Tog are in

 as always, I just need time and weather to cooperate.

on this particular day, the water clarity was excellent, air temps mild, weather had been stable for days, and it was "drop and reel" conditions with over 50 fish caught (and between 4 of us, that would make OVER 46 of them released... we kept 1 for each of us)

November Tog

A warm spell, a southwest wind, plenty of fish, and the biggest on the
last bait left for the day, all combined to another great outing of
catch and release (with 1 keep) togging in the backbays of the
Grand State of South Jersey:

Brants are in the backbays, Herring gulls, Terns, Sunshine.

A great way to kick off November!  All we need is the warmth to stick around until the 15th when the limit bumps up to 6!

Time for tog

Open wide!

><((((*>

A Day on the Bay

ok, I probably need to get more creative with titles, but yesterday's activities really qualifies.

The weather finally cooperated for once, and I simply took a day off from work.

Good choice.

Went out on the waverunner with some friends to go clamming. Yes, wrote about that earlier, but yesterday had the "full contingent" out there: 3 waverunners and 4 clammers. Sort of. I don't qualify as a clammer, but I'm starting.

We left from our usual Absecon ramp, with a little more wind than expected. Duh, the story of the year. NOAA says 5-10 and lessening winds, and instead it was 10-15 with gusts.  Ok, it did calm down by the end of the morning...

One fellow, Jeff, clammed these backbays about 40 years ago when he was a teenager. It's always fascinating to speak with "a local"... he spoke about different bays, and using the foot technique: walking barefoot and feeling for the clams in deep, soft, mud. Not something I'd feel comfortable doing, even as a teenager, but hey, he was a clammie :)

We got out to the usual bar, setup and spent a good hour walking around, digging, and loading the clams back up to the waverunners.

A bit tired (yeah, we're old farts by now), tooled around the bay and then zipped over to Gardner's Basin, to a fantastic waterfront place called Gilchrist. Nice breakfast/lunch place.

Finished up and headed back out, and saw the lineup at the inlet portion of Brigantine. Now this was a nice day in June, but it was a Tuesday. Doesn't anybody work anymore?

So, after getting back to the ramp, I checked in on my brother in law, and the afternoon fishing was "on"... he got some word that there were fish hitting.

"They slew them yesterday over at the guzzles"  "ut oh" I thought. Anyone slaying anything the day before usually spells trouble for today, but we really had no choice. Prior scouting hadn't yielded any better news.

So, I got down to the dock where the boat was, we loaded up and took the ride South... about a half hour trip or so.

Getting there, we ran into some serious wind against tide. While I know better, and was thinking about using a float rig (for another post), I didn't. And we didn't catch for quite a while.

So, we started moving back, finding a little shelter, and eventually found some fish.

Dolphin Play

After getting a few keepers, and it getting a bit late in the day, we made our way back North, cutting across the Great Egg Harbor Inlet.

There, we got to witness some of nature's beauty and power, as about 30-40 eastern bottlenose dolphin   were corralling and pounding baitfish. We powered down and just watched the show for a while. I didn't have a great camera, but a few shots at least give a glimpse of the beauty. The pictures don't really give the full impact of what we witnessed, but it's what I have.

Back at the dock, gnats hitting ferociously, we filleted the flounder and divided up fish and clams...

A beautiful day on the Bay!

Back Bay

Took a trip in the back on the "new ride" to do some clamming. 


Along the way out,  found a disabled‎ boater and my friend Pat helped him back to the ramp before we headed back out. Eventually we made it to the ramp, let the fellow and his son off and ran back out. 

Note that this was to be my first clamming trip ever (yes, I purchased the recreational license :) )
and only the 3rd trip out on the waverunner.  For rakes, my friend Pat loaned an inexpensive short hand-rake (a converted garden rake).  Works ok, though it will be interesting to see what my other friend Jim uses. He apparently has a different (and I'm told "more traditional") rake. Pat found his favorite cut and bar, and we anchored up, tide was just off low in the back.

    

We had limited time but found a decent load of clams...  ok, maybe not by professional clammer standards, but for my first trip, we had over 80 clams in a 1/2 hr.  That was enough for me (not the digging, but the actual number of clams) so we loaded back up and did a little touring before heading back to the ramp. We probably would have loaded up more, but Pat had a time limit and the tow assist cut into our actual time on water.

Forecast was iffy for our area, however, as often happens in our area, we could watch the storms cross southern jersey and dissipate before reaching us.

All we were left with were clouds, which eventually yielded to a clear, calm evening on the bay! 


 

><((((*>

Good News / Bad News

Good news, a new batch of fish moved in.

Bad news, I can't fish for them... Dr's orders

At least others get to enjoy it.

There have been a nice batch of large (relatively) flounder in the back bays all June.

If you get out there when they are biting ... DOH!