Night-time Summer Fishing: By Alexi

At the ready

    There is a man driving around after dark in the summer at the Jersey Shore.   Maybe he's there on vacation with his family, maybe not.  He's wearing a farmer john wetsuit (the kind with the shorts) and he has a canoe strapped to the top of his truck.   From his truck he pulls out a bucket of killies.   Some of them are dead.  He offers them to us.  We graciously decline.  He also sports a headlamp and a hand dipping net.  He's catching needlefish.  They're drawn to the light cast by his headlamp.  He says he'll eat them, maybe alone in a hotel room, maybe with a family.

   

We fish at night.  These are the ghosts we see.

     For the first hour or so we let the wind push us north across the flat with no action.

no moonlight tonight, just our red headlamps

After a paddle back to the clam shack I began to hear plenty of fish feeding along the banks.  They were picking off baitfish with ease.  With the wind still showing its girth, it was slightly more difficult to land decent casts than when the fish were out on the flat.  But when I did, I was pleasantly rewarded.

     This was an all ears event.  wait for a lull in the wind...stop paddling...listen for the splash of a fish...attempt to cast in total darkness to the source of the sound.  
     Once the tide started dropping I found a spilling pond (the same one Steve wrote about last year)  and had my pick of fish.

And then, at sunrise, a few blues came across the flat.

I had to get home to let the dog out....