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A walk, and slide, with fishing rod. |
Although it was raining, it was nearly 60 degrees on
Tuesday, so I had to get out somewhere, even for a short while. I had the bright idea of tossing a streamer
in the Pennypack to see if I could move any fall stockies; that is, if there
are (m)any fall stockies in this particular stretch…. The boy and I took a skunk in this same area
in October, though we did see a handful on stringers, but today I hunted around
looking for them and had one bump on a small black bugger. That was it.
Well, I also slipped on some mud on the seriously saturated banks and
tweaked an ankle and my knee. Good
times! I will not be back this year,
especially since a few other spots near home get a more thorough distribution
of fish. I was hoping to locate the trout
so that I could go back and midge them up when the water was not so high and
stained, or even take the boy over to the same park for redemption, but perhaps
the water was too cold or many of the fish were harvested, or there was not enough
help stocking this fall. Like I stated
above, see you in the spring, Penny, at least this particular PFBC-stocked stretch.
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Novelty snow bass eating the weighted eel on the dropper. |
Now for something completely different: I drove to the
beach in a driving wet snow this morning to get at least one more shot at the
schoolies eating sandeels. With the
possible exception of Thursday, which is not a day I can fish this week, the
remainder of the week looks like a mess.
A big 4 to 7, followed by a 5 to 8 foot swell and high South winds will
have the surf a mess, and probably not the good kind. Today, the surf was the good kind of
messy. Today was striper weather: steady
wet snow, wind from the NW at 20-25, plenty of whitewater, a nice 2 to 4 foot
swell, even a sweep of current moving along the beach from north to south. The bass got the memo too. Though the best were barely 24 inches, there
were no true dinks, all 18 to 24 inch fish in the slough and the front slope of
the bar, ambushing sandeels.
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White-out on the beach, tools of the trade, morning driving conditions on the final approach. |
The drive down was not that fun and took a good 30
minutes longer than normal. When I went
out to warm up the ‘Ru before 4 AM and load in my gear, it was just
misting. But by the time I left, a heavy
wet snow was falling and landing on the lawns.
I drove east into this visibility-sucking mess, watching the temps hover
right at 33 to 34 degrees. Yesterday was
so warm that the roads were fine, but it was a hassle to drive in as the trucks
woke up to begin their morning deliveries.
I swung a U-turn and pointed the car into the wind when I arrived at the
beach-end street, so I could use the hatch as some protection as I geared up
before the walk up the beach. Hood of
the raingear up and cinched, neoprene gloves, and I was as ready as I was going
to be. I was happy to see whitewater in
the wash, and the tide was good too, but beyond a few dozen yards, I could not
see much more. As a result, I walked
past my landmark on the dunes once, overshooting it by a block or two, but with
all the white-out conditions, first light was going to be a little later,
anyway, and it would be cloudy enough to keep the fish in close a bit longer if
they did arrive. I eventually found my
spot, picking out a couple familiar cribs beyond the dunes.
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Most on the dropper, but T-Hex scored 3 of 11 fish. |
Well, they arrived sometime around 7:30 AM, a bit later,
as I expected. I had about an hour,
maybe more, of steady action. Because
the surf was a little rough, I stayed on the sand and caught half my fish right
in the slough and the surf lip. A couple
better ones, like 24 inches (so “better”) came at the end of the cast on the
front end of the bar, so I needed some weight.
Even in close, with the current sweep from the swell—up to 4 or 5 feet
on the primary wave, enough to get the surfers out as the tide ebbed further
around 9 AM—I had to use a 2 ounce T-Hex to deliver a 1/5 ounce soft-plastic eel
teaser on the dropper. I landed three fish
on the metal, even one on a 3 ounce T-Hex in the last half hour of productive
fishing. As the tide receded, the surf
got snottier, even dirtier with grass and brown foam, likely from all the rain
water washing in from the previous day(s) of precipitation, so in order to get
down to the bottom and not just swing left to right too quickly, the 3 (and a
half with the eel) ounces certainly helped contribute to my last two fish of the trip.
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Some nice whitewater even in a NW blow. |
Taking photos was a chore with snow hitting me at 25 MPH
in the back, accumulating an inch on my plug bag, so I did not take many fish
pictures. I did not want to take my
gloves off either, and when I did, it was a pain to get a dry enough finger to
work a phone! We know what short bass
look like, anyway, perhaps all too well as surf fishermen in New Jersey the
last several years. I did text a shot of
a bass in the snow to Dolf and Jeff, and at that time I had counted 9 fish and
was hoping for 10 so that I could quit.
The snow started tapering off about 9 AM, but the tide was going out and
it was getting incrementally brighter by the second. With the aforementioned 3 ounce T-Hex, I was
able to reach 10 and then 11 fish, and told myself I would quit at an even
dozen. I quit at 11 fish when that 12
became an increasingly elusive and silly goal.
Towards the end of the productive window, the water was getting dirtier,
so I had more fish bump it and not connect, but when even the bumps stopped, I
knew they had moved on for the morning.
I took their example and headed for the car around 9:30 AM. The walk back was more comfortable with the
NW wind pushing me along, and with no snow to contend with, I was able to watch
the surfers and other enthusiasts come out of hiding to enjoy their morning
activities. A brisk walk was probably
good for that knee I twisted on the Pennypack too, as it really did not stiffen
up or hurt much today. It will be ready to wade a trout stream on Friday, for sure. Sadly, the surf may be too snotty.
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A coating to an inch, on my shoulders and plug bag too. |
Good Job! You had a nice December there big guy!
ReplyDeleteDo you think there is an evening bite too?
RR
I am enjoying it, RR! The weather got too cold, too quickly last fall. I missed the Thanksgiving bite, and the December schoolie bite was over by this time. Weekend looks a bit too sporty. I am going to let Pete get his butt kicked on Saturday to determine if Sunday is worth it. Not looking good for either day, especially for little fish.
DeleteSad that lorimer doesnt have that many trout left. I had the same observation in November. Last year a very wet fall kept fish all through the winter. I got a couple fish in april far from known bucket dumping spots that had more colors than your typical stockie.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that is why I gave it a shot instead of where TU puts them. There were a ton left in late February last year, as you know! If there are still a bunch somewhere, I won't know because I won't waste my time again until the spring.
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