08.10.17 Dead sea for me......

     Can't shake off the skunk. Down at 5am catching the flood tide as it was just starting to fill in. Worked the popper for a long while up and down the beach without a nothing. Other fly guys didn't have much luck either. With the dead low at sun-up the next few days and me having my pharmacology final exam today through Sunday I'll be off the beach. Hopefully fall comes soon with some bass on the beach and albies from the boat.

08.09.17 Every (old) man has their (birth)day....

     Alright. I'm not sure if he's just always lucky, or is just fishy and catches a lot, I mean a lot, of fish. For some reason you could fish a spot, or fish right next to him, and he will catch and you will not. Even if you're using the same fly.

Leif in his younger years, maybe 2012

     Well today is his birthday and I guess the fish Gods gave him a gift. Actually his day started off with a gift from his son, Leif, who tied him up a couple of nice looking Howitzers in chartreuse. Well i got down to the beach and was fishing by 4am, mostly casting onto the sand since it was just starting to ebb after a full moon blow out low tide. I did find some water and as it came in the sun came up and it made for some pretty sweet looking popper water. I kept checking the watch as I had to split

from the beach around 615 to get to the hospital by 630 and do my Clark Kent uniform change. Before I left I saw Leif in the distance working his way towards me, at one point I saw him starting to back-up and then look down on the beach......right in a spot that I had worked in the near dark. I knew he got one. Of course he did. That fish turned out to look like a hybrid striped bass due to the blurred lines running its body. As I made my way to work and Leif and Joe and I traded reports, he hit us

with the picture up top, a real nice fish, in water that I covered that gave him a great tear off and run. Hey, its his birthday, and he's getting old, so let him have his fun while he can. I was using a Leif tied Howitzer in white, but only on the way out did I realize that both eyes had peeled off, not in whole, but in half. I wonder if that is a flaw there somewhere, and remember I haven't caught a fish on it yet. 

                                             

And lastly, I've been wondering what has been flipping in the suds the last couple of mornings while out. We came up with chub mackerel. Here's a pic of one that I think I highjacked off Facebook but remember who to credit, so I'm sorry for that. They look like perfect August-big-bass scoobie snacks. 

08.06-07.17 Two slow days on the beach......

       Spent yesterday exploring an old haunt. Haven't been here in some time and it felt good to have a different view and different rocks to navigate. Didn't turn a fish and spent most of my time with a variety of poppers that didn't move a fish. I haven't caught a fish up top all summer, and usually August is a great month for early morning poppin'.

     Leif took a picture of me and Joe got freaked out as it looked like I was being pulled up into the heavens. If you look closely there's a double of me just on top of the water line and some weird stuff going up into the clouds. Hopefully that wasn't my silent close call.

Leif Peterson photo

     Just because I haven't been catching doesn't mean there aren't fish around. I saw this photo on Fish Monger's Facebook page. That's what a 30-something inch 14 pound fluke and a 10 pound fluke look like. Would love to get one in the wash! The beach has been slow......real slow......annoying slow.

FishMonger Charters photo

     And it seems me and the guys are going to enter the world of the Fish-Skull Surface Seducer poppers now. I fished one long and hard today and have some early opinions on them. As time goes, and hopefully I get some fish, I'll be able to come up with some pros and cons. Right now it's looking pretty prosey.....especially for Lief who got the below fish in skinny water as the light turned on. Tough week as it's a mix of work and my last week of school for the summer. Finals are Thursday through Sunday and then I am FREE for a month.

Lief Peterson photo

08.05.17 I cannot tell a lie......

     God I love my wife. She just put in a long week on her orientation as a hospice nurse. I just finished two long 13 hour days on the unit. Both girls are with us and are in that "what are we doing/ eating next mode". And it's 315 am and your dopey husband is up way before his alarm goes off and tries to quietly exit the 100 year old house with creaky floors to go fishing......

                                 

......and this is the text that I get. While I appreciate the 514 am check in, it's the 325 am one that makes me smile,"fish or us", and in a way, feel bad for her and other fishing guys or girls spouses.

     So I was out early and was hyped until I got there and as I walked onto the beach the lightning started to put on a show behind and in front of me. I checked the radar and soon was getting updates from Leif who was planning on coming down. Then the heavens opened up. I got back into my truck and slept for a half and hour before Leif pulled up and had me notice it wasn't raining anymore.

    Once out there it wasn't bad except the "new" outflows really empty out everything in the streams and sewers and depending on which way the current rolls can determine how shitted up the water gets  in front of you. I went black Snake Fly, AMC, Banger with a dropper, Clouser and for a bit a Lief-tied Fish-Skull Surface Seducer Howitzer HERE. While I have mostly used a Bob's Banger for my topwater action these are nice. They are foamy, and I don't think would stand up well to bluefish fangs. They come in white and chartruese,  I'd like to see them in black.

      As far as fishing. I fished hard, and long, way to long staying until 930. As I was walking the bright green in the sand stood out, it was a GULP! tail. Since I hadn't had a touch I figured what the hell and hooked it behind an AMC....and got this fluke on it right in the trough. After the fish I took it off and didn't get a touch for

                           

another 1,000 feet of beach before switching flies. As the water ebbed the tight beach water was really looking good. As I was pulling my fly out a nice schoolie hit it but I was all screwed up and missed the hookset. This is where barbed hooks would help....oh well.

08.03.17 Remembering Roseld from a few years ago......

     Those were the days. Post Sandy and before beach replenishment. It's going to take a long time for  it to return to the way things were, if it ever does. The best part of this place was being there alone many, many times, or just with a few friends and getting into fish. There's not to many of those north-side pockets anymore. Good memories and good times.

08.02.17 "I don't have your fly........."

......."Open up and out with it !!!!"

