09.17.25 Let the work, and the games, begin...

       And now let the work begin. You never know where life is going to take you. Last year this time it was all about Essex County College and the just about a hour and a half daily commute from Titusville to Newark, Orange or Belleville. I did that drive for over four years, and I did a lot of it in that big old beat up 2002 Silverado, which isn't the best on gas. 

     What working there did was add three hours to each work day. I know people spent decades with long commutes, but I just couldn't do it anymore. I realize now how much life, and your mental state, can improve when the work day is done and there's more of it to enjoy both before and after you clock out. 

     This year things are slightly different. Most of the work I now do is at Capital Health's Regional Medical Center in Trenton. That's just a 10 mile drive down Route 29. I think there might be eight traffic lights between home and the hospital. Other parts of my job take place at the Hopewell campus, 1.8 miles, and at the training center in Ewing, 4.8 miles, away from home. Funny thing is I used to fill the truck up with gas every other day, now it's like every third week. 

     The top pic is one of the clinical groups (+ three more) that I'll have in the hospital this semester. It's a hospital based program, meaning the hospital is our home, so the experiences should be endless and easily accessible for the students. We're on a Trauma/Surgical floor which is right up my alley. So far things are good, but I do have to admit I miss my Essex County College home and the students I built solid relationships with. 

     And now the games. Last night was New Jersey public hearing on the ASMFC's Addendum III draft. I was finishing up a shift in the hospital as this was going down down in Manahawkin. 

From what I hear there were just under 100 people in attendance, and there were really any super strong speakers to sway the ASMFC either way. After years of public hearings and a public comment period a lot of people believe it's all just a show with the final decision having already been made. 

     What do I think the final answer will be? I think you'll see the No-Harvest, meaning not the No-Target, with seasonal closures, the Wave system, and you'll see mode splits for either size or bag limits. That'll mean those for-hire operations, like six-pack and head boats, will be able to harvest fish outside of the 28-31 inch slot, and maybe more of them, like going to a two a day limit, over the one per day for anglers fishing on foot. They'll say that will have less of an economic impact on for-hires, WHICH, they count as non-commercial operations. Don't they make money by fishing???? It's commercial and should be on that side of the aisle when it comes to the flawed numbers, or scientific data as they call it. 

     Other things they'll decide on are commercial tagging, measuring striped bass for harvest, and the entire Maryland Chesapeake Bay debacle, of when, where, and what sized fish can be targeted or harvested in that 4,479 square miles of water. There may be something else but that's what I got.

     If you didn't attend last night you should still, if you even have any life in you regarding striped bass management and the ASMFC, submit a public comment before October 3rd. 

09.16.25 Just had to go....

      

     I didn't look at the weather nor the tides and I just went. Of course I woke up at 1230 am after a few hours sleep. It's funny how bad those night sleeps are before a days fishing. But I fell back asleep and was down on the beach in Deal at 5 am. I went to some familiar parking areas and  

they were now all different. The areas were either paved over or blocked off with all kinds of ropes and signage. I didn't want to get a ticket, so I just settled in on Roosevelt. 

     It was a low expectation and low effort kind of morning. The night before I went looking for my September fly selection and could only find one Snake Fly. 

I really should have checked any fishes vaccine record in the water in front of me because if I hooked one it surely would have needed a tetanus shot due to the half rated hook. In the end it didn't matter. I arrived down there just about before dead low. There was still some water around the groins and Whitehall seemed a good place to start.

     In the darkness I saw a man fishing while his dog ran around with his leash in his mouth. The mans name was Sammy, a regular in Deal regular for decades. He went on to tell me that 

today was his Father's 99th birthday up in heaven. He told me that 40 years ago to the day he went fishing with his Dad, here in Deal, and he ( the son) landed a 26 pound bass. We both hoped for any fish this morning, even a 26 ouncer of something would have been good. 

     I took a short walk south down to Phillips to pay Ryan's Rock a visit. It's been a bit since I have been. While I enjoyed the solitude and thinking about Ryan I started to hear chatter in the background. It was then I turned and realized I was joined by the black coat mafia who would 

stick around waiting until the sunrise. Several made their way out to me and I don't know how they didn't faceplate on those slippery rocks with those fake Florsheim's they were all sporting. 

