The first day with a high in the 60s during September is a bellwether for a changing season. As I type this, the sliding glass door is open and a cool northeast breeze is coming in, which feels great. With water temperatures still around 70, there is still likely a good amount of time before the fall season begins, but the past two days- and nights- are a start. Mullet are in the surf for sure now.
We’ve had so much surf over the past few weeks that I haven’t even considered fishing. There have been waves since Hurricane Irene on August 28th, and when there are waves this time of the year fishing takes a back seat. With only some junky 2-3ft in the water today, I decided to finally cast a line in search of fluke. Sadly, there wasn’t really much to report. I arrived at the beach at the perfect tide, the sandbars looked great, the water looked nice (though was a little tingy) and my 1 oz bucktail felt just right bouncing the edge of the bar. One, two, three, four different places without even a tap. Five, six and nothing. With fluke, and other fish, if I don’t get a bite I keep moving. I figure I will find them before they find me.
And it worked! I walked up to a spot that I just knew would have a fish in it. The water was rolling off the bar just right and the inside trough looked deep and abrupt. First cast and a fish hit in three cranks and released. Finally I’ll get one. Next cast was a couple tap hits. Little blues. Next cast - bam - fluke on. I got him to be beach. It was a modest size fish but was a fish none the less. I really don’t care about size too much anyway, and I was happy I finally found a spot with some bites. The next five casts were a bunch of tap tap hits - little blues again I assumed since the tail on my gulp kept getting bit off. And that was it. The tide was getting too low and the beach was shelved out ahead of me.
We’ve had so much surf over the past few weeks that I haven’t even considered fishing. There have been waves since Hurricane Irene on August 28th, and when there are waves this time of the year fishing takes a back seat. With only some junky 2-3ft in the water today, I decided to finally cast a line in search of fluke. Sadly, there wasn’t really much to report. I arrived at the beach at the perfect tide, the sandbars looked great, the water looked nice (though was a little tingy) and my 1 oz bucktail felt just right bouncing the edge of the bar. One, two, three, four different places without even a tap. Five, six and nothing. With fluke, and other fish, if I don’t get a bite I keep moving. I figure I will find them before they find me.
And it worked! I walked up to a spot that I just knew would have a fish in it. The water was rolling off the bar just right and the inside trough looked deep and abrupt. First cast and a fish hit in three cranks and released. Finally I’ll get one. Next cast was a couple tap hits. Little blues. Next cast - bam - fluke on. I got him to be beach. It was a modest size fish but was a fish none the less. I really don’t care about size too much anyway, and I was happy I finally found a spot with some bites. The next five casts were a bunch of tap tap hits - little blues again I assumed since the tail on my gulp kept getting bit off. And that was it. The tide was getting too low and the beach was shelved out ahead of me.
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| Shad can be fun but unfortunately this was the only one |
I had the pleasure of fishing with Donald today and I suggested we try the good spot again- you know the spot with little bluefish that won’t grab the lure and the one fluke. First cast out, oh I already knew it, and tap tap again. Donald suggesting changing to a little metal instead of a bucktail and I heeded his advice. First cast in the sweet spot and bam- a shad went nuts on the teaser. And that was it. I’ve fished so little in the past few months that I actually got a charge from the shad. Donald suggested live lining it but I didn’t have that much charge. The shad was released and we called it a day.
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| It was a sky day more than anything |
I like to call the nice cool high pressure system that was responsible for our weather today a dirty high. Dirty because we got more clouds from it than sun. I’m not saying I was expecting the Tel Aviv skies that we’ve recently been having with high pressure, it’s just the high was dirty because there was a lot of altostratus and low level cumulus from the northeast winds off the ocean. To me, the beautiful cloudscape today was welcomed after one of the sunniest summers I’ve ever seen (interrupted only be record rain events). Everywhere I turned, all day, was a beautiful painting. The sunset was absolutely ethereal.
Here’s a little insight into why the air right now feels amazingly refreshing . . .
Today’s cool weather was especially refreshing after a summer we just endured. I like the heat, but I get sick of things that I like when I have too much of them and this summer was no exception. Statewide, the summer was 3rd warmest on record. Last summer was the warmest on record and 2005 was second warmest. This summer we had 67 consecutive days with a high above 80F. Say that again in your head- 67 consecutive days with a high above 80F. If you understand what the lack of blue means in the graph above, you will understand why the air today feels so nice. Though the air outside is cool, it is again coming from a wind off the ocean, not a land breeze, which to me is sort of cheating. Most all of the cool downs during this summer of excessive heat came only from winds off the water and not from interior fronts and today‘s nice air was not any different.
Here’s a little more expanded awareness of the current atmosphere. Notice that while it’s cooler than normal here in the United States, temperatures in northern Canada right now are much warmer than normal. So it’s not that our cooler than normal air here is extending all the way to the North Pole. While we’re enjoying a taste of fall here, someone in northern Canada is probably wondering why it’s still so warm out.
The forecast tomorrow is for a building northeast wind swell. Looks like it’ll be more surfing than fishing again this week . . .
The forecast tomorrow is for a building northeast wind swell. Looks like it’ll be more surfing than fishing again this week . . .
