Some Fishing, But Better Waves

When Tom is in New Jersey, there will always be waves that defy computer models and fishing that is better than otherwise.  This is fact.  In planning the vacation months ahead there is no worry as to what the ocean will be like.  "There will be waves, I'm not worried about it.  If not, we'll have a bunch of fish."  This time there was a little of both, fortunately skewed more towards waves.  Even though riding the curls took precedence, we managed to get out and fish the beach for two nights, squeezing out the last of the new moon tides.

Tom and I hit the beach after dark for the increasingly later tide.  Not the best tide, not the best water with a 'surprise groundswell', but it was a great time to be out under the stars with a chance to get a shark.  Based on the conditions I wouldn't have fished if I was alone, but the force was there.  We set out the lines and set up camp- the first thing is to get a line in the water.  JM and Dave arrived and took a place in the row.  The action was slow for an hour, then my rod went whack, whack, straight in the spike.  Whoa.  I grabbed the rod but all was lost.  The mono mainline above where the rig was felt like it was rubbed with sandpaper.  They're here!

There is nothing like using fresh bunker or other fish caught the same day.  I'm not sure if the sharks care, but I care that fresh bait stays on the hook and will hold up better to a cast or a tugging fish.

Several minutes later, another camp down the beach landed a respectable shark.  That's my fish!  I cast again and waited on edge, but it went back to being slow.  I had Tom using a 12ft 6-12oz rod, which was the thickest rod I could find for casting.  Why I bought it I'm not sure, but it looked sick in the sand spike.  After forgetting about the green lights it was like whoa, yo, yo, you're on!  The 12ft rod that could easily cast a pound was bent like a noodle.  The green light showed the strain of a monster pulling at the hook.  Tom got it out of the spike, but missed the hookset.  Arrrrgghhh!  Maybe there would be another, but there were no more.

We checked the ocean the next morning, and immediately went from half asleep to sprinting back to the house for rods.  Schools of bunker- fresh free bait- were right in the surf!  We gathered 11 bunkers in about 20 minutes, which was more than enough.  It's already a good day of shark fishing to not feel indebted to a bait shop.  The bunkers were kept fresh in grocery bags on top of ice in the cooler.  While the bait gathering was a success, the fishing that night was not.  It wasn't a disappointment, just a night without catching anything.

Small bluefish blitzed hard Friday and Saturday.  I imagine for some of the little ones it was their first ever blitz.

No fishing, no problem.  Even better not to have a distraction from the building swell.  The transition from fishing to surfing was quite nice, thanks again to Tom.  Small blues were spraying bait while the swell was coming up.  In between time in the water, we took advantage and threw small metals to land some small bluefish.  As long as fish are crashing and spraying bait, turning the surface white, I don't care what size they are, I can't resist.  Tom and I each got a little blue, but I don't think Will did.  His rig was bit off clean.  I suggested that maybe the little blues go for the barrel swivel and cut the braid which is why the whole rig goes missing.  I can't picture a little bluefish climbing up 30 inches of leader or striking with enough force to untie a knot.

The long weekend finished with a really fun chunky and juicy wind swell.  Perfect.  One of my favorite kinds of Jersey waves.

As the swell came up, fishing was demoted, but it's still the ocean.  As far as I know, Sunday was the first time I ever surfed a wave with a shark!  I was screaming across a left all the way to the shore break.  When I came up, another surfer was looking at me, wide eyed.  There was a shark on your wave!  Shark!  Being right next to the beach and hearing shark was enough for me to get out.  "There was a shark on the wave you were on!  You were going left and it was going right with you farther down the line!"  Really?  "Yeah!"  We got on top of the high berm and there it was, a little 3ft shark with its fin up slowly going back and forth in the waves.  A crowd gathered and we watched it loll around for about 15 minutes.  What is this, Florida?  70s to 80s water since June, lots of onshore wind swell, and riding a wave with a shark in it!

The forecast looks great!  Swell during the bad moon, and as the moon gets better the ocean will be prime for the last summer fishing event.  Kind of strange to see surfing and sharking on the same calendar, but I made the line between them as thick as possible.

After the fishing events last week, fun waves timed perfectly with Tom's vacation, and a good chance for a great sharking weekend, the vibe of what was one a stuffy summer is now running clean and clear.  The weather is moderate, the temperature is comfortable, and the water is nice and smooth and warm.  With a great swell and weather forecast for the upcoming holiday weekend, it's possible the summer of 2012 will go out with the grandest grand finale.

