Fishing Journal April 11, 2015

After what seemed to be a never ending winter spring is finally here in mid April. Typically New Jersey has experienced a few warmer weeks by now. This was the first weekend to actually get out and shake it off by doing what we love the most.

It begun Saturday afternoon on the bay-shore of Cliffwood Beach. Myself I have never stepped foot on dry land there. An invite from Sean ‘Rednedk’ a friend of mine and also joining were my friend Dan and a good acquaintance Pat. Fer me this was to be an experience due to the last time fishing from a beach i was in my young teens fishing with my father. We weren’t really ever fond of the style of surf fishing. My father had a boat so we were always fishing from it. It was great to learn that nothing has changed. It still consists of a minimum 11′ rod and a 6000 series spinning reel. Sean and Pat are experienced surf fisherman Dan however was new to it. It was great to teach him the basics of how to tie on a rig shuck a clam and hurl and loft the bait as far from the beach as possible.

It turned out to be a sunny but cold windy afternoon with a sustained 25 mph wind gusting  to 35 mph. My first cast crossed both Sean and pats lines as the wind grabbed my pop fly cast and took it to the right. After reeling back in and walking back past their lines I was able to throw a much more decent cast.  A few hours went by more shooting the breeze with fishing stories of the past and it was time to pack up and go get some Chinese style all you can eat Buffet. For the future I’m never doing buffet before fishing in the AM again.

Although we were completely skunked it was great hanging out fishing again!