So as the rest of the world went back to work, slept in from eating too much yesterday, hit the stores or the mall for the Black Friday sales, a hand full of anglers hit the beach and the yaks this morning. Flat conditions post blow on the outgoing tide. I fished for a bit under some birds before taking a ride to check on the status of the recent beach replenishment in Monmouth Beach.
I could just let the pictures do the talking. Needless to say after a few months since the machinery has left Monmouth and Sea bright and reloacted to Long Branch and Manasquan things are nearly back to where we were before the 20 something million dollar project. Who thinks this works? and is a good use of money?
I watched as a kayaker made his way around a now exposed groin and alongside a 8 foot cliff of sand. In my estimation over 100 foot of sand, times 8 feet tapered down, has been given back to the sea. What we now have is a straight lined beach with a sand bar located 150 feet off the near low tide mark. Anglers this morning casting metal picked up 12-20" striped bass throwing metal. Below is a fish that a spin angler caught while I walked around and took pictures. They're small but some are real fat.
One thing that was interesting was to see the different levels of sand and the different materials that were used to fill the beach. Some fine sand, some more shells, some more rocks. I am sure a geologist would have a field picking through the sand identifying what it is and where it came from.
As I write, Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright's "new" beaches continue to erode back into the surf. The dredging of the False Hook on Sandy Hook continues, and the pumping of Long Branch and Manasquan continues part of the 102 million dollar "emergency" contract to return the Monmouth County beaches to pre-Sandy conditions.
It's not good for the environment, not good for the wildlife that swims and crawls along the sandy bottoms, not good for the anglers and the surfers, not good for people walking the beach and not in the know, and not good for the bathers getting caught in rips or diving into sand bars.
So really, who is this good for? Just like fish management it comes down to two things- money and politics.
