Jason travels around the world shaping the finest golf courses. He is a craftsman and artist...that paints with a bulldozer. He shapes the greens, fairways, and bunkers that make or break a golf course. His current assignment is working on one of the finer country club courses her in Monmouth County. So, what do you do in your spare time when you're a fisherman in a "strange" land? You find the best fisheries and fly fish. Jason just spent a bunch of time on the Upper Delaware rivers where he fished for several days, now, he's moved to the Jersey Shore salt in search of stripers. A good plan.
His goal today was to learn the areas near where he is staying for the next month or so. We started out before first light throwing poppers out back before moving to the beach as light arrived. We took up our spot that connected a long line of spin, and one other fly fisherman, as far as you could see. During the hour we were there we saw one sun dial caught on metal. As the full moon flood tide filled the beach we were able to hit the key points of fly fishing the surf for stripers. One thing you can tell as a guide is how hard core and angler is.....and this guy is hardcore. Lots of questions, couldn't wait to cast, ready to get wet, and ready to catch a fish.
We jumped around a bit exposing him to different types of spots he will encounter as he fishes this fall run. What a great time to be here to fish for a few months. As we hit out last spot we noticed an armada of big and small boats bunched up and slowly traveling south. No doubt they were on fish, either those big gator blues or bass, or a mix of both. I explained to him a little about fly fishing for stripers from my boat and he signed up on the spot.
Just hope the fleet below left a few for the rest of us to catch and release!
If the scene was anything like on the Laura Lee out of Long Island yesterday then I fear not. Here's just a quick recap on their Thursday report-
But hey, they released 2.
Check out their website for more incredible numbers large female bass harvests, it will make you sick. One boat, out of one marina, in one state, during one week of a long year.
More on this another time.