Good point Duff!
If you launch out of Keyport the harbor will afford you some protection from the west winds and you'd have a very short ride to the grounds. If you poke your nose out of the harbor into the open bay and it's uncomfortable, you could always turn back and fish the harbor until the tide changes.
If you were to launch out of Atlantic Highlands and try to make the run to the back bay with west winds bucking a incoming tide, you could be in for a very long, wet and uncomfortable ride.
Point in case, the end of last season we had some strong west winds forecasted. I knew if I could get out to the ocean and fish fairly tight into the beach, it would be flat, reason being the land buffets you from wind and since your are close to shore, the wind does not have a chance to build the seas. Now go a few miles off the beach a totally different story. The further from the beach the worse the conditions...
So I figured we'd run out and back on the outgoing tide to avoid the wind against conditions we'd have in the bay... First part of the plan worked well. The bay was not too bad since the tide and wind were in the same direction and when we turned the corner at the hook, we had a flat calm ocean in spite of 20 MPH winds out of the west...
Second part of the plan didn't work very well....
We struggled the first few hours to find fish but we finally started catching.
I knew the tide change was going to be at 4:00 so around 3:00 we stated home. On our way up the beach we spotted birds working and had Stripers up on top and could not resist the temptation to stop.
I should have known better and sure enough, we had overstayed our welcome. Not only had the tide changed but the wind had also picked up to 30.
The ride back up the beach was beautiful but when we turned the corner of the hook and were now exposed to open bay it got bad, really bad.. I'm not talking uncomfortable, I'm talking white knuckle evil...White caps, tight standing waves etc. Pulled the throttles back put the trim tabs down and hunkered down for a serious beating the rest of the way home
Point is you can't let your guard down and think " hey I'm not going far, I'm just going to fish the bay". Fact is in certain conditions the bay can get really nasty and in many cases is much worse place to be then the ocean.
I was thankful to see the dock that day and glad I brought a change of underwear
