We had a full crew for an open boat trip today consisting of Dave, Ryan, John, Bill H, Scott, Steve - a small "mechanical" issue on Reel Class made us relocate to another boat, so we had the pleasure of teaming up with my long time neighbor at Clark's Capt Dan McGivney on his 38' Henriques Megan Beth so that we could get the trip in.

We were greeted early by a stiff NE breeze, making seas generally lumpy, sloppy, and confused as we worked our way north. Once we got up in the Deal-Monmouth Beach stretch we started marking some fish on the machine, and the guys started working the big kroc spoons, stingo's and hammered 67's. We had 2 good cracks at the fish when they were really stacked up, but only hooked a few - drift was wicked fast!

We then wound up putting the wire out and started pulling shad rigs behind the boat, and we picked and plucked away for the rest of the morning. We went 8-10 on the troll with bass, all nice healthy fish in the 32-38" range with the biggest fish pushing 22# and close to 40". We also had 2 small bluefish on the rigs.

Another pass with the trolling gear late in the day just N of our inlet came up empty - but we put in a long day and got the guys on the meat.

We wound up with 9 bass in the box, all nice fish, and the 2 bluefish. Great crew onboard as well, and it was good finally seeing some of my regulars after a LONG/extended winter since Sandy and this crazy spring. And, it was great teaming up with Dan to put these guys on some fish - thanks again!!!

PICS ARE IN THE GALLERY!