This morning with sailed with Kevin Fisher and his buddies. We set the wire in right away and had instant action with some nice-looking bass. Once the flood starting going, we decided to try our luck on bait. We put the eels in at the Pollack but they were not terribly effective. We went back to the wire and trolled up a few more fish before the end of the trip. I was surprised to see how slow the bait fishing was, but was relieved to see that the wire worked!

Today we sailed with Doug Behrmar's crew for a morning trip. We started the morning with the chutes for the end of the flood tide. We had a couple of bluefish. At slack tide, we did a little bottom fishing and then put the wire in again once the ebb started. We had couple of fish on the wire and thought we'd try our luck on the bait. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out so we went back to the wire and had a little more action. Not one of our most productive trips, but we were able to send the guys home with dinner.

We headed out at around 1:00 pm with Paul Chueng's group in search of bass and fluke this afternoon. We made a couple of passes with the wire and after releasing a few short fish, the group wanted to put the bass fishing on hold and try for fluke. We set up at the North Rip and with a decent drift was able to put a few nice-looking flatties in the boat. Before we even considered putting the wire back in the water, the group decided they had enough meat for dinner and called the trip. We were back at the dock before 5:00 pm.

We sailed this morning with Randy and his son and sons-in-law for an early bass trip. We decided to take some bait with us in the event the bite on the wire wasn't that great. As it turns out, the chutes were more productive. While the bass caught on bait were definitely of better size, we had more steady action using the wire, including a few bluefish in the mix. We fished the Pollack and Slot and were able to put together a decent-looking catch by the end of the trip.

This morning we sailed with Mitch Goss and crew in search of the ever-elusive striped bass. We didn't have immediate action as the flood tide ended, but we decided to give the fluke a try early on. We fished the North Rip and although we had to weed through the shorts, we managed a few flatties for the boat. We headed back to the Slot once the ebb got going and had a few bass, with a mix of bluefish as well.

Today we had the pleasure of fishing with my mother and her boyfriend Richie. We headed out at around 10:30 am and had the parachutes in within the the half hour. We had a steady mix of bluefish and bass and then switched over for some fluke. We had to fish through the shorts, but managed to pull a few decent keepers. My mother doesn't care much for fishing and took the opportunity to just relax while Richie stayed busy on the rod all morning. Fortunately, the weather held up for us through the late morning and early afternoon with the rain not starting until later in the day.

Steve and I made a trip this morning to the Butterfish Hole to see what lives out there. We've been hearing of an abundance of blue sharks and figured we'd check it out. We set-up and had lines in by mid-morning with the first blue shark hooked within about 45 minutes. From that point, we had another 6 or 7 fish hit within the next hour or so. In a few instances, we had multiple rods bent. A little tricky with just the two of us on the boat! Having had enough, we decided to try our luck and picked up (something we typically don't do) and ran inshore about 6 miles. With the lighthouse in sight, we were curious to see how many bites we'd get. With no delay, another blue shark was on..with another and then another after that. We fought off another half dozen or so and finally called it quits. Not the day we had hoped for, but it was good to see the life out there.

Today we fished with Sean Verlin and group for a morning trip. We had a fairly large group of guys, celebrating a bachelor party, and booked three boats in order to get them all out. The weather wasn't the greatest and between the motion of the ocean and the booze from the night before, the guys were definitely not in tip-top shape. One boat headed back after only a few hours. We were next, after about four hours, and the last came in shortly after us. The guys were a riot and while fishing wasn't great, we did manage to send them home with dinner, as did the other two boats. This was certainly an interesting trip and while I won't dwell on the details, I will say that Steve and I experienced a "first" with them. Those who may have heard the story or fished on one of the boats that day know exactly what I'm referring to. No further comment.... :-)