish coming down from Block Island .

What does presence of the white bait depend on?

Some people think you need hot weather to have white bait but I disagree. It is my opinion that heavy southwest winds drive this bait from outside onto the beach. Where there was no bait before a blow all of a sudden the surf is alive with life. What you want then is for winds to calm down and moderate, where you can cast these small metal lips and do a job on them. The white bait will stay around until approximately the full or new moon in October and if you get easterly winds with this moon condition it will push all that bait west. You start losing your bait; you will lose your fish.

Do you prefer daytime to nighttime hours?

I fish both. In September you can get some quality fish in the dark because the snappers are around but like I said before once they start feeding eight or nine hours on white bait you can almost forget about your night fishing. All the fish start to look like they are pregnant and it becomes very hard to catch them at night.

Does fishing Montauk require different color selection when choosing your plugs?

Not really .I like to stick with established basics. Black on new moons and dark nights. Chartuse is deadly when the water has a brownish tinge or is off color. On bright moons I like white or yellow plugs.

Do you fish only your own plugs?

To a large degree, yes .For years I carved my own Bomber and Rebel type lures out of wood for personal use but if the fish weren’t at your feet you were out of luck because they cast poorly. So now I carry 7 inch Redfins and 6 inch Bombers. Instead of a 7-inch version of a Bomber I usually go with my metal lip. I also use a lot of bucktails, which I tie myself.

Since you are known for your penchant for perfection tell us what kind a tackle you use

All the rods I fish are made out of Kennedy Fisher blanks by a friend of mine. I use Power Pro and the new Stren in 20 to 30 lb for most fishing conditions although I will go to 10lb with a 9-foot stick when fishing the north shore to gain distance with light plugs. I also use 50lb shock leader, depending on conditions.

How about the new anglers who will experience their first fall run this year, what would be your advice to them?

If you are fishing south shore beaches and you have Noreast winds and mullet running I would recommend getting up as early as possible and fishing from high water down. Walk the boardwalk until you see some fish breaking or some other activity in the water. Don’t box yourself into a single location. Take a walk east of Field 6 on Jones Beach and you will find a wonderful sandbar that has produced some nice fish over the last few years. Tobay, Gilgo and especially West Gilgo feature some nice structure and that is usually best on the top of the tide through the first two or two and a half-hours of the drop. After that get out of there, it usually doesn’t pay on the bottom half of the tide.