Weds 8/7 Update --- We are not out today, but over the last week we've seen some generally good fluke fishing with a couple of slow days, and when we've done it, excellent bluefishing for cocktail and taylor sized blues.  **ALL PICTURES ARE IN THE GALLERY**

Here are the specifics:

Thurs 8/1:  Was supposed to have a charter with some out of town guys today, but after they saw the forecast and there was some risk in running the trip, the guys decided to postpone the trip towards the end of the month.

After making some calls last night that we could possibly get a short fun trip in with some local guys, we decided it would be a go since the weather was nice so we left the slip just before 6 and were fishing by 630. Real slow start, we bounced around and finally found some life, and then proceeded to "carpet bomb" the area picking a few fish every drift. All nice quality "NMR's" of 20-24" -- as well as a couple of nice seabass one of which was a legit 3#.

That bite dried up, we tried a different area, and finished off the boat limit (20 fish) by 10AM just as the rain started.

It was a real nice quick trip, and filling a full limit in 3 1/2 hours was nice -- fishing wasn't red hot but we found one nice patch and pounded them. Biggest fish was 4-4.5# taken by Fred.

Fri 8/2:   Had Doug's crew on today filled by Phil R. With high hopes following yesterday's fluking, we headed back to the same general area only to find a few fish and a general lack of bites. Ran around, and never picked more than a fish or two anywhere else, so the crew asked about switching gears specifically targeting bluefish and we obliged.

So, we ran up the line a bit, found the taylor and cocktail blues, and proceeded to catch a load in around an hour's time. The guys easily boated 150, and since every one of the guys in the crew and their families loved bluefish, we kept ~75 of them for the guys.

We finished up the day fluking, but the S wind and S current made the drift real fast but we still put a few more in the box.  Wound up with the 75 or so bluefish in the box, 7 fluke (biggest 5# by young Dennis who had 4 keepers!), and a half dozen chunky seabass.

Saturday 8/3:  Capt Kenny and deckhand Eddie had Chris "Honger's" charter on for a fluke trip.  The guys fished where we've been fishing and despite rain and some breeze conditions, the guys SLAMMED the fluke to 6.5# all day long, catching a full boat limit by 11AM (40 keepers).  They played C&R till 1PM and then called it a day.  Fishing was INSANE all morning long and about 80% of the fish they caught were keepers, very few shorts --- also they had a dozen fish in the 3-6# range.  Great day!

Sunday 8/4:  Had Mark H and his buddy Bobby on (their original charter was supposed to be the weekend Sandy hit) for a makeup trip, but since the guys couldn't get their whole crew together we filled it with Ryan, Jeremiah, Peter and John O.

Ran back to where Kenny had them yesterday and found a small armada of boats drifting for fluke, we set up on some new #'s and had a little pick going with some fish here and there. Nothing to write home about but we'd pick a couple here and there.

We then bounced around picking some here and there, going through some crazy lulls of simply no bites, and some shots of trash fish, but we pieced it together throughout the morning. By 12:30 the drift completely died so we took a ride offshore to fish a couple of wrecks in the 80' range and found zero life on them fluke-wise, so we ran back inshore and finished up where we started.

We finally got a nice NW breeze going by around 2 and the pick again started up and we found some real nice fish to finish up the day.

For the day we had 23 keeper fluke, 20 of which were over 20", topped by Jeremiah's 6#er. Jeremiah and Ryan both had their limits, and Bobby and Mark both had 3 each. We also had 2 nice knucklehead seabass in the box. Overall it was a grind today, but we wound up with a nice mess of fish and pieced together a real nice catch.

Monday 8/5:  Ran our open FTYP today with Fred, Larry, John, and Doug. Ran back to where we had them this weekend.

Brisk wind this morning HARD NW made for a fast drift, but it was nice n cool which was nice for a change. We started out picking a bit, but it was slow b/c the drift was a tad too fast.

Once the wind backed off we bounced around some rockpiles and slowly picked away. We had a few real nice flurries and the box filled up as we just worked our way around all day long. Some shorts, but most of our keepers were again "NMR's" and most were in that 20-24" range with a few in the 18-20" range also. Big fish went to Doug with a 23" 4# fluke, Larry had 8 keepers, John had his limit, and Doug and Fred each wound up with 4 while Kenny and I each put a few in the box.

Wound up with the crew's limit + some extra and a nice seabass. Real nice trip even though it was a grind at times, another one with a couple dozen quality keepers +... The good fishing continues!

Tuesday 8/6:  Had Derial's crew on today for a bluefish trip.  Ran out to the motherlode, got on them early, and had instantaneous, non-stop action for 2 hours on spinning rods and 007 or 17's. Also had a few bluefish on poppers.

Once the guys had enough of that, we went out into the hole to look around at some pots for mahi, but that came up empty, and then we tried trolling around the pots and some bait marks with cedar plugs and clark spoons and again came up empty.  Finished up back inshore with the bluefish.

Called it a day before noon with 200 + cocktail and taylor sized blues to 3# boated, and 1 stray 18" Pollock. The boys kept about 30 of the blues for the grill for tonight, the rest were released.

Great trip with a great crew!