With the red hot bite that's been going on this week I really couldn't pass it up and I was jonesin' to get in on this bite, so I rounded up a crew with Mike G and Anthony and we headed out.
Broke the inlet at around 5:15, south wind was already coming on a bit but we headed north and found a few gannets divebombing off Spring Lake - but no shakes, so we headed north. Found a real nice patch of gannets working an area about a mile and a half off between Asbury and Long Branch. Set up on some good marks, sent down krocs, shads, and AVA's but didn't even have a touch. Ran further north, still not even a scratch, so we put the trolling sticks out and worked a few marks for about an hour -- still not even a knockdown.
At 7, we hung a spoon in the bottom, so we brought the whole spread up to re-set, when we looked off our starboard and saw the motherlode of gannets divebombing to our south about a 1/2 mile away. We ran right there, and immediately got into fish.
The first fish ever on the brand new Reel Class was a nice 25# bass taken by me on a Kroc spoon, but what followed for the next 45 minutes was a lights-out pick of 10-20# bass with a couple of smaller fish (~28" range) mixed in. We typically had 1-2 on at a time, multiple fish flopping on deck, etc. We boated our limit in a matter of minutes with quality fish, and released fish until dark. Mike was on fire tossing those storm shads - the kid's got the touch!
Great evening of fishing - jigging bass on tax day?? -- Can't believe it!! Great start to the season also, and a great way to break the new boat in and get some slime and blood on her deck
