"How's your Spring been?" By Alexi

It's technically still spring.

"How's your spring been?"

Hmmm, "A lot of exploring."  I say.

That's another way of saying it's been slow.  (Except for the epic blue-fish bite)

So:

I went out with Nick to a new area last week.   Exploring, trying to suss out a new possible camp-site in Southern New Jersey.  The Island we were looking at was owner occupied, so we stayed away.

Cormorants.

"Cormorants nest in colonies around the shore, on trees, islets or cliffs."  from wikipedia.

The first thing I couldn't help but notice when I was approaching the proposed possible camping area was a flock of not-so-happy Cormorants.  I would not say that they are a pretty bird.  The only grace they have is when diving, otherwise their flight is erratic.  A sea of black, awkward in flight, squaking birds doesn't make for a pleasant potential campsite.

Hidden in this grass is thousands of killies

Next were the Herring Gulls, they make a god-awful noise.

possibly Herring Gulls

And, mixed in with everyone else was the Great Egret.  This island was FULL of nesting birds, and though I think we could have squared off with them and squatted on their land, we decided to wait until later in the year when their nesting is done.

Looks Fishy 

I managed to pull two 20" bass from the banks.  One on topwater, one on a weedless bass assassin.

There are no pictures of these fish, so you'll just have to believe me.  

Slowly but surely I think I'll end up fishing every estuary from Cape May to Barnegat Inlet.  This trip fills in another little piece to that puzzle.  

When considering how my spring has been, I ask myself, how often did I target large bass?  I only fished with eels in the back once or twice, and only surf-launched once and there were no bunker to be seen.  Am I just a shitty fisherman?  Have I resigned to picking up trash around the Sod-banks? What happened to "fishing in the dark?" 

 While the blue-fish were a welcome diversion, I wonder if my game has been thrown off by them.  But, then I remind myself, it's technically still spring....