Not feeling brave enough to challenge the growing sea, I left my boat on the trailer and headed out of Belmar on the Ocean Ex. for a day of fluking. First time out on this boat. Boat was clean and mates were pretty good.
Reports from the boat during the week were great, with fish to 10 pounds on Thurs.
No such luck on Friday. In building seas and wind, fluking was tough. There were only about a dozen keepers caught. Many shorts with lots of 12 inch fish. Big fish was a 4, maybe 5 pound fish.
I had 13 shorts and 3 keepers to 3.26#, 22 inches. I used whole 6" snappers, whole squid, and 8" salmon strips. The long strip bait produced the best. Bucktailing with the fast drift and deep water proved really tough and not feasible. We had to come in about 45 minutes early due to the conditions. A very bumpy, wet ride in.
All in all, not a bad fish in "bad and getting worse by the minute" conditions.
