Parrot's Description

Parrot6909 and I email ea/other regularly...he described boating the area around Brick post Sandy...I thought it pretty descriptive of what he and all the NJ Guys are faced with...


Thanks, I think she looks nice. Haven't had her out at all. The bay was closed for a while post sandy and they haven't remarked the channels at all. Areas I would fish that were 20' deep are now 8" deep at high tide.
The area by me got hit the hardest on the jersey coast from the barrier island perspective. The town on the otherwise of my bridge has 58 homes that went into the bay, we are talking 3000-6000 sq ft homes. Some are still standing on the bay bottom. 1500 boats are still missing, a dozen or so cars are in the bay by me. Sea tow and boat insurance premiums will be paid in full prior to launching.
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To that I replied; Sounds like you're having to relearn the same waters youve known all your life...and he replied;

It will be interesting for sure. The first few trips are going to be slow going until I get my bearings. A buddy got stuck in the channel on a house, he could see the chimney when he looked down, should have been 16' there. Another guy lost his Grady a few weeks ago, hit a vw beetle in the bay. Twin engines went through the rear windows and he got stuck. Sea tow attempted to pull him but transom cracked and she went down.

Steel hulls and jet drives might become popular up there...:oh:
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That is not good at all, good luck to you fellows down there.
They say the Raritan Bay is loaded with everything from marina fuel tanks to cars and boats. Wash machines, hot water heaters. And many many boats.
My marina is still not allowed to use the channel as it has submerged sh!t in it and the Coasties have to come and scope it and arrange clearing it.
I cannot even imagine what the three major rivers that feed this bay have in them.
 
It is going to be an interesting spring for sure. Raritan bay is going to be a mess, barnegat bay is going to be very interesting. There are homes in the water right by the mantoloking bridge, it's very sad. The marina that I fill up with gas a few times a week no longer exists. The gas docks, tanks, building etc, are all gone. They are deposited somewhere in the bay. We will rebuild but I would be VERY careful behind any of the barrier islands, specifically from the Point Pleasant canal through Holgate.

I had seen a post on one of my other sites for guys looking to go clamming. If anyone on here rakes clams/crabs in the bay over the winter (which I normally do as well) I'd pass on it this year. The bay is shut down for clamming from Toms River through Holgate (realistically I'd say the Canal down through Holgate). The volume of oil, gas and other waste that made it into the bay is going to take a while to clean up. For you locals, Daryl will be reopening the Crab Shack on 2/1. Clams are always good there, you won't have to freeze your butt off and you won't get sick!

If you do go out, go slow, keep the depth finder on and make sure your tow and boat insurance is paid up.
 
It is going to be an interesting spring for sure. Raritan bay is going to be a mess, barnegat bay is going to be very interesting. There are homes in the water right by the mantoloking bridge, it's very sad. The marina that I fill up with gas a few times a week no longer exists. The gas docks, tanks, building etc, are all gone. They are deposited somewhere in the bay. We will rebuild but I would be VERY careful behind any of the barrier islands, specifically from the Point Pleasant canal through Holgate.

I had seen a post on one of my other sites for guys looking to go clamming. If anyone on here rakes clams/crabs in the bay over the winter (which I normally do as well) I'd pass on it this year. The bay is shut down for clamming from Toms River through Holgate (realistically I'd say the Canal down through Holgate). The volume of oil, gas and other waste that made it into the bay is going to take a while to clean up. For you locals, Daryl will be reopening the Crab Shack on 2/1. Clams are always good there, you won't have to freeze your butt off and you won't get sick!

If you do go out, go slow, keep the depth finder on and make sure your tow and boat insurance is paid up.

I'm wonderin' if it now makes sense to shelve the SS props for a while, replace w/easier to break aluminum...and ALWAYS have a spare (or two) onboard?...hitting CHIMNEYS w/a stainless prop could very well result in a bent prop shaft...:head:
 
I haven't heard about that. I heard about a 25' grady with twins going through the ICW north of BI that hit an obstruction...both lower units on the 250's supposedly went through the rear window of a VW bug and got stuck. When they were attempting to pull off it is rumored the transom cracked and she was taking on water. Again that's second hand.

I will be going aluminum prop on the Grady this year if I can even get into my slip. There is a house in the lagoon blocking entry and a sailboat is still on top of our walking bridge which prevents access to my slip anyway.

Once I get in the water if anyone wants to take a very sloooow ride with me to check out the bay you are welcome to do so. I am going to have the onboard GPS and the handheld going so I can chart clean water. Most of my fishing is done from 5-midnight. I'd rather not run blind. I haven't used electronics for my nighttime navigating ever but this year it will be a necessity.
 
