John, Jack, Harley and I headed out of the inlet just after 7AM this morning and found the seas to be "flat" calm. We headed out toward the Issiac to dive a wreck that seems to be fished to death by the bottom fishing boats. I could not believe that it once again had a boat on it and while we watched them they did not get one fish, I wonder why. Well we looked around and saw that several other wrecks in the area were also being fished so we headed to another area to dive a little known snag. It did not disappoint and sea bass, fluke and loads of lobster came up.This week we were a little more ready for the rodeo than last week and we brought several coolers just for fresh sea food. We soon had one, half full of lobster and the other was getting a good start at filling up with sea bass and fluke. Vis was 20 to 25 and the bottom temp was very comfortable for wetsuits.
Next stop we wanted to try a wreck on the Garden State North Reef and here we had good conditions but not a lot of fish or lobster so we cut the dive short and came up for a great hot lunch that Harley cooked up on his boat grill. Its like having a master barbeque chef on the boat. I was stuffed and almost afraid to go in the water on the last dive, ALMOST!.
The last dive we sent Harley in first to thank him for the great lunch. Jack and John gave him about 10 minutes and then followed him in . Soon John was at the surface and I could see some big white things following him (big fluke).Jack was up next and got a blank on this dive (what the f--- happened)? Harley was up next and sure enough he had a load of fluke. Lastly I went in to pull the hook and thankfully the guys had left fluke ( a lot of fluke) for me.
Everyone went hose with a nice selection of sea food and Jack just missed his fluke limit(Having gotten fluke on earlier dives) but the rest of us limited out. If the limit was double or triple what it is we would have limited as thats how many fluke were down there and they were very easy to catch.
How long can this go on ? Fantastic hunting, diving and boating conditions.
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