06.12.12 Lots of different fish showed up at first light...

     So I've been betting that the first light bite will pick up and today it did. Had a nice SE wind with lots of swells and chop and bait in the water. Picked Long Branch to start off in and as soon as I got to the rocks bunker and shad were in pods swimming within a stones throw of the groins. I didn't see any fish on them and they moved quickly in and out around the rocks, almost mullet like. My buddy Rich fished to the north of me and caught a gator blue on metal. We had stripers, blues, bunker, shad and some tiny yound of the year fish that were getting smashed around by the shad. It wasn't an easy morning with the fly rod but it was good to be out fishing fishy looking water.

                                                   

When I first came through Asbury Park before 5am there was no one out, but as the morning came the end of 8th Ave started to fill up. I decided to stop and found guys snagging and dropping bunker and catching some big stripers. Without sounding like a super catch and release only guy, I respect an anglers right to keep his catch. I believe the size and catch limits should be changed, especially with regard to the bigger females. But, it is what it is and it's not my fish and an angler can make their own decision. However, what does bother me, is seeing those big fish dead or left for dead in the stagnant pools of water or strewn on the rocks. Not that I don't understand why they are there, a guy hooks a fish, brings it in, gaffs it, and then bleeds it, and then continues fishing. But there is something that's either disturbing or gets me as a lack of respect for the fish....I really don't know what it is. It's kind of like my buddy a charter Captain who lines up the dead fish for the post trip pick....nothing wrong with it, legal, but just not for me. I made the top image of the guys waiting for the bunker to get close, pretty cool shot, then walked up on the groin and found the homicide scene below. Sorry, just my opinion.

I decided to head back to where my buddy was fishing and caught slack low tide. I managed a nice fluke that I hoped was 17-1/2 inches, but came up short at 16, so back it went.

Later in the day I brought my boat back to Gateway Marine to have Rich troubleshoot the problem I had. He jumped right on it and found it to be a stuck siphon ball in the fuel tank. While there they swapped out a few old fuel lines and will detail the topside and I'll pick it up Friday.

06.11.12 Started early up north and then settled in at the Manasquan Inlet

     I am really convinced that sometime soon there will be an awesome early morning bite. Oh yeah, from the beach. I know the boats are catching them up mostly snagging and dropping bunker, but I'm thinking soon a nice pod of stripers will be in the shallows grazing for breakfast. Today wasn't that day. 

     I started out at 5 am and was soon joined by my buddy Rich who was throwing metal. It's good to fish with a spin guy, it helps rule fish in or out. I threw some Clousers and Deceivers without a bump, and we covered the area pretty good. I decided to call it quits and took a drive south down to Sea Girt 

                              

where I heard there was a good first light bluefish bite. I hadn't fished there since the fall and was surprised to be able to walk out so far as the huge pocket that was there had shoaled in. In the distance I saw bunker bait boats working away from the crowd of boats that was forming off the beach.
     I made a move down to the Manasquan Inlet and found a mixed bag of anglers fished off the jetty. Most were on their game, some were really off. I watched a guy hook a huge fish on a Bomber only to lose it as his line was cut by the sharpened side of a huge Cor-Loc dolos that was in front of him. There was pods of bunker to the north and the wind was from the east, some eventually the bunker came south and then traveled into the wind and incoming tide. That path brought them in between two obstacles- the north jetty and a pod of dolphins that balled them up and then worked on edges of the large pod. Luckily the guys with treble snagging hooks made casts away from where the dolphins were coming up. I saw a few small cocktail blues caught, a bunch of bunker snagged, and a large sea robin that grabbed a guys Ava. A few guys live lined some bunker around the concrete dolosse without a take while I was there.

06.10.12 Lesson of the day....

     I went out fishing at 5am before I had to meet a client at 7. It was the end of the outgoing and the water was glass flat. Just looked boring and not fishy at all. I made some casts with the spey rod and then the Helios without a bump. On my way there I saw a bunch of boats and kayakers out real early with most concentrated down near Belmar. My guy got there just before 7 and we decided to take a drive down to see the floatilla of 35,000 boats jammed up right out of the Skark River Inlet down to Spring Lake. Dark clouds of bunker underneath them and from what I saw posted throughout the day the big bass were on them.

Spring Lake at 715 am

     We decided to head back up north and work on our casting and double hauls. As the lesson started I parked my 10 wt Helios and Mirage reel set up on the sand leaning on the rocks. We worked real hard and stayed for hours moving back as the tide started to roll in. As things wrapped up I glanced over to my left and the rod was gone. My stomach turned. I quickly started looking through the water and along the groin thinking it got pushed over and then pushed or pulled with the tide. Luckily as we searched I looked up the beach on an outgoing wave and saw my rod on the sand. I was very, very happy, and lucky.

