A year without a Fall Run. Well that's not fair. There was one, you just had to be there when it, or at least a few times, it happened. I had a strange feeling about this year when I heard early on the sand eels were showing, and then the peanut and cupcake bunker. Mixed foods on the menu don't always lead to better fishing. And the fish? They were here, especially the big ones, for the boat guys but it was feast and lot's of famine for the surfcasters, which include us fly guys and gals.
I figured I better give it one last shot, or at least drive, down to the salt to see if anything was happening. I've heard plenty of old school stories about post-Christmas blitzes when the bass were chewing through the skim ice and slush. C'mon now, I was born at night but not last night, as my brother would say.
I took this pic at 508 am just as Route 29 turns into the start of 195. My plan was to go early, and pretty much be done early. I got all my gear and cold weather clothes ready, including my size large StormR jacket which I got about 13 years ago, when I was a tad smaller. Now zipped up it fits me like a sausage skin. My idea was to do Bradley to Bay Head, and that's what I did.
But before I got to the beach I stopped by the Belmar Marina to see if there was any life there, and nada. Truth be told I'm not even sure if the Belmar boats are striped bass fishing anymore.
When I got to Roosevelt Avenue in Avon I just stayed put. I could stay by the warmth of my truck vents and watch as first light arrived. As light came up I could see birds flying around looking, looking over a on-the-incoming relatively calm sea. "Maybe I should just go blind cast"....yeah, no thanks. I just didn't feel it, the same way I felt the few times I've been down this fall.
I stayed for a bit and decided to head south. Basically is was a Shark River to Manasquan Inlet day. when I got past the SRI I picked up a few birds heading south and road in-step, or in-flight, with them down to dam near Spring Lake. I pulled into Mercer Street and at least got out of my truck.
Down on the beach there was a few birds standing round and a few something or others swimming in the shallow water. None of it moved me enough to want to put my rod together. I looked over the human created winter dunes to see if there was anything going on north, east, or south....nada.
Now I know these types of days aren't all out blitz fishing days, they're more the blind casting looking for a bass that is sniffing around or passing by. Even if you told me that your drone was capturing fish swimming around I still wasn't feeling it. So south I went.
I had my stoma set on a bagel from Beach bagel in Point Pleasant so I stopped there. Thing thing I like about this place is they have white milk in the fridge, my favorite companion to a bagel. So I ordered an everything with cream cheese, scooped and toasted of course. But on
my first swig I could tell something was off. It was the expiration date, off by five days. Not totally sour, but that I'm kinda gettin' close sour. Yuk anyway. So I traded that in for a coffee. But if there was a dagger on my dagger-full morning that was it.
It was off to Bay Head and my only motivation was maybe there was something going on I couldn't see from Spring Lake. Nope, more of the same. No boats. No anglers. A few birds. Shit. So that was it for me. I'm glad I went and I'm more than glad to call it a year. I'll do a recap around the New Year if I make it that long.
Before I left I snapped a quick pic just to get you in the holiday spirit. It was about 745 and I was done and started my way back home. But not everybody that was out there went home skunked. I saw the below post on Grumpy's FB page. Kudos to the angler for giving it a go and I
am glad he was rewarded for his efforts. I don't know why I didn't catch like the guy above...oh yeah, I didn't leave my truck or put my rod together.