Reel Class Saturday 5/23 Fluke & Bass

[Reel Class]

Had Larry Flukemaster's annual charter on for the first saturday of fluke season trip. Plan was to try for bass early then fish for fluke and then hit bass on the way home.

Left the dock at 5:30 - got outside relatively quickly but the N wind made it tough to find the bait. Once we got on bunker pods it was tough to snag them since they were so spread out.

After about 45 minutes we abandoned this and went north to target fluke. Tried some local spots right in on the beach N of our inlet and had a few shorts, sea robins, and smooth doggies. Then ran up and tried Deal/Elberon, and it was much slower - so we continued N to the rough stuff. Even up there, in on the beach it was NG - so I decided to try a little deeper and in the gnarly stuff... As soon as I stopped the boat and we had lines in rods were bending - shorts n keepers.. We found a real nice patch, worked it, but really couldn't keep it going.. Bounced around up there a bit more, only found more shorts..

Finished up the day spooning right outside our inlet for alittle while, and that also was NG.

Finished the day with 7 keeper fluke and about 20 shorts (all were 18-20" but we had one bigger spit the hook right at the net!) -- MUCH better than I anticipated for oceanside fluking at this point. This is definitely a good sign for the season to come.