Trip Time

The Jeep is packed and ready to go. In about two hours I will be unplugging from the matrix for the next week. No computer, no internet, no working. I consider myself fortunate that I do not have a phone like most other people have, so I will be spending most of my time with my eyes up, taking in the world around me with no distraction. Hopefully the only time my eyes will be down and focused is when I am unhooking a nice striper, bluefish, or blackfish. So far the vacation has started well. When I checked the beach this morning I immediately saw some small bluefish blitzing on rain fish. I ran home and got a rod with a 1 oz sting silver and caught a handful of blues and one lone big shad. Since they were small blues I left them biting so I could get home and pack. What a great way to begin!



If I didn't have so much fun this may look like a disorder! Actually everything is neat and ordered and ready for battle.

I will be in Montauk for two days and Rhode Island for the remainder of the week. Montauk is the so called “Surf Fish Capital of the World”, a statement that makes me a bit weary, kind of like “World’s Finest Bathing Beach”, but I’ve been to Montauk before, briefly, and I remember it looking like a real nice place. We are leaving at 1:00 am to catch the morning bite. Amazing that when I was informed that we were leaving at 1:00 am I thought that perfectly normal and rational. I am excited too that there will be a 2-4ft clean south wind swell in the water. So it’s get up at 1:00 am, drive 3.5 hours, fish for 3 hours, and then surf sometime during mid to late morning. There will have to be a siesta in there at some point!

Weather wise, this feels a little more like a summer trip than an early fall one. Where did that nice cool high pressure from last week go? Well a low pressure has been stalled out over the Great Lakes for the past few days and it will continue sitting there for a few more. This uninspired weather pattern is causing a stationary front to hang over the East Coast, and ahead of the front a weak but persistent southeasterly flow is bringing in disgustingly humid air in off the ocean. We haven’t had too much rain here, but there is a chance for more rain inland from this stalled feature, exactly where more rain isn’t needed after a record wet spring and record wet August in many areas.

A map like this . . .

 . . . yields weather like this



It’s near time to power down. Let vacation begin!

A Hint of Fall is in the Air

The first day with a high in the 60s during September is a bellwether for a changing season.  As I type this, the sliding glass door is open and a cool northeast breeze is coming in, which feels great.  With water temperatures still around 70, there is still likely a good amount of time before the fall season begins, but the past two days- and nights- are a start.  Mullet are in the surf for sure now.

We’ve had so much surf over the past few weeks that I haven’t even considered fishing.  There have been waves since Hurricane Irene on August 28th, and when there are waves this time of the year fishing takes a back seat.  With only some junky 2-3ft in the water today, I decided to finally cast a line in search of fluke.  Sadly, there wasn’t really much to report.  I arrived at the beach at the perfect tide, the sandbars looked great, the water looked nice (though was a little tingy) and my 1 oz bucktail felt just right bouncing the edge of the bar.  One, two, three, four different places without even a tap.  Five, six and nothing.  With fluke, and other fish, if I don’t get a bite I keep moving.  I figure I will find them before they find me.  

And it worked!  I walked up to a spot that I just knew would have a fish in it.  The water was rolling off the bar just right and the inside trough looked deep and abrupt.  First cast and a fish hit in three cranks and released.  Finally I’ll get one.  Next cast was a couple tap hits.  Little blues.  Next cast - bam - fluke on.  I got him to be beach.  It was a modest size fish but was a fish none the less.  I really don’t care about size too much anyway, and I was happy I finally found a spot with some bites.  The next five casts were a bunch of tap tap hits - little blues again I assumed since the tail on my gulp kept getting bit off.  And that was it.  The tide was getting too low and the beach was shelved out ahead of me.

Shad can be fun but unfortunately this was the only one

 

I had the pleasure of fishing with Donald today and I suggested we try the good spot again- you know the spot with little bluefish that won’t grab the lure and the one fluke.  First cast out, oh I already knew it, and tap tap again.  Donald suggesting changing to a little metal instead of a bucktail and I heeded his advice.  First cast in the sweet spot and bam- a shad went nuts on the teaser.  And that was it.  I’ve fished so little in the past few months that I actually got a charge from the shad.  Donald suggested live lining it but I didn’t have that much charge.  The shad was released and we called it a day. 

It was a sky day more than anything

I like to call the nice cool high pressure system that was responsible for our weather today a dirty high.  Dirty because we got more clouds from it than sun.  I’m not saying I was expecting the Tel Aviv skies that we’ve recently been having with high pressure, it’s just the high was dirty because there was a lot of altostratus and low level cumulus from the northeast winds off the ocean.  To me, the beautiful cloudscape today was welcomed after one of the sunniest summers I’ve ever seen (interrupted only be record rain events).   Everywhere I turned, all day, was a beautiful painting.  The sunset was absolutely ethereal. 
 

