With all of the recent participation on the beach and in the boats I thought surely by 5 am there would be people fishing at least on the beach. I mean fishermen fish, right? I know people can only fish when they can or when they make time but we're not talking about people just showing up for a bite during the fall run are we? Well anyway.
Left the house at 325 am looking to beat the big water on the incoming tide. Some may say I don't want to read in these posts about every move you make when you go fishing. Some just want to hear about a bite, see some pictures, and possibly get some intel on where the fish may be. It's more than that, it's a process, it's putting time in, a lot of time, with more failures, if you call it that, than successes.
The wind was finishing up it's NE blow and there was still that nasty swell going on as it has for the past few days. Even when it was bluebird skies with 1,000 boats out front you know there's a swell when surfers dot the waters out front of each groin tip. Well this morning there were three swells.
I was in a few hours of the flood tide and even with the full moon and the swells it was hard to find fishy water. I started with a Hollow in black trailed by a sand eel with a Pulse Disc. Pulse Discs and incoming tides and swells don't go well together. You need to really catch up to the current to make it pulsate. When I did I could feel it but by then I was almost dragging it on the sand.
I tried it on the beach before moving to the rocks and had better success in the action pulling it from the beach against the incoming water, didn't matter though no one was home. They say if something isn't working then change it so I went to a popper/ dropper set up to see if something on the top of the
waves may get some attention. It took a while for light to arrive but before it did the first party boat lit up the horizon and headed straight towards me. I was hoping he had good numbers or left them biting yesterday and I was at least in the right neighborhood. He was on the move slowly, rocking back and
forth in the bigger slop. I figured I'd try one more two-fly setup for first light. One fly I liked the other I didn't but I thought the long hackles may have got some attention. If I lost it I was fine with that or I
might just cut them off and retie something else. The rocks became dicey as it was hard to judge the sets and the direction of the waves. For three sets you were good and then on the last you could feel the water rushing between your feet and the rock you were standing on, so I gave up on that.
The water would rush in from the north and then, with some force, work it's way around the beach end of the groin before emptying out on the south side. I was hoping the pocket there would be fishable
but it wasn't. As the hours went on it got bigger and nastier and more off color. There was some debris bobbing up and down in the pocket which is always cause for concern. Now if you look below it looks good, well okay, if you are a spin fisherman or bait soaker this is fishable. Bucktail or bunker chunk
I think could give you better odds. You can see that lone party boat lit up in the pea soup fog that was out there today. By midday it had burned off and the winds by then had gone to light west, before going back to a NNE. I stopped by the L jetty and found a lone angler working the water in front of him.
And so it was time to call it a day. I was off but there were things Theresa and I had to do. Yesterday was closing up Cape May until May 1st. It was a good day that ended a good year down there. Before I hit 195 I stopped at the Belmar Marina to take a peek. The water was up, there was bait, there was think
fog. I saw the line of boats in a holding pattern at the ramp and then I heard one motor away. I just wondered if he knew what he might be going out into. I don't know if I wouldn't have chose the Raritan Bay today and settled for those fun schoolies near the Navy Pier rather than get beat up out front.
In sad news the missing fisherman/kayaker body was recovered yesterday in Keyport where he went missing one week ago. Zhenjiang Ding, 74, was out fishing when something happened. He died doing what he loved to do. And with that in two days, November 1st, the new law go into effect regarding life jackets. Everyone on a boat 26 feet in length must have a PFD on at all times. Period. It goes from November 1st to May 1st. That's every type of watercraft, including drift boats.
And speaking of PFD's. After Theresa and I took care of some business, well old business, we hit a great place for lunch in Newtown, Pa. If you ever have the chance to hit a place called Iron Hill Brewery make the stop. It's a chain but each has it's own brewery? inside. Great beer. Great food. Nice afternoon. But then I wanted to fish and not take the ride east again.
I have wanted to have one final outing for some late fall holdover striped bass in the Delaware. So I dug the life jacket out of my truck and geared up for some fun in the current of the big river. My plan was to walk across one section to fish another. I have done this in the spring and this would be my
first time doing it in the fall. The water was 58 degrees and low. This stretch of the river is where fire departments hold their swift water training. I thought of that as I made my way across. And then I thought about being that guy. With my stripping basket held shoulder high and my sling pack floating behind me I decided it wasn't worth it. I'll have to wait until spring, which is five months away.
Who knows where we're going here. There were big fish on adult bunker off the beach before the wind and weather went bipolar. If I had a boat that worked I'd forgo the chance of big fish and get away from the flotilla and hit the bays and rivers up north. We'll see what happens next. More bait emptying out with fish that stick around a bit? A long pause for a few weeks before the next class down sized fish make and appearance. Or will it be sporadic bights before the sand eels settle in for that cold season fishing? Who knows. Hopefully by December I'll have caught some fish.