Decided to make the 5-10 PM run on the JP II out of Seawaren. Nice evening to be on the water. Caught the top of the tide and fished the outgoing. First setup was near the 19 buoy. Fished primarily clams to try to avoid the bluefish, but it didn't seem to make any difference as the yellow eyed demons made their appearance.
As the sun set we moved closer to the triangle near Perth Amboy and setup for another shot at the linesiders.
To no avail, we just couldn't get past the bluefish. It was pretty much drop and reel, hitting on clams and fresh bunker chunks. Thought the blues would "set the table" for the stripers but it was not to be this night.
8 guys on the boat had a blast reeling in the blues. I even got tired of losing hooks from the blue fish bites and switched to some rubber shads fished near the bottom, hoping a striper might take notice. The blues tore them up as well.
It's always exciting to have hard fighting fish throbing at the end of the line after a long winter. Next few weeks should improve the striper bite in the lower Raritan.
Will try Mboy's "best bluefish" recipe on a couple of the smaller blues I took for the table.
