Action! Action! Action!
Had Joe Keller and Friends from Monmouth Beach, NJ with us today for what was a an action filled, productive day of both keepers and throwbacks fishing in various spots in Raritan Bay this morning. Our top fish weighed exactly 5 lb's as we added 7 more keepers to the box and returned 67 more fish back to the water to grow.
Great group of fun loving guys that I would have on my boat anytime. Once again, the top producing bait was Peruvian Smelt/Squid strip combo which our fish just inhaled time and again to keep our crew busy for most of the day.
Our first drift at the edge of the Earle Pier had a constant pick of small throwbacks so it was time to move. Our next drift, along the eastern end of the Reach provided more of the same, so a quick tap on my GPS to some of my good fish producing locations and a phone call to another charter friend and off we went. And once again we were not disappointed with our move as we scored with keeper fish on our first drift along with the usual throwbacks.
We were using today our 6.5 ft St. Croix rods with Shimano TL 200 Reels with 30# braided line top shot. On the business end was a 2 foot flurocarbon leader with on a snelled 4/0 wide gap hook and a 6 inch dropper for the sinker. The current where we were was workable providing we deployed our 72" drift sock. Because we were in a full moon phase, we had to use a drift sock as well as some pretty heavy sinkers to hold bottom, but the payoff was some real quality fish that went into the box for dinner fillets for the guys.
Tight Lines,
Capt. John
