Pushed off at 5:45 this morning to some stiff East/South East winds. Crew included Capt Don Jr. the Clementi Brothers - Nickshaw and the Hoboken Hillbilly, Schutz - the hot hand Hairy Man, and Steve O - never knew I was a newbie! Had a variety of bait: LBI Spearing
, Asian Tube squid
, Killies
, Herring
, Gulp and some fresh iced bunk Courtesy of Reel Tight
Planned on poking outside to see conditions. Rounded the tip to find some poor soul hung up hard on the sand. No way he was getting that rig off without professional assistance.
Seas were very cranky. We went tight to the beach to pick a few shorts and quickly made the decision to head back into the TC/Reach where we had reasonable action. Put 3 in the box in over an hour with multiple releases on the shorts. Required the power drift with both tide and wind working together. Steve O was taking private lessons from the back bay master on how to feel the bite and hook set. He caught on real quick and by end of day you wouldn't know it was only his second time out fishing. Schutz was on fire striking early and often while the brothers were keeping tabs on how many swings, misses, fish to the boat yada yada each other had!! These guys are relentless on one another. You have to get a kick out of sibling rivalry. Thought our day was put to bed at about 9:45 when my braid get wrapped in the prop and spools about 75 yards as I have reverse power at 7000 RPM to counter the wind/current. Hell of a way to start the day. Managed to get the gaff on a dropper loop and began the slow process of retrieving line and clearing a reel mess. Once that was cleared we were rewarded with a brand new Popper that was floating by. Some anxious angler in their haste to try and hook breaking bluefish must have tossed it hard, snapped their line (swivel still attached) and even left the plastic hook protectors intact
. Seas on the outside layed down enough to make a decent run at it. Headed south near Scotty but still too sporty. Back to the beach where we found non-stop action adding another 5 to the coffin. The boys were double and triple hooking 17", 14" and the occasional 18+ and had a blast running through bait.
Nickshaw was in the KOOZ pose when he gets a tug from a decent fish. Within seconds he's OH SH%$#Ting as the rods is bobbing like a cork in the water.
Somebody was just about to go swimming. Stuff is dropped, motor cranked, net out and rod/reel are retrieved with huge skate attached! Go figure. Life is good once more.
Clearly silver flash was the ticket today
Wish I had the herring live but had to do with fresh frozen. Not a bad option. Ended the day just before 3 PM with a minimum of 70 fish caught and returned. Fun day and great bunch of guys.
Till next time
