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Captain's Focus

Sixty boats sailed offshore into a slightly bumpy swell, but no wind this morning as the Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association's  Mako Mania got underway. The iffy offshore forecasts, which caused a cancellation on Thursday of their weekend Mako Fever Tournament by the Jersey Coast Shark Anglers got much better by Friday afternoon. After smaller makos were weighed, Lockout arrived with a 301-pound mako to take a big lead that could stand up through Sunday's final day. They said it was dead offshore until 2 p.m., when the south wind started blowing. Then they caught a blue shark, and after immediately getting lines back out again the mako hit and made six jumps.' Reel Shark was the last boat to weigh-in, and their 157-pounder took over second from Gold Rush with a 147-pound mako. Two identical 138-pounders by Vinyl Decision and Rage were the early leaders - and still in fourth and fifth. I joined Mark Roy's crew on his Release Me to fish the tournament, and suggested we fish to the south in order to set up a better ride home as the wind was predicted to go south by afternoon. We could only do 22 knots heading offshore in his  Century center console due to the short swells, but there was no wind in Chicken Canyon. Poor drifting conditions resulted in no hits, and the crew decided to try the Resor just as the south wind started providing a drift which was also fine inshore though there weren't any hits. The trip back in about a 20 mph south wind was a breeze for the Century at 28 mph. Raritan Reach was loaded with boats, but the great fluking there continued. Capt. Stan Zagleski called it Doormat Saturday as Jim Page of Interlaken boated a 10 11/16-pounder that was the second of the season by Elaine B II from Bahrs in Highlands. Not far behind was the 9 3/4-pounder by Dennin Yoo. John Panvini from South Philadelphia added a 7 13/16-pound fluke as several limits were posted. Capt. Bud McArthur didn't see many bunkers this morning as he headed up to Elberon from Manasquan Inlet, where he trolled a striper before bunkers made a mid-morning showing that produced a second bass on Splinter from Brick. McArthur saw a couple of other stripers caught in that area, but the south wind seemed to shut off the bite -- and also made it almost impossible to hold bottom for fluke. The Jamaica from Brielle has openings on Sunday's Magic Hours trip.

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