When there is groundswell there can be a long lull between waves, which gives time for the whitewater to clear up so that the water remains fishable. Proof of that was the bait fish I saw spraying into the air. They looked like they were being chased by little underwater speed boats. Albacore was the first thought to enter my mind. While I have never caught one, the action I saw was like what everyone says about the fish: fast slashing through bait and an occasional launch into the air. I didn't have a rod since I was in full surf mode, so all I could do was watch the bait get ripped through for 15 minutes, with the action easily reachable less than a half cast out. Excited about the sighting I figured I could chase albacore instead of illusive shoulders on head high closeouts.
That plan was shut down by a very good south wind on Saturday the 8th, one of the best south winds in years, one that actually had some energy and some excitement with it. So I was inside doing some reading when I had a thought to go to the screen door and look to the west. HOLY SHIT! A FUCKING TORNADO!
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| For years I've had dreams and fantasies of looking out and seeing a tornado and it actually happened! I froze watching it spin for at least 30 seconds before I ran and got the camera. I got only this picture before it went up and dissipated! |
Now behind that yellow house is the bay, so if it was over the bay technically it would have been a waterspout, but that cannot be determined from the photograph so I am calling it a tornado. It's my once in a lifetime sighting and I get to claim it! It was moving pretty quick from south to north and it traveled from at least the high roof on the house on the left in the foreground to the location in the photograph in not much time. Before the photograph the condensation funnel was down farther and it was very clearly rotating. It all happened so fast it didn't sink in until later just how incredible those 45 seconds were!
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| Fall arrived in the afternoon the day following the tornado. A nice cool and dry air mass replaced the hot sticky weather that was in the area on Saturday. Air mass changes are what cause 'extreme weather' in the middle latitudes. |
After a foray to the Midwest without having to drive, it was back to being a surfer in New Jersey during a tropical cyclone swell. Oh yeah, what am I supposed to do with these waves? It's not just that I want to ride the best waves, it's that I also want to ride the best waves with no one else. Picture living in one of the most populated areas of the world during a hyped up closing out swell in the most pleasant time of the year with a goal of finding non-closed out uncrowded surf. A loose plan was made and I set out to accomplish that goal.
What I found was a pretty good wave that was not really crowded. It was no Hurricane Earl or Hurricane Katia, it was definitely on the smallest level to even be worth making the trip, but nonetheless it was better than anything I would have found at home. And I didn't have to fight anybody for it, actually I traded set waves with the locals who were more than nice and willing to share. Just a little more oomph in the swell would have made it complete, so there was still something to be desired, but overall it was ok. After four hours and about 100 roundhouse cutbacks on the mellow wave, I made the decision to travel back home based on the moderate swell forecast and a change of plans that cancelled the second half of the trip. Driving ten hours, surfing for five hours, and sleeping in my truck bed- when I get back from something like that I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.
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| Something that wouldn't take a metal or popper was blasting through bait. It was refreshing to see clean green water, purple blobs of bait, and whitewater fish on the surface even if it was in miniature. |
Arriving back home was a real treat not because I'd force myself to surf closing out waves again, but because fall was in the air. My definition of the first fall air is: sunny skies and highs in the 60s or a clear night with lows in the 50s. The first fall day usually shows up sometime in September and this year that day was right on time, in spite of the last two years being the warmest ever in New Jersey and over much of the planet. What's encouraging is that maybe this fall will have a more moderate temperature than the previous warmth. Though I was more interested in jumping back into dumping closeout barrels, it was nice to see baitfish spraying out of green water under a cotton ball sky.
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| September. |
I don't really consider September a fall fishing month as it is more of a transition. October, November, and December are what I consider the official fall fishing months. But that's not to say September cannot have great fishing. In the fall of 2009, which was different because it was cool and there were a lot of nor'easters, there were epic bass and sand eel bites well before anybody picked up on what was going on. Sometimes the mullet run will bring good bass and blues action, and there have been some reports of that kind of action the last few days. While another dumping groundswell may be looming for next weekend or next week, there will be time until then to see what the mullet run will do. Fall is in the air!
