07.07.23 Well the smallmouth were active...

     Hit it at 0500 AM just in case the fish were a tad cooler and more active. Well, the river is like a bath tub and will continue to be the same until we get a big downpour or they release a boat load of water from the New York reservoirs. Found some smallmouth that were willing to play. 

 

07.06.23 Rest easy brothers...

     It's a very sad day for the Newark Fire Department and the fire service family. Last night a cargo and vehicle carrier ship caught fire in Port Newark. Two Newark firefighters, Augusto Acabou, of engine 16 and Wayne Brooks, Jr. from Truck 4 died in the line of duty. It was a massive fire onboard the Italian 

ship Grande Costa D'Avorio. The ship was in Port Newark for a few days and was in the process of loading new and used vehicles and cargo heading for West Africa. Somehow a fire started in vehicles on the 10th deck spreading to decks above. Fire departments from New Jersey and the FDNY responded tp assist. The two members got separated from their companies and Maydays were transmitted. It was several hours later that the members were found and their bodies removed. 

     I first heard about the fire early in the morning. My heart sunk when I read the details. When I was a Newark fireman the Ironbound section of Newark was nicknamed, "The Powder Keg". "Down Neck" was known for it's Portuguese residents and restaurants. But surrounding, and sometimes next to, residential dwellings were paint and chemical factories, refrigerated warehouses, auto salvage yards, farmers markets and processing plants, steel and manufacturing shops, and just about anything that is toxic and could kill you could be found on Raymond Blvd., Blanchard Street, Doremus Avenue, Wilson Avenue, South Street, and Port Newark and Newark International Airport. While fire companies didn't see the structural fire duty that companies protecting the South, Central, West and North Wards, they sat amongst some of the nastiest potential fires you could encounter. 

     As the news reported more details of the fire and the identities of the brothers who died I had to reflect some of the work I had in the port, and on similar ships like that. That ship contained 1,200 cars, squeezed in like sardines on decks with a low ceiling, with poor ventilation, and only feet between each car. If one goes, then several go. The best attack, is big water, quick, and from a distance. Hard to do in a basically a large metal box, 12 stories high and hundreds of feet long. One of the biggest challenges I could recall during training was the different threads on the hose couplings. There was no international standard for, say Newark or US threads, to fit ones from Italy. You either stretched your own fire hoses, or used what they had on the ship. I remember one fire I had early in my career (375 Mt. Prospect Ave). We were first due and I ran to the stairwell and stretched the "house line" and proceeded into the fire apartment where soon the line burst. After the fire my buddy Mike Foy, who was the senior guy in the company and acting Captain that day said, "Don't ever stretch a house line". I never forgot that lesson. 

     Today I wrapped up the end of the semester. I was in Newark. I passed a few firehouses going in and out that had their flags lowered to half staff. I didn't go past the firehouses where the brothers worked

but firehouses I had worked in as both a fireman and Captain. In 1994 my own firehouse, Rescue Co. 1, lost Firefighter Mike DeLane. I was at that fire. I remember the morning and days after. During my time in Newark four firefighters died in the Line of Duty. Thankfully, they were single member fire deaths. The last time Newark had a multiple fatality was in 1972 when three members lost their lives in a fire in a vacant building at Pennington and Orchard Streets. Severely injured in that fire was my future Captain, Cliff Dainty, who was assigned to Engine Co. 12. His Captain was one of the deceased. 

     On my way home I took a detour and found my way drawn down to the Port. I remember usually hating to go to the Port. It was either some kind of f'd up fire, or a Haz/Mat, a some kind of technical rescue or industrial accident. Before 9/11 the Port was wide open, you could dam near walk up to any railcar, vehicle, or ship, but now the place is like Fort Knox. From a distance I could see the ship continuing to burn. I am sure they aren't putting anyone in there and are concentrating hitting it from the outside. I know what I would be saying if I was working and sent down there to fight the fire after what happened, "Fuck that boat", is what I would say. 

