Towns up and down the Jersey Shore have a 6-month green light, also called a permit waiver, from the NJDEP to do the work needed to bring the beachfront towns back to pre-Sandy conditions. Some of that work will be to return the sand to the beaches that washed up along the boardwalks, roads, and properties along the shore. Today at near low tide I decided to try my luck at the end of the outgoing tide. Post Sandy the structure along the beach holds plenty of water at low tide with chest high sloughs just feet from the beach. I tied on a sand eel pattern in black and worked a few cuts and bowls that looked more than promising. After a while I figured the pictures I could get from today would be more valuable in the future than a striped bass caught today.
In Bradley Beach workers are removing the six feet or so of sand that got pushed up along the boardwalk and trucking it closer to the beach where foot by foot the beach is being raised and extended seaward. It won't be long before the new structure, that Mother Nature made, will be altered by the replacement of the sand. I have been anticipating good surf fishing with the "new" beaches, the only problem is the bait and fish haven't came in close enough yet.
I saw some birds working out a-ways today and I believe that the sand eels are around and that there are fish on them. I am hoping to get out in the boat in the next few days and see if we can get into them. In the meantime I'll keep plugging away, not literally of course, at the beach while are still in prime shape for what's left of the 2012 fall run.