     As I called it a morning and walked out I came upon the pump house. For those that are just getting into this they just don't know. I remember working my way around the building to get down to the snubby Roosevelt groin or to the sand where the winding Poplar Brook would empty

into the ocean. Or even how, at times, you'd have to take the wall down past Whitehall to a little series of stone steps just about before the wooden breaker before the beach club. It was only after the tide had ebbed could you walk back along the skinny beach in front of the rocks. And that was the same way below The Hump leading to Roseld. Oh, those were the days. I am so glad I caught a piece of it. 

     Of course I took Spier Avenue home and stopped dead in my tracks when I got in front of number 116 which was Al Walker's house. Like in typical Jersey Shore fashion the new owners 

demolished the house and have started framing out for a new one. The house was sold in December of 2019 for $3 million dollars. At $1,087 a sq. foot it fetched far more than other homes in Allenhurst at that time which were selling for $445 a sq. foot. Crazy that buy/demolish/build cycle we see in these more affluent towns.

     And since I was down there I just had to hit Bagel Talk. I was hoping since it was back to school now that they would have some ice cold white milk in the fridge, nope, forget it. 

     Do that many people drink chocolate or strawberry milk? C'mon man. So I settled on a scooped out and toasted everything bagel with egg and cheese with a coffee chaser.

     I was able to get that all in before I stopped for a pre-wedding haircut (well a shearing) at my Dad's house before hitting work at 11 am. It was good to be down on the sand. Maybe in a week or two the surf will be a little more active if and when the mullet show with some bass following closely behind. 

09.14.25 Nice to see Andy Mill get into the IGFA Hall of Fame...

     A few weeks back Andy Mill joined a distinguished class of anglers inducted into the IGFA Hall of Fame. Since I found Andy's Millhouse podcast, HERE, a few years ago I have become a big fan. He has had himself quite a career from world class skiing, to broadcasting, to fly fishing. He fell in love and became obsessed with tarpon fishing and that has taken him to all corners of the world. He's involved heavily with Hardy and can be found doing the bigger shows on the circuit. 

     Some of my favorite interviews he's done are with Popovics, Clouser, Pallot, Sosin, and Dixon. There are many others that I've listened to it's just they are more from the Florida/ tarpon/ poling/ record/ and tournament world. I can remember when I had my panties all up in a bunch one day and I discussed this with Bob. It was generally my huffy opinion that the top tier (In any sport) players always came down to money, and the access that money brings. All of these big players in Mill's podcasts seemed to be in that 1% everyone talks about. Traveling the world. Associated with more people with money. Staying at exotic places in exotic lands. How could myself, or any other average angler, relate? Well Bob wasn't happy, and he let me know it. 

     That's the text I woke up to after we talked about what I thought about those guys and all that is money and fly fishing. And with that text it all just left my brain. I'm not revisiting it here because Bobby's not around to protect me from myself, it's just because it fits here. But yes, it is hard to relate to fly anglers who can go and do it just about whenever and wherever they want to. Now to be fair, a lot of those people started out in very humble beginnings, something I always learn as Andy meticulously navigates through each 

interviewees life history. But in the end the list is full of anglers who have chased records, fished in tournaments around the world, and are in a circle of people that I will never know. That's not to say they aren't great guys and gals and aren't approachable. They are. It's just how many people can they and do they want to touch. I'll never see these guys catching a tide on the Jersey Shore or Delaware River. 

     I know less about Andy Mill then I do about him. I did get to learn more about him in Episode 34 on the Millhouse Podcast. He tells a really good story about his life leading up to and including fly fishing. Trading one passion for another along the way. He is constantly giving back to the sport, and the people in it, and we saw that first hand when he hosted the American 

Museum of Fly Fishing's tribute to Bobby during the The Fly Fishing Show in Edison this past year. He did for Bob, and he did it for us. I think he would do it for anyone, I really do. I think if I contacted him and I needed something he would help me, if he remembered meeting me or not. I just think that's the way he's wired, 1%-ter or Knight of the Round Table or not. 