07.05.23 Coulda put one in the tank...

    Just because you can doesn't mean you should. It's Africa hot in New Jersey this week. It's a hot that is just miserable. If it's miserable for you it's probably miserable for the striped bass unless they have found an underwater spring, a cooler trib, a real rocky run with a dropping gradient or the bottom of a deep pool. You may see them, and they may eat, but at 80 degrees it's just too dam hot to hook, fight and land a fish. Now I did fish, more on that, but below is a bass from the other day that didn't make that days cut. I fugured a tank pic would just add to the post. They never get old, at least to me. 

You see, in tidal waters, on low to incoming the sun beats down on the rocks and then the water fills in and that heat gets transferred to the water. So warm water gets warmer. But fish gotta eat. Kind of like a construction worker. Ask him if he wants to take a lunch break and eat, sure, in the shade of course. Ask him if he wants to take a break, run a mile, do 100 push ups and then eat? Not so much. Catching a bass today would surely do more bad them good as the lactic acid buildup would surely stress them to death. It's kinda like responsible angling that you hear about in trout waters. 

So above I post for a record when I look back. Like I said two weeks ago when it was running around 70,000 cfs...it'll drop like a stone and heat up...quick. So what to do. Well I had tied up this shitty fly that the bass liked so I figured; I want to fish, I love to fish for striped bass, well, let me have some fun, and learn something along the way. So I got the fly and a pair of pliers and went to work. 

     So I'll bother them a bit. First I wanted to see if they were there in 80 degree water. They don't have to be, they choose to be. And they were there. I fished like I normally do. Stayed for about a half and hour. Three good swipes by fish that I would have caught. A few flashes. A few follows. And then I saw just three more swimming around. Night time may be the right time as the temps drop and they may come out to play. 

07.04.23 Happy July 4th....

     It's a good thing to be an American, in fact it's a great thing. I think at times we all forget just how good we have it, but, life ain't always easy. Talk with some folks from other countries and you'll get it. 

     We're blessed to have a place down in Cape May. For decades I ran to New England, specifically Newport, never really knowing the gem that sits on our most southern point in New Jersey. We went down Saturday and came back Tuesday. Did some work, hit church on the boardwalk, and got some 

invites for some good hangs at night. It wasn't a drink-too-much-hang just lots of good food and laughs with some new people we met at Cape Island. We stayed up way past out usual 8 o'clock bedtime. It  

was an all around good, but short, trip. This morning we tried a new place for breakfast at the Cape May Airport. It's called the Flight Deck Diner and not was it only great food and a cool atmosphere the 

bill came to $15.50, and I got a large milk. If you're down there and don't want to go for $35 for breakfast at say Uncle Bills it's worth finding where it is and hitting it. After a traffic-free drive home, but for Theresa not dog annoying free, it was time to hit the river. I needed it. I always need it. Fish or not. 

 

    Although the humidity was through the roof and the air temps were in the 80's the cloud cover kept the water fishable. It's days like these where the tank really comes into it's own. Quick land, a pic or not, and then some rehab in the tank. I always get them going by adding some fresh and cool water inside. 

     While it took awhile for the smaller wolf pack of fish to show on the ebb tide the bigger ones did come out to play. Before I left home I banged out a quick fly that while below looks like crap in the water it must have done something magical because the five or so I landed loved it. 

     One of these fish had to rehab diagonally as it was over 28 inches. This winter I am going to build more tanks, ones in different sizes. I've been using 1/2" acrylic but an wondering if 1/4" might work as well. 

     On my way home I stopped to look at the river from a different view. I watched a boat, a boat that shouldn't been going where they were, open it up to head upriver. I just waited for the sound of the boat hitting the rocks and sure as shit they dam near ripped the bottom of the boat off. They surely had whiplash also because as they hit I saw the three of the guys jerk froward with one falling. 

     They lost all power and just rode the current and tide downriver. I'm sure they were hoping to get to some ramp but that won't be easy without some kind of tow. This river is nasty on boats, on the waders, and on flies and fly lines. Gotta respect the water always. 

