June 23 and 24, 2021 - A Few Hours of Social Fishing from the Sand – Ocean County, NJ

Fishing lessons and social visits, but a couple shorties messed with.

I went to the beach and visited with my mom and my sister’s family during their vacation.  Besides seeing my 3-year-old niece play in the ocean, I also planned to give my brother-in-law Uncle Ben a promised crash course in fishing 101.  He and my sister lived in Denver for a decade or more, but he only fly fished a couple times out there.  He has recently expressed more interest in fishing, and he inherited a rod from Joe’s shed during the big liquidation this spring, so it was time to get out.  I had work stuff going on, but I got down about 2 PM on Wednesday and left probably 24 hours later.  We had a casting lesson on the surf on Wednesday night after dinner and a visit to the bait shop for some bucktails and Gulp in case he wanted to get out on his own after I left.  We ran out of daylight quickly and snagged a lot of post-Claudette grass—which hung around on Thursday morning too, unfortunately.

Pretty morning and some mitches

Dolf was also on the island having a family get-away.  I was urging him since last week to get a boat lined up for Wednesday, but I guess he only had one car, a wife, and two teenage girls, so all he could commit to was a couple hours this morning.  Ben and I picked him him up outside his hotel for a little Barnegat Bay walk.  The water was dirty and pretty weedy, and the tide was coming in cold.  I like to fish this spot on the outgoing because it’s warmer and because the structure is more reachable with light tackle, but I landed two shorts and Ben lost one.  Dolf just looked pretty.  It was good to have another dude coaching Ben, though, and it was just good to see a mitch anyway.  We have not fished together since the fall striper run concluded.  I did not know it was Dolf’s check-out day, so we literally fished 90 minutes with a 30-minute hike in there, so 2 hours on the sand tops.  It was a beauty morning, and the entire thing was a social trip, so it was all good.  I will be back down a couple times in July, I am sure.  I am due to fish with Dolf and his brother-in-law Jeff, aka my boy Sandy Dunkin, and maybe Jeff and I together will convince Dolf to leave dry land.  Weather permitting, I also have a July small charter trip with the Wardman, so July posts might be fluky or weakie.