     IGFA is deeply rooted in New Jersey. Our own Mark Sosin, remember the show "Saltwater Journal with Mark Sosin", was the standard keeper of the rules and records before handing it 

over to the IGFA in the 1970's. Sosin didn't start the IGFA, it was Micheal Lerner who did so in 1939. There are folks on both sides of the aisle, like everything else these days, who have their own opinions on the IGFA, past and present. 

    Some think chasing records are great for a sport, others not so much, especially when they were part of the kill tournaments in the past. Kill tournaments, for striped bass to tarpon, where a potential bounty is put on many a fishes head, is never good. There's good arguments against tournaments that include flooding a local fishery with tons of boats and pressuring fish, breaking big fish off on light gear and tippets, and the mortality that comes with catch and release. 

     But the IGFA isn't just about records. On their website they list the things they do outside of tournaments, like being heavily involved in conservation and education. While yes, there are a multitude of people who "belong" to the IGFA, there's that upper echelon of people who run and are the players. Those are the people who attend the meetings, dinners, and tournaments. I would say it's the same as any other fishing organization, like the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust. Those groups count on memberships, affiliations, and donations to maintain their existence and continue to do good work. 

    In order to help out the IGFA Andy Mill raffled off his own house in 2020. The winner won a weeks stay during Christmas or a week of their choice. His house, a 6,500 square-foot

home in Aspen with spectacular views rents for about $30,000 a week during the holidays. Wining that for

me would be like winning that Mercedes they raffle each year at Our Lady of the Sea Church in Cape May. I could afford the ticket but paying the taxes and registration on it would kill me. The same with a stay at Andy's house. Gotta get there, and get around there, and eat, and a few beers...forget it. But the thing I point out is his gesture and willingness to give to help others. 

     So while I fished around the IGFA website I went and looked up some records. Obviously striped bass piqued my interest so I went through the categories before finding what I was 

really looking for which was fly rod caught striped bass records. Of course, Greg Myseron holds the record for his 81 lb 4 oz fish he caught in 2011. That beat New Jersey's own Al McReynolds 1978 78 pound 8 ounce world record. Interestingly both anglers wish they never landed that fish, or had it weighed in. You can hear a good interview with Myseron, HERE, which was done by the Brooklyn Fishing Club. 

     Below are the fly caught world records for striped bass. They have them broken down by tippet class. In the two pound tippet class a 19 pound bass was landed in Montauk in 2005. 

    Those are some big fish on light tippets there. No doubt shock tippets were used and I would guess most of those anglers were out in search of a world record. Otherwise who fishes for striped bass with a two or four pound tippet. You can see below how your leader and tippet 

must be configured to be considered for a world record. If you look down to the 20-pound tippet record, which is what most of us are using, it was caught in 2015 by Joan Sharrott near Highlands, New Jersey. She caught that fish on on a big old bunker fly on July 3rd,

which to me is kind of late for that as I find most of the bass are on bunker up until the last week of June. And in the last few years that June bite hasn't really materialized. Sharrott held 8 world records at some point and is currently listed as the 12 and 16 pound tippet record holder in the bluefish category. I have a good bluefish story and wonder where my client Mike 

Kelly's bluefish would rank on the IGFA list. It was October 25th 2013 and we came out of Shark River. We rode about 1/2 a mile out and the screen was lit up with spike weakfish down low. On the first cast we hooked up and Mike landed the above fish. It was on 20 pound straight fluoro with no wire. I guess you really have to be in that record state of mind, know the rules, and how to weigh them in. 

     I think we were all taken aback when on December 30, 2023 (Announced in 2024) when Tom Weaver caught a world record striped bass out of Annapolis, Maryland. While it looked like a fine fish it didn't look world record-ish. It measured 102 cm, which is 40.2575 inches. Mmmm. I've 

done that before. There's no mention of tippet or the weight of the fish because it fell under the Striped Bass All Tackle (Length) World Record. 

     So if you're interested or land that striped bass of a millennium what can you do? Well, first you should know the rules and a good place to start is to watch the video below. 

     You don't have to be a member of the IGFA to submit a fish. And the best part is you can still practice catch and release and qualify for a world record. Surely these records will be broken if people participate as we're seeing less overall but more bigger bass these days. I am sure that this fall alone catches could shatter all but Myerson's record, and I anticipate that to be broken sooner then later as well. Although a 19 pound fish on a 2 pound tippet definitely takes some skill. 

