Fluke finale trip for 07', had Jeremiah Jacobs, Steve Davies, Steve M, and George "Dubya" Push aboard and again went south of the inlet, pretty much fishing the same area we've been fishing the last few weeks, ~3 miles off Mantoloking at the S end of the AC Reef.
Started out slow, but finally got into a few shorts after we made a few wiggles offshore. Finally put some keepers into the boat on our third drift, and then on the 4th Steve D put a nice chunky fish in the boat of about 3#, followed by one about 5# taken by Jeremiah.
Steve M then got into A REAL NICE FISH (he was bucktailing all day). Got it up to the top after a tough battle in 70' of water, but the fish was pinned between the drift sock, the swim platform, and the bracket on the outboard; yours truly briefly had the fish's head right in the net, but the fish went airborne, going out of the net, lodging itself right between the platform and the bracket, and I was just about to scoop her out but the fish darted out again (under the platform) and Steve's lined parted right on the edge of the platform, a real heartbreaker
The fish was easily in the 7-9# range.
So anyway, we re-set, Steve reties another green over white spro. We put a couple more fish in, and out of the blue, Steve again has a nice fish on, drag is singing, this fish is REALLY shaking its head. Another REAL NICE FISH. This time he comes up the port side, away from the "stuff" in the transom, and has a free fight on the fish. To make a long story short, yours truly slipped the net under a beautiful 28.5"/9.5# fluke for Steve, not quite a doormat, but one hell of a fish on the last trip of the year. The fish gods were indeed smiling upon us at that point!!!
We continued to pick away, but the wind got pretty wicked out of the S by 1PM, and even w/ the sock in the water we were drifting at 2 kts +, but still catching. Seas were also growing to 4-6' w/ a few 7's thrown in, so we headed for the barn just after 1.
We wound up with 9 nice fluke in the box, plus 1 ling. All the bigger fluke were taken on the uptide side of a big rubble patch.
Great trip, GREAT CREW, great way to end the fluke season, and congrats to Steve for landing the biggest fluke of the season on Reel Class!
