Many striped bass anglers look to the magic number of 50 as the kick-off to the spring season. It's just sounds really good. 49 degree water temperatures, not so much, 50 degrees, let's go! I see that yesterday the Raritan Bay hit 50 degrees, at least in some spots, and I am sure higher in others depending how much and where the sun was beating down.
After work I stopped waiting to kick off my own year and get one to hand but this year, compared to last, it's just not going to happen later. I'll hopefully only be a week behind. The tide was on the ebb and it was near the bottom so that means low, real off-color water, and hardly much for current. I gave it a college try anyway and was lucky enough to only donate one more fly to the river bottom.
Out west the river is waking up. Dropping water, increased temps., and the arrival of shad has us on track to be similar to last year. Hopefully we'll just see some kind of steady weather this spring, not that up and down drought-to-deluge and equator-to-North Pole weather fluctuations. That leaves fly fishermen and striped bass off of their games.
It's time for two-a-days which means basically any time I'm near or pass any striped bass water, before or after work, or during the overnight hours, I'm going. Theresa is not looking forward to another spring of me being obsessed disruptive, and annoying. But if you think of it, I'm 56, who know's how many more springs I have left in this world, or physically able to fish. Let's just I'm here for another 20, that'll put me at 76, but the last 5 of those have me not game-time ready and my fly fishing career has peaked out, well it's over. So I'm down to 15 years from 2024.
So 15? How quick does 15 years go? Imagine it like you're a huge baseball fan and you can go to your last 15 games ever. Or you have 15 times you can go to your favorite bar or restaurant. Or see your favorite people for the last 15 times. 15 years goes quick, and it seems the older I get the quicker time goes. While the spring is my favorite the same could be said for the fall run on the beaches, or your annual trip to your favorite fishing destination.
While the non-getters say "It's only fishing", for many, the annual get up and go each spring is a great awakening in both body and mind and something that keeps us focused, motivated, punished at times, and alive.