Yes, we got out today
Paul Lukas chartered the boat and along with him was a great group of guys consisting of Pat, Marcel, and Anders, the latter two guys work with Paul. Paul is an Army veteran who fought in Iraq and its always a pleasure having him on the boat - the guy is an epic story teller.
Onto the trip. We left the slip at 7 just as the "light rain" was making its way over Point Pleasant. Set up in the river to start, not even a bump, more shmegma. By 8 we were on our way back to the bay, and set up S of the bridge again. By that time the "light rain" was bordering on sideways heavy rain, being pushed by NNE winds of 20 kts +. We stuck it out. Not a freakin' scratch.
Onto another few drops in the E channel. Finally, Marcel put a nice 1.5# flattie in the boat, and I deadsticked another fish. Couple more bites, but things really crapped out. The weather at this point was simply nasty.
Things started getting ugly - at one point we started looking at each other, laughing, and started giving each other comic book superhero nicknames because of our rain gear (or lack thereof). For example, I was Gumby because of my all-green slicks and rain coat, Anthony (my deckhand) was labeled the toxic avenger b/c of his yellow "I'm not getting wet" body suit, Paul was GI Joe with his full length fatigues, Marcel (pictured below) was HAZ-MAT, Pat was Flask-man (explanation not needed), and Anders was labeled the Barnegat Bay/Monsoon Swamp Thing because of the soaking he took. ya had to be there, it was LOL funny.
Anyway, we finished up in the river, made another drop for the change of tide, and caught squat, but one thing I can say is the green crab population in the manasquan river is healthy.
Just a few fish for the day, but a load of laughs from a great group of guys. Hopefully when they read this later they'll be dried out and warm. Man was it nasty today! Back at it in a few days.
Socks good seein ya at the dock again
