A fish and a rod by Dave Spendiff

Posted on August 4, 2021 by kelli

My solo trip to the Barnegat Reef began as I left my dock at 5:20 AM on Tuesday, August 3rd. It was an overcast chilly morning, particularly when you are wearing shorts! The inlet was as calm as I have ever seen it with the ocean not as smooth as I expected. So what else is new? I made a couple of drifts by the BI horn buoy and picked up two shorts. The drift was to the southwest so I headed for the northeast corner of the reef. On the reef, the drift was a swift 1.5+mph and I ended having to use 8oz to hold the bottom. Using my motor as a rudder, I was able to fish off of the stern with one dead stick, one in hand and my butt firmly in my bench seat. I lost an 8oz buck tail jig ($$$) on the dead stick and shifted to a rig with a sinker.

After many drifts that yielded 11 shorts and 2 keepers (18 & 21 1/2″), I headed for home arriving at 12:45. Both fish were kept in an iced saltwater live well and the smaller fish was still alive when I returned to my dock. It looked small so I re-measured and it was barely 1/8″ short. I revived it in the warmer lagoon water and released it. Should be a MONSTER next year! The rod in the picture of the larger fish is not a two piece rod, but a stick that snapped when I set the hook. What a dance I did landing that fish on a very stiff butt section in 49′ of water. What is not to love about fishing!!!

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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.