Fishmonger, Sunday 4/10 Arctic Blast Cod-Tog-Pollock

[Capt. JJ]

Antarctic Cod/Tog Trip, Sunday, April 10th

The freezing cold mists braced our faces while we stood, frozen-in-place, on the ice-laden deck of the Fish Monger as the boat made its way past the break walls of the Manasquan inlet into the churning, whitecap-topped, seas of the angry North Atlantic yesterday morning… long before the sun graced our horizon with its yellow rays of warmth.
“Not bad for Mid-April, right guys?”, the captain yelled down to us from his wheel house.
“Good thing the weatherman was wrong and it wasn’t actually below 20 degrees this morning with the wind chill!”, our able-bodied-captain reminded us as wave upon wave splashed upon the windshield and froze in place, the salt water unable to stay liquid as it met the glass surface that was chilled by the almost solid mass of sub- zero, Antarctic, air churning around us.
“Don’t worry; its gonna’ really warm up soon and hit 22-24 degrees by the time I set up on the anchor”….
John, our mate for this blizzard bowl of a trip, tried to move his legs to advance to the bow for the anchoring task, but his boots were frozen solid to the deck and we had to gently rock him back and forth in order to break the crystal crust surrounding his feet.
I reached for my fishing rod but my gloved hand quickly froze in place on the handle. All feeling had quickly left the entire right side of my face, as a chilling numbness set in on my body.
Yes, indeed, this morning was starting out just a wee-bit cold for Mid-April, but soon enough, the boat turned on its anchor, and I was able to make my way to the rail, frozen rod and clams in hand, to do my best to enter the dark places that can only exist in the mind of the elusive tog fish, and entice them to swallow my bait, or at best, to gently suck my clam in order that I might feel the raging passion of a prolonged battle with a demonic bottom-dweller…

And suck my clam, they indeed did.


That’s the long version.
Heres the short one:

Left dock at zero dark whatever yesterday…stayed inshore instead of running deep..cold as a….”whatever” you wanna call it…great group of folks (many first-timers to the Monger nation) that finally included Rubberband Pete AND GDubs on the same trip…thought we were doomed but not the case.
Set up inshore…tog AND Pollock come up first drop on green crabs, clams, whatever you had on your line worked but it was mostly a scratch and sniff bite. Bounced around…would catch on almost every piece…NICE size fish…mostly roasters…plenty of 7-8 pounders around the boat. High hook switched hands several times but I think high hook had 8-9-10 keepers (only keeping legal limit), and plenty of shorts went back over for next year. Jim and Tim had a hot spot at the rail. Jim missed a couple slobs but finally nailed a big one later in the day. Cod made a showing so close to the beach that when they came up, over the side, they were wearing SeaSide Heights Beach badges around their fins... Clams, shrimp, greenies, and whites all worked. Evan and Pete kept the boat count down as they swung and missed more than Yoenis Cespedes yesterday, but can I get an “Amen!” that we have all been there before???? (Especially Yours truly.) Great group of newbies (Joe…Pete…your friends…thanks for coming along!)
Great way to start the year with the Mongers.

As always, no baby seals, bottlenose dolphin, or Marlboros were killed during this trip.

JJ

[Hunter 2]

Great report, we are going with Jerry Saturday.

[Joey Dah Fish]

Were you jigging?

[Foul Hook]

Thought I was reading a novel from Ernest Hemingway! Good read

[Tunarun]

Capt JJ, That was a Great report! Dennis

[Capt. Jerry P]

Joe always has a crafty report... picked away at em all day like Joe said crew grinded a nice box of 47 keepers by days end. fund crew and nice day! Weather has been tough... frustrating with the life and water temp being so good for april. hoping for a break for the rest of the month

here the pics enjoy. Thanks again Guys

[Fin Reaper]

But the question remains . . . How'd GDubs do?

[njfisherman1975]

Monger does it again!

[Capt. JJ]

GDub was a scary ninja, silently assassinating every tog he felt with nimble flicks of his razor-sharp pole.

[GDubya07]

Oh Man I brought sucking to a new level of awesomeness Glen

Man was it nice to finally get out and do some fishing

Joe was spot on with the weather and when it was cold it was cold as a witches t!ttaaay and when it was nice it was really nice but that lasted a couple of hours and I have the sun burnt face to prove it -

Cant thank Capt. Jelly who by the way was awesome and calm and relaxed , the full contact chess and Acro Yoga are finally paying off. I think the reel reason was Joe and myself were actually behaved and for a change nobody got fired banned or even maimed. The other thing is and I watched in awwww and amazement, Joe can actually catch fish, they were quality big-uns too and he did it most of the day - . I guess we have to behave more often for you to catch some fishies?

I caught a few ( 6 keepers and 8 + shorts but who is counting ) but did not do as good as Joe - WTF???

Great day on the water and glad we got out with some good eats to come home with

No baby seals, bottlenose dolphin, or Marlboros were killed during this trip

But the Crabbies , clams, shrimpies and Parliments didnt make it and had no chance what so ever

Thank you JJ, Crew and our Awesomeness Capt Jerry for a great day on the water

Be Well , Be Safe and Fish On

Gdubs-