It Won’t Be Late

I have some simple good news, and as close to live reporting as you’re going to get from us at the Surfcast Podcast.

Last week (early April), I was looking at the buoys scattered across New England that report water temperatures. I do this every year at this time of the year, even though it’s often irrelevant and most aren’t anywhere close to where I actually fish. I like to correlate the data displayed by these buoys with my log, the long term trends for the spring migration, and general surf productivity.

While everyone had been saying “late start” up until this point, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the buoys at Woods Hole and Fall River were almost dead on average for the month of April. This was despite frustrating temperature swings, and the cold months of January, February, and March that so distant. This observation was interesting, because not only did it refute the idea of a cold winter (by all accounts, this winter was simply closer to “normal” than we’ve simply gotten used to), but it shows blatantly that we’re right on track.

And that’s really the point I wanted to make, before it suddenly jumped to 80 degrees and sort of stomped on the idea of this post. We’re on track. And if you’re not on track with your prep and planning, let me assure you: the fish are coming, and they’re going to be here at worst on time.

Now, as of writing this on April 13th, I know that fishing in New Jersey has blown up, and this too is entirely within the normal timeline (maybe a touch late by some accounts, but I’ve spoke with some old salts who insist this isn’t that strange at all). So some will suddenly forget that they were saying it was going to be late- but for those of you who are still holding out and figuring you’d have a slow roll out this year, I would let that go.

Depending on what happens over the next three weeks, New England specifically could even still end up having an “early” spring. This is because the moon phases and day length drive everything so hard, that if often overrides cold temperatures- but I’ve found that if it gets warmer than average on top of that, then suddenly we really can have “early” bites. And this is a topic for another post- but I am NOT a fan of that at all.

So, the point is, get ready if you aren’t already and start thinking “normal” not “late”.

And make sure you check out John Skinner’s new episode which came out yesterday!