2024 Gear Highlights, saltwater Fishing Tips & Stories

Fifty years ago the Quashnet River was 80 feet wide, two inches deep, and held one wild brook trout per hundred feet. Today it holds forty per thousand foot section - and the sea-run brook trout, the fish Cape Cod calls a salter, is back in streams where biologists had declared it gone. Tom Pero and Francis Smith join Peter Jenkins to tell that story. Tom started a Trout Unlimited chapter in Taunton at 19, became the first editor of Trout magazine, and founded Wild River Press; his new book Salter is the first comprehensive book ever written about sea-run brook trout. Francis is the volunteer most responsible for rebuilding the Quashnet by hand, over fifty years and more than 400 volunteers. In this episode: how a cranberry bog destroys a river, why Francis restored the channel from downstream up, why wood in a river works like wood in a wood stove, the spawning gravel box he invented, and why fixing one small stream in Mashpee kicked off more than $100 million of dam removals and bog restorations up and down the New England coast. GET THE BOOK Salter by Thomas R. Pero - 257 pages, hardcover, hundreds of photographs and historical maps: https://www.wildriverpress.com/product/salter/ SHOP AT SALTWATER EDGE Free shipping with code SALTER: https://www.saltwateredge.com Fly rods: https://www.saltwateredge.com/collections/fly-rods Fly reels: https://www.saltwateredge.com/collections/fly-reels Fly tying: https://www.saltwateredge.com/collections/fly-tying-tools GET INVOLVED Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition: https://www.searunbrookie.org Trout Unlimited: https://www.tu.org The Saltwater Edge Podcast - hosted by Peter Jenkins, Newport, Rhode Island. Subscribe for conversations on surfcasting, fly fishing, light tackle, and the fisheries we all depend on.

Alex Peru invented one of the most versatile lures in Northeast saltwater fishing — the Albie Snax — and he did it by asking a question nobody else was asking: how do you make a weightless soft plastic that actually casts? In this episode, Peter sits down with Alex to unpack the design decisions behind the Albie Snax, the Super Snax (which actually came first), and the Fish Snax XL. Then Alex breaks down his new company, Clobber, and The Freak — an 11-inch, 4-ounce sliding-weight spook with a baitfish profile and a nose-rigged single hook, built to convert the big striped bass that follow a Doc but won't commit. Along the way: why stiffness (not weight) is the secret to casting distance, how to rig soft plastics for weeds and mangroves, why squid are always in the bait ball, reading a fish's body language, the cat-toy theory of triggering strikes, and why big stripers hit a baitfish in the head. Guest Links Clobber (The Freak) — Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clobber_company/ Fish Snax Lures (Albie Snax, Super Snax, XL): https://www.fishsnaxlures.com ZipChip pocket frisbee: https://www.zipchipsports.com/ Shop the Episode (saltwateredge.com) Albie Snax — https://www.saltwateredge.com/products/albie-snax Fish Snax Super Snax — https://www.saltwateredge.com/products/fish-snax-super-snax Fish Snax XL — https://www.saltwateredge.com/products/fish-snax-xl-albie-snax Albie Snax Hooks 4/0 — https://www.saltwateredge.com/products/albie-snax-hooks-4-pack Fish Snax Twistlock Hooks — https://www.saltwateredge.com/products/fish-snax-twistlock-hooks Owner Twistlock Beast Hooks — https://www.saltwateredge.com/products/owner-twistlock-beast-hooks Chapters / Timestamps (Timestamps are from the raw recording — they'll shift after you cut the ending and any mid-roll edits. Re-check against the final export.) 00:00 — Intro: the story of the Albie Snax 01:19 — Origins: starting the business in 2011, the albie lures of the day 02:44 — The design problem: a "weightless" soft plastic that casts 04:34 — More plastic, not more weight — why cylindrical, and the two-piece mold 06:11 — The red-head prototype era and hand-pour war stories 07:20 — Rigging mileage: rotate the bait a quarter turn and re-rig 08:01 — Skipping into mangroves for snook 09:15 — The original colors (amber, white, bubblegum, olive) and the two-tones 10:49 — Rigging: screw-lock swimbait hooks, plus a nose-rig trick with a thin-wire hook 12:28 — Squid, the amber Snax, and jumping the ladder of the food chain 14:35 — From albie lure to year-round striper staple; selling the company 15:18 — Surprise: the Super Snax came before the Albie Snax 16:43 — Fish Snax XL and the rat tail: a lure that folds in the air 20:32 — ZipChip: fishing-lure engineering applied to a pocket frisbee 25:20 — Clobber and The Freak: reverse-engineering why the Doc works 28:35 — Profile matters: why a spook shaped like a baitfish converts more fish 31:13 — The sliding magnetic weight: casts tail-heavy, swims level 33:50 — The skip: very bunker-like, and perfect for casting into boulder fields 35:07 — How to work a glide spook: rod tip down, watch your line (not your lure) 36:42 — The Freak: 11 inches, 4+ ounces — and a 14-inch prototype 39:58 — Curiosity vs. commitment: converting follows into strikes 43:58 — The cat-toy theory of triggering a predator 46:34 — Why big stripers hit the head — and the nose-rigged single hook 49:13 — Hook mechanics: gap, wire, and why you stop dropping fish 51:06 — Where to get The Freak (hand-made drops for now) 52:02 — Wrap-up: Alex's two lures, two resources, and one last day on Earth

Pete Utschig — the surfcaster behind Phase Gear, Project Magic Hour, and the Surfcasters documentary series — sits down with Peter Jenkins in Newport, two weeks into his annual pilgrimage north from Florida.

Peter sits down with Chris Bishop, VP of Sales & Marketing at Yo-Zuri, during his annual June swing through New England. A 15-year company veteran and obsessive angler (snook and tarpon at home in Sebastian, FL; stripers at the Cape Cod Canal on the road), Chris explains the technology platforms behind Yo-Zuri's most trusted lures and how he actually fishes them.

Tony Friedrich of the American Saltwater Guides Association returns to break down a disappointing loss: Rhode Island DEM's rejection of common-sense bonito and false albacore regulations for 2026. Despite a proposal built on the state's own data, a compromise to match Massachusetts' five-fish limit, a generous commercial cap, and public comments running 60–3 in favor across two packed hearings, the effort was misrepresented and dismissed. Tony and Peter walk through the timeline, the advisory council's conflicts of interest, the tautog precedent that proves this approach works, and why this fight is far from over, including new bonito acoustic tagging research and a promise to return next cycle. To everyone who wrote a letter or missed dinner to attend a hearing: this one's for you. Stick with it.