What I would classify as below avergae day-althought fish were caught but not nearly as fast paced as my past 2 trips.
Broke the inlet and steamed due east until were about 2 miles offshore before making a left trun and steaming north. First stop was in the Red Church area about the same distance offshore. 2 short bass for the boat before we looked for more productive fishing. Went further north until we were just south of the Shrewsbury Rocks and went further offshore to some large areas of working birds that were just short of the EEZ. Better bite (although still very picky) with all bluefish. Left there and went back in tight to the beach and back to the south off Long Branch. Bite here was better still (but again not the fastest action). I quickly hooked up with a legit #14 bluefish (Jason had caught his first bluefish on the offshore drop). A fair amount of bluefish and short bass were coming up. We stayed in the general area working our way south with the fish going offshore and back in to work the various patches of birds. Spent a good amount of time between the Red Church and the rock wall. By 11:30ish the bite dropped to a thin pick with maybe 2-4 fish per drift.
I ended the day with a total of 11 bites but only being able to catch 4 fish (3 short bass and that 1 big blue). Out of the 7 bites I missed I should have caught 6 as I had them all on for at least 15 seconds. I caught all my fish on a blue 3.5 ounce ProFish Butterfly Jig. Missed 4 on the butterfly and 2 on a 5 ounce Krocodile sponn. Jason caught just 2 fish out of 6 bites (1 blue & 1 short bass). The blue came on a Kroc spoon and the bass on a blue 3 ounce crippled herring. He missed 3 on the Kroc and 1 on a shad.
Bluefish were spitting up various sized peanut bunker. My big blue had a whole adult bunker in addition to 6 peanuts. Some blues also had sand eels.
Pool winner was the lone keeper bass caught that taped out at 28.25 inchs.
Just a side thought (short rant), why do some boaters keep insisting on running full bore right up to breaking fish or working birds. Lost count of how many times/how many boats did that today. It boogles my mind.
