What the Heck was That?

19 inches of snow in North Jersey during October- that sounds ridiculous.  Watching snow fall around a streetlight through my window before November- come on.  This event . . . how is it even possible to describe?  Not only did it snow in October- which is incredibly rare and unheard of in my generation- it snowed more than a foot from North Jersey to Maine.  More than 30 inches of snow was recorded at locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  A dusting or slushy inch this time of the year would have been enough to ask what the heck is going on out there . . . but over a foot of snow- what do you even say?  It’s as incomprehensible as the difference between 1 billion dollars and 1 trillion dollars- once facts and figures pass what the brain is used to dealing in you just file them into a ‘speechless’ category.

Fishing was more than a bit difficult on the 29^th.  We tried, though, in the morning without much success.  Notice the streaks of blowing sand.  Since the blow was brief and the surf not too damaging, dunes with dune fences actually benefited from this event.

The wind was more north than east which made casting even more difficult since a north wind puts an even greater drag on the line and lure.  When a 3oz T-Hex doesn’t hold water it’s time to go home.  If I can’t be in the water I’d rather be out in the storm taking pictures of flags rather than sitting at home- but I'm different.

Will and I enjoyed a decent surf session in the morning.  The water was chilly and did not have the bath tub effect we were counting on.  The berm was lost and the beach notably flattened but the dunes were untouched.

Precipitation-wise, the snowstorm was notable even for winter.  That this much snow fell during October was highly suspect.

Most of the Southern Provinces of Canada have barren ground, the ground is even bare along the southern shore of the Hudson Bay.  October averaged very warm over all of Canada, and warmth was record breaking in Manitoba during the middle of the month- to the point that new all-time warm October temperatures were established.  Meanwhile, there is 19 inches of snow on the ground in West Milford, and 32 inches in Peru, Massachusetts.  The atmosphere is certainly behaving strangely. 

I looked for some clams yesterday during the day, with the hope of scoring a good clam bite at night.  I didn’t find any clams on the beach so I took a trip to local bait shop.  I brought two dozen clams home and shucked and salted them with high hopes . . . unfortunately all I caught from 8:30pm to 10:00pm was a hake and three skates.  Counter to what I was expecting, the ocean had a very sterile feel to it, and there were no signs of bass.  This is fall though, and we are in it now, so things can change at any time, especially now that the rivers and bays up north are quickly chilling out from the freak snow.  Unfortunately, there may be a spell of junky east winds this week.  Time will tell.

Red Hot Action

Wow.  It’s on now.   An epic session went down yesterday, so good that I couldn’t go more that seven casts without a hit or a fish for the better part of two and a half hours.  I got out to where I wanted to fish, had a hit on the second cast and dropped a fish on the fourth cast.  ‘They’re here’ I shouted out into the abyss, alone.  With life from two fish on only four casts, I went back to the Jeep and removed some clothing because I knew it was going to be a hot night.  Back at the water I slammed three fish in no time.  Rick and Steve showed up as planned and we charged them pretty good for the next two hours!

The fish were bright, fresh, and trashy- new fish.  They were maniacal on the sand, doing cartwheels and jumps and spins and were scary to unhook.  When Steve and I heard an arrrrggghhh from the shoreline, we rushed to shore and found exactly what we expected from someone who doesn’t moan much.   On the top of Rick’s finger, a hook was buried clear through the shank, attached to a needlefish that was still attached to a pissed off striper.  AHHHHH!!!!!  Steve ran and got the hook cutters, and after removing the hook away from the lure which was still attached to the fish, Rick stood up to operate on the hook hanging out of his hand.

Fortunately, the hook was in well past the barb, so Rick offered a lesson of what to do in this situation.  As Rick steadied his hand, Steve cut the hook below the barb so Rick could slide the hook ‘back out’ without any impedance.  One, two, GO! Rick said little as he quickly slid a half an inch of hook back out of his skin, professional and even tempered as always.  Ahhh what a relief!  Hey Rick, can we go back to fishing now?

Back at the water, Steve was on instantly.  I cast out and hooked up in about three cranks of the reel.  What a night!  After some first aid, Rick came back out and slammed one on his first cast too.  The bite lasted until the tide started to slack, turning to a pick and then nothing.  In total, I landed 15 bass to 36 inches and dropped or had hits from just as many.  I ended the night with a small weakfish on the Shoestring.  It doesn’t get any better!

As Steve said, the bass were horny.  They were hopped up on something, and never stopped twirling and trashing once on shore.  Notice the erect dorsal fins.

Burying a hook in oneself is a rite of passage.  Fortunately we never missed a beat and all slammed a fish on the first cast after the hook removal.

