I had the opportunity to circle back and join the guys, and girl, at the Bayshore Saltwater Flyrodder's meeting last night. There were over 30 existing and first timers that came out. Club meetings are usually well attended as you come out of the fly fishing shows and head into the spring season.
The club's meeting are held at the Port Monmouth VFW and there's a nice bar next to the meeting room to grab a cocktail at after a long days work and before the show begins. After the Pledge of Allegiance new- President John Gillis presented the raffle winner from The Fly Fishing Show his prize
which was over 300 flies tied by club members. The winner is a guy I used to see pretty regularly about a decade ago at the Jersey Shore TU meetings. I think his name is Mike, if you've met him you know him. He's super fishy (fishes like 300 days a year), is a little more on the shorter side than taller, is a hard stylist by profession, and has a thick Italian accent.
My presentation was "The State of the Striped Bass" and kind of included a summary of all the things I have been posting about over the last year. It started with a little overview of striped bass and where, how, and why they spawn, went into how they are managed, why the numbers are low, and why
the New Jersey striped bass fishery is the best on the East Coast. But the funny thing is the Bayshore club could easily be called the Staten Island South Angling Club, as a lot of the members are current or former residents of what was once called the Borough of Richmond. So when I said "New Jersey just has the best fishermen and women out there" a few groans came from the audience.
I also hit on some things we can do as anglers to help reduce fishing stress and mortality and fish more responsibly. In addition to the "Keep em' Wet" message I introduced the idea of going to a single
barbless hook for fly rodders and for the plug anglers going to a single pinched barbed treble hook and or hanging a flag off the back of the plug. You know how many poorly handled and dead bass you saw last year so we as a community have to do better. And for the fly anglers please carry a long pair of hemostats with you in case the bass inhales your fly, your fist won't always make it's way down into the fishes gullet to pop the fly. The message is simply to continue to enjoy the resource while protecting the striped bass along the way.
Before the meeting I stopped and looked at a few spots on the Raritan Bay. Tomorrow is go-day and I'm sure anglers are chomping at the bit. The Toms River will look like a sardine factory and Graveling Point will have them lined up after midnight. But the Raritan looked good. The water has been 42-44 degrees but dropped a bit with the rain and overnight cooler air temps.
The ride to Port Monmouth from Titusville is not an easy one, there's just no straight shot. I like fishing down and around there and last night's drive reminded me how far I am away from the action. Route 29 to 195, to the Turnpike, to 287 to 440, to the Parkway to 35 south- that's a lot of roads. After I left the still-in-progress meeting I stopped to fill up at WaWa. As I sat there I looked down and saw that my
2004 Jeep Cherokee just crossed the 200,000 mark. That's 20 years old, manufactured when I was 36 years years old. I was just a tot back then, still a Newark fireman, living in Middletown, and just about to be a dad again. So much has happened in those two decades. Being the third owner I am sure this
Jeep has its own story to tell. It hasn't been an easy ride the last twenty years for both of us, and my own odometer is starting to creep up in numbers. One thing we have in common is both of us have our "Check Engine" lights aglow. I'll have to make sure to take care of both of them if fly fishing for striped bass is going to continue in our future.