I haven't heard about that. I heard about a 25' grady with twins going through the ICW north of BI that hit an obstruction...both lower units on the 250's supposedly went through the rear window of a VW bug and got stuck. When they were attempting to pull off it is rumored the transom cracked and she was taking on water. Again that's second hand.

I will be going aluminum prop on the Grady this year if I can even get into my slip. There is a house in the lagoon blocking entry and a sailboat is still on top of our walking bridge which prevents access to my slip anyway.

Once I get in the water if anyone wants to take a very sloooow ride with me to check out the bay you are welcome to do so. I am going to have the onboard GPS and the handheld going so I can chart clean water. Most of my fishing is done from 5-midnight. I'd rather not run blind. I haven't used electronics for my nighttime navigating ever but this year it will be a necessity.

Chartplotter and Radar are almost a must for Barnaget at night. At least you don't have to worry about freighters and tankers looming up out of the darkness. I don't think I'm going to be fishing Raritan Bay in the darkness this year. If I'm going to go nighting it will be far upriver in the Hackensack. No houses or cars in it. And yes, I'm also going to put on one of my alum props. A prop is cheap compared to an engine. :head:
 
I've heard a guy from sea tow hit a Durango in the beach haven area..... I'm very happy to see the bay freeze over this past week at least that will clean up some of the bacteria.
 
I heard about the 25' Grady, didn't know it damaged the transom though. I've been halfway entertaining the idea of spending my f350 diesel down payment savings on the jet drive lower unit assembly Yamaha uses with my powerhead and midsection to make a 115 jet drive. Realistically it looks like im just not going in this year (or next?) Kinda wishing I didn't spend the money to repower now. It's a shame I never used my GPS to get around, and now I don't know the bay at all. Maybe I'll just trailer up to the poconos a few times this summer

Nothing wrong with going slow. I'm sure the Coast Guard is marking every wreck and obstruction as it is discovered. And I'm equally sure that they (the obstructions) will be removed if possible. Don't write off the season yet.
 
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I have spent a considerable amount of time on the bay in the past 3 months. And yes there is a lot of stuff out there. But I have yet to see a car and really only one complete house in the water. There is plenty of sections of houses over by Gunners Ditch and Herring Island. I ran my v20 in Barnegat inlet and ran up the entire east side of the bay. Everything was fine till I got to Curtis Point. Not to say there isn't anything south of there,I just didn't hit or mark anything on my fish finder. Barnegatv20, that Yellowfin you are talking about was involved in a collision with another boat off Belmar a few weeks ago. There was a fatality. We towed it to state police, it wasn't a pretty sight. Parrot, I haven't heard of someone hitting a car, But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I know where that sailboat is you are talking about. We pulled a boat off that little island a few weeks ago. There has been a contract awarded to clean up the bay. Any and all debris and boats,cars and dredging. So don't lose faith for this summer. I'm looking forward to drinking some beers at Tices Shoal:beer:
 
Pete - all the reports of hitting cars and such I heard second hand so I'll take your's over theirs. Coming over the Mantoloking Bridge this morning you can see the big hole on the Mantoloking side is no more....going to have to find some new spots for sure. I think we will be ok, just going to take my time and mark hazards. Hopefully the bay fishing for the blowfish and weakfish is ok after all of this! Have you been out to the squan river at all? It didn't look bad from the few times I went by but haven't been out by boat. Picked up an i/o grady and she's sitting in my driveway waiting for warmer weather to venture out. If you want to save gas when the bunker start running give me a shout. I'd love to have ya.
 
I have run up and down the river a lot. It's all good. At high tide you have to watch for an occasional 2x6 or something floating around. During striper season I keep my boat at Garden State Marina. It is literally minutes from the inlet. I just found out this morning that the clean up has been split up to 3 different companies. Each one in charge of 1/3 of the area for clean up. It will begin very soon. My boss at BoatUS is hoping we get subbed out for some of the work in our area.
 
Good to hear the river is ok, it looks like there are some trees over on the other side of clarks in the water and the area by the golf course is silted in pretty good but as long as the channel is clear and the railroad bridge out to the inlet is good my fluking will be all set.

Hopefully the clean up starts soon. Have you heard about dredging at all? Specifically by the Mantoloking Bridge? I'd think they'd want that sand back to do some dune work.
 
there are plans for dredging. It should be happening right after the cleanup. There is a big tree on the sand bar in front of my marina. What size Grady did you get? Please tell me it's got a Mercruiser. Not something else.
 
I saw that tree by your place too...getting the itch to work on the boat but this weather isn't cooperating.

I ended up with a 22' Seafarer. Its got a mercruiser, the 190hp 470. The motor was rebuilt 2 years ago, has 40 hours on it. First I/O ever so...hoping this was a good decision. We shall see. You may hear me calling for tows if it doesn't work out, lol.
 
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