Here’s a little insight into why the air right now feels amazingly refreshing . . . 

Today’s cool weather was especially refreshing after a summer we just endured.  I like the heat, but I get sick of things that I like when I have too much of them and this summer was no exception.  Statewide, the summer was 3rd warmest on record.  Last summer was the warmest on record and 2005 was second warmest.  This summer we had 67 consecutive days with a high above 80F.  Say that again in your head- 67 consecutive days with a high above 80F.  If you understand what the lack of blue means in the graph above, you will understand why the air today feels so nice.  Though the air outside is cool, it is again coming from a wind off the ocean, not a land breeze, which to me is sort of cheating.  Most all of the cool downs during this summer of excessive heat came only from winds off the water and not from interior fronts and today‘s nice air was not any different.

Here’s a little more expanded awareness of the current atmosphere.  Notice that while it’s cooler than normal here in the United States, temperatures in northern Canada right now are much warmer than normal.  So it’s not that our cooler than normal air here is extending all the way to the North Pole.  While we’re enjoying a taste of fall here, someone in northern Canada is probably wondering why it’s still so warm out. 

The forecast tomorrow is for a building northeast wind swell.  Looks like it’ll be more surfing than fishing again this week . . .

 

New England Surf Trip for Hurricane Katia

‘It’s looking like Friday is the day’ I told Doug on the previous Monday.  The forecast for Hurricane Katia was calling for the storm to track due north between Cape Hatteras and Bermuda.  Perfect.  Circulation around the storm was going to sustain a northerly wind over the south facing New England beaches- 10-15 mph offshore.  Perfect.  I know a spot that can hold the swell, and can throw out left after left where it’s possible to do 6 or 7 solid turns per wave.  Perfect if you like lefts.  Fortunately, the other side of the reef had some rights, and though they weren’t as good as the left, they were pretty good by any standard. 

I made plans to stay overnight at Doug’s college on Thursday and we would leave to surf real early in the morning Friday.  How early are we waking up?  I’ll just wake you up man.  No, really, how early?  Right.  I’ll just wake you up and we’ll go. But what time . .  Right. As soon as we get up we’ll leave.  Promise.  Let’s go to sleep now.  But it’s only 9 o’clock, people are just starting to drink.  Right.  I came to surf, not to drink.  We are on a mission.  Goodnight.

Doug leading the charge out of the hallways.  And the time is A.M. of course.  If anyone you know says surfers are lazy you have evidence to enlighten them.  We may dodge responsibilities, be late to things or never show, but we are certainly not lazy.

We got to the break during astronomical twilight.  Astronomical twilight is the first stage of dawn, or the last stage of dusk, when the sun is between 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon.  In other words, it was still dark so we were a bit early.  Now the break is made of more than one wave and extends over a quarter mile or so.  We pulled up to the eroded beach section to check out the shore pound.  We parked, and the first noise we heard was the rocks rolling.  Dude do you hear that!  We ran up to the wall and looked down and a 4 ft shore break was washing against the sea wall.  This is good!  We continued to the main parking lot, which sits level with the ocean behind a small dune.  I parked the car.  We saw nothing but whitewater! 

Ok. Ok.  Let’s get ready.  Put the fins in the board.  I’m going to feel the water.  Let’s go.  Let’s go.  But it’s still dark!  Let’s just get ready.  I think we’re guaranteed of the sun coming up, so when it does, we will be the first ones in.  Let’s get it together!  To our right, more sunlight flooded the horizon making the outside line-up visible.  It was civil twilight when we began our trek out over the cobblestones.  After a 15 minute paddle out we were out there.  I immediately took an overhead wave, did three complete roundhouse cutbacks, two snaps and a bunch of speed check turns before it was light enough to read the morning paper.  

2011 Hurricane Katia!

We weren't really in the picture taking mood, obviously.  Doug managed to snap a few shots.  Here was a speed check on the inside waiting for the reform.  The picture is a little cloudy because the zoom was all the way out- it's a long break.

After surfing the big left I decided to surf another left on the next reef all by myself.  It wasn't as big . . . but it was mine.  Good choice.

We spoke with Will earlier, he was on his way up to school in New Hampshire, so he thought to stop by since he was going up I95 anyway.  We really just have a way of having things work out.  Like I said with Tom, I believe in magic.  Anyway, Will showed up around 1130 am, just as the inside left pictured above started to really work.  So Will, Doug and I traded waves for the next three hours.  And the great part was there was a rip that would make paddling out unnecessary.  Just lay down and relax on the way back to the line up. 

