Had Johnny Oz, Andy and Dave R out today. Hung a right out of the inlet heading toward Spring Lake looking for bunkers. Only found a few so off to plan "B", head north and bounce bucktails for fluke while swimming the few bunker we had.
Made a stop off of Bradley Beach with no results. Pushed further north.
Got to the red church and made a few drifts in 30' of water. Some short fluke and a keeper at 21" came over the gunnel.
Out to deeper water where we finally saw some bunker breaking the surface. Snatched some more for bait and gave them a boat ride out to 50' of water just north of the church. There we started bouncing fluke rigs off the bottom while the bunker were sent down with 1 ounce weights.
Shortly into the drift Johnny Oz hooks up and cranks in a 26", 6+# flattie. He's directing it to the net when the hook pulls. Ever so vigilant,
I had the net in the water and the fish's momentum continued it into the net then into the box.
Now Dave steps up to the plate and hooks into something on his fluke rig, this is not a flounder, something much bigger. Dave eventually gets the fish to the surface and heading toward the boat. POP,
off he come, just 20 feet from being netted.
Tuff one Dave, the 20 some pound bass just didn't want to meet our crew.
Set up the drift again and Dave's the first to come tight on a bunker rig. A 45" bass finds the net and is put on ice. Next is Andy with a nice bass and then Dave again for his limit.
Oz put another keeper fluke in the box and Andy finished the day with his limit on bass. We also had a keeper sea bass and a 5# blue fish along with several short fluke (released of course).
Me, I kinda just hung around watching the action for the most part. I did bounce some bucktails at times and lost four rigs to the rocky bottom, but not before catching and releasing several short fluke.
A good day out with good friends and some fish for the table.
Also saw Pop's Soul, Skip out today.
