[Mr. Sandman]

Right! I tie a lot in the off season...probably as many as Iron Mike!

I order the hooks, swivels and leaders in bulk and tie when ever I think about fishing in the off season.

For bass, I tie about 90% of the leaders I need for the upcoming season. When I feel a knick...it goes in the re-cycle bin and a new on is tied on. I am about 90% circle hooks (I like the Owner SSW IN-LINE Circle Hook 6/0-8/0 (about 50% of the hooks I tie)and 30% are Gamagakatsu octpus circle and the other are various gamakatsu, daiachi(sp), VMC and mustad. For plugs I do the same... I like the spro tiny HD swivles with the berkely cross lock snaps but what ever you use THIS is the time to do it.

For storage when I surfcast I use the leader wallet from the surfcaster...it is a slick velcro wallet that holds zip loc bags and fits in your wader pouch or plug bag. It holds enough for a couple nights. I refill it each trip.

For bottom fishing (mainly fluke and seabass) I like to experiment will all kinds of rigs. I read a lot of boards to find out what is the hot rig in Jersey and NY and try things like that here.
IMO the most important thing IMO is the quality of the hook. Why spend a ton of cash, take time off of work and away from your family to fish with a 3 cent cheap hook tied in a sweat shop overseas to make some geek a couple cents. TIE YOUR OWN!!! USE a Gamakatsu SHiner hook (wide gap) or a VMC wide gap or even a Mustad stainless wide gap but DON'T spend 2.99 to buy a cheap POS fluke rig !!! I bet you that it breaks or straightens on a big fluke...I learned the hard way...spend some money NOW to nail big fish in the summer. Most tackle shops don't carry good fluke hooks. Also you can buy great spinner blades, bucktail, glo-squids, spin-n-glos, silver bullets and other goodies NOW...rig them properly with FLORO and quality hooks and terminal gear...I store these in HD 4 mil zip lock bags (500 for 20 bucks). I keep a "tub" on board with enough gear to outfit a party boat.


happy rigging!!