This was our last scheduled FTYP of the summer. Had to Tom K, Socks, John, and Chris aboard with Michael and I. After talking over our options with the guys yesterday morning, we as an entire crew opted to do a mixed bag bottom trip fishing both inshore and offshore while possibly mixing in some fluking if things didn't work out.
So, off we went around 7 and shot north in slick calm seas. We set up on some rough stuff in 52' of water north of the rocks, initially targeting porgies, seabass, and tog on the hook. On and around the rubble, the scup were thick as fleas, and as soon as we got baits down to the bottom we started bailing porgies in the 10-14" range. We also picked some seabass with them, a keeper and short tog, and a thick 18" fluke.
We stayed on this piece with lock and load action until 10:30 when the boys had had enough. By that time the 125 qt coole was 1/2 full of porgies, as well as the other stuff, so we opted to run back south and make a couple of drops targeting tog. The water was yoo-hoo colored, but we got some quick bites and landed a couple of nice tog, including Steve's nice 5#er which he silently swung into the boat lol Had a few more shorts, but by noon time we wanted to change gears again.
With slick calm seas, the NW wind dropping out, it was a perfect day to hit a wreck out in the deep for ling and cod - so I gave the guys the option to switch over to fluking or to go offshore to target the deep water stuff, and unanimously they decided to make the move offshore. 12 miles later, in 200'+ of water, we were on the wreck - we initially anchored on the spot but with no wind and little current to speak of, we were swinging all over the place, but picking away slowly at ling of mixed sizes. After a couple of unsuccessful wiggles, we decided to drift the wreck - this proved to be a terrific move as every pass we would land 3-6 jumbo ling, topped by a 5#er by Steve, as well as a beautiful 24" keeper cod by Chris. We did this until we topped off the cooler, and headed home at 330 with a box full of fish.
When we got back to the dock we had a total of 163 fish in the box; 3 keeper tog, 6 seabass, 1 fluke, 1 cod, and a 50/50 mix of porgies and ling. This was a GREAT day of bottom fishing, lots of meat for the guys!!! Today was the perfect example of everything going right, from start to finish - wish we had more days like this but this kind of day keeps you coming back for more whenever we have a tough day. Great crew - lots of laughs and ball busting; a near perfect day!! Thanks again guys!!!!
