What a crazy day. Up at 5 am, joined a single angler at Phillips at 515, huge, nasty waves and a strong NE-N wind. Made a few casts, we both called it quits shortly thereafter. Checked out Asbury Park and Allenhurst, same story. I had to put some hours in today at work in the office so the rough seas gave me a chance to do that. Around noon I headed back out and it was worse, and getting worse every minute as the tide kept coming in. Phillips Ave was under water. I made a quick shot from the wooden pier.
Since I wanted to fish for a bit I decided to head up to Sandy Hook and try the bay side. The only problem was you couldn't go past Sea Bright, it was flooded out along the Shrewsbury River. They had the road blocked off at Merri-Makers and at the Rumson Bridge. I was had made my way into town before they sealed it off. Well, with nothing else to do, I geared up and fished down Beach Street to the river. As I got close to the sunken bulkhead I felt a bump. I have to say I wasn't read for it. You could tell that people weren't expecting this, as sunken cars were on the street and in the driveways. After fishing into the river I packed it in and made my way bck to Asbury Park were by 3, the tide was going out and the waves and surf calmed down. I grabbed just my basket and rod and jumped in the surf with the super strong rip and started working the shallows. Two guys were on the jetty and they started catching fish, about 5 shorts and one fat keeper. I slowly made my way up on the jetty and fished the wash and about 15 minutes later there were about a dozen guys throwing everything ever invented. I hooked into a nice fish which I thought was a keeper and made my way in front of half the guys to beach the fish. I wish I had my Littoral Society tagging tags with me so I could start my tagging of striped bass, more on that later. My fish was 26 inches and by the time I walked down along the jetty I had about 10 feet of backing left in my reel. I worked the surf for another hour before calling it quits.
I like that outgoing tide.
Good news, my Orvis rod came back repaired today, so now I can cast with a little more confidence and umph!