YIKES! - The Hook claims another victim

[Arbutis]

Heading out at 5:30 am on Saturday morning we saw the latest victim of the dreaded Sandy Hook sand bar. I've seen boats on the sand before but never like this. This one was so far up the beach - I can't imagine how fast and how off course this boat was riding. Must have happened in the middle of the night - hope nobody was hurt. These two Tow Boats were dragging it across the sand. Probably a 40 ft. boat. Crazy.

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On a lighter note, you can't beat a crispy deep fried whole black sea bass for lunch.

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[NoLimit]

It looks like a 31' Contender Fisharound.

[Rocky]

When the moon is full and high the hook will leave you dry.
I saw a couple groundings there in the past and I wondered how the hell something like that happens especially with todays electronics.

Your seabass looks awesome. Can you give us some details on how you prepare it?

[NJ Dave]

Them poor nesting plovers, i hope none of them were injured.

[Walleyed]

Saw one up that high 2 years ago, still have no clue how the managed it.

[Chris G]

Poor guy. It's not like there's a massive shipping channel a few yards away where he would have been perfectly safe of he stayed in the channel. Dumb ass of the year award. Mistakes happen. But with radar and top of the line electronics on that thing there is zero excuse.

[Arbutis]

Your seabass looks awesome. Can you give us some details on how you prepare it?
You need a deep fryer for this fish:
Gut, gill and scale fish (very important to remove all scales)
Dry it with paper towels (very dry)
slice a diamond pattern into the skin and meat
salt, pepper and season fish all over (I use a little garlic, rosemary salt)
dredge in a half/half mixture of flour and cornstarch
Heat canola oil in deep fryer
This fish only took about 3-4 minutes to fully cook and crisp up.

After it cooled a bit I made a little sauce with soy and lemon juice. It was delicious - picked every bone clean, crispy skin and fins. So good.

[MVP]

Boat was a 36 Contender with triple 300's. The guys were heading out at 1 am to go tuna fishing. You can not go by the GPS chart around that part of the hook as most all of them are wrong. Need to stay left of the red bouy around that area. Boat was brand new. My buddy warned him about navigating that area before he headed out. Needless to say he did not listen very well. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt from what i heard just knocked around. Hard lesson learned

[Arbutis]

on the bright side, it was much calmer up on the sand than it would have been off shore tuna fishing that morning... it was snotty out all morning.

[henro]

This is why we can't have nice things...

[Treebeard63]

I Don't blame the Hook.. it's been there a long time.. so have the buoys that mark the safe channel.. this, as always in this spot, is caused by trying to cut corners...

[NoLimit]

The navionics chart costs a bit but it is right on the money even for the river buoys in Highlands and Sea Bright.

However, never ever trust the chart and always hug the opposite side when in doubt. Hug the red side at the tip and the mouth of the Shrewsbury, hug the green side in the Navesink going thru the S's

[Chris G]

There is a red and a green. Stay between them and you have nothing to worry about. You can clearly see them on a radar. When in doubt stay west of the entire channel and there's nothing to worry about. I don't get it why people flirt w danger. Thank God no one fishing the beach was run over.

[bulletbob]

I don't get it.. Never once in my life have I considered the Hook a hazardous area to navigate.. The only problem is that it can get rough in the wind with nasty rips and rollers in bad weather, and then you need to consider the conditions and take appropriate precautions.

If one is running north along the beach , stay 1/2 mile from shore and hang a left at the bouys into the bay, you will never have a problem, even without nav equipment. Lots of boaters with old clunkers and no radar, or even GPS navigate the area every day, with never an issue. There are just too many idiots with more money than brains, with big fancy expensive boats that want to go tear assing around @50 knots in the dark, or drunk, or both, and either kill themselves and their friends, or run their $100k boat 30 yards up onto the sand.

I am not much of a boater by an stretch,but I never saw the hook as an especially bad area to navigate, yet every year we see pics of boats on the beach, upside down, torn to bits etc... Just need to be alert and drive the boat properly for the conditions....bob

[NoLimit]

1/2 mile off shore to avoid rollers? I am not sure about that. The calmer water is often in the false channel, hugging the beach.