07.17.25 July's deadly weather patterns continues...

     Tucked in the woods in the shadows of Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson is a 50 acre parcel of land leased by the Black Knight Bowbenders. A group of archery enthusiasts who practice and compete in bow and arrow accuracy in several shooting lanes. Yesterday the group hosted the local Boy Scout Troop, Jackson Troop 204, for an introduction and practice in archery.

     Shortly before 7 pm big weather moved from west to east from Pennsylvania into New Jersey. Theresa, my brother Ryan, and I were tucked away inside Al's Airport Inn when the 

storm ran through. Lauren was on the road and called us to let us know how bad it was out there. The lighting lit up the sky and as it moved into Jackson, New Jersey, it struck the area of the Black Knight Bowbenders. 

     According to the press release one person, 61-year old Robert Montgomery, who was a volunteer at the club, died and 13 others were injured. They victims ranged in age from 7-61. Some were transported by ground to local hospitals and some to Saint Barnabus Burn Center in Livingston. 

     We all know lightning isn't good. As anglers we know that waving a stick around when the lighting is going off isn't a good, or smart thing. But I've fished when there's lightning, because, "It's off in the distance". So what causes lighting anyway? It's all about electrical charges, condensation, clouds, wind, 

and the ground. Basically when things are unstable the ions collide causing a huge energy of electricity which travels, sometimes within the air, to other clouds, or to the ground. If it hits the ground it looks for something to "grab" or travel into. That could be a fly rod, a house, tree, building, metal object, or a person. Just this past Monday a 28-year old man died while playing golf up in Hamburg, New Jersey. Funny, well not funny, you never hear of animals getting struck by lightning.

    And how does the lightning kill you? Well, if it's a direct hit you will get burned. If you survive that then the big problem with a bolt of electric is it throws off our own electrical pacemakers within our heart. Our electrical pathway, which causes the chambers of our hearts to beat, start in the upper right part in a place called the SA node, it then travels down to the AV node, through the bundle branches and ending at the Purkinje Fibers. The electric causes the four chambers to beat in a lub-dub kind of rhythm. Disrupting that will cause chaos within the heart, which can in the worst case stop your heart, or disrupt the blood flow from the heart to the brain and vital organs. 

     The most common arrhythmia following a lightning strike is asystole, which is cardiac standstill. There is no electrical activity and the heart lies motionless. The treatment for that is to provide CPR. If there is an AED, automatic external defibrillator, on hand then quickly hooking it up to determine if the heart is in a shockable rhythm shows the best chance of survival. If there 

is some electrical activity on the monitor, such as v-fib, above, or v-tach, then delivering electrical shocks is the best move. Shocking the heart will pause electrical activity, with the hope the hearts natural pacemakers, the SA or AV nodes will kick back in. 

     As with any cardiac arrest the first move is to call 911, check for a pulse, get an early AED on the person, and start CPR is they are pulseless. If you haven't taken a CPR class I would advise you to do so. These days the classes are simple and short and can come in handy if you come across someone who is down. There's no worse a feeling than being unable to help someone, family or stranger, elderly or a child, because you didn't take the time to learn how to help. Just imagine yourself being down and there's just a group of ugly people standing over you gawking at your lifeless body and not knowing what to do. 

     There are two big CPR certification entities, The American Red Cross and The American Heart Association. If you're a layperson then either one will work, just learn CPR. For those in the business most agencies require that you take the the AHA course. You can find a local class for the AHA, HERE. If you live in New Jersey RWJ Barnabas has a huge network of providers and classes across the state, that website is HERE. Take the class with a spouse, one of the kids, or by yourself.

And like I've been saying a lot lately, and I repeat it not in jest, 

07.15.25 Zilch for my once a year snakehead try, and a little ADHD thrown in...

     Recently I saw my buddy who reminded me, "There's snakeheads below the wing dam". I didn't think much of it but after the low light mouse throwing grind as of late and the water temps 

in the 80's I decided to take the ride and give it a go. One thing about snakeheads, so I've learned, it's a bright and sunny kind of fishing, no nights and no all nighters for these things, unless you're targeting them with rod and bow. There sight fishy, which is a type of fishing I love.

