December 1 and 2, 2023 – Still Batting .500 in the Surf and Making 60 Fishing Trips the Year I Started a New Career? - Ocean County

Half a dozen on Friday, not close to three dozen.

With the help of Tony the Squid on Friday morning and Sandy Dunkin on Saturday night, I fished the first two days of December in the surf and hit the 60 fishing trip mark for the year.  That is far from my best year.  I know I have doubled that tally even during the lifetime of this blog—a time when I have always been a grown-ass man with a family and a job or two, mind you.  The month is still young, though, and I would totally be content with 65 this year.  Starting a new career with a different cadence and fiscal calendar, not to mention not wanting to take too much PTO without having a full year under my belt, it will have to do.  I have started the process of moving away from being a total weekend warrior since I do work from home three days per week, but I was happy with the success I had on the weekends.  I could do without the crowds, and I had to work my brain to select spots that would give me some elbow room and solitude, but I also did more social fishing like I did over the last three days.  Look at me doing a premature year-end wrap up!

Tony made the trek today.

The ocean is never the same place twice with all the variables of wind, tide, moon phases and so on.  I did not expect to duplicate the success Jeff and I had on Thursday of this week, but I would have liked a few more fish on Friday, December 1.  Jeff was out, but Tony was able to fish with me.  We both had to quit before 10 AM to make some work obligations, so we were hoping the early bite was on.  Not today.  We could have had a pick through the high tide and the outgoing if we’d had the time, I am confident.  We did not have that time, unfortunately.  During the usual magic window of about 6:30 to 8 AM, I managed to catch two rats all of 18 inches.  And I was a minor celebrity in the line-up as a result if that gives you any indication of the difference a day makes!  It was good to see the small fish, and I treated them like the precious resource they are.  I even talked Jeff into handling his own rat with a careful and quick release on Saturday night.  “No pics of 15-inch fish, you mitch!” may have been uttered, and the mitch reluctantly complied.  Rats are part of the potentially dim future.  These are the salad days for many not aware of how dire the YOY counts have been since 2017.  A little knowledge does suck sometimes.

A little sparser line-up by 8 AM

I did end up catching four more fish that morning.  A couple of them were awfully close to slot keepers if they were not actual keepers.  The other two were in the 24-26 inch range.  All of them, even the rats, were at the end of very long casts, so a lot of work for half a dozen small bass, especially after catching 30 fish the day before on 54-year-old arms and shoulders.  Tony and I and about 12 of our closest beach friends had two shots at birds and bait, and I connected on both opportunities.  Tony dropped two fish early, and he could not reach the short blitzes, so he took a goose egg.  I offered to take a drive and prospect, but Tony had also been fortunate enough to have a blitz day in November, so he was content not to join the chase.  My Jersey-famous buddies from Thursday walked up for a while and did share some intel about further south, where they eventually headed.  Tony and I stayed put.  The gamble sort of paid off since we did not have to leave fish to find fish, even if the fish were way the hell out there over the bar.  The green SP minnow scored when the metal could not, but we both tried metal because of the potential distance.  I got one on the THex by heaving it out there and flipping the bail for an immediate retrieve.  One fish hit it on the steady retrieve.  I snagged some small rainbait or spearing, so it was not all sandeels today like it was on Thursday.  That prompted me to add a teaser, and I briefly had a double before a fish took the teaser.  You see, I am lazy and I probably used the same 50 lb. leader all last year and this one.  The dropper loop just split.  I told Pete to use a dropper on Saturday morning, and he lost a double probably for the same reason!  It's not like the fish were big enough to break 30 or 50 lb. leader material, fresh leader material, that is….

Clean water and a swell, but the winds had literally changed.

I could not do Saturday morning, and that made Jeff sad, so I agreed to fish the evening after I had taken care of things I needed to do today.  We were in a race to beat the wind shift and pre-storm swells, and we lost.  It went from W to S during our drives to the beach and then even went SE while we were there.  It was a night for the surfers not us.  Jeff managed the aforementioned dinker, and it was my turn for a goose egg.  I had one legit bump before dark, actually 10 seconds before Jeff landed his little fish, so it is possible a small pod of rats came over the bar for a brief encounter with the eels.  We both thought we saw shad or some larger baitfish, but it could have been the small boys.   It was dead after that.  We were on the same blocks where we caught fish the last two days, and I sent Pete here this morning, and he had a nice flurry of fish at first light.  You would think they would come back at sunset, and they sometimes do with the sandeels dug in, but not tonight.  It was a weirdly warm and foggy afternoon.  I should have trout fished!  I do miss the woods, and I will be returning to them very soon, I believe, even if it’s just for some fall stockies.