The Mecca - July 17 bottom fish beat down

[Jigman13]

Wiggled away from the family for a day to fish out in Montauk on my dads boat yesterday. We departed from the dock at 445 am setting a course for the cod grounds. We arrived to near still, hot conditions.

Most of us dropped jigs. 2 guys fished clams. We quickly learned it'd be a bait day as they just weren't responding to jigs at all. 6 of us blew through a bushel and a half of fresh clams decking over well over 60 fish to 20 lbs keeping our limit. We also put about 30-35 big tasty bergalls, a few Ling and a couple of nice sea bass.

We trolled on the way home with the hopes of tagging the reported bfts in the area but only got whacked by 2 huge blues that demolished two bally/Joe schute combos.

Highlight of the trip was the huge Atlantic halibut we caught while cod fishing. It was nearly 30 lbs. At first glance we thought we had a world record fluke but the tail was a dead giveaway. We also caught a small wolf fish. Pretty wild getting those species this far south!

Lots of tasty filets in the cooler and exhausted fisherman.