Then I looked up to The Man and said thanks.

06.09.12 Out front with my dad, then back in a hurry...engine trouble and sank my camera

Out with my dad at 430 am and on the water by 515. Put in on the Navesink and after making the turn at the Hook the 150 started getting cranky. Limped back home and ran aground when the engine conked. Fellow guide Paul Eidman of Reel Therapy stopped to help and luckily we got back to the ramp. Tuned up by the shop this winter and they changed the filters yesterday???? Couldn't put my finger on the problem. Then I sank my Canon G12 while cleaning the boat up. Oh well, so no pics.

We snagged one bunker and caught one short fluke.

06.07.12 I found bunker in the river....my buddy found makos out front

   After getting the kids off to one of the few remaining school days of the year I launched the boat and spent the morning scouting out the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers. It was a beautiful morning and I got back in before the weather changed in the afternoon. I made some casts and had a fish on for a bit. I thought it was a bluefish but usually they don't miss, so maybe it was a striper. My favorite sight of the day was the pods of bunker happily swimming about, I never saw them nervous or with a care in the world.


 
   When I got home and cleaned the boat I realized I needed something from West Marine in Belmar. As I went down I checked my Facebook account and saw Capt Joe from Sykk Physh had caught a 200 pound mako while out tuna fishing. I posted back, " Can a brother get a slice?". And with that he walked through the door. He was looking for a tape measure and I happened to have one. I followed him back to the dock and made some images of his crew and himself with the mako which measured out to 79 inches and had a 44 inch girth. His buddy filleted it up and Joe slid me a bag of mako steaks for my picture taking efforts, which included a fall down the plank headfirst into the Suzuki 250. Guys couldn't believe I was okay, and hopefully it's not a slow brain bleed that will catch up to me later.

06.06.12 Shoot today, fish tomorrow

     Today I had a shoot up at, well depending on which way you call it, Giants or Jets, or Metlife Stadium. I was looking to take the boat out today and give the rivers a shot. Got a late call last night that these picks would be made at the stadium and I had to shoot them. The are installing solar panels around the top of the stadium. It's part of a large retro/build on the stadium that all has to be completed before the 2013 Super Bowl that will be played here in February 2014. 

                                                

06.05.12 President Obama watched me spey cast today for stripers, well maybe

     A few years back I saw a fly fisherman on North Beach in Sandy Hook casting a spey rod for stripers and I thought it would be fun, and effective, to try in the salt. I snapped a few pictures of Ruben that day and one of them will be in the summer issue of Eastern Fly Fishing magazine which will hit the newstands in the next few days. Below is one of the pics.

     So back then I went ahead and purchased a 12'6" 10 wt spey rod that came with a cheap reel and horrible line. I couldn't cast it 50 feet. This year I purchased another Orvis Mirage V reel and decided to load some new backing and the Orvis WF 10F 580-grain switch line, and today was my first go at it in a while.

     First off, a big thanks out to Rob the store manager at Orvis New York City who helped my out in a pinch with a wader issue I had and today I was able to slide on a new pair of bootfoot Enduras after screwing in the tungsten spikes that go with them. Then it was off to the rocks. I fished at slack low tide but still had breakers to deal with. It was great casting this rod easily over 100' but never getting to the backing which is 125feet from the line tip. At times I found myself struggling to get the line in before the waves had carried it into the rocks. With 100+ feet out you have to strip in a hurry and line management is key. Later I moved to the beach and worked on my loading and casting, and it was better there without the line hazards to worry about. I didn't catch a fish, but didn't care, but it will be fun to hook up just a little further out then I am used too. 

     Over the last few days I have heard that President Obama had been in New York City. As I made my casts I could hear the sound of helicopters in the distance. I looked to the north and found the Presdient's helicade? flying low along the Jersey Shore. I thought nothing of it as I have seen it before and made a few casts as they came close. Then I thought, " Wow, imagine if the President is looking down and thinking, "Look at that, that looks like something I would like to do", or, "Hey, that guy can't cast for shit!". I snapped a few frames as they went south and then called it a day.

I have been told that there are several helicopters in a formation and that some are decoys in case they were to come under attack.

05.30-06.03.12 Adirondacks for two and then Catskills for two and now back home

     Well after a great striper morning I was on the move. Couldn't get it together so I left Red Bank at 2 pm, after stopping by the pharmacy there to get some scrips re-filled, which I forgot anyway. On the way up I called my sister who lives up there and we decided to meet for dinner at the bar at The
Hungry Trout. It was a nice, but quick, meal and left me a short window to fish. I stopped by the falls below Lake Everest and found loads of fish popping as the sky overhead was loaded with Isonychia spinners. I caught a few browns to 14 inches and then headed down to the houses at Ausable Forks.





