Winter decided to show up right after a lively 80-degree afternoon at the beach. The temperature fluctuation in combination with the dry weather is wreaking havoc on my fall allergies.

That little bit of rain was awesome. We could use a week or more of that. Then we would complain it is too wet out. This year’s drought motivated me to build more raised-bed gardens with logs, leaves, mulch and manure. Also the reasoning is there would be less time spent weeding the gardens and more time to fish. I keep telling myself that anyway. My raised beds mulched deep did very well last year. I had to take apart my decks to rebuild and kept the wood to construct three-foot tall beds — no more bending over to harvest. The fish leftovers harvested over the winter will feed the compost areas. It’s nice to come home after a day or an hour on the water, pick fresh veggies and cook the fish you caught.

The surf is alive with spiny dogfish, so many dogfish. If you are into fish and chips, I suggest you hit the surf and catch spiny dogfish. They are everywhere right now.

The key to any dogfish is to clean one immediately. Dogfish, despite the name, are sharks and will secrete urea through their skin. Yes that is exactly what you think it is as with any shark. If you do not clean these right away the meat will get tainted and taste funny. There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to clean a dogfish. The meat is delicious. Fish and chips is typically made with dogfish in the United Kingdom. There is a very large commercial dogfish fishery. And it is regulated. Recreational anglers have no limits.

Any cut bait such as squid, clam or fish will catch dogfish. Sand fleas are deep if you feel like digging a lot.
Skates are around as always. Occasionally you will find some striped bass hitting bait in the surf. The migratory bass are mostly north in northern Jersey. Island Beach State Park has seen some decent action.

We are mostly seeing resident striped bass around here, but there are migratory fish in our waters around the Delaware Bay. Short bass action around structure has been good with white swim shads, small bucktails or spoons. Throw out some bait and spend the day casting along cuts or structure.

Tog action at the Indian River Inlet has been a lot of throwbacks amid some keepers. There is still a lot of construction going on which can disrupt fishing. It doesn’t disrupt the fish from eating but it does make them skittish in some areas. There has been some bluefish action around the inlet and along the beaches here and there this past week.

Sea bass has been good for the boats going out. Check with the party boats for trips.

I’ve seen some nice trout catches out of White Clay. There have also been some nice bass caught in the local ponds.

Playing with pickerel is always fun this time of year. The fluctuating temperatures have been fun to judge for fishing trips.

Some of the bait and tackle shops are having holiday sales. Hit them up for stocking stuffers. I’ll take any shiny new reel.