     Like the rest of the system the river around Lambertville is dry. With a gage height of below a foot it's way down, but there's still enough going water to churn up some oxygen which draws various fishes in the summer heat. 

     When someone tells me "There's fish..." I wrongfully expect to go there and see "fish" swimming around just waiting to hit on anything that gets thrown at them. Well, I saw, zilch, nada, nothing. That's okay, it was good to get out and have a change of venue. 

     I fished along the wing dam waiting for a two footer to jump out of the shadows but that never happened. I watched a guy across the state line fishing the dam over there and connect with a few snakeheads. He was walking and sight casting, well dropping rubber something or others, down to them. 

     As I walked back I stopped at the Delaware and Raritan Canal which runs through Lambertville. At the lock water was blowing through creating an oxygenated environment for anything that

swims below the turbulence. The D & R Canal has an interesting history. It is similar to other canal and lock systems such as the Morris Canal which ran from the Delaware River in

 Phillipsburg, through Newark, ending in Jersey City, until the beginning of the 20th century (That's the early 1900's). 

    The Morris Canal used to run a block behind where I once lived at Warren and Colden Streets near downtown Newark. The bed of the old canal is now Raymond Boulevard. Essex County College now sits where the buildings above once stood, with NJIT across the other side.

     I lived at 156 Warren Street in the late 1980's. It was my first apartment away from Red Bank and it was there where I awaited the call to be hired by the Newark Fire Dept. I started out on the second floor and then moved to the first floor. The first floor was once Charlie's Luncheonette but was converted into an apartment decades ago. The owners and landlords, 

156 Warren Street, 2nd floor, circa 1987. 38 years ago. 

Theresa and Carl Benecase, were murdered on the third floor when a guy came down through the roof and beat them to death with a hammer. She was known as "The Broom Lady of Warren Street" as every morning she swept the sidewalks and curbs. The murderer, who lived on Prince Street, was caught and sentenced to life in prison. We stayed there for two years after their deaths, sending the $125 rent check to her sister who lived in Union. 

     The neighborhood, and it was a neighborhood way back in the day, was filled with shops, like Testa's Butcher Shop, and social clubs and life and activity, way before my time there. Well it is 

all gone now replaced with modern buildings with no more Mom and Pop shops. Wait, do they actually exist anywhere anymore? Now, where my house once stood now sits a Smash Burger. Who wouldda' thought? When I was there the neighborhood was run down and dangerous. 

Sorry. I must have AHAD. How do I go from snakeheads to my first apartment in Newark?

     The D & R Canal is really made up of two parts. The main canal runs from New Brunswick down to Bordentown. A feeder canal, which follows the contour of the Delaware River and

Route 29, aka River Road, from Bulls Island down to Trenton. The change of gradient from the start down to Lambertville is 12 feet, and the lock system there was used to raise and lower barges and boats to continue on their path delivering goods. 

     Now the locks are used for flood control. The canal gets a healthy put and take trout stocking in the spring and though out the summer anglers try for bass, bluegills, and the occasional muskie. It's also a great place to kayak and at one time I had purchased two of them to do the trek from in front of our house up to Lambertville or Stockton. Of course, those were sold off in a yard sale from non-use. 

     I stopped by Firemen's Eddy on the way back home and gave it a few casts. While walking in the woods I saw a recent memorial placed there following the drowning death of a local 24-year old man who was swimming there on June 25th. A day later they recovered his body down river in Yardley. 

     Like I've always said, this river, as with all waters, can be dangerous and unforgiving. I can't think of the number of drownings I have seen or read about related to the river and or flooding since we moved out here in 2018. Locally, it has to be over 20, with five people killed in one weather event in July 2023. 

     That has led to a real rift between the locals, the people who enjoy the river, and people who enjoy the river but put themselves in a bad way. Recently there has been an uptick in the amount of swimming and bank partying along the Delaware River and at the boat ramps. With people comes noise, garbage left, bad swimmers, and near misses or drownings. 

