Entered the Raritan Bay Anglers Club tournament with designs of taking that ride to the back bay before 6:00PM weigh-in. Excellent line-up with T-Bone aka "Whaa! I haven't caught a fish in an hour", Nick B aka "The Belmar Trim Kid" and Jeff M. aka "Silent Assasin".
We got the jump on things early. Made an attempt at a drop where Paulie nailed his pig but that was just a real mess! Rounded the hook to head south targeting the scratchy stuff. Lines in the water and rods were doubled over. Wind was a little more cranky then predicted but after the first hour or so it settled down nicely. Started making contributions to the coffin right out of the gate. The Trim Kid poked a nice CB (it was probably from Belmar
) while T-Bone got his favorite treat (BLAHHHH) a couple of ling dingers. Assasin and I made steady contributions on the flatties. We worked these grounds for 3 hours till the bite turned to a pick. Biggest fish was just shy of scaling 5lbs.
Continued the hunt and had a share of tossers and boxers. The snake was loaded with anglers on a similar mission. Boats were lined up wall to wall on the edges. Thought I felt a breeze from all the bucktailer's arms in motion working their magic. Drift was almost none existent. So those that power drifted were rewarded with the occasional net dipping. Time to move for the current. Ambrose never dissappoints
Made a few stops at the top end to find some shorts and moved on. Locked in on the spot T-Bone and I fished the day before to get a shot at some more keeps. Clock ticking with the 4:00 announcement by RBAC committee that the fish to beat was 11.42LB now that is a tall order! We were hoping for one shot at redemption and the next hour flew by with a couple of good pokes but it wasn't meant to be.
This team had no guit! The weather was outstanding, we laughed hard, ate good (thanks Tastee - maybe there's a sponsor
), and the fish cooperated. 12 hours of solid fishing!
Count for the day: 21 fluke, 7 seabass, 4 dingers. Plenty of throwbacks but not bad. 4-5:1
Hope to get 'em next time.
