It was an innocent enough text from my buddy Andrew at 1203 pm. "Fishing?". I had just finished digging up a large tree root and planted a butterfly bush in its place. I had started my day at 2 o'clock in the morning when the dogs woke us up. I got up, went on the computer, made coffee, and then luckily went back to bed at 3. I woke up at 730 and mentioned to Theresa that I was going to go fishing, "Have fun", she said. I wasn't falling for it and I just said, 'I'm not going", figuring better to get some things done around the house and some paperwork for school. It was good day to be an adult.
Andrew was fishing and caught a few small fish early in the morning and just had that feeling because things were looking fishy. Since I had earlier convinced myself not to go his text was all it took to change the direction of my day. By 1207 I was pulling out of my driveway. I texted him back at 1327 (127 pm) letting him know I had arrived. He was getting a bite down at the Windmill so I went to take a look. When I peered over I was like, "Not again", thinking I had fallen for yet another long-you-sucker- drive for nothing. But something caught my eye so I took a walk. It was a cloud of happy peanut bunker just hanging on the beach and not much going on out aways.
There was another guy there who had fished for the last hour without a tap. As we walked to make a move back to the parking lot I looked out and saw the birds starting to go good and some big splashes underneath. But it was aways out there and I figured it was bass on adult bunker on the other side of the bar. At one point I said to
him, "Man they are moving fast". So we kept walking and the birds and splashes got closer. There was only a half a dozen guys spread out and nothing was happening. Then the peanuts started to get nervous
and soon they were spraying out of the water. Like thrown out of the water. And that was the start of one of the most enjoyable fishing days I have had in long while. It was just about high tide and the
water was in and there was plenty of it for the big bass to chase the bait wherever they wanted to, and most times, it was up nearly onto the sand. I had my big camera with me and wanted to make sure I got
some good pics because you have to record it all somehow. This was like Nat Geo stuff. Yes, it's not giant bluefin blowing up on bluefish, but for walking the beach this was good as it gets. So I swung the camera around to my back and made a good cast with a two-fly set up of peanut bunker flies.After a few casts I felt a solid hit, set the hook, and was off to the races. One of the guys yelled, "F%$k yeah, the fly guy got one". It was probably a 30'ish pound fish. I was soon into the backing like from a place that hasn't seen daylight since I put it on the reel. It was a knuckle buster as I tried to slow the fish. And just like that it popped off. Since I was so far out I thought I might be able to hook another but as I retrieved in I saw that I had lost my dropper set up. There was no flouro left in the bend of the lead fly where I tied the dropper in. Hey, what are you going to do. So then I just went single fly.
It was hard to not snag the peanuts on the retrieve, in fact there just might have been too much bait in front of us. I had on a 350 gr. sinking line to get below the school but that didn't work as they kept finding the hook. I must have snagged two dozen of the peanuts. Soon a few more guys came and the spin guys did real well casting out and over the bunker pods and catching the patrolling bass on the outside. That is where most of the big fish were hanging out between their runs into the beach.
Looking over (above) I saw a pattern of bait movement I liked. I took the walk and had that beat to myself. A few casts in and I fell a strong pull but when I went to set the hook it was off and gone. Phil, who bought Jim's rod building stuff, brought out his two-hander to join us for some fun. It was fun but
for us three fly rodders it was all fishing and not catching. We were in the thick of it but they didn't want our flies, which were spot on. Andrew was throwing a two-hander as well and we joked about how fly fishing just sucks.
I shot a little video just to share what it looked like when, I would say high teens to high 30 pound fish are on the peanut bunker. These are not the 40's and 50's that are out a bit, although I would learn of just under 50" fish were caught along Northern Monmouth County, these are the mid-range sized fish, below them would be my favorite 28-34 inch fish.
At some point Andrew said to me, "You should put that popper/dropper set up you use". And so I did. After a hundred or so casts I had a nice bass blow up on it near the trough but it completely missed it. It was getting late and the cell phone network was in effect as more and more anglers arrived. Below
is a short video Andrew had shot before I headed out. It was still going good but we had had he best of it. I said good-bye to the boys and headed out. While I was probably in the parking lot Andrew went
tight on a nice bass to avoid our three-fly-guy-skunk we had going. On my way driving south I stopped and took a look over the wall and the fish were going there. So I dressed and by the time I got in position they had moved over the bar on the almost near low tide. I was good. It was a beautiful day. I saw about maybe 30 fish caught, most photographed and quickly released. I did see one floater out there but I don't where that came from, most likely the beach as there were hardly any boats in on this.
I read the below report and it pretty much mimicked my report. I'm glad he got one.
So what is interesting is this. A week until the full moon. Peanuts way earlier than last year. A mix of big girls out and mid-sized fish in. This might just wind up being a different kind of year. It was really a day you hope for. I am sure some fly anglers were out in the mix somewhere and had some numbers in catching or a big fish landed. All you could do was position yourself where you think it might go and make cast after cast. Sometimes during the lull in the action is when you can pick off a scouting bass rather then fish into an all out blitz when there's 500 peanuts in the fray.
So this report is really falling into the prediction I have made, of course without any scientific knowledge, that this fall WILL be different than last years. I have been scouting out back in the bays and rivers and the bait isn't as "thick" as you believe. I believe alot of it moved out on the last moon and you're going to see this moon, full in five days, be the moon they move on. Unlike last year is wasn't until November when the peanuts and nice 24-34 inch showed up. This is early elephants on peanuts. I'm still thinking a late sand eel bite this year when early winter arrives. But by then it'll just be all smallish fish, in the cold.
It's a good week to take a half a day, or the full day off. You never know what might happen but one thing for sure is the weather is beautiful. I am sure that the word is out there so you expect a shitshow moving forward. But hey, if you don't go you'll never know.