Ocean Explorer Miss Belmar Blackfishing

[Gerry Zagorski]

Me, Brother Joe, Art, Tom and Kyle jumped on the Miss Belmar for the high rollers tournament. The good news is the weather was much better then expected, bad news is the fishing was really slow. Mostly shorts with a handful of keepers. Tom was the only one in our group that had a keeper and he didn't hesitate to remind Joe about it constantly

It certainly was not for lack of effort... We started out north in the deep doing 4 or 5 drops there and when that didn't produce Captain Bobby bit the bullet and took a long steam to the south trying for something better. We did 3 or 4 drops and had a bit more action then we did up north but the South wind kicked up pretty good and we all know what happens when the South kicks up.

The Miss Belmar is one hell of a boat! She's big, fast and beamy with lots of room to wiggle around, plenty of seating and one of the most cleanest and well maintained party boats around. The mates were very friendly, energetic and walked the rail constantly asking if anyone needed anything. First class operation for sure.

I had the good fortune to fish next to Randy and we melded him into our group. He got the first keeper on the boat for the traditional yo dollah. Told him I would be sure to tell his wife he was now $5 richer and when that fish held up for the big pool, I asked for her phone number. Funniest line of the day was from Randy when he was asked how much the pool was, he said it was $XXX and then added oh, and then another $5 from these guys, just to rub it in...

All in all, in spite of the tough fishing, a fun day to be out on the water. Lots of friendly familiar faces, laughs, White Castles, Philly Pretzels and a few cold beers on a 50 degree winter day.. Hard to beat that!!