No Title for This One!

The fishing just went from ok, hum drum, eh, this summer is so average and monotonous to the MOST INSANE FISHING EVENT EVER in the New Jersey surf.  The drought was broken by a flood.  It went from drr there's a few sharks once in a while drr to a SHARK BLITZ.  It went from a coma to the front row- no being on stage- at a rock concert in one day.  Thursday August 16, 2012: The New Jersey shark feeding frenzy.  Dozens, maybe more, sharks crashing bunker right on the beach.  Sharks flying through the air.  The ocean a purple and white froth of bunker and thrashing shark tails and snapping mouths.  Incredible.  Historic.  Unprecedented!

Photo Credit: Tom Lynch "California Tom" angryfish.tv

NBC Philadelphia:

A once in a lifetime moment at the Jersey Shore has become the latest sensation.  It's a video of sharks literally flying through the air as they devour fish.  NBC10 tracked down and spoke with the man behind the camera.

"The sharks were attacking with incredible ferocity," said Tom Lynch.

Lynch says it happened Thursday just off Island Beach State Park in Ocean County.  He first saw the sharks about a mile out.  Only a few minutes later however, he says they were right in front of him.

"There were some that were going, I would estimate, literally 20 feet, sideways out of the water horizontally," said Lynch.

Lynch tells NBC10 there were easily dozens of sharks, if not more, feasting on menhaden, also known as mossbunker.

"They were just going ballistic on this bait," said Lynch.  "These sharks came in within 50 yards of the shoreline."

"I've seen a lot of things," said Lynch.  "And I've never seen a shark feeding frenzy."

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection tells NBC10 the sharks appear to be blacktip or spinner sharks, if not both.  The DEP says those types of sharks are more common to southern waters but that the ocean off the Jersey Shore has been warmer than normal this year.

"It's unusual to my eyes for sure," said Dr. Richard Fernicola, author of "Twelve Days of Terror," a book investigating the New Jersey shark attacks of 1916.

"The water has been in the 70s since June," said Dr. Fernicola.  "So this August, you certainly should see a very dynamic, vibrant ocean with all sorts of species."

"What I saw going on that day with those sharks was unbelievable," said Lynch.  "I don't think I'm going to see it again."

Monday August 20th, 2012

They were right . . . HERE

The shark frenzy hit the news and California Tom's video traveled into the consciousness of hundreds of thousands of people as the story of the shark blitz made it to the big networks.  I doubt there isn't a dirt harvester in Nebraska who hasn't heard of the shark frenzy at the Jersey by now!  When I started watching the footage on Saturday morning on his site, AngryFishTV , I was almost too excited.  What?!  I walked out of the house and looked at the rods.  The wind was east, not too hard, just right at 10mph.  That would make the high tide, the perfect high tide in the evening, a bit higher.  This is the night!

I called the local team members and the plan was set.  I arrived on the beach and California Tom himself, Rick, and Steve were casting to small blues.  Scattered birds were all around, the wind was steady soft east, and the water was high.  I pulled up closer and saw little blues crashing bait here and there, spraying up rain fish.  The small short period east waves had cut a cliff in the berm offering an overlook setup.  'This is right' I thought.  I could feel it, the energy was in the air.  Awesome.  I've waited all summer and here we go, it's finally going to happen.  I asked California Tom a bunch of questions while small bluefish- fresh bait- hit the metals.  At 7:00pm I set out the first bait.

And it did not take long.  My rod had action within a few minutes.  Slam slam straight.  Something testing the bait.  Cast again.  The next hit came quick.  I picked it up, but the fish ran in and dropped it.  Ok.  I cast again.  Several minutes later I was rocked!  I set back.  Zzz Zzzzzz bink.  Damn!  It's gone, it's all gone.  I proudly showed Rick my new terminal tackle.  They are here.  All the baits were set out, but the action slowed off.  That's ok, it wasn't even dark.  With the change of pace, as California Tom was leaving, him and I were saying to Rick that it's all fake- just Photoshop and tall tales.  With perfect irony, not one second after we finished joking, Rick's rod was making for the sand.  You're on!  Go, go, go!

Big hits, sharks, catching swimming fishing poles.  Rick was ON FIRE Saturday.

