The Fish Story
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•January 24, 2021
When Face Masks Will Fall From Grace; Inside Story of an LBI Whale Getting Blown Up Real Good
Using nonconventional calculation devices, I’ve scientifically determined how long we’ll have to remain masked … and it quickly got futuristic.
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•January 14, 2021
When Pickups Commence to Drinking; Circle Hooks Have Bassing Their Way
I’m always as sober as a snake is skinny. However, it seems I can’t say the same for my truck. That needs some explaining, with a touch Tom Waits music in the background, namely his song “The Piano…
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•January 6, 2021
Slowly We Turn, Step by Step We Approach; They Buried Buster the Baleen Far Too Fast
As a kid hereabouts, my bicycling buddies and I used to do something that has become hugely popular. We’d visit haunted abandoned houses, with which Route 9 was loaded back when. No, we weren’t…
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•December 17, 2020
Striped Bass Selfies Being Targeted by Bassarian; Poachers Can’t Escape Wildlife Violators Compact
As 2020 begins its much-hoped-for exit, a pop analysis indicates the Island is, indeed, more crowded than in Decembers past. To a burdensome degree, as some feared? That remains to be seen in a…
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•December 15, 2020
Learning the Mumblese Dialect; When Fishing Had No Impact on Fishes
I utilize the English language to the nth degree, professionally. Now, I’m being stunningly alerted to the fact I’m not nearly as adept as I thought at comprehending it, so to speak. It seems I’m…
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•December 3, 2020
Here’s Looking at You, Mister Coyote; the Littering Ways of Shotgun Shells
I know I do the LBI coyote thing to death, though hopefully not to the death of ’yotes. There are plenty of them going to Wiley heaven via hunters around the state, most of whom kill coyotes for…
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•November 25, 2020
When Orcas Commence to Head Banging Boats; Eyes in the Skies Focus on Fishing Bad Guys
Here we go, headlong and bemasked, into what might be a protracted holiday season for many – should part-time residents hitch their vacation wagons to the state’s most perfect place to await…
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•November 20, 2020
Send Six-Pack Holders Packing; Bigger Wind Farms on LBI Horizon
The sky is the limit … and the limiter. For the manyith week in a row, huge stripers are awaiting boat bassers. Some anglers are saying it’s bassing like they’ve never seen before, size-wise. Reports…
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•November 5, 2020
Salmon Skin Chips a Tasteful Appreciation; Atlantic Brant, Survivors of Highest-Flying Order
With the election from Hades draining to a tenuous conclusion, we now embark on the final period of what seems an equally hellish 2020. Where the final weeks of this downright spooky year take us, is…
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•November 3, 2020
Modern Recovery Comes Within Ancient Horseshoe Crab Blood; Readying for the Autumnal Arrival of Bald Eagles and Snowy Owls
Anglers have been in quite the fog lately, as have folks using the Island for sundry purposes, like living. The frequent showing of ground-level clouds, aka fog, is simply not common for this time of…
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•October 21, 2020
Worthy Word Tucked Away on Dusty Shelf; Eagle Numbers Take Flight Toward Former Greatness
It’s been an obsession of mine to seek out obsolete words that have become mummified from lack of usage. I’m not the only one exploring thusly; some folks have made an academic career out of looking…
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•October 15, 2020
Kitefest Makes Splash in Ship Bottom; Here Come Winter Prognostications
Now, that was one headbanger of a be-peopled weekend on LBI. Folks came in waves to hit the beach and look toward the heavens, taking in kites of many colors, from entry-level rag-tailed models to…
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•October 10, 2020
Weirdness 2020 Has Pompano, Pelicans Aplenty; No Country for Expired Flares
ONGOING WEIRDNESS 2020: Hookingly bizarre was Joe Handley’s huge pompano taken in Holgate on a tiny kingfish hook. They don’t belong here, at least not at the size this one arrived at: 3.24 pounds…
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•September 30, 2020
Even Icebergs Get the Blues; Looking for Some Classic Ladies
In one of the most bizarre findings in the history of both the planet and clothing, scientists recently discovered alarmingly large amounts of denim fiber have accumulated in the Arctic. You read…
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•September 24, 2020
Time to Go Archaic With Hurricane Names; Mullet on Long Trip Home
It’s now Greek to everyone, speaking of the beyond-bizarre alphabetic twist 2020 has applied to even the Atlantic hurricane season. Never have there been so many named tropical cyclones arising so…
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•September 16, 2020
When the World’s Bugs Bug Out; Not a Hand Sign of the Times
I was forwarded a music-ish video that bugged the heck out of me – in a good way. It featured a collaboration between the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and the World Wide Fund for Nature…
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•September 13, 2020
So You Want to Be a Year ’Rounder?; Knowing What’s Flooding Out There
Fall is readying to take on a whole different off-season Island look, possibly filled to the rafters with late-stayers. Having a slew of unseasonal people here is fine by me since I’m something of a…
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•September 7, 2020
Coyotes Covering Island Ground; When No Tin Can Safe on the Beach
There’s a ton of talking points this week, from a Queen City coyote to ungodly itches to pinging tin cans in olden Island days.
