Warm Waves and West Wind beats Lousy Fishing

Sometimes things come together so perfectly you can lose yourself in whatever it is and fly out of this world.  Most of the time, there is some nagging thing wrong with the situation, just to keep you grounded.  So far, in my experience, spring fishing has been pretty lame.  My running count is only two bluefish and three stripers, granted all three stripers were over 35 inches.  With the water already feeling near 70F, I'm starting to begin to forget about the spring fishing thing.  It could still happen, sure, but you can shoot someone in the leg and say, "Well they're still alive at least."  I give it two weeks to heal up and blast us with fish, otherwise this spring is lame.

On the upside, a rather unusual confluence of winds off the beach on Friday produced exceptionally crossed up waves on Saturday . . . with an actual straight W wind.  Not NNW or NW but N over the ocean- this was an actual beautiful and true W wind.  The best W wind I have seen with a swell in I don't remember when.  Here's to remind you this is planet earth, though, because I've never been in the water with such a weird swell.  It was like surfing a shoal.  A set would look like it was coming, then it was over there, now here, then over there.  75% of the waves I paddled for disappeared as I went for them.  It was really fun, but it was off.  There's been a trend of that.

Shifty peaks put on a show all day.  It was better to sit in place rather than paddle around for a wave because they were so fleeting.  Photo credit: Ryan Mahoney.

June 02, 2012 mixed gender swell.  A combination of an E and S, with the E traits a bit more dominant.

The ambiguous swell was neither an E nor a S.  It was a middle gender swell.  A combination of an E and S.  A weak warm front was approaching the coast from the south, which put New Jersey in the E wind section on Friday.  The low over Michigan couldn't decide if it wanted to be an interior storm or a nor'easter, so it seemed there was a cross in the winds.  S wind blew over the ocean a few hundred miles offshore which conflicted with the E.  Normally this is great on the beach breaks, because the cross swell makes peaks that close out less.  I would say the degree of it with this event was a bit outlandish, however, because as mentioned before it was like surfing a shoal where you see the waves slapping together.

Whatever it was, nauseating sea sickness in perfect conditions, there were some good waves to be had in the afternoon:

Will with a sweet doggie-door barrel! Photo credit: Ryan Mahoney

The one who was having the most fun was the one getting the best waves.  I was busy complaining to myself about the stupid current being off and the swell being really annoying, and I had some good waves no doubt, but Will had a much better attitude about it and ended up getting the best photograph sequence when the camera came out.  It must be 'all in your head' after all.  I mean if someone cut your head off, or less gruesomely turned all of your senses off, there wouldn't be much of a world going on 'out there' I presume.  The power of mind control got Will an awesome ride.  Notice the board shorts and top suit combination- it felt more like September after everything has warmed up rather than early summer.

These two small blues spit up sand eels.  Al obviously trying to hold the fish away from his body so it looks bigger.

Small blues were around in the surf the next morning and small metals grabbed a few for the freezer for use as shark bait.  The water had cleaned up significantly and was a clean green during the leftovers surf session.  That the waves were more medium period and less helter-skelter made the session a lot more fun for me so that I didn't want to get out when the lunch bell was sounded.  I know I'm a brat, and I will continue to be until everything is perfect.  I am in rebellion against the acceptance of trash and averageness.

Doug and I decided to take advantage of the very warm water, west winds, and full moon tide last night after the swell leveled out and went for the shark.  I purchased five fresh bunker from his place of business and we chunked them up for one skate and one sand shark.  The sand shark was interesting enough for his guests, so it was cool being out under a bright moon watching lightning over the ocean from a receding thunderstorm.

Looks like a trough will be around for most of the week, which is responsible for the cool showery weather here- it's like squeezing a sponge.  That it is cool here is usually countered by it being hot somewhere else, like an absurd forecast high of 93F in Montana today.  Do you get it yet?  You average the cool and the hot together and you get warm all over even though it's cool somewhere.  I have no predictions for this week and will let it roll.