So what do I know? Pretty much only what I think I know. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and were able to celebrate it with family and friends if that's your thing. One thing I have come to learn, well maybe reinforced, is that not everyone celebrates all the holidays that we, or I, do. I see that with my students, many of whom have immigrated from other countries, and come from different religions and cultures then my own. One of my joys is listening and learning from each of them about what makes them them.
I had a Grateful Thanksgiving with my family. Theresa and I were able to go 5 for 6 with the kids being there as Tara is down in Texas and can't run back home for every event and holiday. After dinner I sat all stuffed-up and started to think about fishing. I knew I was going to fish Black Friday but my question was when and where. I wasn't going to do two things, wake up early, or try and chase reports. Maybe I should have.
It is the late fall or early winter. Morning temps in the high 20's and low 30's with midday temps in the 40's and 50's. I hate the cold, especially as I get older. My hands just can't take it anymore. I didn't set an alarm but was mid-way down to the shore after the sunrise which I caught as I drove east on 195. My plan was to
hang in lower Monmouth County for a bit. I pulled up to the first spot and was disappointed in what I saw. Pretty flat water with just two hours until dead low. No birds. No bait. No boats. No anglers. Mmm.
While I usually like to fish a sand eel bite from the beach since there was no water in these "replenished" beaches I jumped up on a few groins to fish. It was relaxing I have to say. No one around, including the bait and bass, and I didn't really care if it was going off somewhere else. I had on a double sand eel
set-up and caught a post- Thanksgiving Day stuffed bass on a Brad Buzzi sand eel imitation. These are one of, if not if, my favorite sand eel patterns. While there are many out there this has been my tried and true over the years. If you think you are going to be fishing late into this fall and need some good sand
eels you can order them at his online store, HERE, or just call him, 732-406-0463, for flies, bucktail, hooks, UV, whatever. He's down in Normandy Beach which is one of the hot sand eel bite towns during the fall. You can do an order and pick-up when you are out fishing.
I caught the last of the remaining water and enjoyed walking and looking for some current or birds or bait. I found the below fellow fly rodder casting a Clouser into the flat ocean. A Clouser is a great white bait imitation and can make for a good sand eel if you tie them long enough. Sand eels can be 4-6 inches long so that 3 inch Clouser may be a tad short. I always like to show them a meal by offering up something slightly different or a bit bigger than the school there are plowing through.
I made a move over the bridge and into the towns south, it didn't matter as the blow out tide was a blow out tide no matter where you went. I wasn't waiting for water so it was what it was. If I had a redo I would have got up early and been down on the cold-ass beach at 6 am and been done by 830. I
bumped into Ralph who offered me a quick boat ride out front to see if the bass, or bluefin, were swirling on sand eels out off the beach. I wish I could have but I had to take a rain check. I decided to just fish and I did dragging my sand eel flies across the sand for really no reason but to say I did it.
There were two stops for me before I called it a morning. As I was making my way home I thought to myself about where we are with this fall run. For the unemployed or retired angler, who has an effective cell phone blitz network, and lives on or near the border of Ocean and Monmouth, then you had a great month and half from Sandy Hook down to Island Beach State Park. For the rest of us it has been, and always will be, a hit or miss, "should have been here yesterday", season. It can be great or just suck.
I sat down this morning and tried to see if I could put the season into a graph. Yeah, that's and hour and half of my life I won't get back. What goes on an x axis and what goes on a y? I did it in Word and it was a mess trying to plot things into Excel and yada yada so I just screen shotted it and drew the lines
myself. It's just my observations from my own experience which has been all walk and wade fishing this fall. It kind of, well might be confusing, but here it goes. I started with October 15th because that was the day Marc and I found them in Deal, he caught 30's I got none. And I ended it today because we are now transitioning from a bunker to a sand eel bite. That's not to say there won't be a flurry somewhere of adult or peanut bunker getting smashed, it's just the peak has came and went.
But what you'll see it we get early adult bunker with HUGE bass, followed by the peanuts, where they overlap at times, and then, depending on the year, a steady, and can be fantastic sand eel bite. It all gets started with the silversides, bay anchovies, and mullet. But that's a pick and the mullet runs haven't been strong in years.
Boats and sand eel bite just go together. There are clouds of them on the electronics and when the bass push them up the birds find them and it's stupid, but fun, fishing. The above pic is a sand eel bite fish Leif fooled with a larger and darker Ugly Ass Fly. Below are the beaches when the sand eels are it.
I do love fishing the beaches down south where you can drive up and down, and stay warm while you look for birds, and bunches of anglers. It's lazy fishing but there's nothing like being warm, with a warm coffee, some snacks, and your fishing buddy just driving and looking.
If you really don't have any sand eel flies in your quiver then I suggest you get some either bought or tied up and quick. The adult and peanut bunker bite, well a blitzing hot bite, is over. Yes I have heard about the Guard Shack Blitz of 1989 when 40's and 50's broke through the ice in 20 degree water with -60 degree air temps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, forget it. Stop your driving from Asbury to the tip of The Hook everyday. Pick a beach on a good time of day, tide and wind, and a moon, and just fish.
So recently Bob Popovic's has been on a tear. He's hit the show. He's hit the meetings. He's hit the vice. He's hit social media. He must be starting his day with Wheaties, or hitting the spinach or supplements or something. It's great to see. A few days ago he posted some Jiggy's that he tied up for the sand eel bite. These are sweet. And one of the reasons is they won't foul, it's a big problem when people tie long sand eel patterns. If you don't have the Jiggy heads you can use a simple cone head to get you through. Popovic's developed his line of Fleye Foils in
various imitations and one of them mimics a sand eel. It's simple tie, actually, once you get it down, and are spot on. Remember you'll need some UV and a curing light, both of which Buzzi has. The biggest variable is tying them is the size and color. Tie or keel them so they ride hook up if you're fishing from the beach or your hook will be filed down to a knub from digging it through the sand. I like fishing them with a sinking line and a shorter leader, and of course, two at a time.
I had heard that Mantoloking was going good and for a hot second I thought about driving south. Why? To catch schoolie striped bass on the fly? Yes,there may be some bigger fish around on the outside of the bar but it was just the flip of the tide and I wasn't feeling it. So I made my way west stopping at the marina to take a leak. The boats were lined up and getting ready to drop in looking to catch the incoming tide. My guess is they would have been best off just heading due east looking for the fleet and the birds and swirling bass on that sand eel bite.
And there were several reasons why I didn't extend my day on the beach. 1) I was hungry and had Thanksgiving leftovers 2) I love an afternoon nap in my recliner (like an old man), and 3) There was the Jets-Dolphin game on at 3. Maybe I should have just stayed and waited for the tide.