 

07.01.23 Early moring July bass...

     The plan was top leave for the Cape at first light. Theresa got a call to meet up with a client so....why not hit the river. I knew it was just the start of the incoming so I didn't have much hope. When I got there is was super skinny but I found a little run that was starting to fill in. Would there be fish holding and ready to move up? Well, first cast answered that question. And that lasted until the last cast. 

    The funny thing was the more the river flooded the slower the bight got. I guess the highway that I found wasn't the only option for them to head upriver to feed. It was good to get that July bass, for whatever that means, but it's in the books. 

     I'm blessed to have a striped bass fishery that lasts, so far, from March to July. I'd be interested to see how the fall fishery is when the shad and herring YOY make their way down to the saltwater. 

 

06.30.23 Okay, I got my taste of the salt....

 

     This was my highly anticipated trip to the salt. No real reason to hit Monmouth County but I have looking to fish some crab flies early in the morning. The alarm clock went of at 330 am and I was soon on my way east on 195. A quick stop at WaWa near Great Adventure and I was all caffeined up. 

When I arrived I was hopeful for a good morning. It was an hour into the drop, the skies were overcast due to the smoke from Canada, but there was a nasty swell with rollers that ran up the beach scarp to Ocean Avenue. There were no signs of life, no bait, birds, or fish. But I was confident. 

     Let me talk about those rollers up the scarp. First, and I blame beach replenishment, the waves break right at your feet on the sloping scarp, dam near cutting your ankles out from underneath you. Then the 

back-flow that runs back to the ocean dam near has you hydroplaning and losing your balance. There has been so much sand lost already just wait until a few of those fall nor'easter's hit these fabricated beaches. It's insanity that Frank Pallone has been down with this for decades, but I digress. 

    As the blood orange sun tried to burn its way through the smoke I settled in next to a groin. I had a dry/dropper set-up of a crab and white bait type fly. The tiny fluke must have hit it on the beach scarp because I didn't know I was "tight" until I picked up my line. I was ready for the party to begin...I'm glad I got one. As the hours went the tide didn't seem to drop that much and receding waves tempted me to take a few steps closer, kind of like a bug looking into a bug light, and then the swell would roll in.

In my desperation I went with an Ugly Ass Fly because it always produces, well not today. If the fish were in the trough, if there even was one, getting the fly to them wasn't easy. Again, the swell just made it not fun. These were not conditions to use crab flies, maybe later in the tide, but by then the beach people would have arrived to kick off the holiday weekend. In desperation I switched fly lines and went 

a popper thinking maybe a bass would see it looking up, but that didn't happen. I can honestly say if I don't have another reason to be down that way I'll just wait till the fall. At least for beach fishing. 

     After some taking care of business I thought about the river. For late June it has been good to me so thank you to Mother Nature for the several inches of rain that started last week. It bumped the river, kept the temps down, and turned on the fish, at least for me anyway. The river dropped another 2,000

cfs so now we're sitting at just over 10,000, down from 20,000 less than a week ago. So what does that mean? Changing conditions. Skinny and very warm water is to come, yet again. Yesterday the water was 72 today it jumped to 75. 

     I was able to catch a mid-day high to outgoing tide and on the first fly drop I had a wolf pack attack. So I set up the tank and re-grouped because I knew at least one was going to make it in. I fished for just about three hours and probably played with a dozen and a half fish. When they would swing and miss 

at a fly I would change patterns. I did that probably 10 times. The good thing about the dropping tide is fish drop back as the drain plug gets opened so the spots get re-inhabited often. Between the strike outs, there were a bunch of missed hook sets, one broke off, and a few became unglued. 

     One fly that got a lot of love was a Jim Matson jig fly that you can see hanging out of the below fishes mouth. I am glad I always remember to flatten down the barbs, it makes hook outs so easy. 

     So now what? The river will be unfishable by mid-week. I'm not driving down to the beach until the fall. We're heading to the Cape for the weekend. So what about fishing....snakehead time! We'll see.