The Shoestring now joins a short alliteration list of my favorite teasers: Skippy, Shell E, Steve, and Shoestring

I left on a high note. Even small weakfish cannot resist the allure of the Shoestring Teaser

. . . And Just Like That Here They Are . . .

Reread the sentence of ellipses at the end of the previous post to know why fall is such a wonderful time. The air was cool yesterday, the wind was just right, the water was nice and calm but not totally flat . . . and the bass have arrived.  I scored at least one fish at dawn, dusk, and in the dark yesterday, so for me I am honoring October 25^th as this season’s official beginning.  And it wasn’t just the 5 fish and 5 misses I had, it’s that the air and water finally have that ‘feel’, something primal which is not easily confined into the limiting space of words. 

I fished alone for dawn and dusk and was delighted to see a lot of bait, what appeared to be sand eels, getting skittered around. The dawn and dusk bites happened exactly on schedule, during the times between nautical twilight and the sun at 0 degrees.  At night, we had a fine crew roaming around, scoring a slow pick of fish which could have probably lasted through the night if sleep wasn’t a requirement.  I will not be humble, at all, when I say the Shoestring Teaser was a raving success last night! The lure is no longer a virgin, as it scored its first bass, documented by Steve and me.  The Shoestring also charmed two herring.  It’s really going to be a hot lure this year, especially for any fly tiers who are on a shoestring budget J

There really isn't anything better than catching a bass on a needlefish.  There are other good things of course, but they are just filed into different categories.

Herring like the Shoestring too!

The Shoestring is no longer a bass virgin! There is simply no way a bass can resist that seductive limpness and profile, as well as Donald's world class artistic skills.

Score another one for the Shoestring. Come on, it really looks like a sand eel.

A 7 inch snapper bluefish slammed my 5 inch mambo this morning. How many other fish will attack something 70% their size?

Well, having successive nights of complete sleep will probably not happen again until January.  When it's time, it's time, when it rains, it pours.  From here on fall will gradually build to a crescendo.  The 10 day weather forecast looks great- continued cool with some changeable weather finally.  It's now time for a dance with the real world, following the infallible music of nature.  Happy fall!

Still on Standby

It seems like every time we get together on the beach now we’re talking about how we used to catch fish.  Now I have a lot fewer years on this planet, but I always remember action being in gear by Columbus Day, which is usually around the 12^th.  Of course, it wasn’t summer during those times like it was this year.  Halloween and Election Day are usually fantastic days, and memories of red hot fishing on Election Day stand out for me since I have off work that day.  I’ve always had a love-hate with Thanksgiving, since the call of having to go eat dried out turkey (sorry Aunt Sharon) would often pull me away from the best day of the year.  Christmas too, I remember being late to a few Christmas dinners because of a hot blitz or good bite.  This year, so far, the fishing is severely short of the first benchmark holiday and it isn’t looking good for holiday two either. 

What brief fishing there was this week was more like spring fishing- the big bunker thing, which, well it’s fun, but it’s really only fun in the spring where it belongs.  Part of my misery here, though, is because I missed the only good bite this week.  Steve and Rick managed to score a moderate blitz of big bluefish on big bunker, in pouring rain and squally east winds, which are just the right conditions to get a bite going during the fall, as explained in the northeast wind event section of the Understanding Weather page of the website.  The big blues pushed bunker right onto the beach in the growing surf, and the guys scored a handful of fish before the action waned to a pick.  They said the total event lasted for only two hours, but they had a nice smile about it so it was nice to see someone getting their fix.

Since I haven’t had a fix yet, I will throw some gloomy statistics out there:

Steve and Rick scored fish for 2 hours.  There are 168 hours in a week.  2 divided by 168 equals 0.0119.  0.0119 times 100 equals 1.19.  1.19 can be rounded to 1.  That means the fishing was good for 1% of the time this week.  1% of the time this week it was worth fishing.  That means 99% of the time there was nothing going on.  99% of the time was spent talking about how we used to catch fish. 

But the great thing about fall is the potential and hope.  It could be going off right now as I type this . . . maybe . . . hopefully . . . probably not . . . but it could be . . .

Another Warm Week Without Classic Action

This is the time of fall when most people can still hold optimism even when they are not catching fish. There is hope that a better future will soon be here- big all day blitzes, quiet nights catching fish after fish alone, the enjoyment of spending a couple months being part of a subculture where it’s totally normal to call each other to chit chat at 5:30am- the anticipation of these great things is enough for now.

