Fish Monger Insanity, Sunday, May 29th

[Capt. JJ]

OK...I have SOOOOOO many alternate titles for this thread:

"The one that got away....(well, actually TWO!")

""Big-assed Cod, wheres my rod, and this tog limit is a FRAUD!"

"Hey Ladies: stop catching all the damned fish!"

Ahhh...theres more....

Look: how about I start with our final totals for today and then give you the back story:

120 keeper sea bass
300 short sea bass
90 tog (about 25 of which would have been keepers in season)
12 ling
2 keeper cod (1 about 10-12 pounds, or better)
2 sea ravens
1 blue fish
1 conger

Do the math and you can figure out the metrics for how many fish each of a 10 man crew caught, on average.

OK....back story...

left dock at zero six hundred hours to gorgeous sunrise....all star crew with some hot gals along for the ride....GDubs and Leah (aka Mrs. Gdubs), Capt. JJ, and Lynn (aka Mrs. Capt. JJ), Rubber band Pete and his spawn plus 1 (Rob and Steph), Evanator, Pat Big Mac, and of course, Flyboy Martino.

The Gdubses provided 12 pounds of pulled pork sandwiches....Jerry brought his significant other, and THEIR significant other (aka Miss sloppy tongue)....Mike handled the deck chores for all of us.

Bounced around during the morning on pieces big and small....pretty much non-stop action with a wide variety of fish from roaster togs, to semi-monster cod, to sea bass slobs....if you dropped a bait and it had a piece of clam on it, there were eyes and mouths on it before the sinker settled. LOTS of life...lots of binky bass....the big ones made up for it!

Fog rolled in like a John Carpenter movie, and it was chilly, damp, and visually distracting, but the fish didnt seem to mind all that much. Capt. Jelly said the south wind really slowed down our bite.

Ok.

Not sure what a "GOOD BITE" would have felt like but, I'll take his word for it.

Highlights of the trip:

Pulled pork sandwiches
Fighting a codzilla for 10 minutes on my light action rod and watching Jerry gaff it
Watching my wife catch her first-ever cod on my favorite rod
Watching a monster tog slam her, and seeing my favorite rod and reel go flying over the rail, and down to Davey Jones's basement (heart meds kicked in quickly...no damage done to me, but my avet is assuredly hanging on some big-assed togs living room wall as a trophy)
Seeing Leah and Steph put on a clinic on catching one fish after another
Seeing Pat Big Mac get wacked on my back up favorite rod, and watching it slip out of HIS HANDS, and over the rail down to Davey Jones's basement. (heart meds were still keeping my heart rate in check, and blood pressure down, but my baby Tsunami fluke-killer and TLD is getting dragged around by some deep water denizen that is showing it off to all its pals like Nemo, and Dory.)

Yes, folks.... Capt JJ lost not one, but 2 rods today! Thats gotta be a record of some kind, I think. Truth is though, Im glad that they were lost as a by-product of fish bites in the wrong place, at the wrong time. They can be replaced, but Pat, Lynn, and I are now part of the Monger record books, and its gonna take one hell of a charter to replace our new record!

You guys will laugh at this one: I spent an hour this morning trying to describe the art of black fishing to my wife before we got to the boat...lines like: "its so damned hard"..."so many years of practice needed to get good at it"..."you miss 10 for every 1 you catch"..."Frustrating with a capital "F"..."I hate that poacher Jerry".

Then we get on the trip and its non-stop tog coming over the rail, double-headers galore, and shes like, "Yeah...this tog fishing is really tough". .."Youre right. Its frustrating to catch 2 at a time and have to throw them back"...."Is my 12th one a double or triple limit?"

8 (

Now I hate Jerry AND her!

Epic fun.
Great crew as usual.
Losing an Avet, a Tsunami, a TLD, and a custom rod = $600
Watching Pat and Lynn catch one fish after another, after another...and seeing her catch her first cod ever, as well as Pat making up for all those Winter trips when he had to struggle for a couple tog???????

PRICELESS!

Capt. JJ OUT!!!!!!

[shrimpman steve]

Now that is a report!!!!

Sorry about the rod(s)

[Joey Dah Fish]

Great report always enjoy your stories. So glad you had a great and memorable trip. Sorry about the Rods Brighter side. It's a good excuse to buy more new tackle

[Andreas Toy]

Good shit, Capt Jerry!

[MVP]

That was a classic report. My favorite line was
my avet is assuredly hanging on some big-assed togs living room wall as a trophy)

[Tony Cav]

Excellent write-up. You should pursue it as a part-time vocation. Thanks!

[Reelron]

Entertaining report! Sorry to hear about the loss of the rods. I guess you needed Ron's Reel Retrieval Service on board?