After a late night Jersey Joe and I head out of Keyport at 10 am. We had a very high flood tide at 9:22am so the current was ripping pretty good. The water temp was 68 Deg so we did not have any high expetations on catching Stripers. Too bad because the strong current along with the overcast sky with a slight mist are perfect bass .
The wind gave us a nice chop but not too bad for our first stop at the Old Orchard rockpile that was a lighthouse lost to superstorm Sandy. Anchored up we deployed a couple of live eels and started clamming for Black Seabass and porgies. Several Porgies both keepers and shorts came aboard on the clams. I also tried casting out some finness type lures with no luck.
One boater managed to run his 28' up in the rocks and yelled over he lost his reverse gear while dragging his anchor. We were ready to assist but they managed to free themselves and puttered away.
Our next stop was the #20 rockpile in the reach and we landed more Porgies and short Seabass . All fish were released. Too bad the weather kept us in the bay but some friends called and reported not much better action south of the hook.
On a good note,, A friend was out offshore Friday night at 100 Square and chunked up a 300lb and 200lb swordfish along with 2 tuna on the chunk too.
Good luck everyone. We are probably heading to the tuna grounds around the 18.
N