     I started Thursday morning out at 5am wanting to fish real early so as to not thermal stress the fish. I found fish rising below the bridge and had a blast with about a dozen before most folks got up for the day. I'm not digging the channelized West Branch above it's junction with the East Branch and then down below. After a ton of yardwork and the posting of multiple for sale signs (how sad) I decided to

hit the upper West Branch again. I stopped by the falls and found a group of spin anglers grouped up below the falls. I headed downstream and stopped at the Welcome sign, well posted private sign, about 500 yards below the falls. It was still just nice to get out and fish the pocket water and nearly break my ass on the those vaseline covered Ausable rocks. I caught a few nice fish nymphing the faster water and made sure I stuck the water with a thermometer which read 64 degrees. By 4pm I was blowing out of town heading down to the Roscoe to meet up with the members of the Jersey Shore Trout Unlimited on their annual Beaverkill outing. (Continued below)

     When I left Ausable Forks I felt like I was saying goodbye. I grabbed a few trout related decorations and figured I would put them up in the Roscoe house. Our Roscoe house had been in my wife's family for decades and is in a state of disarray and in the need of some serious love. Well, I guess now, love is coming to town. I purchased the first Ausable Forks house in 2003 and the second next door in 2010. I had good intentions and high hopes but the distance, natural disasters, and my kids lack of interest made me see the light that for us right now it's the right move to sell. So, if you would like to buy 2 houses  right on the West Branch of the Ausable please give me a cal, $70,000 for both. 

     When I got to the Roscoe house the first thing I did was hang a trouty Welcome sign next to the front door and unload some nice pictures to hang on the wall here when we get cleaned up a bit. The next move was to hook up with the guys from the JSTU who I found at the Roscoe diner. I stayed at the Butternut Grove Capmground crashing in Paul's tent, who left in the middle of the night because of my snoring. It wasn't my snoring, it was an obstructed airway from me sleeping on my fists because I didn't have a pillow. In the end I bought him breakfast at the Roscoe Diner where we met before fishing Friday. 

     A small group of us decided to fish the Willowemoce Creek at the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum and we caught a few on nymphs and then worked out way down to the Beaverkill as the winds started to howl and the skies darkened. Since I hadn't taken my meds my eyes were starting to buldge out of my head so I did the right thing and called my Doc to call in a prescription at the Rite Aid in Hancock. On the way back we stopped at the Riverside and had lunch before joining up with more guys at the campgound and hitting the Beaverkill for some evening fishing. We fished above town and all the guys caught fish but me. We had a nice time and I said my goodbyes before heading to the house for the night. 

     I set up my portable cot and sleeping bag and made the best of the night. I shouldn't complain the guys at the campground took a beating as the heavens opened up and they lost power. I was up at 6 Saturday morning since I had a list of things to do before meeting clients at Border Water Ourfitters in Hancock at 11 am. 

     On Saturday I had three great guys in the boat, Dan, Rick, and Mike are friends who work in NYC and came up for a one dayer. They are new to fly fishing and it was there first time on the Delaware. As I do with all my clients I asked them what they wanted from the day. They wanted fun, to learn some, and to each catch a couple of fish. I told them the last might not happen. Hopefully we'll see fish, and get a few shots at them, but lets set our expectations at catching none and go up from there. 

     We started out nymphing and after a few hours they were surprised none of them had caught anything. We had a nice lunch sitting on a fish that never came back up. The West Branch was quiet which was surprising for a Saturday. We set up on a few, spooked a few. missed a few, flossed a few, and had a good day till the evening. At night we had a mixed bag of bugs with Cahills and spinners the majority. Mike missed a sweet big fish after he made a nice cast, had a great drift, and THEN took his eye off the prize for just a second. I worked with Danny who fished some fast water with a Rusty Spinner and connected with a nice 19" strong brown trout as time expired. It was a great day with some real nice guys. 

     After dropping the guys off at the Hancock House Hotel I made a run up to Joe Demalderis's house to drop off a rod he lent me for the day. I organized my boat and gear and by the time I left there and dropped the boat in Roscoe and got back on Route 17 it was almost 1 am. I pulled over on the Parkway after I started falling asleep while driving, and made it home around 430. 

     " There are three things we never late for here in Montana, work, church, and fishin'", well today I was late. I set my alarm for 615 and must have hit the iPhone snooze button because when I came to it was 713, and I had a 7 am start time for a casting/fishing trip on the beach. I got down and met Craig at 725 and we spent the morning going over shooting line and hauling all the while casting into fishy water on the outgoing tide. We've been together for six lessons and he's really enjoying himself and coming along nicely. 

It was a busy four days in some of my favorite places, the Jersey Shore, the Adirondacks and the Catskills- and I spent time with great people along the way.