Today brought Neville all the way from the UK for a little stop off on the way home. We left fairly early and after a hot tip that there were some scattered fish in the area we headed over. The first fish to come aboard was a chub mackerel. Our first of the year. A little while later we picked away for a few stripers. With clear skies and no wind it was somewhat of a challenge today. Nev did well and we had a lot of laughs and caught some fish too.

Thursday morning brought Peter and his son along with his buddy. At this stage names escape me. I wasn’t overly optimistic but we had the weather in our favor, rain and wind. We went to our first stop to find a dead tide. About that time a timely phone call had us on the move. The tide was running and with it came the bait and bass. Three hours of catching fish up to 12 lbs. had the Captain pretty worn out. We had doubles and even a triple hook up. A good day on the briney.

We headed out Wednesday evening as the second half of a two boat trip. After a lot of looking and casting Connor landed our first fish. With no more luck we were offered some bait and decided bottom fish were better that no fish. I had three young men bouncing bucktails tipped with squid and they had a steady flow of every kind of bottom fish coming aboard. Lots of laughs and a fun trip.

Saturday morning brought Jerry and Jerrod down for their first trip with me. We left early in the fog to a place that held some bass and large blues. We arrived to find a bunch of boats drifting and trolling through some scattered fish that would come up every now and then. We had some great shots but only managed two small mackerel for their efforts. I have no idea where they came from or why the other fish were not interested in what we were offering. We lost the tide and moved on to a half dozen other spots. Finally Jerrod had a bass take a slap at an albi snax without being hooked. We switched to the old reliable bucktails and soon after Jerry put a bass in the boat. For the past two weeks the water has been especially dirty and that has made our lives difficult. All in all it was still a fun day on the briney.

It’s been a while since I put anything up so here is an update. We had a couple trips that were from ok to pretty good. Then we spent some time in South Carolina with our favorite granddaughter and her family. Back to work brought Jim back for the first time this year. He did well with some nice bass on a fly. After that trip I went out and caught some of my first bass of the year. Then another Jim brought his daughter and her husband out for an evening trip. Both could throw a fly and were rewarded with some nice schoolies. Saturday Chris and Michael brought their dad out for a Father’s day present. Dad put on a clinic for the boys with fish in the eight to ten pound class.

A different Jim came over for a quick trip this morning. The tide was just starting to run when we arrived. We found a few scattered fish and Jim hooked up pretty quickly. He always uses a barbless hook to make it a bit sporty. We let a couple go short of the boat and then he landed two nice ones. Jim was happy with his fish so we called it early. After dropping him off it was still early so I went out for an hour. I put four of my first stripers of the year in the boat using an Albi Snax on a spinning rod. A pretty good day on the briney.