.....and not one for me. Today was, frustrating. I had planned to hit first light from the beach but my wife had Doula duty at a hospital in Freehold. She was there for nearly 24 hours and got home today at 5am. If anyone is looking for a Doula- which is a birthing coach- drop me a line my wife is great. Anyway, so I pulled kids drop-off duty which ends at 8. I decided, even though I have a buttload of home work to make a quick run out with the boat. I grabbed my camera with the long lens just in case there was a lot of topwater action.
I was out front by 9 and the birds, bait, other boats and fish were up and active. I went through a about a dozen flies trying to get to the allies which were there but kept getting bitten off by the cocktail sized blues. Tired of getting bit off and the boats that just just don't get how to approach busting fish I took a ride, a long ride. I went south, then came back north and crossed the pond over to Rockaway Park and then west to Coney Island. There wasn't a bird in the air or a splash on the water on that side, but I did make a cool picture of Capt John McMurray on his One More Cast, more on that later. I dropped him a note that things appeared livelier on the Jersey side and I headed over.
When I got there the scene had changed. No birds. No busts. No boats looking. There was a bunch of guys on the beach and I spent the next few hours on the end of the incoming watching them. I saw a few guys land some of the speedsters blind casting metal. I watched a few fly guys, but one in particular, who worked really hard and must have made 1,000 casts. When he and his boys left I made some cool images of them walking down the beach. I also made some images of the Miss Belmar Princess damm near parked right on the sand. More on that later.
So around 130 I am starting to panic because the girls pick-ups start at 230. I need to get in, tighten up the boat, and get there. Luckily my wife bailed me out and said "stay' if you're having fun, I'll get the girls". Truth is, I wasn't really having fun. I didn't bring anything to eat or drink, and contemplated drinking my own urine. I was alone and after 6 hours I had nothing left to say to myself. And, as I would learn, I have 3rd degree burns on my face and neck.
But I wanted to see what would happen at the tide flip.
So I waited. And I drove around. And I watched. I watched the beach clear out except for a handful of guys with funny oriental hats. I made sure I didn't get run over by the party boats and barges. Slowly, after slack, the tide moved. Slowly....very slowly. Amazingly the life didn't show itself. The annoying small blues were gone. In fact, while in the morning you could get one on every cast, a couple of guys in a boat were targeting them for shark bait and couldn't find one.
I started to head in and just before I did I turned around and saw a blow-up. So I went back out and watched and waited and waited. Now I am up against 6 o'clock Back-To-School night and I can't be late. It was about 330. And I was done and just done. As I started to head in I found a boat, in a place where I wouldn't think you would see fish all-kinds-of-blowing-up all around it. Blues?? No allies!!!
I made some image with the long lens and then got ready to go just to see if I could get a shot. Then that pod turned into two, and then four, and then the whole place went back wild. I positioned my boat, turned off the motor and waited. And they came, and I had probably three good shots and no takers. Other boats joined in, and played nice, and several of them hooked up on the spinning rids. It wasn't here and there for about 40 minutes. In the end I felt bad that I did land one, and there were some big ones, or get some cool ass pictures as these allies were airborne.
After it stopped I rode around and looked before heading in at 430. Got in, got the boat washed, got home, got myself washed and made it to the school on time. When I got home I went to upload my images and none of them were found. SD card malfunction. So, sorry, no good fish stories, or fish pictures. Oh wait, I do have one. I hooked an alibi and it dove and ran.....and then it was off. When I got my line in I wanted to check and see what happened.....bite off.....bad know?? Nope. My loop was still there, but my fly was not??? Go figure. The only explanation is that there was a gap on the eye of the hook and the 15 pound flouro snuck it's was past.??? The loop was perfect and the fly was gone.
That's my fish story for today.