However, if impatience is allowed to dominate, it’s obvious enough time has already been spent ruminating about what will be. The time for action is now. And it usually is now. By Columbus Day fall fishing is usually into gear, but not this year. A photographer could have passed a postcard of the beach this Columbus Weekend as one from Labor Day Weekend or even Fourth of July Weekend. Unless all the fish are dead, we’re simply not going to have classic fall fishing until we have classic fall weather.

Weekly temperature anomalies were warm

On Sunday the high was 86F under a bright blazing cloudless sky. On Thursday, the mean temperature, which is the average of the high and the low, was equal to the daily average high temperature. Wednesday was the only day with a below average high temperature from Sunday to Saturday and that was only because it was cloudy and the wind was off the ocean- the mean temperature on Wednesday was still well above normal.

On top of that, or under it rather, the water is still warm, so much so that I was comfortable surfing on the 14^th in a spring suit which is amazing for this time of year. With the warmth this week not being an isolated event on the calendar (this past summer was the warmest United States summer on record and third warmest locally) it’s really going to take more than a couple cool nights here and there to get things on track.

Big bunker made an appearance just outside the surf. Unfortunately, what usually happens when there is a ten mile chain of bunker is there are not enough predators to make things worthwhile. A couple people scored a few bigger fish off the bunker, but there is always someone scoring a few fish somewhere else. A better bite went down during some northeast wind on Wednesday but was isolated. Our contractor was stoked to catch a bass on bait on Wednesday at our neighbor’s beach. He got the job done using a sputnik sinker and what must have been some sort of ultimate sea weed reducer. The guys I saw clamming the beach that morning looked busy picking junk off their lines that was washing in with the east blow.

After some fun waves on Friday evening, a hard true southwest wind, which is a rare wind direction to have here all day, blew on Saturday. Even with brown water, some bigger bluefish finally pushed the beach in the evening, but I was too far away to get to them in time.  This morning I gravitated to where the bluefish came in last night and there were a lot of birds working offshore. With favorable winds the next few days maybe something will happen.

Warmth on Sunday was created locally through blazing sunshine, not from advection of a southerly air mass.  The air was still and winds were light.

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen with fishing this week was the debut of ‘Shoestring Teasers’ made by Donald and I. Basically, Donald is forever thinking and coming up with ideas, and occasionally he comes up with a great one, a gem. The idea was to make a sand eel teaser out of something inexpensive and readily available- something that would poke a little fun at the more detail oriented side of surf fishing. In the fishing subculture there is a tendency for people to sometimes get real ‘into it’. It’s all well and good, because most of the great things we have to fish with are a result of people getting really into it. But it’s still funny to us that people have lengthy conversations about hackle, and deer tail, and wooly buggers, and eyes and they talk about how many times they wrap with a bobby or whatever and we are aiming to catch fish on a shoestring from a pair of sneakers. Donald did not skimp his artistic skills, though, so the teasers look pretty nice after a five second paint job with sharpies and glitter.

Saturday morning was the debut of the Shoestring Teaser and here was the result . . .

The Shoestrings Work!

Bam! First time fishing the Shoestring was a success! Though it was only an 11 inch bluefish it was the only fish taken this morning among my comrades. First Tampon Poppers and now Shoestring Teasers. Welcome to the minds of Donald and I.

A Bass and A Lot of Small Bluefish

The first week of the second month of fall (Sep-Nov is meteorological fall) felt great. A string of cool nights and a few cool days is surely starting the exodus of the fishes. A substantial amount of mullet continued to cruise south in the surf, sand eels were concentrated in a few locations, rain fish were also present, and a large school of adult bunker was spotted flipping off the beach. The banquet staff is almost finished setting up the chairs and tables, the chef is nearly done cooking the main course and now we are just waiting for our distinguished guests to arrive. I hit the beach relatively hard this week, excited by the cooler air but knowing the excitement was premature, still it was nice to actively cast through four sunrises in a row.

There were some bass around in the mornings, but there was a real small window, maybe 10 minutes, when they were biting, about 20 minutes before sunrise. I observed this pattern for two consecutive mornings, the first morning I hooked up on a fish and the second morning I missed my shot by goofing up the hook set. Both bites of fish occurred nearly the same time, around 20 minutes before sunrise, and though I saw a few scattered bass popping out of the water on mullet here and there until an hour after sunrise, I couldn’t get another bite. The bass I caught hit hard, fought well and was a healthy looking light backed fish.

My first bass of the fall season commited to an atom popper amidst the mullet

Fishing the fall is about getting there early.  The sunrise will always be a magical time but the time after isn't when the sky is clear- sunglasses.