......" I'm not........I don't have it.."

......"Okay I'm gonna come in there and get it......"

....." Okay, okay......I have it, I have it......"







     I had the pleasure of sharing the beach this morning with Scott Stryker of Stryker's Custom Flies. We met on the beach before 5am and gave it a good effort on the outgoing tide. Some really good looking water in the town where we met up but we couldn't get ur' done, or there wasn't anyone home to get done. I did manage the above Atlantic Stargazer, which hits like and pulls like a train until you get break the sand-suction. It wouldn't open it's mouth but finally did with a little muscle and pressure, it was safely released unharmed, and the "AMC" lives another day!

     Speaking of the AMC the other day in a fit of frustration I grabbed a mole crab from Rich's bag and crushed it between my fingers. The orange eggs were visible, on both, and wondering if scent mattered. I put them belly to belly and let the juices transfer, and you know what, I still didn't get a striped bass......yet.



     After finishing up with Scott I hit a beach on the way to pick up Erin. Again, good looking water and nothing to hand. She wanted to hit the boat and we did run out and gave the fluke a shot. Big 6 ounce S&S buck tails with GULP! didn't yield us a fluke but we got two sea robins during our drifts on the wind-with-incoming-tide. Our goal is to get a doormat before the September close arrives.

     We got chased in by some real dark looking skies with thunder and lightning in the distance. She didn't get it at first as we were in the sun, and things were calm. But she got it when 3/4 ths of the way through washing the boat the heavens opened up. For dinner we had some more crabs and 

we gave crab cakes a go for the first time. We used Phillip's Signature Crab Cake Recipe after getting some advice from Richie. They turned out really really good. I went a little long on the cook time so next time I may back off a bit.

      It's back to work the next three days so I won't be on the beach, which is just as well, I need a break for a bit. Fall is coming soon, feeling like maybe sooner than later which is always good. Mahi-Mahi on the pots soon and then albies!

07.31.17 I got dinner with a little, well big, help from a friend......

     Last night Leif invited some of the guys and the ladies over for dinner. It was a great night of good food, drink, and of course fishing. Leif had be convinced that August is, not might be, big fish month. We looked at the tides and the moons for the month and planned a trip for the overnight hours. 

    I was planning on getting up and on the beach around five, but at 224 am I was up thinking that it was the top of the tide, and, it's almost August so the big fish must be there. I left my truck at 308 am and was soon on the beach which was still lit from the moon on one side and the start of day on the other. I went black Snake Fly and jumped a nice fish, nice meaning just nice, and that was it until I got the text at 420 "Did you leave that watch with the second hand?" Shit. Theresa needed it for work. Not just to tell time, but to count people's last breaths. Last night asked about it and I SHOULD have just got it then like she said, so, it was a quick trip home and back to the beach. 

    It looked good when I got back there and I fished the Snake Fly, the "new and improved" AMC, and then a chartreuse Deceiver fly that I tied up. I didn't get a touch. As I was working my way back up the beach and then leave Ben showed up. Ben. Ben is like John Skinner, Jr. I remember the days before beach replenishment started. Ben would fish, either a fresh spot or one that someone had already picked through, and manage to catch multiple fish, usually at least one or more keepers.

    So I was tired and I said to myself, "If that fu%*er catches a fish I'm gonna push him in the water". Now I wasn't that far away and I watched as he let his rig fly. He started pumping and sure as shit he went tight to the below fish. I wanted to see it. One, because I couldn't believe he caught one in a spot I had fished three times over before he got there and two, because there just haven't been a lot of fluke around.

    As he walked back down to the water I asked him, "Are you gonna keep it?". He said yes he was just rinsing it off. I had already told him I had been out there since 3 am and didn't have a tap so I think he felt pity for me and offered it up, "I have plenty in the freezer". And with that I put it in my not-used-alot freezer bag and started to fish. He of course put on a clinic catching at least half a dozen to my zero. I had to walk away, thankful, but disappointed. 

    I continue to work on the AMC. I tied up one that is starting to look a little closer to the real thing. I get it. You have to tie a million of them, and then fish and catch on them before you can really call it a pattern. The natural is off color because it is all dried up, the darker gray color on mine fades after a little time in the water, kind of matching the natural. 

    I went and got Erin and she wanted to know more about the crab fest from the other day. As we talked I said, "You want to go check it out?" Even though it was low tide she still squeaked a few out, including one soft shell that I hurried home and fried up. Those things are good, but this one was a little too thick and juicy...honestly I almost gagged on one inside bite.

     Theresa wanted to shoot me because I woke her up on the way out....I have to plan a strategy for tomorrow morning.........

07.29.31 Could have done without the 40 mph winds.....

   Honky, honk. If they said gusts hit 50 today along the beach I wouldn't doubt it. Damm near knocked me off the rocks. It was a N/NE wind that made things suck. Couldn't really cast but out a bit and to fish the wind protected south sides of several groins was for naught because theres no water there. Summer south winds = shoaled up south sides. 

     There wasn't a lot of water anywhere in fly rod distance, and, there was a ton of grass in the wash, on top, underneath, everywhere. I started with a black Snake Fly just as light arrived and had good hopes but about killing myself over a few beaches I went to the AMC. 

     I'm gonna get that AMC (mole crab) fly right. I know there have been a plethora of other mole crab imitations out there, that all catch fish, but I am hell-bent on creating one that is a mirror image and when fished like a sand flea will get the bass when nothing else will do. Problem is I'm not

there yet. I did soak, yes it's soaking, an AMC on a nice little current along the rocks but didn't get a tap. But, here's my prediction, I am catching a bass early Monday morning on one. Promise.

     Here's what I have to date, and will go back to the vise with a once live one that I took home to nail it just right. Interesting thing is the color.....have to work on that.