Winter pulled up in a real hurry. I almost forgot to turn off the air conditioner before it snowed. Crazy weather, but a lot of fun if you like snow.

I happen to love snow. I’ve been clearing the driveway with a palette behind the truck, dragging the car hood for fun and the dog lost 41 balls in the snow. The thaw-out should be a lot of fun for him. Stepping on a racquet ball under the snow is an interesting sensation and ride. There might be more snow tonight apparently.

The surf and waters have been rough, with waves pushing water to the dune lines for three days — while it was snowing. The surfers are loving it, the anglers not so much.

Parks had to close the drive-on accesses. That was a good idea. No one needs to get stuck on the beach in the winter in snow. It is a different kind of driving on snow on top of sand. If there’s a lot of snow, you sink real fast. Airing down to 10 PSI helps a great deal, but you better have beadlocks. It is not like just driving on sand itself.

It would be our luck that rough water and wind pushed in migratory striped bass. I was not going to try and get to the beaches and find out in the storm. It’s better to let the crews do their thing and not be part of the first responders’ problems. There were enough people in ditches.

Besides, sitting near the woodstove between bouts in the snow with the dog is more fun right now. I’ll go back to adulting tomorrow. Then again, there is always cleaning the tackle workshop up or building more gear. Yeah, maybe tomorrow.

The waterways’ temperatures will drop with all this cold runoff. We are definitely in winter mode now. In our area we still have 10 inches of packed wet snow on the ground that isn’t going anywhere soon. But if you can trudge to the edge of a waterway, get into some white perch. Be careful of the higher tide that should calm down by Friday afternoon. It has gradually gotten better.

Once boats can get back out, the striped bass action off Cape May will continue to be the preferred trip. There have been occasional catches a couple miles off our beaches. Within the EEZ, keep that 3-mile line in mind.

I’m going to keep hoping for some surf action, but you have to be there for that when it happens. Now that we can get around better, we can hit the surf. I’m curious to go see how action could be at Assateague. I need to break in my new sticker.

Freshwater action for pickerel has been a blast. Hooking into pickerel in the winter is fun — they fight like crazy despite the cold. Just keep them in the water when you release. That goes for any fish in the winter. The gills can freeze when it is near and below freezing. You don’t think about it because you’re wearing a coat.

I picked up a metal detector for Christmas, an Acer 300. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can find with this thing on the property and maybe the beach. One thing I bought with it is a pinpoint detector. It is used to find exactly where an object is in the dirt, and recommended by enthusiasts.

I never realized this, but everyone should have one of these pinpointers for the beach. If you drop anything in the sand, you can find it real fast for around $30 up to $100 for some models.

We spent two hours one day looking for a set of keys in the sand, right next to the vehicle. The sand that was scooped to find the keys had them in it and was thrown under a tire. Don’t get me started about the guy that lost an entire tire iron while changing a flat on the beach. A tire iron!

The keys would have taken minutes to find with a pinpointer. It’s one of the useful things I will be adding to my surf fishing vehicle list. I’ve dropped hooks and weights right next to my feet and then can’t find them. A pinpoint metal detector will.