Tour of the Shore

Will convinced me to ignore the customary responsibility of work to make a day with the responsibility of finding the best waves and best fishing along the northern Jersey shore.  During the warm season I allot myself a few spur of the moment vacation days per month, because I am under the impression that we are to work to live and not live to work.  I checked to make sure there weren't any immediate things to attend to, of course, before making the call to devote a day to the best of what the shoreline has to offer.

The problem, as there always seems to be one, was that I felt it was going to be tough to break the spell of mediocre that has been plaguing the area recently.  The waves have only been so-so, the fishing started out last week but has since been quiet, a front has been stuck overhead for at least 12 days give or take with the same blah 60F weather and chilly E wind.  I notice a lot of my mood is tied into the weather, so after a near record warm winter and record warm March, the moderation of temperature since the final third of April has left me deflated without spring mania.


The epitome of mediocre.  2-3ft+ lumpy swell, light onshore wind, mostly cloudy, 50F air and 50F water.

The tour began right at home with some pretty fun 2-3ft+ glassy mix swell.  A little bit of W wind and sunshine would have made it, but in New Jersey you take what you can get.  There were some fun little sections to play with- and it wasn't closing out- but I couldn't help wonder what there was elsewhere on the coast, to the point of distraction.  So after a bit, my curiosity got to me and we headed to the next spot . . . There is a phrase in fishing that also applies to surfing . . . Don't leave fish to find fish . . .

Because the next spot was junk.  The wind had picked up from the SSE and chop was already imposed onto the weak swell.  When you're sitting in a damp wetsuit in 59F air contemplating paddling out in warbly chopped up 3ft waves you start to think of something else to do.  So we did, and cruised the beach looking for bunker, but found none.  It was time to fish, and I said the only place worth looking is 'up north' since it doesn't look like there was much around here, but it would take a commitment.  We saw Wayne on the way out.  His advice was to go 'up north' and that 'everyone is going up there'.  That was easy.  A tour of the shore was decided.

During the era when these buildings were operational, electroshock therapy was a conventional form of psychotherapy.  I'd redline the machine everyday if I worked in this facility.

We hit the northern coast and began spot checks with binoculars.  Some people make fun of the binoculars thing, but I will admit I am still at the level where I am impatient and want to catch fish the entire time fishing, even if it needs the aid of superhuman eyesight.  It's a relative gripe, however, as I despise fish finders in boats, so whatever.  It went as follows: nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, bunker on the beach getting pushed around!  Didn't even need the binoculars for that one.

After a short walk to the water we did some popping but couldn't raise a fish.  A truck size school of bunker was hugging the beach, meanwhile a school at the end of a long cast was looking 'nervous'.  It looked real good.  When the outside school turned white and made a rain sound I shouted to Will they're here.  A couple more slashes went through the bait and I aimed my Gibbs popper straight at it.  Unfortunately, the 17mph side shore wind took my plug off course. That's not always a bad thing, but it didn't work this time.  The bunker were getting pushed around pretty good.  I could barely reach the froth, and Will was coming up short with too light of a lure.

We spent the next hour and a half engrossed in mediocre fishing.  At least there were good visuals.  The bunker were moving up and down the beach, schooling and separating, but there just didn't seem to be a lot of fish on them.  We walked up and down the beach several times popping and snagging, but couldn't hook up.  It looked like it was about to erupt, there was a lot of tension, but it just wouldn't get out of gear.  Finally a school of bunker got slashed in front of me and I hooked up on a nice ~8lb bluefish.  My first fish from the surf this year!

It was just Will and I and one other soul fishing the bunker this day and the other guy was using clams.  To our north and west were 22,000,000 people in the New York City Combined Statistical Area that were not fishing with us.

More casting, snagging, popping, and walking back and forth and back and forth.  There just didn't seem to be many predators, but it had that look like it would go big time any minute so we couldn't leave it.  There was a chorus of 'don't leave fish to find fish' in my head after the morning surf session.  I landed another blue on my favorite Gibbs popper that I found on the beach walking my dog seven years ago.  Will tried snagging and went back to popping.  He finally hooked up on a blue, but dropped it in the wash, at least after a decent time fighting it.

The wind started to pick up some more and the bunker were getting hard to spot so we decided to leave.  We checked quite a few more spots on the way back to the meeting area, but saw nothing fishy.  A stiff SSE wind and gray skies made it hard to see into the water, but there was no obvious action at any of the other spots, so that was it for the day.

Average waves and average fishing is an alright day by my standards.  It was a good day and a very nice tour of the shore.