Shifting Borders

Another fall nears closing as once again the surf striper run on the Jersey coast has fallen apart. This fall, a lot of bass got caught three miles or so out to sea, but repeated nor'easters contributed to vacant surf lines. I don't know much of the whole story, but my brother Rick and I have been talking about surf fishing since August, so we were ready to take our opportunity, which never unfolded. He lives in Wall a mile from the beach, and he's been at the ready to say go.

We also hoped to fish Lake Hopatcong. I doubt he's even seen the lake since January 1978, but he's up for walleye and hybrids sometime. Our plan got cut short because Dow's Boat Rentals had to pull the boats, the lake level sinking too low. Every five years, the lake gets drawn down five feet so docks can be maintained.

I also hoped to fly fish on Wednesday, but rivers already high and off-color are flooding plenty now with the next heavy rain falling two days after the previous. More rain is in the forecast for later this week, too.

The climate is mixed up. It seems to me as if the bulk of the stripers weren't interested in the surf line this fall or last regardless of waves as high as 15 feet. Why specifically I don't know. And I don't know if climate has anything to do with it, just that my gut tells me it might. Borders will change as seas rise. The way maps divide regions now will alter. 

3 Degrees

It got cold. Three degrees recorded at Walpack. Four degrees at Pequest. Even seven degrees right over here at Basking Ridge, but we took a road trip today, down through Musconetcong Valley, back over in our home direction on I-78 and getting off to drive by Round Valley, where the pond has no ice on it, though that pond is very deep and exposed to the wind that's been pretty persistent the past few days.

A pond with 35-foot depth takes a while to cool off, and though I am curious about how thick ice got and is getting yet on shallower ponds to the north, I feel just as disappointed because my hunch tells me the wind prevented much from developing.

Back up to 50 degrees tomorrow. I wonder if we'll enjoy some 70-degree temps before January. 

6 Degrees

Happy Thanksgiving! (Watching "Sorry to Bother You" on TV with my family.)

Took Sadie for a walk in 21-degree cold, temperatures expected to fall to 11 here in Bedminster overnight: https://www.bing.com/search?q=temperature+bedminster+nj&form=EDNTHT&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=a159f7fad2ea45a5c2be9bc0e929ffe7&sp=-1&ghc=1&pq=temperature+bedminster+nj&sc=1-25&qs=n&sk=&cvid=a159f7fad2ea45a5c2be9bc0e929ffe7

North of here in Sussex it's 19, the temperature expected to plummet to 6, and with cold persisting into Saturday morning, I suspect ponds up there may support ice fishing for anyone who would care to do it:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=weather%20forecast%20sussex%20nj&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=weather%20forecast%20sussex%20nj&sc=5-26&sk=&cvid=8B8026C040654893869F1956234E5243

Just a fascination of mine. I probably won't ice fish until January, and not a whole lot this winter. Walking Sadie, I paid my respects to the pond, not frozen. Wind is always a factor when it's present.

Looks Like Marginally Safe Ice

Come Wednesday night, temperatures are expected to plummet to the mid-teens, getting down to 15 after a high of 27 on Thanksgiving, and then dropping to 24 Friday night. This is Bedminster's forecast. In the northwest corner of the state, it's likely marginally safe ice will have formed on ponds, although after early Saturday morning, milder weather will return and knock out anyone's taking advantage of November ice fishing.

Here's a link to the forecast. Think it will get dated quickly: https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/USNJ0032:1:US

Winter Trout Stocking

Fred used to catch winter stockers at Speedwell Lake, but this late stocking of ponds and lakes is largely about ice fishing, and none is allowed there, so they phased out the stocking. A pond I fish a lot, Mount Hope Pond, I know supports some jigging--and catches--when the freeze comes. I will keep you abreast of developments concerning ice or lack of it as ice season comes.

Here's the link to Fish & Wildlife information:

https://www.njfishandwildlife.com/wintrstk18.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Ice Watch Begins

Skim ice will likely develop overnight on ponds in the northwest corner of the state. Recent years have seen this happen about now, as the link (below) takes you to a November 24, 2016 post with a photograph of Lake Musconetcong frozen over, although that ice was very thin. The photo leaves something to be desired as far as making that freeze evident goes, but that was the case.

Less than three weeks ago, the trees remained primarily green here in Bedminster, and now most of the leaves are down. We took a very sharp turn in the weather, so here I am beginning my yearly ice watch already.

We shall see how much snow we get tomorrow, if any.

Wouldn't mind a solid ice season, although I don't plan on getting out more than three times. I don't rule out four ventures, but I do like to use winter as a time to get a lot of writing done. Matt looks forward to ice fishing this winter, especially after having so much fun on Round Valley Pond last January, and he's interested in what I have to say about ice fishing Tilcon Lake.


https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2016/11/delaware-river-at-interstate-80-and.html

Excitement You Never Forget

Haven't fished since October 31st. My brother Rick and I would have gone tomorrow, but the prospect of surf casting for stripers in pretty serious cold does not feel right with most of the catches three miles out and further. He fished them a few days ago in the surf and didn't get a hit.

Like last Wednesday, rivers and streams are high after rain, but I wouldn't have fished a week ago anyhow, nor tomorrow, besides the surf. Too much writing to do, which I'm enjoying a great deal. You see the announcement on the page about coming books. Whether or not a publisher takes the book on trout fishing I'm finally working on again, I enjoy writing it so much that I actually feel that if no cares to publish it, it will still have been fully worthwhile. It's as if I can't lose. As a case in point, the novelist Barbara Kingsolver is probably more introverted than I am. As a matter of fact, I took a personality test the other night for the fun of it, and I scored 65% introverted, 35% extraverted. I've thought for years that I'm ambiverted, and this balance of percentages shows this is pretty much the case, anyway. But about Kingsolver, she said in an interview that she would have written all of her novels just for the joy of writing, and then stuffed them in drawers, as if never to be read by anyone else.

I figure if no one will publish my book, I'll figure out how to publish it online, but I really do want a good commercial publisher to take it. The trick is not to invest too much hope in this, in case it never happens. And besides, the best writing, though it addresses readers through every word and punctuation mark, is written on the level of language, not as an expediency with designs solely to cash in. So every move this writer takes is redeemed by the fact that it's for the joy of it. That feeling does want to reach out. It's just that nay saying can't ruin the work.

I got word from Fred Matero tonight, in answer to my suggestion that we swing over to Round Valley maybe sometime in December. He's up for it. I never forget the last lake trout I lost. I'm assuming it was a laker. They come in when it gets really cold. A few of them. That afternoon early in January, think it was, wasn't so cold, but it was winter, and I had cast a really big shiner way out there by use of an 11-foot noodle rod with great range. Fishing bottom can seem a bore, but once line starts moving in a world shut down by the season that keeps most people indoors, you feel excitement you never forget.

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/05/coming-books.html