I started getting weary, hungry, rashed, sunburnt, and real spaced out around 230 pm.  That’s the time when I start thinking of food in weird ways, like real hunger.  Not oh, let me just make a little sandwich after typing on my computer.  No.  This is ravenous, animal hunger and it was time to satisfy that.  Fortunately, right at that moment the sea breeze picked up and the wind started cranking out of the west, turning the waves to mush.  Sweet!  Now we have an outside excuse to get out.  I can’t take anymore.  Will and I were spent as we negotiated the rocks to get to the beach.  We turned around.  Doug took a wave and went left for a while, then milked it, then went right for a while.  Back to the car.  Changed. Got some lunch and parted ways.  The mission was a success!

An interesting side note, from a weather perspective, was the sky condition that followed the passing hurricane.  What goes up usually comes back down, and inside a hurricane air is rising in great amounts.  Outside the hurricane, the air skinks back down, known as subsidence, and this causes a very clear, blue and sunny cloudless sky around the storm.   The sky that followed Katia was desert-like.  We all got sunburn as soon as the clouds broke up, and just being in the sun, even though it wasn’t too hot, felt unbearable.  I’m sure the partially depleted ozone layer was not helping us out.  It was like a bright July day in New Mexico instead of an early fall day in New England.

Air goes up in a hurricane and sinks down around it.  Hurricane Katia passed close enough that we experienced sinking air and scorching sunshine.

There was no way to escape the sun when we started the ride back west.  The sunlight was so intense that we could literally feel ourselves getting burnt within minutes.  It felt like a July sun, not a September sun.

That was that. 2011 Hurricane Katia.  Perfect!




 

The Last Weekend of Summer is Really the First Weekend of Fall

I believe in magic

After what must have been the flattest and calmest summer on record it’s nice to finally have an endless spell of waves.  All of this, of course, was due to a change in atmospheric patterns.  But this particular change of pattern came from a higher influence.  Tom.  It is a well known fact that when Tom comes down, there are waves.  I don’t know how he does it but he does it- and when confronted about it he just smiles and says ‘yeah I know’.  Seriously now, it was predicted to be flat following Hurricane Irene the weekend prior.  The best waves from Irene were supposed to be on Sunday and Monday, and then it was going to be flat all week.  Tom was scheduled to come down on Tuesday. 

I called him with the sour news about five days before his expected arrival, “Hmm.  Looks like it’s going to be flat all week.  You’re kind of going to miss it by a day”.   Tom was totally not phased by what I said.  He replied in his calm tone. “I’m not worried about it.  They’ll be waves, it happens every time.  I’ll be down on Wednesday and we’ll surf.”  I woke up Tuesday and there was still 4ft swell rolling in.  Same on Wednesday.  Thursday was 2-4ft, fun, glassy and ripable.  Friday was a little bigger, 3-4ft, choppy, but had nice sections.  Saturday morning was overhead- the best day of the summer other than Irene!  Sunday was still chest high.  Monday still had some waves but we didn’t need them.  On Tuesday swell began to fill in from Katia . . . And as I write this on Wednesday evening it is overhead and I can hear the waves breaking across the street .  . . Thanks Tom!

The master himself draws a crisp line. I live here all year and forgot about surfing this summer.  Tom comes down for his weekend and within minutes is on a wave like this.

Seriously.  This stuff is no joke.  Overhead on Saturday!

We had a fun and complete weekend out in the water and on the land too.  Todd the Legend, Dennis, and Victor were down the shore and got in on the surf action.  ‘Where the hell were the waves this summer bro?’  Buried in sand and endless sunshine.  At least we got to ride together this weekend, and everyone had a good time surfing and hanging out.

Will about to enjoy some peace and quiet before school begins

Victor was spotted tapping into the power

Now that I don’t dread going back to school anymore, I really get to appreciate the beauty that lies in Labor Day Weekend.  I now get to celebrate this weekend for what it really is- the beginning of fall.  The air is beginning to cool down, the swells are getting better, and the water is still warm.  And in only a month or so the fish will start.  It is like every thing goes off at once.  Hurricane Katia is offshore and pumping us some swell, Tropical Storm Maria has formed and has a chance of making the curve north, and eventually when it cools down a little in Canada we’ll get an extratropical storm.  Hopefully in a month or so that will all be intertwined with the first signs of the fall fishing madness.  Maybe they’ll be some good fluke action in the meantime if the surf decides to go flat.  Aside from sleeping, everything now is a win-win!

Welcome to Fall . . .

Wait.  Summer did have some nice highlights and Will captured them in a video he produced.  All of the music is written by us, jamming on the porch at night, so that’s why it sounds that way.

the video link is here >>> Surfing Summer Swells