November 25, 2022 – Maybe Getting Locked Out of the Buggy in the Park was a Sign – Ocean to Monmouth County (and back again).

Keys locked inside, Seaside to Asbury and beyond.  Nada.

I met Jeff and Tony outside IBSP at 5:45 AM this morning, and with the three of us we had Jeff’s truck aired down and driving onto the crowded beaches at Gilikins before false dawn.  There were a lot of buggies, mostly driving around or waiting for some signs of life (or more likely a text from buddies to the South).  Betty and Nicks may have been trying to drum up Black Friday business by giving the old, Should have been here yesterday message, and Jeff along with many others bit.  It is prime season, however, so they may have been there anyway.  Honestly, I thought Ocean County might be ready today regardless of reports and forecast, as the recent big push of fish in MoCo had been around for at least a week.  We made a few stops at soft structure, and we had one shot at a small blitz that was just out of reach.  We also had the time to make some blind casts while waiting for the Park police to come and unlock Jeff’s buggy, whose keys were inside on the console!  My fault for invoking his infamous nickname in my last post.  He gets so excited and talkative while fishing that his rods always end up in the sand, or he can’t find his phone, or he has to rerig during a blitz—he is just that guy some mornings.  Sandy Dunkin.

And it was raining in a SSW wind!

We stood in the rain in solidarity with him a while, then Tony and I worked both sides of a good sandbar looking for at least a short.  Once the kind officer popped the door, we got out of the Park and did a tour of northern Ocean County, all the way to Deal in Monmouth, poking our heads over the dunes several times looking for the kind of life we saw on Wednesday.  Nada.  Low visibility in the rain, but the boats were out of sight except at first light when we had SW winds and no rain.  There was a light wind out of the South for a while, but not really enough to spoil the surf, which remained clear and fishy looking.  In fact, the wind had already turned West by the time we quit looking for fish at 11 AM.  Feast or famine with this blitz bite.  Famine today.