NJ Saltwater Fishing Articles
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- Category: Fishing Articles
- Published: Wednesday, 17 March 2010 04:41
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I
had a good idea but really was not sure. It was not till I went to
college till I finally realized what these guys were talking about. I
had to take science classes so I decided to take a couple of classes in
Oceanography, at Richard Stockton College, in Pomona, NJ. It was Dr.
Stuart C. Farrell PhD. and his description of beach morphology and
physical processes affecting shoreline dynamics, that allowed me to
finally understand what was going on.
You want to talk about a
light going off well it was like the whole room lit up. After class I
talked to the professor and had him go into detail as to what goes on.
WOW, that was easier than I thought.
I hope I can relate what I
learned here in as simple terms as possible. The ocean because of its
never ending movement causes the sand to shift constantly there by
morphing the shoreline constantly. This can be seen especially after a
storm. The beach sand is scarped away by the waves and their constant
pounding and loosening if the sand. Where does it go? In simple terms
it sits just off shore waiting for redepositing back up onto the beach
once more...
In doing so bars are formed a slight distance off
shore. Now you have what is called a slough which is a depression that
runs parallel to the shoreline. Again lets go back to the constant wave
action remember that? Well as it goes over the bars a wave or up
swelling is formed sometimes curling and breaking over the bar is it
becomes shallow enough. Then the wave flattens out till it comes
crashing onto the shore.
What just happened? Well the ocean
just delivered a huge amount of water over that bar and now it wants to
escape. How? By the force of the water it finds the weakest point in
the bar and breaks its way through causing a cut or depression in the
bar. It might not be much in fact most of the time it may be only a
couple of feet or so.
Knowing this you can use this to your
advantage, the fish do. What do I mean by that? Well. As the predator
fish attack the bait the bait look for a place to hide, our bottom here
is pretty much just sand so any depression the bait can find they make
use of. More of this later.
Another distinguishing effect is
the rip current. This is caused by the current running through the cut
in the bar perpendicular to the beach. In the summer you hear once in a
while a person swimming and suddenly is taken a long distance off
shore. What happened now? The current is strong enough to carry
anything off shore and that is including people. For us, it can be a
problem, for the bait and fish feeding it is a super highway to either a
good meal or safety.
When the water is high or it is too rough
to see the cuts or the rips caused by the cuts simply read the beach.
Now were are getting to the point of this article.
As the water
caused by the tides rise and fall carve out sand from the beach and
carry this off the beach and through the cut in the bar. This is a good
place to try your luck as the fish you are trying to target are looking
for bait that are washed out by this rip current.
Try the sides
of the rip and also in the back parts of the slough between the bar and
the shore line.
As you look at the pictures also look at the
beach and you will see that there is a low area forming caused by the
waves and the current of the fast moving current off the beach.
I
hope this makes scenes and opens up a lot more spots to try and land
that big one. I want you to also notice the amount of sand that has
eroded off the beach since Thursday and Friday.
FYI, I noticed
that there were 7 new rips on that short section of Ortley Beach alone.
Good
Luck, Happy Catching
Paul
