Busy Saturday. Beautiful weather. Lots to do. Got a lot done. From last to first. Theresa got a call around 530 that she had a home delivery (new baby) to attend in the next town over. I had just finished up working on out dining room windows, for the day, and with that....let's go. I got down to
the beach around 7 just as the dropping tide on the almost full moon had started to ebb. Hit the groin tip and blew my arm out without a tap. Since Friday the wind shifted to a shitty S, SE, and Sw wind which, especially in the fall, seems to shut things down. If it's upwelling that cools of the water and shocks the fish and the bait then maybe in the river would be better. It was another three hours there without a tap and I only saw a few tiny fish splash in the distance. Friday was the day to be out there, either in Long Branch when I was there, or early in the day in northern Monmouth County from the Hook to Monmouth Beach. Must have been the same fish heading south. The action lasted through
Friday night and shut down before the sunrise on Saturday. Classic, "You should have been here yesterday". But a little about this new phase we are going into. Slot fish are around, 28-38" inch fish and you know what? Just about every one that can be harvested will be harvested. And with a one per limit, those NJ Bonus Tags will be in full effect. You are going to see a lot of dead bass on social
media, especially from the party and charter boats. Bring on the umbrella rigs, Mojos, and shads! Speaking of boats, lets talk about mine. Got the call I was waiting for. Now, they say G.OA.T. stands for Greatest of all Time and boat owners knwo the all-too familiar B.O.A.T., Break Out Another Thousand. Well I guess for me it was that time. The boys at Mercer Marine got her up and running for just shy of the $1,000 mark.....ouch. Mostly labor, only $140 in parts. But that's what happens
sometimes when you have to spend time diagnosing and getting into the head of the boat and owner and trying to figure out what has been done in repairs and preventive maintenance. Hopefully we're all good to go. Now I just need the time and good conditions to get her wet. And now to the other non-fishing Saturday stuff. But one thing I will say. This blog journey, which I guess is going well industry wide as we are now #28 in the world and yours truly is climbing the blog-top auther ranks,
coming in now at #5 behind some of the heavy hitters. But while it is about fishing, how cool will it be after I croak for my kids and grandkids be able to kind of track a life, my life, with a lot of fishing intertwined in. So yesterday Theresa, Erin and I took the ride into Brooklyn. Of course while going over the Outerbridge and Verrazano I surveryed the waters to see where and how much boat traffic was out there. But we were Bed-Sty bound. You know Bed-Sty the place where Spike Lee made
well known after his 1989 movie Do The Right Thing. But for me, as a retired firefighter, when I think of Bed-Sty, I think of the busy 57 th Battalion and a lot, I mean a lot, of fires over the years. So it was no surprise to me that when we found a parking
on the corner of her street we were below the burned out buidling shown in the top photo. But Bed-Sty is under gentrification, just like the the neighborhoods in Brooklyn that have one before. It was Juliet's 26th birthday and it was also a visit to her and Mauro's new apartment which is lovely and in the heart of an up and coming neighborhood. I grabbed some shots, more time stamps, of Erin on
Bedford Ave in Brooklyn after getting some really good bagels at Greenberg Bagels Bed-Sty. The other image of Erin in front of an FDNY ambulance at the Sumner Housing projects just on the border of Bed-Sty and Bushwick, another neighbor hood on the rise. While she is on her way to nursing school next fall, I wouldn't be surprised if she lands a job as an EMT in a busy urban city while she studies to become a registered nurse.
But one thing about gentrification. It occurs in tough neighborhoods. Crime, fires, decay. Then they start to change. People with some means move in, and take the chance and eventually blend in, and take over, until the originals can't afford it. But eventually the people that moved in get outpriced and then they can't afford it so they have to move. (Jules and Mauro got outpriced in Williamsburg so they moved). So yes, making places better and safer is great, but with that prices go up, the flavor of the neighbor hood goes down, and in the end only the people with big money get to live in really nice neighborhoods. No matter how long "real people" held the hood down. It's a vicous cycle. I can say I love being a fireman in the city but prefer the country living.
And in between fishing and teaching and parenting and stuff, there's the fall seaason projects that have to get done. We are hosting Thanksgiving thsi year, for the entire family, 25 plus, so it's game on trying to get things done, like projects, like the kitchen which have gone on for yuears. But now it's the dining room windows. Painted shut over the years, flaking paint, exposed wood. I wish
I could have seen this house in it's grandeur. It is a beautful house and me winning the 1.6 billion dollar Powerball this week will really help out getting some projectsa done. And of course, with my undiagnosed ADHD, me and T are also taking up the asphalt driveway at the same time.
Okay, enough with all that stuff, get out and fish!