So with an idea borrowed from Martha's Vineyard artist Abe Pieciak, HERE, I display the flies I have been working on this winter getting ready for the open season in the bays and rivers in New Jersey, which opens tomorrow. I'm a fane of Abe's work, having both some t-shirts and a sticker than I bought
from Coop's Bait and Tackle in Edgartown and have on the back windshield of my car. As far as my flies, I think I have enough to get me started, enough to lose a few and still be able to fish, and enough to see in the water, and then try to perfect back at the vice between fishing sessions.
It's way early in the season, but some anglers will be out trying to get that keeper for the prize money that a few tackle shops offer for their efforts. Bloodworms, if you can find and then afford them, are the early go to bait, and finding one defrosted enough to chase a fly isn't probably going to happen. But after leaving the late fall/early winter and the abundance of fish that were "in the back" along New Jersey, you never know, if fact, you won't know unless you go.
Early season spots that had warm water, like Oyster Creek, above, and in Trenton and Kearny are
no longer in operation. It will take some days of good sun on the right tides to warm up both the bottom and water getting bass to begin foraging. Bunker, shad, and herring will start making their way and up but that is probably weeks to a month away.
Most anglers fish when and where they can, but it does pay to start looking at the tides and moon phases to increase your chances of being in the right spot at the right time. Warn your spouses now, the silly season is upon us.