There is a scene in the film "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" in which R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) steals a boat and takes all the mental patients on a fishing trip. This is what, I assume, must have been playing through Captain Mike's mind today, after inviting us out for a day of fishing on The Islander.
The "us" consisted of Hotrod, his son Jeff (jeffibew), Capt. Joe (Irish Ayes), John (Jozwirk), Andy and myself.
We left the dock around 9:15 and headed out of Barnegat Inlet. As soon as we broke the inlet we were greeted by, what seemed like, acres of screaming, feeding gulls. Captain Mike wasted no time in speeding towards the melee to get us into the action. Once there we broke out the jigs and the party began!
A lot of big, chopper bluefish started coming over the rail. Some found their way to the deck by gaff and some came via airmail as many were swung over to enable their subsequent release. Rod and Jeff caught the biggest blues today!
Striped bass also made their way to the deck. And most of them made it to the inside of the fish box as well.
Although there were not as many bass caught today as bluefish, there were definitely enough around to keep it interesting. Butterfly jigs, Ava's and Crippled Herrings all accounted for some fish today.
As the birds moved Captain Mike had no problems keeping up with them. The Islander cruises pretty fast for a big boat and Mike showed us just how fast today. We stayed with the birds until the schools scattered. Then it was tog time!
Capt. Mike headed east and found a wreck to anchor up on. With great expertise, he positioned us over the wreck. And, with not such great expertise, the crew attempted to drop the anchors on it. I, and probably most of the rest of the crew out there today (save for Capt. Joe), had never attempted to anchor such a large boat. The deed was eventually accomplished as Mike barked orders over the loud speaker at us. In fact, at one point I was kind of feeling a little like Ben Hur on that slave ship.
In any case, with the anchor finally set, it was time to crack some crabs. From the second we had lines in the water it was "Fish on!" We had our one fish per angler limit in no time, and then played catch and release on the tog for the rest of the trip.
It was a terrific time aboard The Islander today! Stripers, big bluefish, a limit of blackfish and a ton of laughs with a great crew! What more could you ask for? Thanks for having us out today Captain Mike. Let's do it again soon!
