04.08.25 Normal ups and downs for the season...

     I'm sure it doesn't matter where you fish early season for striped bass. Hard fluctuations in weather patterns lead to Bipolar fishing. Take in point flows. while more, well consistent, flows are a good thing in rivers, quick swings can shut things down. Take two days ago when the river went from 8,000 to 16,000 cfs. Now we seem to leveled off around 13,000 but with big rain on the way I'm sure that number will double. 

    When the river went to 55 I was worried that a few days of sun would crest it over 60. But now with air tmps in the 30's at night were down to 50. I know that changes in water temperatures like that can shut them down and keep them being active and any kind of aggressive. 

     Things will normalize and there will be good days but this season is starting off a bit sideways. It's definitely not fly rod time and I could use a few trips were I'm not just putting in time but confident that I have a shot at landing a fish. 

04.06.05 Things are startin' up....

     Due to a tremendous workload I've just been off my game. When the posts slow down the mental health wellness checks begin, "Bro, you good?". Yes. I'm good, just overwhelmed, overworked, and underperforming with the nursing students. They're having a rough run of this semester and it is sitting heavily on my heart and shoulders. Might be time for the coach to step aside. 

      And since January I've been neglecting just about everything in my life. Nothing bring me joy. My mind is working 24/7 to make it through this semester. But this weekend I did get out as the fish have started to show up and play in various and predictable early season spots. First, the Raritan started, I wouldn't say went off, but the first round of fish pushed in and headed towards the back. 

     With water temps staying above 50 for just about a week there's bait and fish getting active. While the low and slow thing always works I'm hearing they're getting them on topwater as well. Also, the reports from Atlantic City and Brigantine are coming in as they usually do during April. 

     This weekend was the trout opener on both sides of the river and both Delaware and Raritan Canals were lined with anglers plying for those cookie-cutter stocky rainbows. I haven't done that for decades and I'm sure it's fun especially if you have the kids around. These fish were 

made for the skillet so anyone who gets angry due to catch and fillet is nuts, as almost all of the waters around here get into the 90's in the summer, surely killing any that survive off. 

     The fish on top was from a 3 AM shift that I did today with a buddy in the non-tidal section of the river. While I haven't been out some of these big fish must have made their way up and are staging for the big pushes. What's interesting is that this morning the water was running below  

7,800 cfs and for some reason it went to over 13,000 in less than 10 hours. We've been dry around here but they must have caught a monsoon somewhere up north or one of the reservoirs collapsed flooding the entire system. 

     As night turned to first light and then day the fish still were out and playing. Amongst the quarry were some less than svelte females that were definitely eating. While I'd love to claim the pool winner today it was my buddy who won it all as I couldn't get a fish to hit a fly. It's hard to compare a hook full of feathers to a loaded Redfin.