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Mike “Ike” Iaconelli said the goal was to put together a 5-day, “bucket list” trip, a memorable adventure to sample the best fall fishing in the Northeast.
And he kicked it off Oct. 11 with an outing on the Salmon River in Pulaski. Along with him was an international contingent of anglers from Taiwan, Japan and Russia.
Iaconelli, a professional bass angler from Pittsgrove, N.J., hatched the idea for the trip more than a year ago with fishing enthusiasts he had met through his TV show “Fish My City with Mike Iaconelli,” on National Geo WILD. Iaconelli is also host of the “Ike Live” bass fishing podcast and the “Going Ike” internet video series. |
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“In my travels I meet some amazing anglers from other places and keep in touch,” he said. “These guys were from ‘Fishing Traveler,’ a group of like-minded sports fishermen from around the world who share stories, recommendations. They just don’t fish for one species. Many have a bucket list (of what they’d like to fish for).”
Iaconelli picked up the international contingent that Thursday evening at JFK Airport. Each had just traveled 13 to 18 hours to get to New York. Once they all arrived, Iacconelli said he immediately loaded them up in his vehicle and hit the road and headed to Pulaski. The group included Peter Shihyung and Liszt Tzeng from Taiwan; Shota Jenkins from Japan and Maxim Philippov from Russia.
They pulled into Pulaski around 3:30 a.m. Friday morning (Oct. 11) at the Tailwater Lodge in Altmar. There was no time to rest, though. Plans had been made to fish the privately run Douglaston Salmon Run, accompanied by Douglaston guides. The guides, Adrian LaSorte and Matt Ertzinger, asked that the anglers be at Douglaston at 4:30 a.m. |
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