The cool mornings are delightful, a foreshadowing of things to come. I saw a few leaves come down, and recently dropped a tree that needs to be split. I no longer use a woodstove in the shop — we acquired a split — but I use wood to cook year-round in the firepit built for cooking.

False fall hit nicely this morning; it was hoodie with shorts weather, while walking the property drinking coffee in the morning, cleaning up after last night’s fishing trip at the beach. It’s time to get fall fishing gear ready. That first breath of fall air really motivates you for larger fall fish and hunting. I don’t hunt but the woods change this time of year and you can watch it happen if you pay attention. I live in the middle of the wilderness of Sussex County or as close as you can get in the overdeveloped areas of Sussex. These pockets of large forests (over 2,000 acres) host a variety of life and while living on the edge of one forest and between four others makes for a lot of nature to watch. Some folks moved into the new development across the field, soon to be home to 32. They were filming the geese in the field. Little did they know here comes the morning fox looking for a meal. It was National Geographic meets wild kingdom out here for a hot minute. They stopped filming, I waved and shouted welcome to the country. They don’t know it yet, but the same show starts at the same time tomorrow, for the next few weeks.

The fishing has been a lot of fun on the beaches once the weather calmed down. Spot, croaker, weakfish, bluefish, short striped bass are in the surf, with skates, rays and sharks for days as well. You know the drill — less cut bait equals less scavengers and sharks. Fishbites has a new salt flavor out, ghost shrimp. So far it does pretty good catching. Barry of BS Surf Fishing Charters in Florida says it is slaying fish down there. The freshwater formulas are producing pretty good up here, too.

Sheepshead and trigger are around all the structure. A nice trigger was pulled out of the Indian River Inlet. Those fish love eating the barnacles and mussels on the rocks all day. I wonder if that coral is still growing down there. An angler snagged a beautiful head of live coral one day about nine years ago. It was neat to see and we put it back in between some rocks so maybe it would survive. Futile I know, but what are you going to do.

The boats are finally getting back out for tuna offshore and the Flounder Pounder tournament produced some decent fish, I heard, mostly up the Delaware Bay. The bottom offshore is a tad chilly. Most flounder are moving farther up the Delaware Bay or closer to shore for warmer water and baitfish also hunting for food in warmer water. The food web moves with the phytoplankton and upwellings make a lot of that food. That also makes for cooler water to swim and a much nicer breeze. The give and take of beach life. Croaker action in some places is out of control, just destroying baits while people are trying to flounder fish.

That offshore hurricane really walloped the northside beach at the Indian River Inlet. That dune line has been taking a beating ever since Sandy. I have so many pictures going back that far and to watch the coast line change from a sandy beach line to the row of boulders along Route 1 is surreal, almost apocalyptic. The old bridge was on the ocean side and it wouldn’t fit today if you tried. That bulkhead that is washing out now was first exposed after Sandy. We tried to locate that in pictures and it was probably something to help hold in the parking lot for the Coast Guard tower is our guess or it was a bulkhead for one of the older bridges. It’s neat looking through all the pictures in the Delaware archives. You see the pictures of the steel sheet bulkhead they originally installed. There is old sheeting visible on both sides of the rock wall today. I always wonder if that is that original sheet wall.

The dune system was washed out in front of the beach and pushed north I supposed. That was a lot of sand. Metal detector enthusiasts are all over the place right now. All of that “rumored” treasure and stuff that washed into the dunes during Sandy, just spread up the coast line.

The bonus of this storm damage is the “bowl” is back above the north beach and there are two points along coin beach toward Faithful Steward Crossing. Before Sandy hit there was a “dent” in the beach and a deep hole we called the bowl out front and it held a lot of fish, especially in summer. Sandy washed it out, and now it appears to be back. I’m not sure how much sand they will have to truck in because pumping sand will help but three years’ worth of sand is not currently located on the south side. Drop the dredge and let’s get pumping, just make sure to rope off that massive sink hole. I’d hate to lose anymore wildlife videographers. Be back later, have to find my battery charger for my metal detector, too.

Fishing near the inlet will be difficult. With all the beach and inlet wall construction, the water is really stirred up and dirty. That is also occurring at the same time the beach scapecalypse is being “fixed.”