Beach vs. Boat

[john hollenberg]

Right on Steve. I don't know if it is pride, stupidity, or mental illness but I still can not give the beach up. Glad you are catching fish and having fun. Hope your wife is well too.

[Clammer]

how the F @#$% can you say he,s the only one who has the ball,s

[Flaptail]

Sorry Mike, I know you got 'em too. I would only have to worry with you when we went by the house on Nonamesset that has the nudists living there, especially the young well endowed blond chick!

[Notaro]

nudists, steve? cool. never ran into one in my life.

i like boat and shore. i enjoy catching fish. catching the fish from surf is rewarding for me. i plan to buy a boat for inshore, flats, and offshore fishing someday.

[bassmaster]

welp, i had boat in 80s and 90s
and always did both , sold grady as sand was way good
got skiff?

[Nebe]

for what its worth, i would happily boatfish if i could afford a boat. my catch rates would go up and i could cover 1000000 times more water than from shore. However, I will always respect a surf caught fish more than a boat fish.. to me a 50 from a boat is a 30 from shore.. and a 6o from a boat would equal a 50 from shore.. You just cant compare the two animals. Yes you are a better fisherman for mastering all tools, but you can not say the glory deserved by catching a bass from a boat should equal that of a shore caught fish of the same weight.

If I had the coin i would have some sort of fishingboat.. but alas i am a starving artist

[fishweewee]

Originally Posted by Eben

for what its worth, i would happily boatfish if i could afford a boat.

I think Eben captures 95% of boat vs. shore fishing. There's a lot of money and time that goes into a boat - the boat, docking, maintenance, insurance, gas, etc. That and you have to get a different set of fishing gear for the boat.

I know of a lot of marriages that have been strained because of boats (and not all of those guys fished).

Having said that, a boat is a more efficient means of getting to the fish, no question about it.

But, there is a certain romance in standing up to your neck in ice cold water flailing a stick on the off-chance you might hook up with a fish.

I do love and enjoy both.

What's the point of just limiting yourself to one modality?

Is an angler really more accomplished just because he fishes the shore exclusively?

You can transfer a lot of fishing skills from the boat to the surf and vice-versa, IMO.

One other thing I can see. Surfcasting can be tough on the body - maybe it's a younger person's game. I notice that as people get older and less enthusiastic or able to put out a ton of effort to fish from the beach, they use the boat to compensate. What's wrong with that?

[NIB]

Bought a boat this spring notin special 19' center console.
i usta spend my time trying to cast from the surf as far as i could now I have a boat I cast to the shore.???

[Karl F]

Even the one who made the "sister in the whorehouse" quote, has and still does fish from and owns boat(s). You are right about the Worcester gang, and surcasting, and you were lucky to grow up in that backyard, but, the NY crew was just as important in the cape surcasting scene, Bentsen, Samms, Chuck Liegh, little Paulie (the NYFD guy) and countless others from NY were key in the glory days of the outercape backside. And they all fished boat, and beach. Look at Krispys(I think) new avatar, a nice beach shot of Arnold Laine, and #^&#^&#^&#^&ie Samms, in front of a skiff, with a huge bass ). The locals were less notable out there on the sand, some were never known, or heard of, as they preferred it that way.. but I know this, a lot of native cape codders who went for big bass in them days, headed straight to a boat, they figgered if you want big bass, you go to where they are, you don't wait for them to come to you.
Boat fish, Beach fish, lot of talk as to what "counts". Back then, for commercials, they all counted. I know one guy who caught multiple 50's and sixties (mostly from the beach, with witnessess)... never took a pic.. He's like, why??? I just wanted to sell them, and bottom line, thats what it was all about, in the 40's, 50's and 60's,70's, early 80's.
Yes, it is another tool, and a most effective one, in catching, like John Hollenberg (Hi John!), my shoes are still stuck in sand, the fish are fewer, (and smaller), but, I still get a cleansing of the soul at night, alone on the beach, that I just can't find out in a boat.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Karl F

I still get a cleansing of the soul at night, alone on the beach, that I just can't find out in a boat.

Do both but couldn't agree with ya more.

[ProfessorM]

I resiged to that fact several years ago too Steve. I love the beach and have been a MBBA member for 20 some odd years but have not put a vehicle on the sand in several years. I just wasn't catching that much and when I moved off Cape and had to drive an hour or so you can get pretty tired of getting skunked. I just now prefer to fish from the boat. That is why I own 2 boats. I love my 14' tin boat and would never give it up, sorry BM, I have more fun in that thing than any boat I have owned. People told me to sell the thing when I got my 19 footer and I said are you crazy, never. I just like to fish and am not caught up in the beach vs boat stuff. To each his own. I like both but fish from boat 80% of time and enjoy it more and that is what it is all about for me enjoyment. Perfect example I went to Barnstable last nite and fished from shore and got nutin. Perfect nite and tide to drift eels but my truck in shop and couldn't get the tin boat to the water. I know there were bass in that channel too because a guy came in with fish that he got in a tin boat. BTW I would like to mention another original Worcester guy who lives in Sandwich for many years. #^&#^&#^&#^& Cook. To me one of the best. Paul

[Clammer]

Eben =I'm not seriously getting into the beach == boat chit // have fun is what,s it about // but the statement you just made about what you consider 50# from boat ==equals 30# from shore is B/S ...

many times I,ve had it easier from shore to land a fish

I once caught a 20# from the beach --the fish made one run =180 straight to the sand ..
30 # from a boat on 15 # mono in a boulder field vs a 403 from the surf with 50# braid & at least that in leader // on a flat as sandy beach ...
every fish caught & every location & method is really different // there are [really] good spots down your way / I can,t fish from a boat /period /ad conditions & darkness so in that case if someone was nuts enough to go in there & get out with a bass /in the special situation it would mean more than if it was caught in the same place /from shore ..

