Too Many Shorts at GSN by Ed Valitutto

Posted on October 25, 2021 by VHFC

With a flat wave forecast for Sunday, October 24th followed by big waves for the rest of the week, Dave Spendiff joined me for a trip to the Garden State North reef. Despite the small number of boats remaining in the water, the nice weather had everyone out fishing and we had to search for a vacant wreck to fish.
But the story was always the same – shorts, shorts and more shorts! We probably caught over 80 short seabass overall. The last spot we tried was a small barge close to the edge of the reef. At this point, we had only one keeper. But we quickly caught four more keepers including a nice 16 1/2″ keeper by Dave and a very nice triggerfish I caught. The question is, “Have all the larger fish been caught or have they already moved offshore?” I think it’s perhaps a little bit of both!

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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.