Best night of the summer!  Hot enough to melt all the former averageness (in terms of consistency) of the 2012 summer away, quickly.  Gone.  Over.  Patience pays off and a good bite was enjoyed.  I stayed after the team left at 10:00pm.  I knew I would hook up again and that it would be my first night doing everything by myself.  That's a good night when you know you're going to hook up again.  And I got hit- four times- and connected twice.  On my second one, the crew to the south was on too, I could hear the happy hollering, and I let out my own happy holler totally alone in the dark night with a shark on the line.

I got two by myself after the team left.  An empty beach, the big black sky, and a buzzing drag.  There are things that are equal, but there is nothing better!

After the Thursday shark blitz and four sharks on the beach Saturday, there was no question as whether or not to fish on Sunday.  With sharking, part of the fun is the pre-game ritual, which is catching bait.  Thinking about a rod going to the ground makes casting for 1lb bluefish and kingfish a whole lot more interesting than thinking about catching 1lb bluefish and kingfish.  Unlike the night before, the blues really weren't in, aside from a few on poppers before sunset.  So it's a good idea to bring a few back up baits in case the bait gathering doesn't work out.  Boooop!  Lines in!  What happened next was sweet.

It was a big small shark blitz at dusk.  3 out of 6 rods were down at once!

Dave Arnold joined in, and Chris B who was in the other camp last night and who also did well was on the end of the line next to Dave.  Ronnie joined in next to Rick.  Six lines.  It didn't take long for mine to go down.  I pulled it out of the spike and didn't have to play any games, it was on and going.  I tried to land my modest shark with the least disturbance to the other lines, even though it was swimming into everyone.  First shark on the beach!  After the standard hook removal and pictures, it was back to waiting.  After sunset, but still not dark.  Actually, the clouds broke near the horizon and the fading sun cast an orange glow, which made it brighter as it was getting darker.

What happened after that, I have no definitive recall.  Lines were going down.  Hits.  This one is on, that one is on.  Ah!  Lost it!  There's a shark in over there.  Oh wait, wait, don't go you just had a hit.  Who has pliers?  Cut it.  No way, get the hook out.  Yo, yo, you're getting bumped.  Fish on!  Fish on!  At the height of the 'blitz' three rods were down at once.  You need help?  No I got it.  Cameras flashing over there.  I need another rig!  Coming down.  Reel up.  Should we reel up?  No, you should be good.  Welcome to North Carolineee.  Can you send me that picture?  I don't consider myself as 'one who fishes bait' but the one hour action was the best blitz action I had since the fleeting big bass events in the spring.

This is great fishing.  Ronnie's bait placement proved you don't necessarily have to dislocate a shoulder to have a confident cast.  He had two and the largest of the night which broke off in the wash before a picture.

Okay after a few nights it bangs you up.  I mean for me, between getting gear ready, preparing, looking for bait it's like a whole day, and it's a whole day before the fishing even starts.  Then there's the lack of sleep and rod butt bruises on the inner thigh.  But who gives a crap!  When the fish are in, you go, go, go.  There will always be such wonderful things as laundry and food shopping and work, so I feel it's okay to spite those activities once in a while when there is something out of the ordinary.

So Monday night was no question.  I asked Rick if lightning can strike three times.  Well I'd sure like to find out.  What a scene it was, everyone there!  There was like 15 rods in the a line!  Sal said it was like 'Hollywood'.  There was the celebrity, California Tom, who was telling of the stream of news vans to his house.  Shell E and crew were there, Dave Arnold and Joe, Donald, who else?  Rick, Steve, RV Jerry related the awesome story of the tuna that were mixed in the with the blitz, Chris B and a larger crew, Jeff Z, Vinny, and Mike were in for the shark.

Thumbs up!

But you know how it goes by now.  When everyone shows up . . . but at least there were a few caught!  The line covered so much area it took a few minutes for the team on the end to figure out what was going on upstream.  Hey, are they on over there?  I don't know, yo, they hooked up down there?  Yeah.  Cool, I'm going to check it out.  While the bite wasn't as good, and there was no bite for most, I noticed three or four hits or hook ups were all in the same spot.  Rick mentioned the same thing, how his rod was getting bit Saturday, but Steve's was not, sorry Steve, at least the pictures are right on.   I told the story of how in 2009, the great shark year, how the one night Tom and I had them, Tom's rod was getting all the fish and my rod, only 15 feet away, was getting nothing.

How the heck do you hold this thing?