     So I'll circle back to where this post started, congratulating Andy Mill on yet another honor for a job well done. And thanks to Andy for all he has given to fishing, including entertaining me a few times a month over at the Millhouse. I'd really love to sit across from him one day. 

09.13.25 I remember those days...

     It was always one of my favorite times of the year to fly fish. That would be this week each fall during the mullet run. It was when the "Phillip's Avenue Gang" was reunited after spotty fishing participation throughout the summer. Just about every morning I'd see Leif, Al, Richie, Bob. Jimmy, and Andy somewhere between Long Branch and Allenhurst. Those were the days when you didn't have to chase the fish as you could just sit back and wait for them to come to you. 

    Mornings like above were perfect as you sit there and enjoy the sunrise waiting for those v-wakes to start showing up along the beaches. (That's Al with his signature red cap during the mullet run.) If you were lucky there would be swirls and splashes happening behind the pod as bass looked to pick off the sick, lame, and lazy mullet. They would actually follow the contour of the beach, and that's where they would get into trouble, by getting pinned on the north sides of the groins or jetties. Those were good days. 

     During the summer in the back bays baits like bay anchovies, silversides, mullet, and peanut bunker grow before heading out in the fall. The small white baits have migrated out, just in time to meet the albies and small bluefish, but the mullet is the first substantial bait to leave. It's during these times when fly anglers can hook into big fluke before the season closes in later September. 

     One of my favorite flies to tie, and I'll admit I think I'm pretty good at them, are Lou Tabory's Snake Fly. Each fall Leif an I would scramble to make sure each of us had a variety of them with us when we fished. White, black, yellow, and chartreuse and with or without dumbbell eyes. Some would say weight isn't needed as the mullet tend to swim in the upper 1/3rd of the water column. But when the weather was sporty they came in handy easier to cast and get down into the water. 

     While calm and flat mornings were always favorite things always got good when there was a little attitude in the water. Playing hopscotch with the waves and timing the cast to catch the back side of the crest was always exciting. You could see that fly surfing the backside and then the eruption from a bass shooting out from below. 

     Then were the days when the mullet far outnumbered the bass which made hooking up difficult. As always, sometimes too much bait isn't a good thing. The large numbers of bait attract the predators but then they can be very selective. That's when we would look to fish behind the pods, where those mullet that were on their last leg were easy pickens' for foraging bass. 

     These days the mullet runs are a fraction of what they used to be. Yes you still get them but either due to a reduced number of early sized schoolie bass or a later migration they just aren't around to meet up with those perfect sized snacks. We all know how Jetty Country has been destroyed by beach replenishment and it affects nothing greater then the fall runs. There's no more structure. Yes the bait and the bass do pass by, very quickly, and that is why you see more and more anglers fishing from their cars and from on top of the stairs. (They're not fishing, just looking). The bait and bass now fly down the beaches, and guys are seen often literally running to catch up or get ahead of them.

     Friends who fish the North Jetty in Island Beach State Park say last year they saw a solid mullet run but had few bass. There's always bass in or around that jetty it just depends where they are with the tides and time of day. Those are most likely the bass that choose to save some money and stay local and vacation in Ocean County for the summer months. 

     I do miss living down near the beach. I used to call Ocean Township and then Deal home so it was nothing to run down and take a look or watch a friend fish. Now living an hour a way makes those "Did you see anything" runs not worth it. If I go now, I have to fish, otherwise it's at least a three hour there and back. Writing this post makes me want to give it a go, regardless if there's anything around, just for old times sake. 

09.12.25 There's just too many moving parts these days...

      God I like simple. I think that's why I liked, even just as a visitor, the wilds of Ireland. I'm sure they have their problems as well, but on the surface, I just free driving the small towns where the houses were modest, the fields green, and there just wasn't a lot of people around. Small towns with small town feelings with always a feeling of "Failte", or welcome. 

