Fred Matero with one of his two little Harvey Cedar's fluke.
We had a serious problem with northeast wind yesterday. First thing we did on the island, after stopping at Fisherman's Headquarters, where I bought some hooks and sinkers, was grab a look at the surf, and it was all a rage. I hadn't expected it to be so bad. Next, we rode all the way to Barnegat Light and got a look at the jetty. The end of it appeared unfishable, waves breaking all the way across, and all the way back our way to the middle, water was on the rocks. If we were to go out there and fish that middle portion, which is the least we'd have wanted to do, we'd have probably got soaked. Not only with the temperature not quite 70, but with a backpack I want to keep in good condition, Fred's gear, and our preference for accessing the rocks without need of cumbersome Korkers cleats, though we each had a pair of them in Fred's SUV, the rocks weren't something we felt eager to hike out to. In fact, we abandoned our plan to do that altogether.
We went to our bayside spot. I cast a jig & Gulp, with a Z-Man Elaztech tied above that jig on a dropper loop. I wasn't expecting anything, but last Fred fished here recently, a 20-incher got caught, and he had one on, so I did make the best of each cast. And on one of them, I got hit right in close before I would have lifted for the next cast, lifted to set the hook, and had what felt like a 16-inch fluke on for a couple of seconds. Fred witnessed all that, but I told him the same anyhow, and he said, "You never know. When the guy hooked the 20-incher it felt like nothing till he got it to the surface and it ran."
I finally got my rig snagged, broke off the jig, and switched to bait in vague hopes of a nice tautog. It's rare that a really good one gets caught here, but the place draws a contingent of regulars that fish here all the time. Maybe they're just hooked, regardless of what gets caught, and what gets caught, in fact, are always little fish. But the jetty isn't too far away, and keeper tog do get caught on it. Sheepshead, too, though the sheepshead are relatively uncommon. So, who knows? I had it in me to give it a sincere try, more than I did last time. And I did hook something somewhat nice, like a 12-inch tog, big enough that I had to work the reel & rod hard to keep it out of the rocks, which I failed at doing! It got snagged in such a way that I could feel its body pulsing--not exactly a "little" fish--but I still couldn't get it unsnagged, not even by giving it slack for long periods of time.
In the meantime, one of the guides on the Tica Fred was using for baiting tog broke. The ring had popped out of the metal frame. He told he figured he could glue it. Told me about the brand he'd use, though I forget which epoxy. Then things got worse after he continued to use it and that ceramic ring broke. He felt disappointed because he's going to Florida soon and wanted to use the rod there. But he told me he had been looking for an excuse to buy a new Tsunami rod. I told him I had bought my Tica to replace a Tsunami. I didn't tell him this, but yeah, a Tsunami that was of the same size as my Tica. I couldn't remember, though, and still can't, what went wrong with the Tsunami.
At the end of our excursion, we would stop back in at Fisherman's Headquarters, where Fred left his Tica to be repaired, because there's no point in trashing an otherwise good rod because of a 20-dollar fix. It will take longer to get done than when he leaves for Florida, however, so he has his excuse.
I caught some little fish as I continued to fish as if one of them might be good sized, and I enjoyed it. I guess when you're open to the water in front of you, what comes out of it, in fact, feels good. Fred had told me about a spot in Harvey Cedars, and that it would be best to fish it before the tide gets low. Since the tide was on its way out, I felt ready to go, but I gave our spot my blessing, as if, just maybe, it would yield a nice one some day.
The Harvey Cedars spot has no tog and sheepshead structure. It's open water of at least six feet, near the Intracoastal Waterway channel. Fred hadn't been there in years, but he's caught small fluke, weakfish, and I believe he said cocktail blues. Today, we get some bites from small stuff that resulted in Gulp twister tails being bit off. I got a couple of hits on the Elaztech teaser I think were small fluke. You know that's where the hit came, when the Elaztech is no longer straight but pulled down into a curve on the hook. And by fishing the cove pretty hard, Fred ended up with two small fluke.
Black Seabass
From the spot where we caught a number of small ones.
Bergal, also known as cunner.