People filtered out since the bite was slow, but I hung around nearly to the end.  I learned a bait fishing trick from Dave Arnold that I will permanently use, but the fish just weren't there to test it out all the way.  Jeff Z, Vinny, and Mike outlasted me, which is rare, after they missed a nice hit just as they were about to leave.  I heard the drag and saw the bending rod from 150ft away, but no one got there in time.   You really have to earn these things.  The big hit was enough for me to cast another bait, but with no more action I was done by midnight.  Three nights of full on sharking is my limit!

The de-hooker is sometimes a tool for the overly cautious, but it is really good for getting deep hooks back.

So for me I'm taking a rest night- clean the vehicle, straighten up, put some rigs together, etc.  Plus I need to get ready for the force that is coming, a force that can make head high waves from nothing, or a great night of fishing from a less than stellar anything.  The drought to flood was epic.  The comatose state to national attention was mind bogglingly rejuvenating.  The tag of 2012 is no longer yeah it's ok, it is 2012 SHARK FEEDING FRENZY.  Awesome.







A Plateau Stage

I assume that in every great endeavor one undertakes, athletic or intellectual, there will come a point in the progression of things when it gets kind of blah.  The human brain is very good at 'taking things for granted' since that is a great way to cope with what would otherwise be an overload of sensory data.  Just think, THINK, of what it would be like to constantly hold your attention on the shirt you are or are not wearing, what color your car is, what your address is.  Eventually the brain is like ok whatever, those things are there.  I'm bored now.  It may be exciting to get into a new car, but after 100,000 miles it's not the same feeling.  It's a plateau of excitement.  The issue is not with wearing a shirt, it's that in order to stay fresh you have to buy some new clothes or at least do the laundry once in a while.

Another Weak South Swell:

A warm Canada, in general, means weak south winds and weak south swells.  The surf was okaaaayy.

I miss the old days.  It's not that every single day was better, but the days when there were real S swells were.  Surfing is a great way to wash away the grime of day to day life- provided there are winds and waves and sets and excitement.  Otherwise, as great as it is, and it is still great, it is just not as great and is missing something.  The thing that is missing with south swells now is life.  When Canada was colder, the S winds would blow steady and over a good fetch making zippy ruler edged rights.  The kind of swell that draws your eyes to the right towards the stacked swells.  And they'd be clean all day with W wind from a relieving cold front.  I miss that stuff. 

Two Hit Fishing

What's even more amazing is that I could have fit four surfboards and gear on top of him and the ride would have been just as comfortable

So after some average surfing, I figured let's take it to the next level and see how deep this thing is going to go.  In a relaxed state from being in the water all weekend, my emotional edge was subdued, which made it easier to take the hit of the guy before us in the bait store buying out all of the eels.  That added about 50 minutes more to the trip, but whatever.  The weather was cooler and we had a good crew.  The fishing began and that's all it did.  Doug dropped out first, smart, knowing every minute he stares at the green light was another minute closer to waking up for work at 7:00am.  Will, Al, and I kept going, it was nice out, but the most we could do was two hits from 9:00pm to 1:00am.

Piping Plovers

I decided not to fish the next several nights.  My plan was to hit it towards the end of the week, on a day with clear skies and lower humidity.  I envisioned myself proudly carrying my gear and lunch cooler filled with six bunkers.  I was going to set up, get in the zone, and have the challenge of landing and releasing a shark by myself.  What I got was, "Hi.  I'm sorry, but you can't fish here until the end of the month.  We think there are two nests of piping plovers."  Allllrrriigggght.  I backed out watching the guided tour trudge through the dunes with their cameras and khaki wear.  The soft tone of speech the wildlife guy used appealed to my compassionate side, so I did not resist his request.  I looked at the miles and miles of beach closed because of two nests, as I watched the clumsy sightseers trample the area where those nests and eggs could be.  So I went to another beach . . .

. . . and had nothing.  My confidence was in where I had originally intended to fish.  I'm all about being in balance with the earth instead of being an arrogant pig, so I'm not sure where to be with this issue, but it seems like closing miles of coast for a few birds is a little overly enthusiastic.

Tropical Cyclones

Tropical Storm Gordon did a 180 in some far south westerlies. 

