First Fall Keeper, Dave Spendiff

Posted on November 13, 2014 by VHFC

I left the dock this morning (11/12/14) at 5:15AM in fog so thick that I could barely see the bow. I was headed for Barnegat Inlet and had to go at idle speed until I got through the Manahawkin bridge area. In that I don’t use the ICW to go to BI, I was able to use the GPS to navigate my shortcut at a decent speed as I wasn’t concerned about encountering other boats until I got near the Oyster Creek channel. In spite of that, I didn’t clear the inlet until 7:15, a trip that normally takes a little over an hour. The ocean wasn’t any better and the fog didn’t start to lift until 9:30. Water temp was 54 degrees and there were plenty of bunker schools to fish. I fished a spot and caught a skate, I fished a live bunker and caught a shark…it seemed as if I was going to have a repeat of my trip on Monday – the 3 S’s -shark, sundial, skate. Finally, around 12:30 I got a solid hit on a snagged & dropped bunker and boated a fat 31″, 26lb striper. She was hooked in the mouth, so I was able to release her. Let me tell you something, no matter how wide you open your eyes, even to the size of saucers, you still can’t see in the fog!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.