On day 1 had Bill, Joe, Barry & Marty in crew for the Sandy Hook Bay Anglers (SHBA) tournament. Started the morning fishing snags in 30ft of water where we boated 3 keepers and a bunch of shorts until we lost the drift. Moved out to 60ft where we grinded out another 10 keepers to 5lb until we lost the drift. Made a few moves to some other areas in 50 to 65 feet that were only Fluke nurseries. In between we saw fish crashing bait on the surface so we jumped on them to see what they were and immediatedly hooked up with Gator Blues on bucktails, so after we landed our fish, went back to Fluking. Barry also bucktailed a brown shark that we released boat side. Went to weigh in with something we thought was over 6# when the low fish was 2lbs but it turned out to be just a 5# fish.
On day 2 of the Sandy Hook Bay Anglers Tournament (SHBA) had Bill, Joe, George & Ed. Decided to gamble and travel in a completely different direction in hopes of finding the big one, fishing some less pressured spots and mainly by ourselves most of the day. Started on the spot where we left them fish biting at the end of the day Saturday where Ed started us off with a keeper but then only managed a few shorts in 50ft. A 3 mile move produced 3 more keepers in 65ft. Another drop nearby on a wrek in 80ft only yielded a ling and some lost bucktails. Another 8 mile move to 50ft produced 11 keepers to 6.5# and good number of shorts. Really thought the we would get a big one here with some nice fish above 4# being take. Went back to the 3 keeper spot on the ride home where we added 4 more keepers and called it day, leaving them biting. On the day, I saved 3 fish boatside with our Striper net including Bill's 6.5# who snapped the leader at the high teaser trying to make a final run. Had to ignore the urge to chase the multiple threshers we saw in our travels.
As for bait and tackle you name it, we fished it, Gulp, Squid, Spearing, Strip Baits and Mai Tai/Spro bucktails.... While I would have liked to have caught the big one, very happy with our 2 day total of 32 keepers. Congrats to the 1st and 2nd place winners Jake Jacubik and the the Fish Monger team.
Had a fun 2 days with both crews.
