Had Phil (Wreckfish) on board Saturday for a day of bassing the Sandy Hook area. We were loaded for bear with a bushel of clams, jigs and trolling gear. After a slow wet ride across SH bay (sorry my curtains were in my garage, Phil) we turned the corner and got set up on the Clam Beds. It looked promising with several clamers working the area. A large crowd soon developed unfortunately we were not able to draw any fish to our hooks. After about 3 hours of catch and release skating we followed the fleet over to Flynn's but nothing seemed to be going on there so off to troll the Reach. Soon the port rod went off and Phil quickly had his first black trash bag of the season in the bucket
. That was followed by a nice sized bluefish. Later we hooked up again with what seemed to be a larger fish but the captain allowed the fish to circle the boat and come off when he went under it. Then off to the Belford flats to clam again, nothing. Then trolled a spoon along the edge with a couple of knockdowns. Had a great day on the water fishing with Phil and I hoped he enjoyed the tour of the northern waters.
