Fish in the Freezer

OK now I can go catch and release for awhile. Weekend of fishing stocked the freezer. Caught on 29incher on Friday night at one of JFP's favorite spots on snot. I had one run off on a bunker head that snapped my leader (30#) when I went to set the hook. Too much bunker running into my line made for a very frustrating night. Sunday I went out on an open boat charter out of Brielle (I highly recommend The Renegade if anyone is looking for a reasonable boat). We left the dock at 5:00am and ran North for about 45 minutes. Found a few fish terrorizing rainfish but as you know boats tend to put rainfish down. We managed three fish in the box in the 1st hour then the outgoing tide went slack and the fish lost interest. We ran out about 2 miles and managed to pick up 2 more fish over the next two hours. Capt got a call to head back inshore the bite was picking up. Went back where we started and found the tide to be moving again and the bunker showed up. Over the next 2 1/2 hours we boated probably 15 more fish. Some went back as we got close to our limit. We were saving space for that one big fish, but she never showed. All fish were cookie cutter 15-20 lbs the largest was my first which probably went 22 lbs. One blue showed up probably around 7-8 lbs. All fish were taken on the troll which was a bit of a bummer but I didn't hear of anybody jigging bass or catching on plugs. God knows I tried after I put three in the box (I finally filled a bonus tag after 5 years) all I wanted was to catch one on wood or rubber so I tried every time the boat stopped when someone was hooked up. No luck. The big fish are still vacationing down south maybe this week they'll start to move up the coast.

Awesome job kev and great report....