# 58509: Subject: Raritan Bay, New Jersey

Submitted by Andrew Sokol (ip 96.56.29.58)

• Fished on 8/8/2010

• Report received: 8/9/2010

Water Temperature: .
Water Clarity: Stained
Seas: 1-2' with some wind bourne white caps
Weather: Partly sunny. Air temperatures in the 80's. Brish south wind 20+.
Fishing_for: Fluke
Boat: Misty Morn
captain: Phil Bouchard

Report:
Jason and I joined the 14 +/- others last ngiht for the Misty's magic hour trip. Knew once we got down to the dock that conditions would be working against with an incoming tide all night and a hard south wind. While still in the slip, Jason casted a snapper zapper for snappers and I bounced a 1 ounce bucktail/teaser rig for any fluke that might be in the creek. Although we each had a few hits, neither of us caught anything.

Made our first drift on the high spot between the 2 Ward channels. Jason kept it simple all night by using a no thrills, no jewelery rig...just a hook and bait. While I started off using my go to back bay rig of a 1.5 ounce (later bumping up to 2 ounce) Spro tipped with a 3" chartreuse GULP with a stand out hook above tipped with a 3" GULP new penny shrimp. Jason drew first blood by catching 3 before I even had a hit. I missed my first hit, caught my second & missed my third. By this time we were making our second drift but we had moved to the north & west to the very end of the Reach Channel. The tide & wind gave us a long drift into the mouth of the Arthur Kill. Certain spots on the drift were covered with cabbage and other spots yielded fluke. Half way through this drift I switched to a double biat rig employing a clouser minnow off a dropper with a snelled hook trailing about 9"s behind. Both tipped with spearing. I quickly added 3 more shorts to my catch.

Moved over into the bay for a short drift that yielded only 1 short for the boat. Last few drifts were made by some structure mid bay that yielded some shorts throughout the boat. Our final tally was 7 shorts for me and 12 shorts for Jason. Only 4 keepers for the boat all taken on the long second drift. They wanted the real deal as spearing held a definite edge over bucktails or GULP.

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