But at least August is hurricane season.  But while there have been an unusually high number of storms so far this year, they have been weak and mostly ineffectual, aside from excess rain.  I don't wish the destruction from a hurricane just so I can surf, but I appreciate a strong storm that does a nice arc in the open Atlantic away from land.  Tropical Storm Gordon had promise, but it's not going to happen since it's on a definite track to the east now.  If it's still a tropical storm near Portugal, that would really be bizarre, but I doubt it will be a 1961 Hurricane Debbie- Europe's worst hurricane on record.  With the global heat circulation switching into a n or m GWP, it may be tough to get a hurricane this year, especially if drought takes over Africa, but I wouldn't discount a storm just yet.  I will discount Gordon, however.

The Statewide and National Atmosphere

The air must have felt a lot less sickening in the 1910s and 1920s summers.  The heat this year has been dizzy and nauseating.

When I was youngest, in the 1990s, I used to look forward to the summer because I hate being cold.  Now after the past few summers I almost want to hear it will never be above 85F again.  After a hot summer and no fall in 2011, the current January-July period is by far the warmest such period in state history.  That includes the year without a winter, the summer in March, and the heat in the other months.  All this heat and extra warmth is making me claustrophobic.  Aside from a hurricane or thunderstorm, summer is usually a lame season, and now the lameness is worse and lasts longer.


The destruction from stagnant weather is not always exciting- it's more like annoying back pain or a growing tumor. It's cumulative, little by little with each day of the same nothing, but it'll get you.

The vibe of flat-line extends over the rest of the country, or rather the vibe over the rest of the country extends here.  Sunny and hazy, sunny and hazy, sunny and hazy, sunny and clear, sunny and hazy . . . While I want things to get moving so I can have some fun, there are people who need the weather to get moving for survival.  At least . . . No not at least.  The at least sucks.  The images above are what you get from that at least crap.  You get the least.

So what will it take to turn things around?  Maybe the next time I go fishing I'll walk up to the beach backwards and put the glow tip on after it's dark, anything to change it up, do something different, and break the rut.  Then I'll catch like 5 sharks, 2 hammerheads, 1 thresher, and 1 great white.  Then the atmosphere will cool off, the rain won't be so screwed up anymore, and I'll wake up the next morning surrounded by people who have come out of a coma, and are like whoa I never noticed this stuff before.

A Power Hour Near Blitz of Sharks

From a perspective of fishing, the power hour bite that Doug and I had on Tuesday night was pretty cool.  But for someone who likes to swim a few laps in the morning, it may not be well to know that you can stand on shore and cast a light bait into a headwind and have something run line down to the backing.  With an adequate supply of bait and a near perfect method for keeping them alive, we cast our sprite eels and I breathed a sigh of relief from all the preparation work.  I contemplated how amazing it is living in New Jersey, to be able to do what we are doing, a state of contrasts from the hustle and bustle along the main road in the beach towns.

Of course too much quiet can be just as lame as overstimulation.  With nothing to show for the first hour, I decided to cast an eel out there and bring it back in real slow, just because I thought that would somehow break the monotony.  And did it break!  I cast and reeled in as slow as possible, sloooooowww and even sloooooowwweerrr then . . . TUG TUG.  Doug!  They're here!  It tugged again, but let go.  I saw a dark wake on the calm surface where my eel was.  Veritable lure fishing for sharks!  The power hour had begun.

My Impression of what may be going on down there

Doug did the same method and got hit within a minute, also without a connection.  He went back to dead sticking, and well before bait fishing coma started his rod was going down to the floor.  Fish on!  Zzzzzz Zzzzzzz ZZzzzzz.  Can you stop it?  No!  It's taking all my line!  There was a huge splash on the surface a ways out.  Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzz.  I looked at the silhouette of Doug's rig and saw an anorexic reel.  I'm at the backing!  This thing is huge!  Another mega splash broke the stillness.  He gained a little, and it ran again.  HARD.  And then . . . bink . . . gone.  You lost it?  Yeah.  That sigh is something you have to experience, it's a rite of passage to anyone who fishes.  'The big one that got away' is the cliche.  He retrieved his line and we expected to see a mangled or missing rig, but it looked fresh from the package, with no eel.  What?  I guess it was never really hooked . . .

There was no time to sulk.  I baited up and threw out as quickly as possible.  It took only several minutes for my rod tip to bounce.  I picked it up out of the spike and felt the tugging.  Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . Now!  I set up.  Zzzzip.  Zzzzip.  Bink.  Damn, lost it, broken mono.  No time to feel sorry, I re-rigged and baited as fast as possible.  If you've ever been in a hot night bite for stripers, the pace felt exactly the same, urgent but with sharks!  I stood at the ready.  A huge loud splash broke the surface around where the baits were.  Holy ****.  Did that hit you?  No.  Me neither.  Sharks busting the surface, crazy!  It only took a minute before I was slammed again.

