Fished solo today on a NS boat out of Keyport (Jason's Father's day gift to me a trip by myself-with the closing words that I might have a shot at the pool with him not being aboard
).
Got to the boat just before 6 and was the first to board & set-up in the pulpit.. Good thing as by the time we pulled out of the slip at 7-30 minutes earlier than normal due top a full boat. Fished the Reach Channel and the adjacent flats. Had very good conditions early and fluke started coming up right away. I started with my standard bucktail rig consisting of a 1 ounce white (later dumped up to a 1.5 ounce) tipped with a chartreuse GULP swimming minnow and a stand-out hook 10"s above it tipped with a 3" GULP new penny shrimp. My first 3 fish were shorts on the bucktail, then I drilled a nice 24"+ fluke on the stand-out hook. good amount of keepers came up on the first drift. Continued using this set-up on the 2nd & 3rd drifts getting a second keeper out of the 12 I caught. Started losing conditions and the bite I had slowly died but there were still fluke (keepers & shorts) being caught on bait. All I caught on bait was a bunch of real short fish, nothing bigger than 15". started getting some outgoing water and I went back to bucktailing, only difference this time was that I tipped the bucktail with a 4" GULP shrimp and used a swimming minnow on the stand-out hook (same colors as earlier). Nailed 2 more keepers and some more shorts. Ended the day with 4 keepers out of 25.
My first keeper was good enough for the pool at #5.35-Thanks Jason. Closest was a #4, although there was a bigger fish lost at the net towards the end of the day. Most everyone one had 1 or 2. There were a few skunks. High hook was 5.
Took some of my winnings and stopped at the Keyport Fishery and brought home a pound each of fried scallops and clam strips.
