Made arrangements to hook up with a long time friend of mine from the old neighborhood. This is one of the guys from the crew that gets together quarterly for dinner with the spouses where we rotate dinner parties at each others house. Brian (aka Kooz)has been working hard and was looking for some play time. Two weeks ago he gives me a call and says to keep him in mind for the week of the 20th. Now, I've got to give you a little bit of history here because this day came together like a hand made afghan blanket only your mother or grandmother knows how to knit . Mid april Brian asks if my buddy Capt Don Jr (of Tastee subs) can he do a repair job on his fav rod? I'm going to post a pic of this thing and when you look at it you might have thought he jammed the butt end into the spokes of his old stingray bike on the way down to catfish pond. Donnie (McGuiver) takes this broken wing and does his magic. Kooz insisted he only wanted the eyes replaced, don't touch the mice chewed foam handle, and don't even think of straightening out the butt. Job is done and "BENT POLE" is returned to Kooz in short order. Haven't been able to get him out until today.
So, here's the perfect opportunity... I'll get a couple of awesome fishermen on Z'obsession and put a couple of names and faces together. I knew this was a crew that was destined for a good day. Called Don Jr and extended the invite along with his dad Don Sr to meet up with us at Gateway NLT 7:00. Don't you know, when Kooz and I arrive at 6:45 the boyz are loaded up on the boat and both Don's have grins that looked like they just eat a scooter pie. On their way down, they stopped in keyport to pick up killies from their secret stash. Donnie Jr breaks out the net and in two throws loads a spackle bucket with some sweet Pnutz and we have bait for a month of sundays. Bags were prepped with Kosher salt,loaded, sealed and iced for later today to make it to the freezer. The balance made for ready bait all day long and then some.
We make way to the Promised Land one more time
This area has been producing for the past two weeks. Donnie Sr (aka Miaggi) is convinced there is big one coming on board today and I'm feeling the same mojo
. We have all that we need for gear, lunch (courtesy of Tastee), a couple of cold ones and oh yea Miaggi had some quality shedder crab marinated fluke strips. I think Miaggi has another nickname...Terriaki boy
. That stuff turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
Were on the marks at 7:45 and start picking away at the fish. There are a handful of shorts and only one keep before the top of the tide. After the change we were challenged by wind against but the tide won out. We had light winds blowing from the south/se. There was a fair amount of crap in the water which was disappointing and really didn't lift the spirits considering the poor showing thus far. Kooz and Donnie are connecting on small talk, mutual friends from edison/new brunswick and we all are starting to pick up the pace with a couple more keep fish added to the cooler.
We have a variety of stuff out there today. Spros in light green/white with a teaser, jingle bells with hunks of lead, spro with pink matching skirt and cuffs, and the winner for the day.... The MARTY FELDMAN. One big ass 6OZ hairy eyeball with the terriaki special on the eyeball and the pnut teaser.
Kooz is like a prize fighter in between rounds working the port stern corner when Bent Pole doubles over. Jeez, this light gear he has looks like a wood skewer for BBQ compared to some of the meat sticks we're using to hang 6OZ of lead. He's maintaining his composure and just describing that he's got a big fish on.... "just keep letting out line" "I've got a 100 yrds of line out" "just keep letting out line". Well he's crankin away and we're fearing that the twig is goin to snap. About five minutes pass and the nets passed to Donnie. At six feet below surface this beast decides to show a little bit of his stuff. I guess he's not to fond of MARTY. A few more cranks, the net is dipped and we all nearly crap our pants. Needless to say there was a whole lot of hoopin and hollerin.
This is Brians PB for fluke (10lb 10oz certified) and it couldn't have come at a better time, place or with better company.
We continued to play in the Promised Land looking for a sister, or brother. What's the odds of that happening
Well, we continued to find the fish and boxed a few more (none like the beast) until the drift got to squirrely. Moved to the candlesticks where we caught a break. Drift was nice and boxed 3 more keeps. Called it quits around 2:00. Count for the day four guys about 40 fish. 10 keeps and one memorable day.
Till next time.
