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Had Steve Magyari, Pete Pellack, and his daughter Alexa (10 years old) aboard today for a bass/bluefish jig trip.
Ran north, and intended to run up to the Rocks. Never got there. Got the call from Capt Monger and Capt Mike that it was on a lil closer to home so we raced there with the crisp (and GUSTY) WNW wind freshening off our port side on the ride up. Found acres upon acres of birds - the sky was black with them - mostly gannets and gulls, going bonkers over bluefish and bass cruising the surface. Got the jigs in, and had immediate fish, with Alexa nailing the first bluefish of ~10#, then she sat it out for awhile as her dad, Steve and I worked on our bicep muscles.
First drift, we must've caught thirty something fish, and it was like that until 11 AM. That first drift, Pete nailed a nice bass, only to have it spit the hook at boat side, real nice fish... When it was time to make a move, Steve slipped on the deck, allowing his jig to stop, and as he got up, the rod arced over, and we knew immediately he had a big fish on. Long story short, 10 minutes later, we had a 44"/30# bass in the net on a 47 w/ a green tail.
After that, it was bluefish after bluefish. 8-15# gators, top to bottom, covering us up. We followed the same patch of birds and life from Deal all the way down to Bay Head, with only a few lulls in there.
Wound up with easily 75 bluefish, if not more, and Steve's 30# bass, his best ever, CONGRATS STEVE. Alexa did a great job after feeling a little woozy, and gutted it out all day - that kid is a trooper! Great day on the water, we took a little beating offshore - but it was well worth it. All fish were taken on jigs, mostly 47's and 67's as well as butterflies -- can't beat that!!!
