Since I bailed on the Vineyard trip I figured I could at least treat myself to a morning of hard core fishing. I was going to find them, or at least one of them. With high tides around 3am I set my alarm for 230 am and was going...well going nowhere because I hit the Off button and woke at 530.
I thought it could still be okay because I would then catch the mid-tide ebb and all that bait that would be pouring out. So, The Hook, the Shark River Inlet, or the Manasquan Inlet? I chose the Shark River. Why? Because maybe if the 30-pound bass, okay 30-inch bass weren't there, maybe there was an albie or two on the chew.
The surf was big, with rollers and a big ground swell which differed from beach to beach and town to town. I headed down and set up shop in Spring Lake as the distances between the groins are less and the NE wind driven waves got tamed a bit from the rocks. There was also plenty of water in between.
I'm down to using an old Go PRO Hero 5 Black as my camera. My iPhone 16 + Plus Pro Max, which got hit out of my hard by a passing car in Ireland, is still in the "shop" where they are trying to pull the pictures off it that didn't upload to the Cloud. And the iPhone 0 I'm using has no storage left. My old Cannon G12, which was my favorite no big SLR type camera, has aged out along with getting the shit beat out of it for years. In fact I have four of them sitting on a shelf, all battle tested and proven great. The next point and shoot camera I want to get is a Canon G7x, but since when did point and shoot cameras cost $1,500?
With not much happening on the horizon or in castable distances I moved down to the inlet. There were a few guys out near the drawbridge with relatively calm waters inside protected by the north jetty.
Outside of the inlet the outgoing tide had slowed down so it wasn't as wind vs tide as when I first got there before sunup. There were no birds out picking and no predator fish in sight. There was one cormorant swimming around inside but it repeatedly came up empty.
I then thought the pocket on the north side might be good. Protected from the NE wind but still plenty of water to hold a fish, even it was an out-of-season fluke that was still sticking around.
And let me tell you, they should be there, because I could feel the heat from the waves as they broke at my feet. And for seeing any bait? Most of it is still probably in the back of the bays and rivers waiting to come out. Why would you leave the comfort of a warm and tolerable bay and river? So, it may not be this moon, October 6th, but maybe the next if fall ever arrives and the air and waters cool down. This Indian summer is great and all but I'm sweating to death and my 100 pounds of tall fescue seed that I laid down after thatching, collecting, and aerating is either dried up, picked up by the birds, or has blown away.
So the NE winds and rough surf will be around for a few days. Somewhere the fishing is good, probably around the Long Island, Block Island and Connecticut triangle. The rougher weather has hit Martha's Vineyard as well.
While I have heard of good bonito catches on the Island for The Derby albies have been scarce, as well as the bluefish. Of course, I'm talking shore based anglers and of course the fly rodders. It seems Nantucket is having the lion's share of the fish in and around that island. Albies at Montauk this fall? Guide Peter Douma said this was his best September ever. My buddy Paul Eidman was out and about last week before the blow looking from Sandy Hook to Breezy to out a bit and found nothing up and active. As far as the bass, I'm sure the secretive graveyard shift guys are getting them in the rivers, and of course the boat eel crew is getting them in and in-between the channels and up into the New York Bays.
Before I left I took advantage of the shade to check on my truck lights, all good for now. I can't believe I fixed it. I'm not mechanical, nor electrical. The lights were the camel that broke my Martha's Vineyard trip's back, maybe in the end it was okay.
My host Abe said he's now deep in the zone working tirelessly on commissioned art pieces. The last thing he needs is an annoying Jersey guy tugging at his shirt to go fishing, especially when it really isn't that good. If you've never seen an Abe Pieciak piece I tell you you should.
They are truly works of art, no shit dumbass, but really they are. The detail is incredible and his use of natural (things found on the beach) materials is cerebral in their connections and compliments. Each time you look at his pieces you notice something different.
So after I was done I decided to hit Joe's Bagels in Belmar rather than Bagel Talk in Neptune, otherwise I would have to drive north to drive south to head home. I should have made the trip. There an everything bagel (see anything stuck to the dough?), with egg and cheese, and a Tropicana OJ was $9.54. C'mon man... If they had white milk, maybe, but I can't with prices of things these days. Anyway, I'm glad I went. I'll wait for a call from my buds when something happens. Last year it was around the 20th of October where the first push of big migratory bass hit within the three-mile line, and a few times, on the beaches. We'll see what this fall brings.