Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1008 is a conversation with Nick Honachefsky, host of Saltwater Underground, about pioneering surf shark fishing on the New Jersey coast in 1998, hunting 15-to-30-million-year-old fossils in freezing freshwater streams, and the species like tarpon, cobia, and sheepshead that are showing up in Northeast waters where almost nobody expects them. Nick and I had not talked on the show in three years, and this one went everywhere.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · or press play in the player above to watch.
Nick Honachefsky is the host and executive producer of Saltwater Underground, a saltwater fishing television show now in its sixth season. He has worked as a professional in the sportfishing media industry for 28 years, pioneered surf shark fishing on the New Jersey coast in 1998, and co-hosts the Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series alongside George Poveromo. He is also a dedicated fossil hunter who works with the New Jersey State Museum to identify his finds.
Saltwater Underground is Nick Honachefsky's saltwater fishing show and the only nationally distributed saltwater fishing show based out of the Northeast. Season six airs on ESPN2, Discovery Channel, Sportsman's Channel, Waypoint TV and its streaming platforms, and World Fishing Network. This season the show filmed heavily in the Florida Keys, built around showing Northeast anglers how to plan and fish a Keys trip. All six seasons are also available on YouTube.
In 1998 there was no such thing as a surf shark rig in the Northeast, so Nick built his own with wire leader, a treble hook, and a haywire twist, fished on a 12-foot rod with a 14000-size reel and 65-pound braid. On his very first attempt with a big bunker chunk, a fish emptied his spool while a huge thresher tail whipped out of the water just past the breakers. The full story, including the night he paddled a bait out on a surfboard under a full moon, is in the episode.
Thresher sharks circle a pod of bunker and whip through the school with their long tails, working the tail like a scythe. The tail either kills the baitfish outright or pushes them to the surface where the shark smacks them dead on top of the water. Threshers have very small mouths and small teeth compared to a mako or a white shark, so the tail is their primary weapon.
Tarpon have shown up in New Jersey waters, and there is even a retired state record tarpon for New Jersey that Nick believes dates to the 1970s or 1980s. In this episode Nick describes a report of 12 to 15 tarpon holding off the tip of the Barnegat jetty, and points out there is a spot off Jersey named Tarpon Lump. Cobia, Spanish mackerel, pompano, and sheepshead are also appearing in Northeast waters where anglers his age never targeted them growing up.
While sifting a freshwater stream that cuts into New Jersey's ancient fossil formations, Nick found a tooth from an animal known as a Hell Pig, a carnivorous mammal from roughly 15 to 30 million years ago that stood about six feet tall with bones protruding from the sides of its head like a giant warthog. He sent the find to Dana Ehret at the New Jersey State Museum, and nobody had ever pulled one out of Jersey before. Nick says he may donate it to the museum or possibly the Smithsonian.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1008 with Nick Honachefsky is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Nick and I had not done a podcast together in three years, and his show Saltwater Underground airs on Waypoint TV, so I have watched what he has been building from a front-row seat. He is the only guy running a nationally distributed saltwater show out of the Northeast, and this season he brought the show down to my old home water in the Florida Keys. I wanted to hear how a Jersey guy who has been to the Keys over 300 times approaches filming it for viewers who have never been. We got to that, and then the conversation went places I never saw coming. Press play in the YouTube player at the top.
New Jersey just had its most brutal winter in 15 or 20 years, cold enough that the saltwater rivers in Central Jersey froze solid. Nick took an auger out onto the Navesink River and drilled holes through the ice to try to catch a striped bass, something two 80-year-old locals told him they had never seen anyone do in their lives. He also has a system for knowing when the ice is safe that involves his 140-pound buddy Zach, and I will let him explain that one himself. His theory on what bait would have gotten that striper is in the episode.
Nick told me redfish were once more prevalent than striped bass in New Jersey, back when old sepia photos showed 50 channel bass nailed to the planks next to three stripers. The redfish are gone from those waters now, yet sheepshead are recolonizing, cobia are holding on nearly every buoy, and Spanish mackerel have become an everyday target. I have watched the same kind of species shift happen in the Keys over my 20 years of guiding, and comparing notes with Nick on what is driving it was one of my favorite parts of this conversation. His diver friends have a theory worth hearing.
Nobody was casting shark baits off New Jersey beaches in 1998, so Nick invented the rig himself and hooked a thresher on his very first try. That story alone was worth the episode to me, and it is not even the wildest one he tells. There is a night involving a full moon, a surfboard, a bunker bait carried in his mouth, and thresher tails smacking the water all around him a quarter mile from the beach. I have spent my whole life on the water and I have never heard anything like it. Nick tells it better than I can write it.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
New Jersey was a shallow sea for millions of years, and the freshwater streams inland cut down through the strata into formations that Nick describes as time capsules packed with fossils. He was out there the morning we recorded, standing in 32-degree water in long johns, sifting for prehistoric shark teeth. He explained how to read quartz gravel to know when you have hit a formation, why he stopped sharing locations, and how fossil spot burning is worse than fishing spot burning because a cleaned-out stream never replenishes. The Hell Pig tooth story starts around the 58-minute mark, and it is worth the whole episode.
We do not have bloodworms in the Keys, so I made Nick explain the whole program to me. These are baits that look like a nightcrawler until the mouth folds out with four clawed teeth, most of the commercial supply gets raked by hand in Maine, and the price has gone from around nine dollars a dozen to $35 in about four years. Nick breaks down where they live, how to dig your own, and the high-low circle hook rig he fishes them on for early season striped bass and winter flounder. The full rig talk is in the episode.
Nick has been a professional in this industry for 28 years, and he told me straight out that he is tired of dumbing down his content to stay relevant in the algorithm. He thinks the shift toward quality over quantity is starting to happen, and I think he is right. We also talked about the Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series he co-hosts with George Poveromo, who was just on this podcast for Episode 1005, and whether the generation raised on social media will ever crave in-person events the way we did. Neither of us claims to know the answer, and the back-and-forth is worth your time.
Yesterday's conversation with Nick reminded me why I love doing this podcast. I thought we were going to talk about his show and the Keys season, and instead I learned about ice fishing saltwater rivers, prehistoric hell pigs, and a bait economy in Maine I never knew existed.
Nick is a guy who has stayed genuinely curious for 28 years in this business, and that curiosity is contagious. I came away wanting to go sift a Jersey stream in the middle of winter, which is not something I ever expected to write.
Press play in the player above, or grab the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nick Honachefsky · Saltwater Underground · ESPN2 · Discovery Channel · Sportsman's Channel · Waypoint TV · World Fishing Network · George Poveromo · Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series · Dana Ehret · New Jersey State Museum · Smithsonian · Ocearch · Bill Dance · Navesink River · Barnegat · Island Beach · Montauk · Lake Hopatcong · Hunterdon County · Florida Keys · Key West
Nick Honachefsky is the host and executive producer of Saltwater Underground, now in its sixth season on ESPN2, Discovery Channel, Sportsman's Channel, Waypoint TV, and World Fishing Network, and the only nationally distributed saltwater fishing show based out of the Northeast. A 28-year veteran of the sportfishing media industry, he pioneered surf shark fishing on the New Jersey coast in 1998, co-hosts the Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series with George Poveromo, and hunts prehistoric fossils in New Jersey streams in partnership with the New Jersey State Museum. Follow him on Instagram at @nickhonachefsky.
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