Fred and I have been talking for months about us fishing near his new residence in Barnegat. Spent the whole day down there yesterday. Thanks to him, I got back on Long Beach Island for the first time in 11 years. If you let things go--they do go fast. I want to hold on to Fred's offer. Feel very grateful to him that I have the opportunity to come down when I can.
He's been fishing the jetty for, I guess, a couple of months, and I'm impressed with how well he has it down. Apparently, he always comes away having caught at least one keeper fluke, as you can see in the photo he did this time. Twenty and a half inches. He's been working at the tog and sheepshead, and though he hasn't caught a sheepshead yet, he's caught dozens of tog, but by what I've gathered none over the 15-inch limit. (If I'm mistaken, please comment, Fred.) Twelve inches is abundant, and they fight like hell. When you get one up from the depths and then over the rocks--they dive for those rocks forcefully.
Sand fleas, also known as mole crabs, catch them. (Fred says even fluke will hit them.) Black seabass hit them, too, as well as triggerfish. Among many others, I caught a 12-inch black seabass, the largest Fred has yet seen there. Half inch under keeper size. Fought hard. Fred ties leaders that work for all the species we caught. I found them to be uniform and tight. We attached one-ounce and two-ounce bank sinkers at the bottoms of them. Forty- and fifty-pound test means they can take some abrasion. I was using 20-pound-test braid as the mainline, Fred forty, I think. Appreciated the braid's sensitivity when it came to bites. The sand fleas are selling at bait shops for $20.00 a pint. That prompted Fred to buy a rake designed for the purpose of collecting sand fleas in surf wash. Fifty bucks has saved him a lot of money.
My son, Matt, and I used sand fleas for sheepshead in North Carolina. On that trip, he also caught a black drum on the same. Some black drum are being pulled up onto the rocks here, and Fred looks to next month for some redfish to arrive. In any event of fishing jetties, Korkers help you gain traction. The rocks at the edges--where you'll stand while casting--are slick and a fall could be serious. We saw a couple of military helicopters fly over, and they were a sight to see. A medical-life helicopter wouldn't be.
He caught 10 or 12 fluke. I caught only one. Some of the time he used Berkley Gulp, but the killies I bought did serve him well. I did as he did. Or at least, I thought so. Cast oceanside, out as far as I could, then very slowly reeled back. I did lose a fish as it pulled drag, but so did Fred.
We were out for hours. Mid-way through, someone we didn't know came and we welcomed him. Just minutes before Fred and I left as dusk began to gather, he caught a nice triggerfish. The walk out there and back is a long one, a half mile, but because most of the sand is packed, if you don't have a bad back as I do, or a bad heel as Fred does, it can be no more than a pleasant stroll. You have to carry gear, though, so we didn't carry too much.
Hadn't fished with Fred in months, and it was definitely a good time catching up. He's retired now, and although I've asked the same question by email, I wanted to put it to him in person. "What's retirement like?"
"It doesn't suck! It's good, really good."
That encourages me. I have some time yet to work a job, but when it's over--I want it over. I know a little about the challenges of aging already, but nothing else challenges my aching body more than the job, and while the mental stress isn't meaningless--it has its reasons and its needs to get over--I can do without so much.
