Got out on the Sea Hawk Sunday with my uncle for some early season fluking.
Sun didn't come out until later in the day but overall a nice day out on the water. Decent amount of action for the boat overall. Seemed fishing bait or sweetening a Gulp offering with some meat got more of the flatones' attention.
I stuck with bucktailing all day. All but 2 drifts I used a 1oz chartreuse Spro tipped with a 4" white gulp grub. Had some bites but nothing all that good. Fish didn't seem too interested or active early on. Bunker were out and about and one drift while banging into everyone's lines, one decided to ride mine down to the bucktail and impale itself. Got it in and mate Jesse quickly got me some fresh bloody strips. As soon as it hit bottom I had action. Some shorts, sea robins and 3 blues in the 6-8# range took the hook. Even convinced two keeper fluke to visit me and stay in my cooler.
Later just the Gulp grub provided action though all shorts. Bucktail survived the blues and fluke pretty well but the last sea robin turned it into a plain jig head
My uncle managed two nice keepers as well that fell to a strip/spearing combo and a Gulp shrimp on a bait rig. Was on fire there for a little while with alot of shorts too.
Others managed catches ranging from none to 5. Truly not bad for times we'd be targeting winter flounder years ago.
Was great to get out and wet a line as well as seeing all the Sea Hawk crew and fisherpeople. Capt Mike and crew made some nice improvements on the boat and worked hard as usual.
Pool fish was about 4.5# though one angler that opted not to get in on the pool of course boated a nice 6#+ flattie.
