Hey gang...sorry for the lack of reports but we have been out on the ocean and not in front of a computer. Here's whats been going on the past few days.
On Friday, Capt. Tommy and Capt. Ed hosted an open boat for stripers and tog. Unfortunately, the bass did not cooperate, but they got into some great bluefish action and the guys boxed about 20 fish and released probably another 40 or so. Once their arms were sore, they headed off to the blackfish grounds and they were chewing real good. The boat caught a 7 man limit in no time and rounded out the day playing C & R with a lot of nice fish. John was high hook and would've had over 10 keepers if the season only opened a day earlier, but had to settle for only keeping his one fish for the table.
The tog bite on opening day (Sat) was not as fast and furious as Friday's mayhem, but we still put together a respectable catch. Henry was the first to reach his limit at 8am (all on jigs) and a few of the others followed shortly thereafter. Around 10am, the wind shifted to the SE and the bite turned off a little bit, but the gang still picked away at them for the rest of the day. We finished just shy of a boat limit with 30 keepers for the 6 man crew.
I joined Capt. Tommy on Sunday for another open boat trip. We had 2 last minute cancellations at 4am that morning, but still decided to sail with only a 4 man crew including John, Pete, Ken and Wayne. After a long steam up north, we came tight on the anchor and started to build up a nice bite. We picked away at fish for the next 2 hours without having to move the boat. Most fish were in the 14 1/2"-14 7/8" class, but we did get about 10 keepers in the box. Once that slowed down, we made a few more moves and continued to pick at the blackfish with some small sea bass and doggies coming up as well. Once again, we fell just shy of our 4 man limit with about 20 fish total up to 6lbs. All in all, you couldn't ask for a better day on the water (except for the thichk fog that came rolling while we headed back to the barn). There is nothing better than T-shirt toggin'!
Tight lines!
~Capt. Kevin Hutnik