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•August 31, 2020
Secret Seeds a Message From China; Sea Lice Maybe Blown Our Way
I was among the apparent many who received unsolicited mystery seeds from China. At first, I figured that I was simply big in China, since I annually pay that nation’s electric bill through my…
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•August 23, 2020
Raining Plankton and Jellyfish; Olden Days of Proper Tar Ball Protocols
FREAKIER STILL: Bear with me as I make one last mention of TS Isaias, the little storm that could. And it truly short-circuited our piece of the power grid and melted away any notion that we’re ready…
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•August 15, 2020
Fatter Sandbars Are Coming to Greet Us; Isaias Leads to Brownouts of Vegetation
Are you/we ready for sandbar replenishment? Heck, we’ve gotten quite accustomed to tons of beach and dune replenishment. Why not pump in sand to buttress the first line of defense against ocean…
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•August 8, 2020
Surfer Gives a Hand to Feeding Shark; DOA Great White Gets Big Lift
We have not one but two shark episodes to talk about this week, the closer-in of the two being a decently deep hand wound suffered over the weekend by waverider and professional photographer Michael…
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•July 31, 2020
Causeway Wreck for the Ages; Crab Pieces No Cause for Concern
Loads to talk about this week. I’ll start by getting wrecked. No, not that way – though it might help, all things considered. Instead, I’m compelled to speak on the three-vehicle wreck on the…
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•July 26, 2020
The Case of the Dead-Duck Dolphin; Adages That Wrack a Young Mind
The viral video of last week’s graphic shark attack/feast upon a down-and-out dolphin offered a reality check on nature’s methodologies, which can become as savage as slashing, serrated-edge sharks’…
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•July 19, 2020
When Great Whites Become Chickens of the Sea; Arriving Cow-Nosed Stingrays: Winged Pizza for Sharks
It’s “Shark Week” time on television, when slo-mo clips of massive, profoundly terrifyingly great whites are close-upped going airborne to crunch the midair life out of hapless seals and sea lions.…
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•July 9, 2020
TVs Are Suddenly Becoming Quite Clear to Dogs, Chipmunks Are Bearing Disease-Carrying Riders
HEED AND RESPECT: Emergency vehicle lights and sirens also apply to you as a pedestrian, bicyclist, jogger, skateboarder or someone waiting for an Island trolley.
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•July 2, 2020
LBI Ocean Temps Quickly Go North and South; Midges, Sucking Blood Since Dino Times
I was asked a beach question that’s right up my alley – my alley being anything below the high-water mark. “Can water temperatures be different up and down Long Beach Island?” So, how much time ya…
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•June 29, 2020
Awaiting Impacts of a Solar Minimum; Wind Farms Will Positively Be Upon Us
Staying gorgeous out there during the week. It’s good to be here post-weekend – or should that be pre-weekend? I’ll take both.
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•June 22, 2020
When Deer Aren’t So Dear; Spring Angling Hits Its Stride
It hit me like a ton of furry lead. Say what!? I’m referencing the time (mid-1990s) when I was mountain biking and got brutally blindsided by a large female white-tailed deer. It happened on a narrow…
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•June 11, 2020
Freight Train Derecho Shakes Things Up; Black Bear Meanders Into Manahawkin
DERECHOS BLOW: I’ve been phasing myself out of the weather forecasting business, after realizing some readers actually listened intently when I’d call for “hurriquakes and lightning.” What I now wax…
