Last Ditch Bass Effort

Thanks for calling us down EMALS (BFH Member). We were originally working some pods off Bay Head that every few minutes were spraying out of the water. But between the dozen boats not a single fish was boated.

So we ran down to Mantoloking by EMALS. We did see a few fish caught but wanted to escape the fleet so we ran down to about Lavalette in deeper water (65') and pretty much the same thing. Tons of bait, marked fish but none biting. After screwing around with a thresher on bass gear for about 10 minutes we started heading back North.

Around Mantoloking we saw up in front of us birds working, huge splashes, real choppy water and reddish/purplish water. Monster blues had a good sized bunker pod corralled and were working them South at pretty good clip. We stopped to screw around with them and then saw some bass mixed in up on top. We were amazed! It was around noon and we were only in 30' water. Had a couple good run-offs with marks on the baits but did not hook up with any bass. We boated a few blues to almost 13 pounds and then again...our top bait gets slammed. Huge splash and big hole where the bait was. Line starts screaming off, this time it figures its a spinning rod. Then we saw the tail. We just thumbed the spool since we knew we had no shot at this thresher. Another beautiful day on the water.

Mako Mania

Fished aboard a buddies boat in my marina on a 32' Albie for the tournament. We first setup in an area of some smaller wrecks between the Triples and the Toms. We had a nice 68-70 degree temp break early in the day and 70-72 in the afternoon. We were a little concerned about the warmer than anticipated water there but it produced all day.

Our first run-off was within 30 minutes of setting up. The 50W started screaming, way too fast to be a mako...then just as I picked up the rod it stopped. Reeled in to check the bait and not a mark on it. Five minutes later again...screaming drag. Few minutes later we released a small bluefin.

About 9:45 we had the first mako in the slick, and two more after that but none of them took baits, just swam around and looked...both were probably in the 150-180 pound range. After they disappeared we had another run-off, Mike set the hook, took two cranks and the hook pulled.

Then we get another taker, Tommy grabs the rod, sets the hook and this time is stays hooked. After a brief 20 minute battle we had 140-160 pound mako boat-side and decided to release her.

Ten minutes after that we are blessed with another run-off...Mark grabs the rod, hits the fish for the first hook set and the rod doubles over...he screams big fish and sets two more times. At first the fish just sat there for a second. Mark took a few cranks in and then she came alive peeling about 50 yards on the first run...then turned and charged the boat. A few minutes later she was about 30' behind the boat, we got our first look at the fish...and it was big...about 250-280 pounds. She took one look at us and the boat and went straight down. Fifteen minutes later the line parted. Then she came back and gave us the finger buy jumping twice...once off the stern tapping the tip of the port rigger on the way up and then a second time off the starboard side just missing the side of the boat on the way down. I was standing on the bridge and when it did a somersault-tail over head the head was about two feet higher than eye level. Man what a sight...It was so close I could have reached out and grabbed the wire with the hook still it its mouth.

At this point we figured it just wasn't our day. We made up new rigs with longer leaders...our first mistake. We did have a few more fish come up on the slick throughout the rest of the day and a few more run-offs but no more hookups.

All the run-offs and hookups were on the deep bait, nothing on the top or mid water baits all day long.

It was a great day on the water, we all had a lot of fun. It was my first sharking trip and the first time for both me and Tommy to see a mako jump in real life. At the end of the day we had 9 makos in the slick, 6 run-offs, released a small bluefin, released a small mako and lost a big mako. We also learned some for next time...we will never go shorter than 14' leaders again!

Striper Success

We broke the inlet about 5 am, looked left and there was an armada between the North Jetty and the Spring Lake Hotel. Took a quick cruise past it on the outside out of curiosity...seemed to be the JCAA Fluke Tourney fleet. Did not mark any bait, not surprising with the amount of activity there. Turned South and hit the throttles.

With reports of fish in Spring Lake and the South, Southwest winds for Friday and overnight we ran down to Bay Head figuring the bait and fish moved south. We first setup in 35' of water, marked lots of bait and a few fish. Had several small pods of bunker with bait spraying and coming clean out of the water. Had a couple baits slashed by blues and kept moving from pod to pod.

About 6:30 moved out to 50-60-' water as the sun rose higher and the haze started burning off. Had a bigger pod with a few birds diving. Me and Tommy both snagged bunker at the same time and after about 10 seconds both rods doubled over and line started peeling off. Unfortunately the only two spinning rods I have are relatively light with 20# braid on them. After getting nearly spooled I started backing down on both fish and reeling at the same time. About 10 minutes into the battle and having little line on the spool I loosened the drag a bit. That was about when Tommy broke off...probably due to the small spool exerting more drag than the full spool was set to.

I got the fish up after another few minutes about 15' off the transom and once she saw the boat she was off to the races again and we were forced to back down on it again. Finally after about 20 minutes she was in the net...41.5" bass! My first live lining bunker and first of 2008.

We quickly moved back on that pod and put a baits out on the conventional gear and had run-offs right away. Both came unglued about 3 minutes in. We had one other run-off a few minutes later that never came tight.

We continued to mark bait and fish but by 7:30 it seemed the bite was over and we headed back in.

We had water from 56 to 63 degrees, we stopped over a few wrecks just to see if there was any life in 80' and they looked pretty barren.

Despite losing a few fish it was a great day and a lot of fun on the water with light tackle. The fish weighed in at 25.1 pounds and 41.5". Seemed pretty light for its length, there was nothing in its stomach when I cleaned it. Not completely surprising after a long fight I guess it lost its breakfast on its way to the boat.