Well, well, well. I guess you could say we're off and running to the "other" Fall Run, the one where the bait and bass hit the beach. But the question is, beach? When and where and what each beach looks like is the big question. And that question, well the answer, usually leaves me asking the question, "Are they even fly rod fish?".
It's always a big decision on which way I turn off of Route 195. It's basically north or south. This time of year the bass can show in front of any beach at a moments turn, and it's basically being in the right place at the right time. When I went Wednesday, to the north, I didn't find them, but they had them south.
At my last stop before heading west I gave it one last look. Besides looking for the bait, birds, and bass, I looked at the beach structure to see how it looked. Interestingly I found, while the beaches and beach scarp, and pockets, where looking good following the recent storms, the area's off the beaches, looked more like the flats around Martha's Vineyard then the Jersey Shore. Between each set of groins there was a trough, a good place for bait and bass, but then there is now a huge flat, aka sand bar, that extends way off the beach. Depending on the tide, moon, and wind, water can either be in there, or not.
When you stand their fishing, well looking with binoculars in had, you can see that darkish line running down along the beach, at times with bass blowing up around and in the bait pods. If you're lucky they push in, if not, then you're pretty much wasting your time. If you're outfitted with a long fishing rod, and a 6 ounce plug, metal, or rubber, then you can cast 1,800 feet to get to where the fish are. Oh, let me nor forget the snag and drop crowd, that's both illegal, with a treble snagging hook, or legal, with some homemade Circle hook contraption wired up for the same effect.
But if you fish with the long rod then it's even more of a waiting game. Imagine your 30 foot cast basically reaching the start of the bar or flat. Pretty much useless. Yes, you're fishing, but your chances of catching are slim to none. Can you catch the errant and lost bass making its way south? Yes, but that's a unicorn there.
So while I was north they had fish south. Of course the boats could and did find them, but that's not what I'm talking about. And to be honest, it wasn't a plethora of fish, bait yes, but bass no. But there was some big fish patrolling the bunker, mackerel, spike weakfish, and white bait clouds.
What made me think, and feel better, was a post I saw on the Asbury Park Press social media page. Dan Radel was reporting on the Ocean County bite this past week. Interestingly the lead
image was of an angler in a wetsuit who ventured way out to land a 26 pound-bass on a Glide Bait. From the looks of it the angler had to wade, maybe chest high, through the trough to get the bar, or flat. And these aren't your narrow and nature made sand bars, where's there's only room for a few anglers standing in a line. These are big, like acres, and a mile long, and wide, extending way off the beach.
What causes this? Well, it's simple. You know how I feel about beach replenishment, or funnier, nourishment. The storms pull the sand off the beach and it sits either between the groins are just runs parallel to the beach. On a low tide you can walk out to get to the deeper water, but on a higher tide, or during a weather event, you could just be casting in skinny water that is barren of bait and bass. Could they come in, yes. Could they come in and trap the baitfish in the troughs? Of course. But timing, and being there, is everything.
Social media, and the cell phone network, keeps us all abreast, albeit hours or a day late, on where the fish have been, recently. The beach cams have become another "source" of intel both before, during, and after giving it a go. Chasing them will drive you nuts. One honest post on the APP report came from Richard Samons, below.
While I love live swimming baits this time of year, like peanuts and adult bunker, those offerings can make for an extremely frustrating outing, even if the spin guys to your left and right are catching. Sand eels are a better option, because, well, they like to bury in the sand, when not on the move. They are a great first, last, and in-between light bight. They get dislodged along the beach with wave action or the rooting around or tail fanning by bass because know they are there.
Years ago, you would get bass that paused on their migration south to feed. They'd stick to beaches, or counties, or structure, and root around and feed or push the bait into the shallows when it passed heading south. Not any more. It's blitz all-or-none fishing. The bass are glued to the bait, and it moves, more often, north to south, and not east to west.
In good timing with this post local and federal authorities announced this week that a 54 -million dollar beach replenishment project scheduled for Cape May county will not move forward.
What was the key? It was all about the sand. And if you have followed beach replenishment then you know the sand, or more so the rocks and pebbles and detris that gets pumped onto the beaches isn't sand at all. You see, what happens is there are donor sites, like organ donation, where they pump the "bottom" up, transport it, and then "pump" it onto the beaches. That's not
beach sand, trust me, if you've walked it, or almost walked off it, then you know. It's not natural, and it doesn't act natural. Hence, that's why we have sand up to 1,000 feet off the beaches these days.
So while funding, not local, but state and federal, was ready to be spent the issue was the source, or donor site, of the sand. The plan was to dredge up the sand along the Wildwood and Wildwood Crest beaches and then pump it onto the North Wildwood beaches, just south of the Hereford Inlet. It would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Those long and wide beaches are relatively natural, and are a huge tourist magnet in the summer months. Unfortunately the location of North Wildwood makes it a target for natural beach erosion, something people with beach front homes, and a town with beach revenue, can live with.
And then there was the other option, which will probably either be sand from an offshore donor site or from dredging the Hereford Inlet up onto the North Wildwood beaches. It was basically part of of Hereford to Cape May Inlets project, thankfully, now put on hold for now.
This weekend and early next week things are setting up nicely. We still have water in the morning and late afternoon, the winds are coming from the west, then the east and south, before going west on Monday and Tuesday. The bait is on the move and there's fish, some fish, in and around them. We lose the tides during as we head into the next few weeks.
And if you a fly rodder, do yourself a favor and stop basing your outings on what you see and hear from your electronic sources. Metal lips, shads, Ava's, bunker chunks, snag and drop (legally), and glide bait reports shouldn't get you all jazzed up. Learning there's fish around Monmouth or Ocean County, yes. But remember, before you decide to go left or right, are these even fly rod fish?
You can go and get yourself a used wetsuit and get out there. But before you do just imagine you in your fat skin on a grape wetsuit with your stripping basket up around your neck trying to wade through the trough to get next to those young spin rod sharpies. Then think again and just wait, or just go fish like you do.