Q&A: Wading River Fisherman Releases Second Book

Riverhead Patch recently spoke with John Skinner, a local fisherman who released his second book, Fishing the Bucktail: Mastering Bucktails from Surf and Boat, this past month. Skinner is an avid surfcaster, kayaker and scuba-diver and is well respected in the striped bass and surf fishing communities. He currently holds the New York State record for the largest false albacore caught in state history.

Skinner, a graduate of who served as Editor-in-Chief for Nor'east Saltwater Magazine and currently writes articles for other fishing publications, talked with Patch about the biggest mistake fishermen make, the versatility of the bucktail lure and the value of learning using stories.

Riverhead Patch: Tell us a bit about the bucktail lure.

John Skinner: When you get down to it, it's usually a lead-headed jig with a hook that's molded into the body and painted, and then you put on a strip of pork line or some other thing they call a "trailer."

Patch: What made you write a book about the bucktail?

Skinner: The bucktail is probably the most versatile lure in the world. Any fish that will hit a lure will hit a bucktail, and if you can master that jig, you're really in a good position for fishing success in all kinds of scenarios. You could be fishing on a sand beach, or a rocky beach, you could be fishing out in Montauk or in a kayak or a boat, you could be in the deep rips off Rocky Point.

It also works well under all sorts of conditions. With some of these other lures, like big wooden plugs or plastic plugs, well you know, they all have their place, but in certain situations you can't use them. But a bucktail works well, tracks well, looks good in the water in all those different kinds of situations.

Patch: Your first book, A Season on the Edge, took readers through a full surfcaster season on Long Island and mixed fishing stories with examples and advice on where to fish on the Island. This book seems more instructional, but still uses examples and anecdotes from your own experiences. Do you think it's easier for readers to learn that way?

Skinner: It seems to me that there's more of a demand for the straight "how-to" stuff. If you don't have "How to Catch a Fish" on the front cover, there's a segment of the fishing community that aren't going to grab it.

But I think people learn best from experience and stories instead of just "do this, do that, do this, do that." When you tell a story on how to do something I think it's a lot more powerful. I was careful to make the book not too "recipe" oriented.

Patch: What's the biggest mistake novice fishermen make with bucktails?

Skinner: The biggest mistake people make with bucktails is they use one that's too heavy. A lot of beginning people who use bucktails have it in their mind, and this is especially true for surfcasters, that they need to cast far to catch fish. One of the drawbacks of bucktails is they don't cast as far as other lures. So to compensate for that [some fishermen] will use a heavier bucktail to cast further, but the problem is that heavier bucktail is a bottom magnet. You're going to snag it on the bottom and you're going to lose it. I give a very simple objective: swim your jig near the bottom on a slow to moderate retrieve. If you do that you're going to catch a lot of fish.

Patch: What will be the subject of your next book, if you plan to write another?

Skinner: You know what? After you get a book out, you're kind of tapped out so I try not to think about it. I'll probably write more books in the future.

Patch: What do you do when you're not fishing, and what drove you to writing?

Skinner: I write experiment control software for Brookhaven Labs. A lot of what is done at Brookhaven Labs is we have big user facilities. My job is to take that complex experiment with all that equipment and present that to the user in a way that makes sense.

I love to write, the writing I really enjoy. The winters [off-seasons] are tough. That's when books get written. [laughs]

Patch: You also attend fishing trade shows as a guest speaker during the winter. What's been your family's reaction to your love of fishing?

Skinner: Well you have to think what will the wife say. Her reaction is "well, there's worse things he could be doing." At least, I keep telling her that's what her reaction is. [laughs]

Skinner's book, Fishing the Bucktail: Mastering Bucktails from Surf and Boat, is available on Amazon.com. His previous book is also available on Amazon.com and will soon be released as an e-book.