     I spent 9/11/25 at new hire orientation at Capital Health. Surprisingly to me, faculty in the nursing school are considered hospital employees, and every nurse has to go through a new employee nursing orientation. We were all given our competency books to fill out and complete. It was like being a new nurse all over again. It's been a week of IVs, patient transfers, glucometers, central line dressing changes, and computer EHR (electronic health record) training. This week it's orientation and next week I go live with the students in the hospital. I'm assigned to a trauma/ ICU step down unit. Should be a good learning experience for my students.

     But yesterday was the anniversary of 9/11. And as we know, it takes a really big event to stop the world. 9/11/01 did that. John Lennon's assassination did that. Katrina did that. But these days we've become numb and too familiar with tragedy and remembrance to take a minute to do a collective pause. Orientation started at 8 am. At 846 nothing happened. That was the minute when the North Tower of the World Trade Center was struck. Then 903, then, 0959, and finally 1028. No pause. No announcements. No moment of silence. I took a quick bathroom run and in the lobby of the hospital the scene was like any other day. People getting checked by security, checking in for chemo or infusion therapy, and soon to be Mom's getting wheeled into OB triage. On the TV there was the annual coverage of the families reading the names of the people killed 

on that day. As I paused to watch I asked myself, "How long will this continue to go on?". Will it last until next year, the 25th anniversary, and then slowly fade away channel by channel?

     It's been a bad week. If you live in a healthy place, like not watching the news or social media, then you've been protected from the host of reporting, posts, opinions, and attacks from people from all over every spectrum you could imagine about recent news events. I try and stay away but I can't. It's like driving past a bad accident scene and not looking over. 

     Since we have gotten away from mostly local news and interest, to a more national, international and global view, of stuff that really has no impact or meaning in our day to day life, the bar, and the interest, and the empathy has changed. Just in the past few days we've had a school shooting in Colorado, the murder of a young woman on a train in Charlotte, the murder of media personality Charlie Kirk, and the anniversary of 9/11. Locally it was reported last night of another very serious accident, possibly fatal, in Toms River, this one involving a mother and child. With all news all the time the waves of information just go in one ear, quickly travel through our brains, and out the other. That's if we don't decide to dissociate and let one of our alter egos, usually the asshole one, with an asshole opinion, feel the need to take a position on it, and attack others, either in person, or behind that ever muscle making tough guy or girl keyboard one sits behind. 

     With every story I mentioned above the vitriol in people's responses are nauseating. People are so quick to lay blame on other's who may have a different opinion, or were even a victim! . The goal is to separate themselves from wrong, or in many cases pure evil. School shooting, it's a republican/ NRA/ gun control issue. Murder of a young innocent woman, what if she were black, he did because she was white, where is Al Sharpton now. The murder of Charlie Kirk, he brought it upon himself, it was the left, it was Trumps fault. The anniversary of 9/11, seems to just matter these days to those that lost people, those that responded, and those that have had health affects from the attacks. And accidents in Toms River or around that slice of Ocean County, especially near Lakewood, it was drugs, it was the Jews, it's people from New York driving on the wrong side of the road. It just doesn't stop. And it's not good. And it's not healthy.

     By the afternoon yesterday I was just about done. Since Lauren goes to Rowan, and both Ryan and Sean went there in the past, I got an alert from the university that it was on lockdown. Ho hum. A quick text to Lauren and all was good, "You home?", and the answer, "Yes". 

And that was it. Yes there was a guy with a gun running around campus but it was "only" a road rage incident that leaked onto the campus. Just someone shot in the head. (I say that not disrespecting the victim, but our approach to those types of incidents these days). It was quickly reported, ran through our brain's computer, and gone. That's the way things go these days. Information, like from a news story, or someone else's actions or opinions, enter our brain and it either sets off our sympathetic "fight or flight" or parasympathetic "rest and digest" nervous system. When most peoples sympathetic nervous systems get tweaked by an opposing opinion these days that's where they become unhinged, and quickly attack. 

    We ended the day with PICC dressing changes. PICC lines, peripheral inserted central lines. Those are for those patients that are really sick. They're either getting lots of fluids or feedings, hard core meds like chemo, or are under close cardiac monitoring. Those are everyday people who don't make it to the news, but maybe social media these days with Go Fund Me around. People are sick. People get injured. Life sucks at times and it's hard. So why are we spending so much time looking down or at things that don't affect us directly at all? And when we do look up and at each other our first move is to judge, attack, and blame? 

