05.06.22 Chew, screw, or gone?

     That was the question I have been asking myself. Boat guys still seeming to find them, a post or two from the spin guys tell the story of good fish still around. There has definitely been a lull in the bite. Did they pause to spawn? Did they spawn and are heading out to the saltwater. Are they still on the spawn? And most importantly what will the next few days of a Nor'easter and deluge of rain due to the bite? Conditions are just about perfect, although the river is running a tad skinny right now and the water is gin clear, which, to me, really shuts down any daytime bite. Below is how we are looking, before the weather event we are about to get tomorrow. 

     Two days fishing the midnight shifts or first light. Right tides. Right spots, or so I thought. One tap tonight which felt more like a walleye than a bass. It should have been better. I really pushed the envelope getting out to rocks on the dropping tide trying to find a good fish. Had a good fly, casts were pretty spot on, but again just one walleye tap I think. I traveled a bit to fish and that didn't pan 

out to feel either. After work yesterday I made a north spot stop and had the perfect tide. Outgoing. Cloud cover. Good looking water and cormorants on the prowl. I'm not sure if that place is a tide 

thing or a tide and time thing. One nice guy said its all about first light there, but I was there early afternoon. This morning before work it was a quick north trip, the water was up and moving, just a tad too much for the fly rod, and I am not sure if the fish have set up in these parts just yet. It was 

then a bounce south and fishing a spot that produces, and with a low tide I thought I might be able to actually fish it right. When the water is up the fly hits the water and heads south. Unless the bass are finning I don't have a shot. 

     And before tonights bust of a trip I hit the salt, my first time this spring. Leif joined me and the first thing we noticed was the shitty south wind. It was a few hours into the incoming and if anything I think a little more water may have gave us better results. It was nice to stand on Ryan's Rock and say hello and make a few casts. At some point I would like to mount a plaque on his rock. It would take some serious drilling and screw mounting but I think it can be done. For those that didn't follow about his rock, after he passed in 2017 I spread some of his ashes from that rock, located on the groin at Phillips Avenue. I think the beach bite may be good coming soon, as the Atlantic City and Brigantine areas seem to be giving up good Chesapeake fish which are on the move north. And there has been a bait bite in the IBSP and LBI areas so its just a matter of time, and if the bunker get pushed in by the migrating bass. But for now, I will still concentrate on home. I wish I had Jim's boat seaworthy to have been able to get in on that Navesink and Raritan Bay bite over the last month. Maybe by the fall or next year she'll be ready.