PHANTON BEACH ,,,,, OTW
 

First let me say,, thanks for sharing your thought process,, Z and Flap ... The other guys were good too ... I liked this article alot and you can go into great detail because Phantom Beach does not exist so nobody gets pissed .. Its very useful because these conditions repeate themselves right up the coast pretty much any harbor or inlet..
Here is my take on Phantom Beach ... I see "Harbor" so even though its good moving water it also brings boat traffic,maybe a boat ramp with plenty of parking and easy access to all .. First thing I look at is fighting and landing a big fish and if its even possible. So that makes spots 2,3,4, unfishable even at night with no boat traffic because the fish I want is going to wrap all around those cans.. There are to many people from the parking area here anyways .. They will be all nailed to the bottom with some kind of frozen mack with a big piece of lead . This will also make these spot unfishable to any bottom bouncers wishing to use the current.. Spot 1 eaaahh..
Spots 5 + 6 are so good they suc .. You know everybody will be here 24/7 the whole season ,,If you like the shoulder to shoulder thing ,,this is the place for u ...
Spot 7 is only good for a cast on your way to spot 8...
Spot 8 imho is the place to be ..I'll take that boulder field point,,close to deep water, close enough to inlet,close enough to channel . Z nailed the tide .. last 2 of ebb 1st 2 flood.. Large will be taken here in the still of the night ..... Don't bother bringing any light tackle.. In the article Z and Flap are very specific on what to throw and why .. got me thinkin about different approaches .. thanks great job .

sorry,, only i could misspell a beach that dosen't exist ..:scream:

You are correct that the phantom beach will be wall to wall with fisherman but I think the article was written to show folks how to fish certain areas.

I have only read the first page so far but I had to stop reading to get some things done.

I like spot 3 or 4 because of the ripping current coming out of the river...I imagine the herring running up that river in springtime with the big boys chasing them. A S wind on an outgoing tide would trap the fish for the lazy biggins.

great article. the beauty of phantom beach is that it represents every outflow in south county. if you look at a map of RI, almost every outflow has a rocky prominence to the west with a beach in between.

anyway, great article..

Cudo's to Chris Megan's writeup "From the Publisher"
I am happy that Chris stood up & said what needed to be said on the issue regarding Steve McKenna.

Steve is a treasure to the Surf Fishing community.

As for the rest of what was said, I couldn't agree more.

Over & Out.

WTF is my issue :hs: :hs:

Any just to the East of most of the outflows there is a major rocky area... all about the longshore current baby....

Read the article on the plane home from Chi town last night. Great read without burning any spots. Kudos to Megan and OTW.

Great issue. Couldn't put mine down last night. My wife kept asking me where Phantom Beach was. I explained it to her twice then she asked me again. OK, but how do you get there? :huh:

Glad you all liked it. I thought it was a great idea when they asked me. I would never have thought of it. The OTW Staff was right on the mark. :uhuh:

Phantom Beach
 

I took one look and thought....Oh no, RI fishers are going to be ripped. Then I read it, realized that the beach was make believe, and liked the concept. What an idea, taking a mix of veteran surfmen and having them analyze the same terrain. I thought it was cool to find differences and similarities in their analysis. I must have flipped back and forth to see the map 100 times, as Flap and others were technical on wind direction and tides, I almost tore the map out, b/c I was tired of flipping.

I'm no bait soaker, but would still love to walk the jetty with a needle at night. I'd be a little concerned about lobster traps and markers, but would still try the jetty. After fanning the jetty (both sides), I would check the beach and structure just west. If it was crowded, I may take the walk just to see what others were up to. I'm most comfortable at night, and would bring an assortment of Needlefish in dark colors, some bucktails, and lead head w/ plastics.

Thanks OTW Zeno Flap Steve M and company, I'll be dreaming of Phantom beach tonight.

Excellent concept. Great Write. Great read.:kewl:

I thought the whole idea was great and well done by the magazine and the authors.

