December 2, 2021 – More Blitzes Out of Reach – Ocean County Beaches

There was a chance.

Maybe I am a glutton for punishment, or maybe I remember how good it can be with peanuts if you are lucky enough to be there at the right place and time, but I took the ride this morning too.  I am now 1 fish for 3 early morning trips.  Getting up at 2:45 AM and driving 90 minutes for a skunk hardly makes me want to do it again, and that is why this blog contains so few surf fishing posts—I started the blog around the time I got back into fly fishing and trout fishing again because, post-Sandy and the latest beach replenishment movement, the surf game began netting ever-diminishing returns.  Sucks, because I do love it out there, and I will log more trips (as I have since the inception of this blog) to chase the higher-percentage run of dinkers that spells the end of the run and the beginning of winter, but it is hard to justify all the driving, casting, and not sleeping.  Today, like last Sunday, I had a good chance.  I actually fished a good piece of beach in the dark that I scouted earlier in the week, and I then when the birds and bait materialized a few hundred yards off the beach at sunrise, I pursued a blitz at least 2 blocks long by car through about three beach towns.  The closest they got to shore was close enough to see fish busting and birds coming up with 5-7 inch bunker but not close enough to reach, even with an old secret weapon: a peanut bunker tin.  I think the same dude who created the THex also made this one back in the day.  Because high tide was at 5 AM, there was actually water in the surf for a couple potentially productive hours, but even fishing some nice moving water with small baits to end the trip failed to interest a rat or two.  There was a lot more white water today, but also a strong South to North sweep and a South wind—not great conditions, generally.  So many variables with the surf, and I know just enough to know when it is just not going to happen today.  If I lived on a beach block, I would toss a plug every morning and evening in any fishable conditions, and maybe even some borderline ones, but these long drives, you know?

A lot to love, but a long early or late drive....