     For the last few weeks the Scudder's Falls access area has been shut down. Cerrada means closed for those that don't know Spanish, like me. If you haven't been to that area, which is a spot fly rodders like for early season shad, the river rips around a series of braids, which is also a favorite place for swift river kayakers. Several times a year rescue squads practice swift water rescue techniques at this spot. It's no match for people who can't swim. But is it fair to shut it down for everyone?

     What it seems to me is unlawful. They, the NJ State Park Police, put out a notice that due to "excessive use" the area is closed Friday's through Sunday's. I took the above picture yesterday, a Monday, and it was shut down. If a State Park, let's say Allaire state Park, reaches capacity 

then they shut it down. But no. What they are saying that on any given weekend, even during the worst of weather weekends, it's shut down regardless for three days due to "overcapacity". Don't believe they hype Willis. This is targeted to a specific group, yes, an ethnicity, of people, who use, and abuse, the resource. Not all of course, but a few bad apples can spoil the bunch. 

     And then in the afternoon and into the wee hours of the night the rains cams and washed the spiders, and cars, and trucks, and the buildings, out. Flooding occurred from North Jersey down through the Jersey Shore. Crazy images of what has become normal weather extremes, especially rains, which causes almost instant flooding. Is it all the rainfall? Or is it us, as humans, overdeveloping every square inch of this state that leaves waters no where to filter through the aquifers to a place "Where a River Runs Through It"?

     The above picture was from Route 22 yesterday. You can see how quick floodwaters can trap people and it's easy to understand how the tragedy that occurred in Texas, where over a hundred people perished in flash flooding, can occur. Mother Nature is a beautiful lady, but she can be very angry as well. 

07.12.25 It's been a grind...

     Anglers have different tastes, we all know that. Some like spin, others fly. For fly anglers, some are dry or die, others don't care and will fish on top or underneath. Some won't chuck streamers to trout while others will. Some fish only during the day, others day and night. At times, we just want to sight fish, and not blind cast. Whatever your preference is it's your's alone.

     So it's summer now out here along the Delaware River. It's been a hot one coupled with what seems to be daily monsoons that arrive in the afternoon, which is very Florida-like. And when the air is warm the waters of the Delaware River usually follow suit. Sometimes, it's too hot to play catch and release with the striped bass who stayed put for the summer. There's not a ton of water around either, today's flow is 5,600. That's a far cry when I was in my glory a month or so ago fishing in 45,000 cfs. 

     And the temps...just too warm. We're probably averaging 80 degrees between day and night. That's a lot of stress on striped bass, even the ones who are used to the warmer freshwater temps. One thing that's holding is the DO, which is around 8 mg/ml these days. When the rain comes it doesn't cool the river, in fact it seems to bump the temps up. We need cool tailwater releases. How nice it would be if there was a dam about 5 miles upriver, not that I'm a fan of dams. 

     So the striped bass. We know what they eat, usually depending on the time of year. Early on its herring, shad, menhaden, maybe some small white bait in the brackish and salty water. There's crabs and sand fleas and worms. In freshwater there's all types of morsels for them to eat. In the summer the river is full of life, with the usual suspects abound, and juvenile forage fish to come. All of those herring and shad that were produced upriver will make their way down to the salt in the late summer and fall. In the meantime, eels, shiners, bluegills, catfish, trout, sticklebacks, gobys, snakehead fry, perches, other bass, crayfish, hellgrammites, and all types of insect larva float by ready to become a snack or a meal.

     One of my favorite swimming things I've seen in the Delaware waters near Trenton are hogchokers, which resemble fluke or flounder. They can grow up to 8 inches long although the ones I've seen are only a few inches. Legend has it that farmers used to feed them to their hogs, and they choked on them, hence the name hogchoker. 

     But as of late I've been trying, and dying, to get one of these bastard bass on a mouse fly. It's a nighttime thing, one because of the higher water temps, and two, it just seems like a nighttime thing. While I've had a few follows and one swirl, it has been hard to get one to commit. I've taken off the mouse fly and tied on a hookless baitfish fly and quickly had them eat, only to become unglued because there's no hook. But if there was one I would have had them dead to rights, I hope they know that. 