My fish was of the moderate respectable size.  All we can do is wonder about Doug's fish.

It took about 10 minutes and a 150ft walk to subdue my fish.  Doug handled the leadering, made easier with using mono as a mainline by the way, and yet another reason why I believe mono is better for this type of fishing.  I handed him my rod and finished pulling up the shark.  Dehooking was easy with the hook in the corner of the mouth.  The standard photographs were taken and the shark was released.  Phheww.  We walked back to camp and cast out with much anticipation, but that was the bite.  9:50pm to 10:50pm.  1 for 5 contacts.  3 for 3 nights.  With no more hits by 11:20pm, 20 minutes past the work night curfew, we decided to pack it in with just enough time to squeeze through the door for ice cream.

This was only five minutes into night two- while it was still light out- but the sharks were shy.

Well we had to go back the next night.  We set up just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.  It didn't take long for my rod to jiggle.  Oh my god.  It's not even dark yet!  I picked it up and felt two big tugs, which prompted a swing and a miss.  I was left with a decapitated and chomped eel!  It was a great start, but it was slow for the next hour.  Then my rod jiggled again.  I handled it and felt something near my bait.  It started to swim away with it.  Tug tug.  Wait wait.  I set up, missing again.  Shy sharks tonight.  With no more hits and exhausted from the double night marathon, we left early.  Contact counts even if it doesn't produce, and you learn just by being out there, so it was okay there was no big hook up.

With southerly winds and swell forecast for this weekend, along with the more definite chance of the quarter moon phase, the rods will stay idle until next week.  Over the next three weeks there are few beaches down south I want to try, and so I will.  Wouldn't it be great to think of all these theories and be able to test them anytime and any way you wanted to?  You have to fight for your right to party.

Two Slow Nights but One Big Fight

Well my idea for upping it an traveling to fish was tempered by the thought of sitting in Friday night traffic in stifling miserable hot air.  I was sure to make the point clear to Will and Chris there would be no sharks and that all we would do is be on the beach at night staring at little green light sticks.  After a Friday afternoon t-storm, we hit the beach and hooked into some big cow nose rays while 'fluke fishing', which made for some stoke.  People may tell you it's silly to catch cow nose rays, but they're a hell of a lot more fun than messing with the two pound bluefish, shad, and herring.  Chris took a quarter mile walk with his ray, and that provided impetus for night fishing. 

We chose our water, set up, and went original with bunker chunks and oil.  I said there would be no fish . . . and there were no fish.  After about two hours, with the tide already a ways out, my rod had some life.  And then again.  The fish never returned, but it definitely wasn't the shake of the S swell and SSW wind.  'Someone's rod is going down soon' I told Will and Chris.  'I can feel it.  Someone is going to get slammed.'  About 20 minutes later the glow tip on Will's 12ft rod was bent down to eye level.  Told you so!

Even though it wasn't a 200lb bull shark, the big catch was not disappointing.  72 inches!  If this was a spiny butterfly ray, it was near the maximum size of the species and very near the record 72 inch ray taken in Virginia in 2008.

And what a battle.  No shark I've caught or seen caught peeled out line like this thing!  There must have been smoke coming off the reel in the first run, and second run, and third run, and fourth run . . . And it hit while I was talking about buying seal blubber and fishing Cape Cod for great whites.  Once we figured it was most definitely a ray and not a white shark, which wasn't until halfway into the fight, there was no doubt it was a big one, and the encouragement to land it was high.  The time from hook up to beaching was probably the better part of half an hour.

It took the three of us all of our effort to get the great creature back to the water.

The 72 inch monster was it for the night, not because of fatigue, rather I was perked up for more but there were no more hits.  While there was no argument it is the record ray for the team, the beast was close in width to the 72 inch record ray caught in Virginia in 2008- a fish that was 278lbs!  We put ours back, it didn't enter my mind to keep it, and I could only estimate that it weighed A LOT.  It took ten minutes and all the effort of three people to get it back into the surf.  When it got some water beneath it, it glided away effortlessly.  What a great catch and release!

The water temperatures have been and are insanely above normal (averages for each location for August 1-15 are in the 70s), but the shark fishing has stunk for the most part.  I guess the stingrays have taken over.

