It’s getting to be that time of year when surf fishing takes the spotlight.

Water temps are dropping, the number of daylight hours are decreasing, tons of baitfish are poised to empty out of the bays into the ocean, and striped bass and blues are about to follow them south for the winter.

The PencilCaster is a wooden, floating pencil popper that comes in two sizes.

The Canal Caster includes a shaved flat belly that gets the wooden plug on plane quickly and bangs the surface like a two-by-four.

The NeedleCaster is a plastic, sinking needlefish lure with a tantalizing wiggle.

The plastic DartCaster floats but also swims down with a rattle, dive and wiggle.

Surf casters plan to intercept these gamefish as they migrate along the coast to warmer climates, a phenomenon that many anglers consider Jersey’s premier fishing event of the year.


Rich Karpowicz, founder of PlugCaster Lures, certainly knows. His decades of haunting the surf involved 35 years of building surf fishing lures for himself. Then he decided to make his creations available to the public.


PlugCaster Lures are wooden and plastic fish-catchers that come in different models for different fishing situations.


They’re particularly meant for surf fishing, but boaters can find them equally effective when fish are feeding near the surface.


The plugs are especially built for catching big stripers, but they’re also meant to draw attacks from other fish, such as blues.


The lures are only available at dealers, and a number of the state’s tackle shops carry them.


For more info, including
stores that stock PlugCasters,
visit PlugCaster’s web site.