     And I won't even go into something minuscule like fishing with all of the big and important things in the world going on now. It's supposed to be fun. It supposed to be simple. Everyone these days is an expert and is quick to comment on everything, to either "help" or stir up the pot. (I can't tell you how many Facebook friend's put out a "If you think this okay drop me as a Friend" post this week. Oh please, spare me the drama.) 

     Now as we head into the ASMFC's winter meetings on striped bass we now have another reason to be divided and take sides, and attack and blame others. It's always one versus the other these days, and whatever team I am on is right, 100% of the time. And that goes from striped bass (Save them or kill them all), to healthcare (like vaccines and austism and Covid), to politics ( Trump is Hitler to he's the best President ever), to sports (Griner is a guy to the Clark vs Reese debacle, FYI- Sophie Cunningham is my new crush), to all things country (Like USA vs the world- I'm okay with that", to just about everything else color, creed, religion, town, state, to the car you drive (Oh no not a Tesla). 

     So on days like yesterday when everyone's mind is filled with whatever news feed takes up their cerebral space people like Charles Wolff are in a different place. His wife Katherine was killed on 9/11. She started a new job a few weeks before and her start time had just been switched from 0900 to 0830. They last saw each other at 806 am that day before she left their 

Greenwich Village apartment. She headed to the 97th floor of the North Tower to the offices of Marsh and McLennan. At 846 the North Tower was struck.  There's a million stories out there about 9/11. Most times people want their story to be heard and rated amongst others experiences. That's what we've become, a "me" generation and country. While each of the victims stories are unique, and worth listening to, we've become numb to it all. We don't take the time to sit and listen or read and put ourselves in another persons shoes. It's more about "my" and "me". Hey shut up for a minute and listen to someone else!

     It's okay to be doing okay at this moment. Maybe things at home and work are good. The monies there. The health and the kids are okay. The dog is still lingering round. The car isn't on its last leg and it's almost paid off. But others may don't be doing okay, or are having a bad day or moment, having some empathy, or sympathy, and offering an ear or a hand can go along way and be healing no matter which side of anything you are on. 

     Busy week. No fishing. Mom rolls into town today for our daughters wedding next week. Clinical starts next Tuesday. Still picking and poking at post house-flood repairs. After a quick trip to the Vineyard it will be wrapping up another year down in Cape May. And then the leaves will fall and the house will get cold. Then it's another Thanksgiving and Christmas, God willing. It's all okay right now, and that's okay, because things could always be worse. 

   

09.11.25 Now 24 years later...

     Nearly a quarter of a century later the damage from that Tuesday morning in September of 2001 still wreaks havoc on those people who responded to the attacks at the World Trade Center. Thankfully Mt. Sinai created the 9/11 World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening and Treatment Program otherwise there would be no way to track the growing death toll from the attacks. 

     Like many other major disasters that have occurred over time a large part of the people who roam the earth today weren't even alive 24 years ago. For many it didn't directly affect them. And then there's the people who lost colleagues, friends, and family. Lastly, there are those whose health is deteriorating due to their time spent in and around Ground Zero or the subsequent searches at Staten Island or during the demolition and rebuilding of the Freedom Tower. The official death toll at the World Trade Center was 2,753, and since then far more people have died. 

     While that day and the time after was absolutely horrible one thing thing was this country was united like I have never seen in my lifetime. You think we would have learned, but we didn't. That lasted a year or two and then the United States changed, and not for the better. When 9/11 happened everyone stopped, these days when things happen, of course not to that magnitude, no one even passes. Mass shootings, horrible disasters, it's just a blip on the social media screen, and then it's off to do what we were doing. We went from putting other people first to being selfish, unkind, a little paranoid, and hyper vigilant. We're not heading in the right direction in a world where cops, firemen, and nurses scrap to earn a living while an Only Fans creator makes tens of millions a month. 

Remember where you were that day, if you were alive, and how horrible it was. If you weren't around pray that something like that doesn't happen again. I fear if it did it would be of a larger scale with a much creator death toll.