Even though there are no sharks around, the ray was enough to get me to fish again Saturday, lazily at the local beach.  It's been so slow that beach chairs were introduced and accepted into the camp area.  Not expecting much, as I was talking on the phone with Rick my rod went down.  I set up, pulled back and had nothing- a bite off- or more appropriately a cut off since it's unlikely a shark with a mouth bigger than 12 inches of 135lb wire had blasted me.  That got me pumped, but there would be no more.  As far as shark fishing goes, there is nothing around here.  Nothing consistent anyway.

Right now a gusty SSW wind is blowing and a S swell is expected to fill in tonight and tomorrow.  Since there haven't been many substantial S wind events recently, it will be interesting to see how much upwelling there is, with my guess being there is just so much warm water it will be hard to chill down.  The elements continue to be of the stifling variety- hot, humid, crowded, bum fishing, etc . . . and I don't see much of a break this week.  Even the current tropical cyclones, Ernesto and Florence, are looking pretty lame.

***Update.  A record ray has been located!  Something to strive for next summer . . .

A Break in the Weather- Shark!

The summer of thunderstorms finally took a night off on Sunday which allowed Will, Doug, and I to take advantage of the break in the clouds.  With an easterly wind laying the air down, as we transferred eels from the eel keeper to the cooler I looked north and watched a thunderstorm in the distance and by the way the cloud was behaving I could tell it was settling out.  We loaded up the vehicle and started the ride with a comfortable air temperature and a sunny sky.  It was going to be a nice night.

We set up camp of which the most recent addition has been a rubber mallet.  What a great tool to get a spike in, and it's a much more body friendly alternative than using the butt and body weight method.  The eels were moved back to the eel keeper and hung in the water and we baited up and cast.  One hour, nothing.  We checked the lines and casted again, still nothing.  A bit later we checked the baits again and as Doug was reeling he got grabbed!

"I was reeling in and it felt like the current was taking it, but then I was like whoa whoa . . . " was how he described the hook up.  Even though I was working with an eel with Will and wasn't watching, I knew he was on by the zzzzzzzzip zzzzip zzzzzzzzzzzz.  You hear that sound, look up and see a 10ft rod bent over like a noodle, and that is one of the coolest things in fishing I have come across so far.  And the best part is that it's done from the shore!  Doug used his rod, reel, and muscles and Will used his willpower to leader the shark onto shore.  It did one of those 360 snapping twirls and just as quickly Will did a backwards leap no look jump back.  After the shark calmed down, the requisite photographs were taken, and the fish was released back into the water.  Job well done.  That would be it for the evening.

The natural world is not always nice.  But 'nice' is just an abstract philosophical concept anyway.  What we witnessed was a shark that had laid some teeth into an eel.

What I've discovered with having the summer an operational fishing season is that I have to suffer from the same lack of sleep syndrome as the fall fishing season.  It's easy to fish until 1:00am and get up for work at 6:30am here and there, but too much of that is unbalanced.  I'd really love to not have to work and keep the 1:00am closing time, but that would lead to more unbalance, so even though the weather was okay I didn't fish the next few nights.  I was very excited our team got a shark, but it's going to take more than one hit in three and half hours for me to go into a sleep deficit.

Getting that green light to dance is what the night bite is all about, but the B-grade stuff like being outside, nice moon views, UFO sightings, and hanging out with friends I guess is alright, too.

Two more local sessions yielded a dead sea.  I fished with Doug, Nick from Charlie's Bait and Tackle and his buddy Jimmy, and the best that happened was the landing of a stingray and Jimmy's no fear attitude of hook removal and release.  That was the best landing, but the most interesting thing to happen was the rod that got pulled out of the sand spike and was heading to sea, only to be saved just in time.  Whatever it was took it all.  The big hit was encouraging, but I could just 'feel' they weren't there and by 10:20pm I decided to pack it in.  Another night, this time with live eels and the accompaniment of Rick and Steve, yielded nothing but eel balls.  THAT IS IT!  I REFUSE to fish the local beach for the several remaining weeks of summer.  HA that will show them!

Our team has landed three sharks, one sand tiger and two sandbars, in addition to two legitimate bite-offs.  There are four weeks left of summer.  The definition of someone who is uncreative is one who does the same thing over and over and expects a different result.  I will not be a dullard and fish the same unproductive water just because it is easier.  From here, it's nothing at all or it's something different . . .