It was my end-of-June birthday & my son & I were eager to get out on Open Boat we reserved months in advance. Arrived at boat at 6am but due to mechanical troubles the trip was canceled. We hopped on half-day Gambler morning trip since we were already in Pt.Pleasant and had the day off.
I knew we were flukin' the sticky stuff so I suggested we pickup some clams since Sea Bass season was still open. "Nah dad, you're nuts - this is a fluke boat". So I only bought 1/2 dozen for myself.
Flukin' was slow so when I saw some Sea Bass coming up near us, I switched over to a hi-low rig and baited up with 2 clams. My rod doubles over on the first drop and starts shaking violently. Mates come over, learn I was using Clams and agreed that I probably had a big out-of-season Blackfish.
Much to everyone's surprise and delight, up comes a nice Knucklehead on the top hook, followed by a decent Cod on the lower hook. Mate does a superb job grabbing them both in one swoop of the net. When Captain Bob learns of this rare catch on a FLuke trip, he agrees that we traveled 54 miles too far East when I was on the Gambler RFA Cod trip a few weeks earlier
It wasn't the greatest fishing trip of 2015, but memorable because my son joined me on my birthday and we made Lemonade out of a Lemon start to the day
