Fished a four day stint, Thursday thru Sunday.
Thursday --- Left the dock at noon with Bob G, Jim and Dave B aboard for some striper searching. Did some great searching but did not do any catching. Tried jigging on some semi-decent marks, no takers. Couldn't find bait till late in the trip. Moved toward them and couldn't even get within snagging range before they would sound thus thwarting attempts to gather some bait. Stayed stationary and jigged on some more semi-decent marks and finally had bunker come over to us. Snagged several and tried live lining. No takers, again.
Moved off to a usual bassy spot, again, no takers.
Irish Ayes crew got the skunk for the day.
Friday --- Did a morning trip (8am
) with Naked Eddie, Jeff and Bob G. Found the bunkers this time and filled the well and tried for some bass. None on the bunker school so we moved off in search of them. Went to a spot that produced for us previously and had a slow time of it. Put some fluke lines in figuring we could try for a multi-species catch. Bob G boated an eighteen inch flattie that went on ice. Made several moves and finally found some bass up to thirty pounds. Back at the dock by 4 and had one fluke and three bass to clean.
Saturday --- The crew for today was Johnny Oz, Andy, Dave R and Peter. Wasn't so sure about the weather but hey, who listens to NOAA
. The wind wasn't as bad as predicted so we made the run.
Off the dock and over to get fuel. Filled the tanks and off we were. Got under the Shark River Ocean Avenue bridge and was greeted by a nasty inlet. Every bit of 6-8'ers at the mouth. Went over a large wave and right into an even larger wave that decided to break just as it got to the bow of the boat. White water was flying everywhere and the crew that stayed in the cockpit got a bit wet.
, that did not hamper their resolve and within minutes we were out on the fishing grounds. Once on the ocean we had about a six foot swell. The waves were spaced far enough apart that it only caused a slowwww up and down.
Found bunker immediately and brought them out to our bass lump. Drifted this lump all day and had bass up to 43 inches. Kept nine bass and another half dozen were released.
The ride back thru the inlet was uneventful as we found a nice wave to get behind and ride in.
Sunday --- Today I had Bob Cole, Howard, Morrisy, Jack and Tommy on board. The inlet was almost a repeat of Saturday, but a little bit better. No issues going out on this run. This group of guys were more in tuned to fluke fishing than bass fishing. After clearing the inlet it was evident fluke fishing wasn't going to happen. Had a super fast drift and would have needed an anchor to get the baits to the bottom. I told them we'd try to find bunker and then bass. Also told them that we'd head back in if a short search proved fruital for bunker.Headed slightly south of our inlet to look for bunker and after a very short search found them. Morrisy had the hot hand on the snag stick, getting five for every one the other guys were getting. After several dozen bunker were deposited in the well we went to where we had them yesterday. They didn't fail us, they were again there. Jack took high hook honors on the bass boating five. Everyone but Morrisy caught their limit with us only keeping seven and releasing another eight. Missed several more thru the course of the day. At one point I put on my fork jig. You know the one, yes, the one I made from a kitchen utensil. Don't you know it, On my fifth cast and retrieve I had a bass on it! What a blast. Everyone on board was roaring. I got the bass half way up and unfortunately, it popped off.
Still tons of fun.
The ride back thru the inlet was interesting as the tide was pushing against the wind and swell. Got on the back of a good wave but had another one sneak up on us half way thru. Broke behind the boat and it did give us a nice shove but the boat handled it well.
Had a trip planned for tomorrow but canceled it due to half the crew bailing out after hearing the weather report with rain (hey, only showers guys
).
Can't wait for the next trip.
Forgot to mention. Big fish for Sunday was Jack's 48" bass that weighed 43#s on Vinnie's (he was at the dock) digital scale.
