Gr8ful Fish
07-18-2007, 09:49 PM
Fished alone aboard my "Bertha" on 7-18-07.
Started the day with showers that quickly became a deluge. Toughed out the wet weather (thank God for my Grundens bibs & Helly Hansen jacket) as there were only a few claps of thunder well off in the distance on shore.
While fishing near the bug light, I saw a couple of poor souls in a boat with no T-top or enclosure nearby and neither of them had any rain gear. :( In addition to getting soaked to the bone, they reported to me that they weren't catching anything to make matters even more miserable for them. :eek: A little while later, the partyboat "Angler joined us, and there was actually a guy fishing midship that was wearing only shorts and a "wifebeater" tank top. This was definitely not the day to forget your rain gear.:confused:
After getting my hands and feet well pruned, and playing with a bunch of shorts, bats & birds, the skies cleared a bit, and I moved into the deeper sections of the SH channel were I found loads more shorts, and birds along with two keepers from just barely 17" to 17.25" that I released to grow bigger for next year.:cool:
Ran over to Ambrose Channel and found even more shorts & bats. During my drifts in Ambrose, I noticed heavy birdplay between West Bank Light & Romer Shoal. With very little movement at the time, I decided to put down the fluke rigs to go investigate what was causing the ruckus.
Rigged up a 1/2 ounce bucktail with a plastic trailer and started hammering big bluefish from 6-9 lbs. on almost every cast.
After I got sick of fighting and releasing the blues, I went back to fluking in the Swash channel area. On my first drift I boxed a nice 21 incher followed by a 19 incher. Repeated the same short drift and nailed a nice 18 incher.:cool:
As I was getting ready to make my third drift over that area I noticed menacing-looking skies approaching from the West with lightning flashes and claps of thunder growing ever louder and closer. I quickly packed everything up and headed for the barn in what instantly became an absolute downpour. :( (The only good part was that the rain cleaned most of the bluefish blood and spit up spearing out of the boat before I got back to the dock.)
By the time I hit the Shrewsbury River, the storm had completely engulfed Sandy Hook bay, and there were copius amounts of darkness, rain and lightning.
Got back to my slip and the skies really let loose with a torrential downpour. Rather than unload everything in such horrible conditions, I decided to simply sit under the T-top cleaning a handful of birds to use as bait on my next fluke outing.
After the rain let up, I walked around the dock and scooped a half dozen big jimmies off of the pilings and dock ladders. I also released at least 4 big females, and one medium female that was a softshell. I also saw at least five or six male/female pairs wedged safely in between the pilings.:cool:
Ended the day with 3 nice fluke over 18" and a half dozen #1's & #2's. My wife cooked up the crabs as soon as I got home, and they were full and tasty.:cool:
Too bad the weather wasn't playing nice, because know I could have put a beatin' on some nice fluke if I could have made a few more drifts. Hopefully, they will still be in the same area this weekend, because the next couple of days look like they are going to be more of the same crappy weather.
Water temps were 78.6 degrees in the bay, 72 degress in SH channel, and 70.1 degrees in Ambrose.
All fish were caught on long squid strips with giant smelts.
- Gr8ful
Started the day with showers that quickly became a deluge. Toughed out the wet weather (thank God for my Grundens bibs & Helly Hansen jacket) as there were only a few claps of thunder well off in the distance on shore.
While fishing near the bug light, I saw a couple of poor souls in a boat with no T-top or enclosure nearby and neither of them had any rain gear. :( In addition to getting soaked to the bone, they reported to me that they weren't catching anything to make matters even more miserable for them. :eek: A little while later, the partyboat "Angler joined us, and there was actually a guy fishing midship that was wearing only shorts and a "wifebeater" tank top. This was definitely not the day to forget your rain gear.:confused:
After getting my hands and feet well pruned, and playing with a bunch of shorts, bats & birds, the skies cleared a bit, and I moved into the deeper sections of the SH channel were I found loads more shorts, and birds along with two keepers from just barely 17" to 17.25" that I released to grow bigger for next year.:cool:
Ran over to Ambrose Channel and found even more shorts & bats. During my drifts in Ambrose, I noticed heavy birdplay between West Bank Light & Romer Shoal. With very little movement at the time, I decided to put down the fluke rigs to go investigate what was causing the ruckus.
Rigged up a 1/2 ounce bucktail with a plastic trailer and started hammering big bluefish from 6-9 lbs. on almost every cast.
After I got sick of fighting and releasing the blues, I went back to fluking in the Swash channel area. On my first drift I boxed a nice 21 incher followed by a 19 incher. Repeated the same short drift and nailed a nice 18 incher.:cool:
As I was getting ready to make my third drift over that area I noticed menacing-looking skies approaching from the West with lightning flashes and claps of thunder growing ever louder and closer. I quickly packed everything up and headed for the barn in what instantly became an absolute downpour. :( (The only good part was that the rain cleaned most of the bluefish blood and spit up spearing out of the boat before I got back to the dock.)
By the time I hit the Shrewsbury River, the storm had completely engulfed Sandy Hook bay, and there were copius amounts of darkness, rain and lightning.
Got back to my slip and the skies really let loose with a torrential downpour. Rather than unload everything in such horrible conditions, I decided to simply sit under the T-top cleaning a handful of birds to use as bait on my next fluke outing.
After the rain let up, I walked around the dock and scooped a half dozen big jimmies off of the pilings and dock ladders. I also released at least 4 big females, and one medium female that was a softshell. I also saw at least five or six male/female pairs wedged safely in between the pilings.:cool:
Ended the day with 3 nice fluke over 18" and a half dozen #1's & #2's. My wife cooked up the crabs as soon as I got home, and they were full and tasty.:cool:
Too bad the weather wasn't playing nice, because know I could have put a beatin' on some nice fluke if I could have made a few more drifts. Hopefully, they will still be in the same area this weekend, because the next couple of days look like they are going to be more of the same crappy weather.
Water temps were 78.6 degrees in the bay, 72 degress in SH channel, and 70.1 degrees in Ambrose.
All fish were caught on long squid strips with giant smelts.
- Gr8ful