The mini-bluefish blitzes slowed down during the beginning of the week but picked up during the latter. The amount of small bluefish in the surf right now is amazing. Watching these little fish blitz is akin to watching little kids learn new skills- for many of these young bluefish it is their first time out in the ocean corralling bait, doing the ocean thing. More and more little bluefish joined the party as the week went on, and today, Saturday, was the best day of mini-bluefish action since last Sunday. Had these fish been the real blues, the 4 pound fish and up, the beach would have no doubt been packed with wild-eye anglers, and tackle shop owners would be rejoicing at the prospect of fisherman needing to restock lures. Instead, today could have passed as a summer day because of the weather, the beach was crowded sunbathers, and I got to enjoy running up and down the beach after the little fish without much interference- and without the encumbrance of waders. A 1 oz Hopkins with a feather and a Shell E teaser were getting the job done for double headers. I tried a popper but I think the bluefish were too small for it!

Today was more like practice, but fish feeding heavily no matter how small is always fun.

Though there hasn’t been a cloud in the sky for the past three days, literally, at least the nights have been cool enough to offset the onslaught of sunshine. While a lack of clouds can make days warm, this time of year a longer night and clear skies can make for some significant radiational cooling, and this helped to offset some of the negative effects of this run of Nevada-like weather. The excess sun finally added up today, however, and temperatures are forecast to climb to 80 the next two days before returning to near normal the rest of the week. With overnight lows back into the 60s for the next few days it looks like there will be another week open to take care of commitments before the action really gets going.

New England Trip Autumn 2011 . . . More Like New England Trip SUMMER 2011

Generally it was too warm and sunny, the nighttime temperatures were too warm, and it was too much like summer.  That is my summary of this year’s late-September New England fishing trip.  Montauk, the Surfcasting Capital of the World, turned out to be appropriately labeled, seeing as how I did a lot more casting than fishing.  After a sleepless night of driving out to the Light, our dedicated crew casted everything we had through a complete dawn session without so much as a hit.  With a 2-4ft south swell in the water I figured I’d better go look for somewhere to surf.


Two hours before departure the heat index was 77F.  The average high for the 24th is 74F.

Fortunately the waves worked out.  I didn’t even wait for a set to come in at Ditch Plains once I saw there were at least a hundred people in the water.  I figured to hell with that, I’ll go find my own wave, alone, away from the crowd.  So I checked the break in front of the hotel.  It was mostly shore break but there were some nice barrels.  I figured I’d go out there if I didn’t find something better.  My instincts led me to continue driving to the end of the road.  ‘There will be something up here’.   I walked on the beach and looked east and there it was, a perfectly peeling ripable peak over a rock reef- and no one was out.  I wasted no time getting into the water to indulge in some fun waves, as well to find relief from the scorching hot sun.

The waves were really fun.  2-4ft and glassy and peeling left and right peaks over a rock reef.  Eventually some people came out but everyone was really nice and non-aggressive.

The next day some more people were at the main peak so I found my own wave down the beach.  I had about 3 hours of the wave pictured above all to myself.  There were no closeouts.

Even though I didn’t catch any fish in Montauk, I still learned a few things about fishing there.  One thing was that the guys that put on wetsuits and swam out the rocks at night were the only people I saw having success.  Even though it was dark I could see they were fishing water that looked a lot more productive.  The end of my cast was the beginning of their cast.  So I kind of gave up after a while and watched them do it for a bit.  They were definitely catching fish out there, as evidenced by moving headlamps and camera flashes, and also from a more obvious sign of their fish lying on the beach.  Since I did not have experience with that, and since I surfed during the day instead of scouting rocks to swim to at night, I figured jumping into the water into the middle of the night in a strange location was not something I wanted to do.  That would be a project for next year.  So that was Montauk- too warm, no masses of fish, good waves, but a nice enough experience fishing with a very dedicated crew.  Next stop . . . Rhode Island.

There were actually fish in Rhode Island.  Bass and blues, not a lot, and with the action mostly brief bites around dawn and dusk, aside from a small blitz with finicky fish one afternoon.  Mullet were the primary forage, and the highlight, for me, was a mini-blitz that happened one afternoon in a very nice piece of structure.  Bass and blues had pinned a school of mullet into a perfectly shaped rocky bowl- a perfect fish trap.  The bass and blues were ravaging through the mullet, back and forth, but were pretty finicky relative to the show they were putting on.  My comrades and I had about 1 to 4 fish each, a mix of small bass and blues to 7lbs.  For all the surface commotion, we should have had more like 10 fish each, but a nice double rainbow and a bright orange sky from the sun setting on a passing rain shower made up for the funky fish.

