You can't appreciate from this picture (click on it and it will enlarge) of the amount of birds working over the bass off Monmouth Beach this morning. I watched as Captain Gene Quigley from Shore Catch Guide Service came past Asbury Park and traveled up near where I was at Little Monmouth. Just past the beach replenishment pipe floating in the water were birds, birds, and more birds. Most were picking, others diving, some resting. I watched as Gene motored east and then slowed down as he approached the grounds. I can only imagine how well he and his clients did today. Below is a picture Gene posted on his Facebook page while out on the boat, look at how fat that bass is with sand eels.
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| A happy 12/16/11 Shore Catch Guide Service client |
No more daily hunt for stripers...but I will keep my Helios out and a few flies in case I get a boat invite or happen upon something close.
It's been an interesting, disappointing and amazing, epic fall run depending on where you are and where you fished. They'll be talking about 2011 for decades.
This winter might be a mixed bag of fishing- landlocks in the Adirondacks, bones in Bimini- all before the back bays for stripers in March and trout in the Upper Delaware in April.