03.02.21 And we're off and another thing thats out....

 

     Well we're off. March 1st the bays and rivers open up for striped bass. In New Jersey that usually means it kicks off with striped bass opening the season down it south Jersey. In the past the first fish were usually caught on the outflow of the shuttered Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant. Cold water went in and warm water came out, and the fish loved the warm water. 

     The above happy angler weighed in the first fish at Absecon Bay Sportman's Center. Owner Dave Showell has run this, catch and kill, tournament for years. There are prizes, $300 now for the first keeper, and two second prizes. I have never met Dave, hear he is nice guy, and a proponent for doing the right thing for conservation and fish and environment issues. But is this putting a bounty on the first available bass of the season each year?

     To me, this is kind of like listening to charter captains spew about striped bass numbers and conservation and fisheries management and then post pictures of clients with dead fish, month after month after month, and, for a minute, losing their way on the navigation electronics and finding themselves, lets say, a little more due east than than they should be. 

   I used a word the other day.....hypocrisy. 

      So the Delaware River is open near me. Water temps 38 degrees, rivers on the low side even with all the rain and runoff we have had. Temps are 38 degrees. Its probably about 3 - 5 weeks before we see the bass making there way up mid river, mile marker 133 is about where Mercer County is. 

     I also stopped by the beach. Above are the stairs going out, well now down to Pullman Ave. That was "replenished" last year, spearheaded by Frank Pallone, someone who believes they are looking out for the environment, the fisherman and the surfers. Ha! He likes to protect his votes and his property by having hundreds of millions of dollars wasted every time the southern boys show up with their boats and their pipes and their machines. 

     So the question is, what will show up first, the spring bass or the machines and the sand. There's a lot of structure down there, which is good for the envirorment which makes it good for the ecosystem, including the predator fish, bass, blues and fluke. 

    And lastly I see that yesterday that Dr. Seuss is about to hit the chopping block. I haven't read into it much but President Joe Biden has scratched it from "Read It Across America Day". Now what I remember about Dr Seuss, well, is reading it to my kids, hundreds and hundreds of times over. I remember being it read to me, and I plan on reading it to my grandchildren. I even still have the books in readiness. 

     One of my deceased bi-racial sons favorite books was "Oh the Places You Will Go". The quote from that displayed at his wake. I can even remember former President Obama and the First Lady reading it to children, as other Presidents had done in the past. 

     So while Dr Suess is out, for now, I see that Hasbro isn't stopping the production or sales of Mr Potatoe Head. Maybe they are fighting back this cancel culture we have created. Maybe that is what needs to happen, before we lose our souls and our minds.