This fish trap was my favorite spot to fish this trip.  Had it not been for a copious amount of weeds in the water which fouled the lure nearly every cast I'm sure I would have had a bang 'em up night at this location.

After the mini-blitz slowed, just before sunset, I navigated the rocky shoreline to reposition myself at an area where I could reach the bowl with a red fin.  ‘Now I will finally get a bite going’.  I figured the fish would start to bite better as it got darker.  I was right.  As soon as it was officially dark I immediately hooked up on a nice blue and two bass.  Being unfamiliar with my footing on rocks, it took me some time to unhook and release the fish, and by the time I was ready to cast after the third fish I lost my rock to the rising tide.  Damn.  Oh well, I figured I’d come back later that night after the turn of the tide and really bang them up.

The rest of the crew went to the bar but I skipped out to watch the new episode of ‘Jersey Shore’- my one television indulgence.  The show ended at 11:00 pm and I headed back out, alone, to go fish the bowl which I knew would have fish in it.  I couldn’t get anyone to go with me, not the first time or situation where this happens, so I went it solo.  I got to the spot, feeling confident, and BAM!  Fish on first cast!  I knew they would be here!  I unhooked a modest striper off my red fin and set him free.  I casted again and . . . weeds.  Ok. No big deal.  Let me try again . . . weeds.  Weeds.  Weeds.  Damnit!  I’m missing a bite because of weeds!  Weeds.  Finally I had a cast where I didn’t feel weeds . . . BAM!  A strong hit on the fourth crank but I dropped it.  Next cast . . . weeds . . . weeds . . . weeds.  Oh well.  This wasn’t going to happen.  I put on a single hook needlefish, which wasn’t going to work because it was too rough, and they wanted nothing to do with that.  I left defeated by weeds.  The fish were there I just wasn’t allowed to catch them.

By Friday, day after day of a horrible sleep schedule and missed adrenalin had got the best of me and I mostly gave up and crashed for the remainder of the trip through Saturday.  My energy matches the atmosphere.  If the fish are around and the weather is crisp and dynamic I could go night after night on little sleep and have freakish enthusiasm.  Unfortunately, day after day of marginal bites, no fall feel, and a week-long stalled frontal system to our west made me stagnate.  By Friday I was done.  The rest of the crew scored a nice dawn bite Sunday morning, Steve was high hook with five.  I would have liked to have been there for that action, but some swell from offshore Hurricane Ophelia was moving in so I chose to sleep a little later and surf instead.  For three years in a row doing this trip we have been plagued by a delayed arrival of fall weather.

Before I left on Sunday I surfed some fun 2-3ft+ lines from offshore Hurricane Ophelia.  The swell was marginal but broke well over the nice reef.

The bane of our fishing trip, weather wise, was a very slow moving low pressure area that was stuck over the Great lakes the entire time we were gone.  Ahead of the system, a weak flow of southerly winds kept temperatures well above well normal.  Since the air over us wasn’t moving much, temperatures climbed when the sun came out which made it feel more like mid-August than late September.  A front draped over the Midwest did not clear the entire time we were on vacation from start to finish.  Faster moving fronts and more dynamic weather is normally expected by late September as Canada begins to cool and energize our weather with temperature contrast.  Instead, our vacation was like a middle latitude stint in the Caribbean where there are no fronts.

Surface Analysis Maps from September 21st and October 1st

September 24th through September 30th air temperature anomaly.  How are we supposed to get a cold front if Canada isn't cold?

So I arrived back in New Jersey around 4:00 pm on Sunday afternoon.  I check the waves. . . and what do I see?  Birds!  Groups of birds were working as far as I could see north and south.  Figures!  Judging by the look of things, I figured small blues were working mullet or sand eels.  Finally the air had some fall in it, and seeing the birds and rough water I couldn’t resist pulling onto the beach for some casts. 

Back in New Jersey.  Now this looks more like fall.

The aforementioned front had finally passed through after a week and half of lollygagging and the air was cooler and crisp by Sunday afternoon.  It felt cooler than Rhode Island!  The cool air, working birds, intricate clouds and chunky hurricane swell made me excited.  See, I go for the whole experience, and to have the feel of fall in the air gave me a jolt of life.  I played around with the blues, hoping that they would keep me interested until a bass hung on but there were no bass yet.

It's a start.  Bluefish, albeit small ones, and a sky that actually looked like fall instead of a bright desert was invigorating.  It's good when you don't mind coming home after a vacation.

I was up on the beach this morning, Monday, and loads of mullet were around getting harassed by small blues.  The air was cool with a mixed overcast.  As I was leaving, I saw some bass popping out of the water blasting through a school of mullet but it was finally time to go back to work.  Let fall begin!