Took a ride down to Brigantine to do some fishing with my friend Jerry (MarshHawk) in Great Bay. The wind made for some choppy conditions today.
We bounced from spot to spot finding schoolie stripers and small bluefish here and there. We were catching them on poppers, swimming plugs, and soft plastics rigged on bucktails and jigheads.
Jerry positioned us on a point where the outgoing current formed a rip as the tide ebbed. This was a good spot with multiple hook-ups. Jerry does a great job of controlling the boat, but it was a bit of struggle for him to both cast and hold the boat on the spot. So we decided to anchor.
For a while we were catching the juvy stripers on just about every cast. Then
BAM! Jerry hooked into something a little bigger. After a decent fight, I put the net under a solid, 20" fluke!
That was a surprise! Nice fish though.
After a few more schoolies my Sassy Shad got thumped and the line starts peeling off my little spinning reel. This fish fought hard in the ripping current, but I finally worked it next to the boat and Jerry made the scoop. This one was worth measuring. Sure enough, it was just over the 28" mark. Keeper!
So now we had three out of the four fish that make up the Great Bay Grand Slam - a bluefish, a fluke and a striper. Unfortunately, this day would only be a triple, as we could not connect with a keeper weakfish.
Still it was an extremely fun day on the water, and a great day on the Great Bay!
