Summer was hot and flat. Of course the summer is hot, but we had a near 1930s heat wave, and this summer was 3rd warmest on record for our state and 2nd warmest nationally. And with the heat came calm weather, no weather, just a long hot and flat summer with no appreciable wind or waves. Since we couldn't surf, we utulized Will's boat and fished the wrecks for fluke and sea bass almost every weekend. We sharked pretty hard at night from the beach, being able to fish almost every night during a moon phase because of the calm conditions, but we only had one or two good nights.
The fall fishing season had a late start, but when it rains it pours as they say, and when the bass showed up at the end of October it was historic fishing from then until December. Keeper bass and sand eels were the main components of the formula, along with generally tranquil weather and easy fishing. This combination of variables made for the worst crowds I have ever seen in my relatively short career of driving the beach since age 17. In between the madness I scored some A+ events, the best was a 36 fish morning of mostly keeper fish right across the street from my house with just me and the parking lot locals.
Here is one picture from each month of 2011. These are not pictures of us holding up fish because that can be seen elsewhere, rather I chose to show the 'feel' of the months from my experience. 2011 was a good year:
January was a snowy month with record snow in northern areas of the state and Southern New England, but the snow "storms" were missing that key element, that is storminess, and I more than once walked up to the beach to see no waves after getting dumped on. Snow on the beach is still a pretty sight though. No fishing this month.
February featured convertables and people sitting on the beach which I found interesting. A calm warm "heat wave" brought people out when the temperature reached the 70s with light winds and a bright sunny sky. It never really cooled off signifiantly after, so spring came early this year, starting February 18th. No fishing.
March doesn't really bring up anything for me. I think the usual characters were hitting up their usual locations in the backwater to score a few early season fish. No fishing for me.
April was interesting. I drove cross-country to California. This is what the grass looked like in Texas at the start of the Great Drought. I told my friend as we were driving, "This burnt grass is nothing yet Eric, there is going to be a really bad drought here this year." Still no fishing.
May gives me memories of pesky onshore winds and low pressures stalling over the Appalachians. The surf was good but junky, though fun to surf. I recall the churned up ugly water not being conducive for bass. I think it may have turned on more at the end of the month, but nothing stands out.
August was special and featured the first hurricane to landfall in New Jersey since 1903, Hurricane Irene. We denied evacuations and stayed through. It was a windy night for sure with tropical storm force winds. I made it up to the beach in the morning just as the center was passing over and was able to watch a decent storm surge slam into the dunes. By afternoon the tide was blown out and the waves were pretty good. Sharking was lackluster, featuring only one good night. I put the shark buckets away for good the day before the hurricane.
September featured a Dust Bowl in Texas with the state's worst one-year drought in history, worse on the short term than the state's legendary drought in the 1950s. I told Eric in April that it would be a bad one. After a sterile summer in the surf, I pretty much gave up on surf fluking, and instead chased a hurricane swell from Katia up to New England. Our Montauk and Rhode Island trip was again thwarted by lingering warmth, but good waves in Montauk offset the fact that I didn't catch one single fish in the 'Surfcasting Capital of the World'.
October featured weather of a summer that would just not let go. After chasing around blitzing cocktail bluefish for two weeks I was ready to write this season off before it even began. And then a miralce occured. 15 bass to 36 inches on a needlefish at night with just my best fishing buddies and myself. Even though we couldn't repeat that night bite, the epic night kicked off the best bass run for consistent larger fish since before I was born.
So far it's halfway through the first month of 2012. What will May be like, June? Will the sharks be here this summer? Will we have fun waves? Will the beach stop looking like Georgia so we can fluke again? What will October, November, and December be like? Until those secrets are revealed, for now I am content to hike the beach with my dog, work on other projects, watch movies, and most improtantly have a normal sleep-wake cycle.
Happy New Year :)