     I first tried mousing for trout in 2007 when Chris Roslan and I did an assignment for Eastern Fly Fishing magazine. We headed north to Canada to the Minipi Camps where the brook trout were plentiful, big, and not shy when it came to big flies, including mouse flies. 

     Throwing mouse flies to fish in the Delaware River was first introduced, or at least I saw it, about 10 years ago when Joe Cermele, now of Cut and Retie fame, HERE, gave it a go on the Upper Delaware River targeted big browns a night. He teamed up with a local guide and Jimmy Fee from On the Water Magazine and started a trend that continues, up until today, for some. Some say the fish should be rested at night, as they get pressured all summer long during the day as sulfur hatches keep the fish up and the anglers out. 

     Joe put together yet another great video of the night he went mousing. Hopefully I'll have some success soon with the striped bass. And hopefully the river cools off so I can fish with a hook.

07.11.25 Dodged a bullet, for now....

     It's been 24 years since 9/11. On September 11, 2001 I was a firefighter assigned to Rescue Co.1 in Newark. I spent four days at Ground Zero. For the last 21 years I've been a part of 

the 9/11 Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program at Mt. Sinai in Manhattan. I am lucky that I learned of the program and have be consistent with my appointments over the years. It has been a Godsend. Over the course of my monitoring and treatment I've seen the best providers one could ask for. I've been screened, diagnosed, prescribed medication, had major surgery, and had test after test done to make sure nothing new has creeped up. Well, things are a creeping...

     On June 24th I had an appointment for a low-dose CT scan of the chest. It would be used as a comparison for similar imaging tests done in 2017 & 2020. Both had showed some "things", basically bilateral lung nodules and enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes. Over the course of the years I have been diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis so having "things" in and around your lungs isn't all that uncommon, either are swollen lymph nodes. 

     So we went for the CT scan and a day later I got a message that the results were in my patient portal. Well, things have been going on on the inside without me knowing. That's why routine screening and follow-ups are so important. In short, things are new, things are getting bigger, and, here's what caught my eye, "...suspicious for indolent primary lung cancer". Now they had my attention. 

     Afterwards my primary Doc and I had a virtual meeting and she put in a consult for me to follow-up. I was surprised in whom she picked. My appointment would be with Dr. Roja Flores, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Mt. Sinai. While it's good to be in good hands I didn't think I 

needed the hands of a surgeon, well at least not off the bat. Theresa and I went yesterday for the consult and have some good news, well, it's news. The first thing he said to us was, "If I put your CT in front of just about every cardiac thoracic surgeon in NYC they would put you in the next opening on the OR schedule", adding, for me, "I don't think we need to go there, yet". 

     So I asked him, "What about a biopsy?". "How about a PET scan?". "Do I have cancer?". His answer, "Yes you might, but it doesn't matter, yet." He explained how there are cancers like the 

turtle, and the hare. One slow like molasses, basically not going anywhere (in-situ), and the other fast, like in growing and multiplying. While the "things" growing in my lungs have doubled in size, it's taken since 2017 to do so. That's a turtle's speed. 

     He's a surgeon. He likes to go in. One day he might. But he said without symptoms, like major ones, just live your life to the fullest, if they are cancer or not, and we'll deal with it when we have to. 'That's what I would tell myself if I were sitting in your seat". He also said my sarcoidosis just complicates the whole mess. We loved the guy. We trust him. Let's just wait and see. 

     So, I'll have a repeat CT scan in October, another consult later in the day, and we'll go from there. It strengthen's my belief on how important screening tests are for a variety of things 

and not just cancer. But, blood work, chest x rays, mammographies, breast exams. testicular exams, prostate screening and DRE's (Digital Rectal Exam), Pap smear, colonoscopy, carotid artery checks (Think stroke), and skin cancer screenings, and that's just a partial list, well don't forget blood sugars, blood pressures, and the big one, Lipid Profiles, cholesterol and triglycerides. 

     Lucky for me the 9/11 Program exists and I have a good team behind me, along with a prayer warrior of a wife and faith that God thinks I'm kinda alright. We'll see where this goes for me and if you're due for a test, or some digits up your bum, make the appointment and stay on top of things. 

And remember,