The wind, that is. It’s howling out today around 20-30mph due east. The beach will take a beating, especially considering the full moon tide is tomorrow, and the stormy weather will last through Thursday. Better double the weight on your clam/worm rigs to cast into the stiff wind.

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Today was the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge drive-on permit opening. Sadly, there were only 50 permits available on a first-come first-serve. Last year there were nearly 150 according to our local experts. Then again, last year there was a lot more beach (7 miles!) open to driving, and the beach was pretty wide. This year the beach was narrowed considerably due to a large number of severe storms. At places on the beach now there might be only a single-truck’s width sand between the water and the dune. So our length is now only 1.3 miles. Hence the smaller number of permits.

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Well the permitting started at 7am, but fishermen had been there in line all night, starting before 9pm! Yours truly, after fishing until 2:30 in the morning, finally made my way to the line at 7:05. I was 47th in line. Anyone who came after 8:15 was out of luck for a permit this year.

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Despite the reality of the conditions, we think more could have been done to give the fishermen access. There is only one entrance to the beach for vehicles, down from 2 last year. Though we haven’t been on the beach down that way, it would have been nice to get a section of beach available down that end too. It’s a balance for the Reserve officials between protecting the dune and allowing the fishermen on the beach. This year the fishermen are losing.

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Well the fishing kind of blows today too. The big numbers of bass taken throughout the last month or so have dwindled. The rivers have not produced fish in the regular spots, and even the tube and worm guys have had no luck, and they are usually the bellwether of fish on the flats.

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Friday and Saturday nights were great times to be on the water though. Flat calm with a nice clear moonlit sky. We did have reports of a few fish for the eeling crowd. With better reports coming from the beachfront than up in the rivers. We haven’t got a lot of reports from daytime fishermen but the rumble is that there is not a lot going on, not even bluefish blitzes, which are kind of expected this time of year. Hopefully this trashy weather will kick in some higher-quality fishing.

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We’ve been getting some catch and release photos to add to our weigh-in portraits. If you’d like to send us some, email them to stickman@surflandbt.com. Here are a few reports from our readers:

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