The alarm went off at 0315 and I was in the truck by 0345. It's amazing how quickly you can move across the city at that hour. Leaving Philadelphia behind, I was heading due east on 195 into New Jersey. The first dark purples of sunrise appeared overhead at 0445. Forty-five minutes later found me walking on the beach for the first fishing of the spring.
The fish gods are generally seen to be unkind to those who do not put in their time. By the fourth cast I had lost two new $8 pencil-poppers. I had a lovely little jetty all to myself, but I had not seen any real bird action (which indicates fish below). After numerous birds nests in my reel and one more lost popper, I decided to make a move and a switch. I moved a few miles north and switched to bait.
As I arrived at my new location (one of my favorites), another angler gave me a thumbs down as to the fishing conditions. Sucker. I set up my rigs as close to the new jetty as possible, throwing one clam and one bunker chunk. The clam rig struck within a few minutes, and the first keeper striped bass of the year was caught and released. Four more fish were caught, three keepers and one short, up to 30 inches. Only one bass was harvested; the rest were successfully released.
As the bite turned off, I debated heading south to another location or turning tail and returning home. I decided to head home and cook my catch. It was a delicious dinner of fresh asparagus, mashed sweet potatoes, and striped bass filet sauteed in oil, butter and lemon. The spot I was going to move to had fish in the 25-40 lb range move in later in the afternoon. Typical.
