Breachways & Jetties

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Date: April 13, 2008 at 20:37:38
From: miker, [pool-72-88-245-221.nwrknj.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: Spring Time 2006 Spring Lake NJ Jetty Fishing Part 3


Well it took me close to two years to get up the gumption to finish the story, becuase its depressing..I participated in the MS Walk today and we walked along the Belmar and Spring Lake Beaches and passed most of the jetties which were so famous and filled with spring fish starting sometime in late April and running right thru spring and early summer. The view hit me right inthe stomach.

As I said the jetties were filled with guys livelining herring and bunker. Here at the shore because of the Asbury Park Press local fishermen were given alot of attention, tourney result were alway publisized and top local fishermen had articles written about them and were frequently called and quoted about the local conditions. Joe Pallato and Bob Mathews were always in paper and Mike Holwitz had a full page spread done on him and his 9 50s from the beach..Joe Geiser wrote the fishing coloumn for the press and liked giving attention to beach fishermen.

For those out of the area you might rememember that every time Nj was hit with a strong NE storm a local town called Sea Bright would be in the news and a news story would be run about how the ocan might just come over the Wall and run clear to teh river ruining all the ocean front homes along that stretch..Every storm kept cost the Fed gov an arm and leg to kept those sobs in their houses...Solution, build up the beaches with a sand project.

When I first heard of this I didnt think too much of it and figured it would just be to infill the beaches up the north end of the county which I didnt fish all that much.. What I didnt realize was what was instore.They intended and did fill in with very few exceptions every friggin beach between Sandy Hook and Manasquan inlet with millions and millions of dollars worth of sand.

It took them about 5 years but they did it. Now I thought the sand would only last until the first storm or two but wow was I wrong..Its still here over 10 years later.The sand has had the effect of turning the intertidal zone into beach flats.. Shallow water where deep water roamed at all stages of the tide.And despite my initial thoughts storms only make the condition worse because it drags sand higher on the beach into the water making the water around the jetties more shallow..

Not content with just ruining the beaches they went after the the Spring Lake jetties with a passion.. CHoped them up move rocks around, took out their base and turned them into rock piles. little islands surrounded by water only a fraction of how deep it used to be. Killed for years all the plant and animal life that grew around those jetties that used to attract bait and bigger fish.

The sand project did a number on Wreck pond where the "Pipe" is.Filled it with sand. The pond attracted herring,eels, and smaller bait every year but with the gateway choked those bait started to stay away in numbers and over time few looked to it to capture herring.The pond is and has been half polluted so nonecould figure out what do to clean it up..

You see after storms during the summer visitors could see and smell the crap washing into the waters from it.So instead of just cleaning it out the stupid SOBs decided to just extend it further out into the ocean.

They took out the bulkhead that surrounded it and moved it about a 200 yards out into the middle of the Atlantic so non could get to its mouth..End of netting herring there at all..

Now we still ahve fish along the beaches at various stages of the year, but we no longer have the big jetties that liveliners fished with big baits to catch big fish.And lets say a month from now you can ride along the beaches here in Spring Lake and youll see bait fishermen hugging the sides of those old jetties and some flyfishermen and pluggers here and there but you will see very few liveliners in Spring Lake.The conditions just dont warrant it.

Bob Matthews now fishes the canal,I hear Mike Holwitz fiishes from a boat. Mickey Albert can still be seen livelining Manasquan now and then but I havent seen him in Spring Lake in years..And the rest of the crowd like the rest of us are getting old..


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