If you fish the beaches that have gone through beach replenishment then this should be no news to you. Forget the fact that the summer bass, and bluefish, aren't around, I'm sick of bitching about that. I have recently fished towns like Long Branch, Bradley Beach and Spring Lake. You might as well fish in one of those sloped pools like you find at Disney World or Great Adventure. Yes, you might break your ass on the beach scarp as you make your way down to the water. Beach scarp is the incline, or cliff, that is formed by wave action, ie Mother Nature, as sand is pulled back into the ocean. The picture below was taken this past week in Spring Lake.
So what we have going on is a steep beach scarp and then a severe sloping of the beach out into the ocean. At low tide you can walk off the beach or along the groins for feet, almost a 100 feet. There is hardly any structure anymore. It is lifeless. And that's not just in the towns where replenishment took place.
This morning at 430 am I knew I'd be out on the one day old New Moon early flood tide. I went to some old reliable low water spots to scout it out....and I was disappointed. In the above picture is the pocket at Roseld Ave in Deal.....trust me its not a spot burn. The locations between Elberon and Asbury Park have recently been in the news because of the prosed beach replenishment and groin notching that will occur this fall. This used to be a great low water spot, even after a sustained S and SW wind, when, coupled with the nature south to north current, would deposit sand south of, and at times, north of the groins. But now there is sand.... a lot of sand.....shoaled all over the place. The last "natural" stretch of fishy water is starting to show the effects of pumping sand onto the beach.
Yes, some say a few blows will pull the sand out off the beach, but where will it go? It will form a shelf or bar just off the beach. And yes in time a trough and cut will form and it will be fishy, but that takes time. It might take months, right into the fall, just as the bait and bass migration begins, and just in time when the heavy machinery will invade 'Jetty Country" and change it forever.
On my way off the beach I found someone had left a message on a garbage can.....I wonder if they are a fisherman.
