It's time to revisit the whole "Spot Burn" issue. Again. It's like the same old thing every year, and it seems to be getting worse. I'm not sure why it exists but it comes on strong and then goes away only to return. It's really not a spot that is burnt, it's a bite that is. There are spring bites, some summer bites, and definitely the fall into winter bites. Social media and cell phones all play their part in it, but it's us anglers that have ruined it for others, and in the end ourselves.
Spring spots are well spring spots. Let's be real, everyone knows them. Let me list them. Hackensack River, Raritan River, Raritan Bay, Shrewsbury River, Navesink River, Manasquan River and Canal, Barnegat Bay, Toms River and and the Delaware Bay and River, plus all those in and around Atlantic City, and Brigantine, and Cape May. There you go guys. Go get um'.
Anglers who call those spots "home" look forward to the peace and tranquility of a bite that may occur only for a few short weeks each year. Over 10 years that 10 bites. When the bite, or the spot, blows up, each season of each year every Internet stalker, You Tuber, and social media fishing expert flock to that spot, do their damage, leave garbage, bother the neighbors, and leave. Leaving the "residents", or local anglers, alone now to clean up the mess, in more ways than one.
This spring the first of what will be many "spots" to be taken off the list of go-to's is the Shrewsbury River in Sea Bright. It used to be a great "creeping' while you're sleeping' spot", but then the word got out. I can remember being among the dark outfit crowd sneaking around behind Dunkin' Donuts waiting for slack tide, which is the only tide I could fish with a fly rod. Guys used to stand along the wall, and then that got extended down into the Rum Runner's property. Well no more. What used to be a few
locals or hardcore guys sneaking around to catch a tide had become a stop on the "Where's the bite" evening into night tour around the Raritan Bay and the rivers. Some say Giglio's blew up the spot by posting the above pic on social media. It wasn't that. The crowds, the garbage, the fights, all that lead to it being now off-limits for fishing. Yes, soil media doesn't help, it was the nail in the coffin.
So now that spot is over. If you're in the know then you know. The Two Rivers well The Two Rivers. It won't take long for the migration to move to an already choked out spot to try and find a fish. Those parking areas, those restaurants, hotels, and Post Office's don't want their parking spots taken up, garbage strewn around, and diners looking out into the parking lot of the Van Stahl plug bag crew smoking heaters shooting the shit waiting for a bite. You can throw fat and ugly fly anglers in there as well.
The Two River areas are home to some of the most valuable real estate in New Jersey. People with money have connections and power. They don't won't to walk across the bridge and see the murder scene of a 20 pound gator bluefish that was bled out on the walkway. They don't want to come around the corner taking their kids over to Holy Cross and dam near hit the flooring installing van making a quick exit out of the parking area, not lot, heading back to Long Branch.
It's happening in Monmouth, Ocean, Bergen, Passaic, Atlantic, Cape May, Burlington, Salem, and Mercer Counties. Hell, throw them all in there, for fresh or saltwater sake. It's not good. We're not good.