Easter Sunday while I'm in the city with my family, I get a text from T-bone saying he tinks he wants to splash the Maycraft for some afternoon bassin on Monday. Are you in? No... not me.. We agree to meet in Keyport at 1:00. Winds were expected to calm down a tad relative to the early AM. Well, if they did it wasn't by much but they were right in line out of the west with an outgoing. Picked up a couple dozen fresh clams to add to a half bushel of freshly salted and frozen from last weeks adventure with Schultz.
We half expected to be a little warmer but there was fairly good cloud cover which kept the water temps down in the low 40's after last nights Big Chill. Pushed off shortly after 1:15 for the seasons maiden run on the CC after T-bone finalized the routine maintenance prepping this weekend after a long winters layover. She ran like a charm. New water pump and Garmin 320 FF to boot. The kid is getting handy these days (you should see his ceiling work but that's for another day).
On the way out, we saw Capt Lou docking the Mania and he was kind enough to point us in the right direction. Props to you Lou! Breaking the no wake, T-bone takes a short jog west not far from where the Angler just pulled anchor to bring his fares back before the 2:00 witching call. Rods are baited and in the water in no time. Chumming commences with routine and frequent disbursements. An hour passes and the only thing we account for is a Skate and a keeper Flounder. This isn't the way the script is suppose to play out.
We move...
Should have listed to Lou from the get go.. anchored in a new location. Baits in, chum out, FISH ON! The action was nonstop. The fish were picky at first. They'd touch the bait, pick at it, suck on it but never aggressively work the shell snot. T-bone was first on with what looked like a decent fish to within netting distance when it spit the hook. I was next with a short of about 20". So, now we are on fish one after another. Swinging and missing our fair share but as we got closer to the bottom of the tide they started attacking the clam as soon as it settled on the bottom. This continued through the slack tide. There was only a short lull in the action for about 1/2 hr and then the pace picked right back up. We couldn't find a keeper for lives but hell did we have some fun!
We fished until we were completely out of bait. Fresh, salted and frozen it didn't matter. Finished our half day adventure with 18 fish brought to the boat and returned for another day. Largest fish 27", several 24-26", many 20+", our share of misses. 1 keeper flounder. All fish were in excellent shape. Good color and evidence of sea lice on a number of them.
If we didn't run out of bait we still might have been out there. Stopped for a pop and bucket of steamers to cap the day. And a good one it was.
Here's to you T-bone
