Capt Mike and I had Andy Sr, Andy Jr and Howie for today's charter. We had heavy rain before the charter arrived and were considering canceling the trip. However, the rain stopped and all systems were go.
Sr, Jr and Howie arrived at the Angela Rose II at 715 and we pushed off shortly thereafter.
The ocean conditions was not great but it was not Victory At Sea water either. The waves were maybe three foot and close together. Enough to make it hard to spot any bunker that may be around.
We went north and saw some marks on the depth sounder. Me and Mike tossed some snatch hooks and we had the charter guys trying some Ava's. None of us had a touch so in came the lines and off to the races again.
We did not mark anything more until we hit the Asbury Park area. There, it was the same thing. Some marks on the bottom but no takers.
Made our way to the Shrewsbury Rocks and started a troll from the inner to the outer buoy. Not long into the troll we picked up a blue fish about 12 pounds. No one wanted him, so back he went.
At that point Mike pointed out some bird action and we headed over to them. There, Andy Jr picked up a nice 36 inch striper while jigging an Ava. One for the box. No other takers so off to try to find them again.
Now, at the outer buoy, we had the boys jigging again. While jigging they started bringing up some keeper seabass with shorts mixed in. Made several short drifts and brought in seven keepers and released twice as many shorts. Mike jigged up two short fluke on Ava's.
Among the seabass Sr found a short striped bass, about 20 inches, which was immediately returned to the sea.
We had a couple of the guys turn a little green on us today and there was a period of time when only one on the charter was fishing. I won't divulge any information on who it was.
On the return trip we saw some bunker on top near Elberon. We stopped on them and Sr played catch and release with some small bluefish. We also had a big runoff with out a hook up and a bunker bitten in half by a blue fish.
Back at the dock before the rain. Cleaned the fish and boat and headed home. Not a great day but we did avoid the skunk.