Your tellin me that breaker I put you on that night /if you had caught a 50 # it would have only meant to you a 40# ????///////// I really wanted you to hook up there //because that would have been the easy part// any fish 20# or over you would have remembered the experience forever //

[Clammer]

Steve / & how many drifts did you make there ???

[striprman]

I enjoy boat fishing, I like to groundfish. Scup, flounder, black sea bass, togs.

Wheres my frying pan ???

[fishaholic18]

Originally Posted by Clammer

Eben =I'm not seriously getting into the beach == boat chit // have fun is what,s it about // but the statement you just made about what you consider 50# from boat ==equals 30# from shore is B/S ..many times I,ve had it easier from shore to land a fish.

I agree to disagree with Eben, I've had a boat all my life and it's not a cakewalk all the time getting fish from a boat, buy one and you'll find out. This is my 2nd "serious" season of surf fishing and I topped my best boat year already....
I don't go for that boat/shore BS It's all about having fun, which I am, so if you want to waste your time with the boat/surf thing...Go ahead..I'll be fishing catchin' large!!

[Crow]

I may catch fish on a boat, but when I go 'fishing' its from the surf. Its a matter of style over substance. Even when I worked on partyboats as a mate, afterwards I would hit the beach and go 'fishing'.

[Iwannakeeper]

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but from what I have read - two things come to mind

1. Who the F#$% cares what any one else thinks?
2. Do what you enjoy?

There have been plenty of statements made here and elsewhere that I would be willing to argue, but quite simply, I do not really give 2 shts what others think of how I go fishing.

I enjoy surf fishing, but (and maybe it is me, but I hear a lot of the same) it just doesn't consisitently and readily produce the way a boat does.

Is it more or less sporting - who cares? If you are getting out and enjoying yourself - doesn't matter who cares.

This thread and the thousands of other posts regarding surf vs. boat seem try and make this uber-enjoyable, relax sport we all love into some sort of competition. I personally fish because I like it, and I obviously prefer to catch fish vs skunks. I am not setting out to be "the best and most sporting fisherman." I am there to enjoy myself and hopefully pull a few.

It is all good; chunk, wire-line, boat, show, plugs, live bait - as a great philospher once put it "its all good" (slingah 2005). Why put someone else enjoyment down, because it is not what you like? In my opinion the only reason to put down another fisherman is the obvious ones everyone seems to agree with; googans, littering, taking shorts, fishing illegally - I think you get the idea.

[bassmaster]

Originally Posted by bassmaster

welp, i had boat in 80s and 90s
and always did both , sold grady as sand was way good
got skiff?

got skiff

[Nebe]

thats just my opinion clammer.. i respect a shore 50 far more than a boat 50 and i bet there are alot of guys here that would say the same thing.

[fishaholic18]

Originally Posted by Eben

thats just my opinion clammer.. i respect a shore 50 far more than a boat 50 and i bet there are alot of guys here that would say the same thing.

That's the problem, Caring what others think!!
I don't, just trying to have fun doing what I enjoy.
I'll take fish either way. All the same.....

[Flaptail]

This is a great thread now that I read the responses, thanks to all of you for participating. I love the surf and like Karl said it do cleanse the soul. One thing I like about the beach is the feeling it gives me or should I say the reminder it gives me of how small I am. Being 6'-6" I loose that perspective. As to respecting a beach fish over a boat fish, I don't know. I mean standing in the elemental fury of the surf and playing a big fish is the one way we would all like to claim our fifty but standing on a heaving deck in a hal glae at Sow and Pigs in the middle of the night when the skipper makes it a point to tell you what to do if the boat flips, well that has some merit too. I think a fifty either way are on the same plane as far that is concerned although it took me many years to reach that conclusion and cast away prejudices of one fishing method over another. Where I cast the island shores I do not rely on electronics, actually more on things I gained from shore fishing. Things like moving water, structure etc.

Karl, that New York had some great fisherman as you mention but almost all were pilgrims who made the trek north in response to what the central mass and Worcester crowd first opened up. Alot of the names you mentioned came much later actually in the middle to late fifties, sixties and seventies. I wonder what FD would be doing for the summer if he had had conditions in the 60's and 70's as we have now? Seems he might have had an epiphany of sorts lately from what I hear.

Laine's big secret was he was one of the first and certainly one of the most daring that took a small boat to the beach, launched it in the surf and fished from it on the outside of the bars along Peaked Hill etc. I interviwed the Perry boys years back for an article and their Dad Leo , who was the impetus for the reverse Atom and many squid plugs, fished with Laine all the time and told me how he ( laine) would push off in his skiff with a piece of plywood about six feet long and two feet wide which he would lay on and sleep as he was anchoerd up until the tide was right or after the fishing was done and come ashore at dawn with the skiff loaded with bass while the guys on shore caught nothing.

After it is all said and done both methods have merit and some inherent risks that make both equal on the striper playing fields. I go to the beach still quite often as there is nowhere I would rather fish than on the sands of Truro and P-Town. It is beautiful and there are sights you won't see anywhere else. The clarity of the night sky, the smell, the vista of the mighty Atlantic and the power it holds, the milky way and shooting stars and the endless rythym of the surf as the waves crash to the shore. But is missing something. Occasionally we get a taste and, like seeing a lover we once had and cannot get out of our minds and know we will never have again, it is a place that brings out a memory that cuts a small piece of your heart away each time we go there. Of anything that FD wrote, that sentimentality, and the memory of what once was and will never be again, is the most haunting to anyonme who ever experienced it when it was good.