Now, does that mean no more site burning by OTW ?

I agree - great article by all the authors. Just about the best read I've had from OTW in a long time. :kewl:


Now, Megan's condescending, slightly arrogant, misguided, and misinformed Publisher's Editorial was ... forget it I'll keep my opinion to myself. :doh:

Phantom Beach was a much better approach then the October cheat-sheet article. That kind of tell-all writing is best left to the supermarket tabloids. OTW is usually above that kind of stuff. Yes it sells (as noted by the record numbers) but (IMO) it is poor journalism and does not teach anyone much of anything. If selling more copies is what its all about, perhaps topless babes on the cover holding a big fish will get your numbers up. :laughs:

Is this the Feb issue? Where is my OTW?! :crying: Half the time it arrives with the cover ripped off! :realmad:

If you think about it "spot" articles are easier than generic ones, no editorial coordination, they probably don't have to go far to find them.
One of my thoughts is an article with actual aerial photos of a sand beach from the previous season. How to fish it, maybe at a couple of different tide stages. Would the beach need to be identified and would'nt it change enough from winter storms to no longer be a spot article.
The same thing could be done with sand flats, esturarys, rocky points and reefs for the boat boys.

Joe;
I was leaving that alone as well..
I really didnt appreciate being talked down to. I think a vast majorit of posts on this site regarding this topic was intelligent and valid. He singled out the few bad posts.

That being said I really enjoyed the insight from the 4 authors as to how they would approach the spots and what weather conditions, lures, tackle etc. It gives us more to think about in analyzling our own favorite spots.

At the end of the day there is not going to be one form of media dominating all others. Nor does one form hold all the advantages over the other. The credibility of traditional print does not mean that opinions stated on message boards do not have power – because it's apparent they do. Nor does a magazine’s lack of tangible interaction take away from its validity as a primary source.

This is the Information Age, baby. Take a look at the most popular blogs and online versions of newspapers and you’ll notice that the lines are blurring and that there is quite a bit of crossover. Its not like there is a finite amount of content to distribute or that the market’s appetite is approaching saturation. People consume more information than ever before. The market for good writing, video, webcasts, blogs, photography, graphics, etc, is hungry and growing - as are the opportunities.

Got mine today. Good read, nice job.:tm:
Now if I can only find my own Phantom Beach...:hidin:

Great article, good read! thanks

Very good article....Very good OTW issue......

Apparently the management of OTW does not agree. Seems like they would have us throw away our computers and just read published hard print...
Great point Joe

Bri-

Also, part of his rant was falsely saying that the guys on that post just said things anonymously behind a keyboard, insinuating that we should have complained to him directly; yet I did send him an e-mail directly telling him just how I felt, as I know others did, and he never responded to me.

P,
I don't think they want us to dismiss computer tech as they do (IMO) have one of the best weekly web reports going. Personally I think this is the most timely report available. Some think it is too timely. I think it is great and an excellent use of the web media. Its one thing to give a fresh report for the region and another to show details down to which direction to cast.

If you read this weeks fishermen TC and CS both did good articles on spots...IMO this those were fine, they were descriptive with out being overly detailed, enough to get you pumped to fish those places, (or at least dream about it) but not like reading a recipe.

agreed. Read both articles and thought they were well written, informative without being inflammatory (no pun intended)

I think OTW did address the issue, but they did so on their own terms and their own way. I think that publishing the Phantom Beach shows a great deal of creative responsiveness.

Over on another website there was a long thread about the web being an altogether better resource than traditional print. Personally, I think that's an oversimplification. Internet threads are a superb resource, but not the end-all-be-all. Moreover, the information within is often not well organized or is peppered with a lot of information that is simply wrong. In short, the Internet could use a good editor.

In OTW the publisher referenced the fact that because criticism from the message boards came from anonymous sources, it held no value. That's an oversimplification also. Web Forums, though too often over-the-top, are undeniably an excellent barometer of public opinion, and of important trends within the sportfishing community.