4/29 PM Trip:  Got out with the Dave Fischer Charter and ran up north to get into the last moments of a fantastic bite in the afternoon to get the festivities started.

Immediately got into fish in the Spring Lake to Asbury stretch, a couple miles off, and had our boat limit in 2 drifts!!! Fish were up to 20# - no bluefish whatsoever. All bass were caught on hammered 47's and big shads.  Dave and his dad had a blast using light spinning tackle and the custom conventionals.  Great action, the guys had a blast and had a load of meat to take home!!

Saturday 5/1 Bass Slamfest + Codfish!!!:  Where do I start... Had Ryan H, Bluefish Steve, Bill T, and Dan aboard with Michael and I for a bass/bluefish jig trip.  Ran north, got a call from the Mongers it was game on a couple miles off, and after a big turn, off we went.

Immediately got into fish, and it was INSANE from 7:30-10AM. Many times had 3-5 fish on -- Fish after fish, mostly bass in the 28-34" range with some bluefish in the mix. Every fifth fish or so was a bluefish - but the bass were aggressive!! We caught them on shads, 47's, crippled herrings, pencil poppers, darters, and even mai tai bucktails with pork rinds!!! It was ridiculous!!! We boxed a limit by around 8:30 and continued catch and release fishing until the bite slowed down after 10.

Decided to change it up a little and ran south to try to catch a few codfish in 65-80' depths on some rocks. We had virtually no wind or current, so we were able to drift over the pieces. Half the guys jigge, the other fished clams on a hi lo. First drop Bill nailed a nice cod on a jig, and the next few drifts produced a couple more. Bounced around, caught some here and there, and wound up with 10 cod, with 3 being nice keepers to 25".

Great day, caught easily 50 keeper bass, probably 20 bluefish, and 10 codfish. Biggest bass was 20#, biggest blue about 10, and the biggest cod went around 6#.

Sunday 5/2 Bass Report:  Forecast was iffy last night with a hard SSW forecasted and the possibility of some rain, but we shaped up early and after taking a quick look on the way to the boat in Lavalette I knew we wouldn't have any issues as seas appeared to be in the 2-3' range.

Left the slip just before 7 with Socks, Brian, Bill P, Bluefish Steve, Ron, and Pete aboard with Michael and I. Ran up north to join the growing fleet where they were biting late yesterday morning about a mile off.

Seems like when we got there ~730, we were getting the tail end of the bite. The amount of boats zooming through the fleet was staggering - lots of people paying zero attention to their fishfinders and racing to the birds. We stopped on some INSANE marks as soon as we got there, and had fish on and also dropped a few within moments of the jigs hitting the bottom. We had 2 real good shots of fish where we had 2, 3, and 4 on, landing most and most were keepers in the 29-31" range. Also had a few shorts. Third drift things seemingly shut off and we only had a few fish, with Socks nailing a nice 20# fish on a chartreuse teaser above a cod jig - thanks for that one pal (LOL!!!)

After that, the switch was thrown off when the S wind got cranking. Ran all over the place looking for something, all the way up to the Highlands Bridge, offshore a bit, and then back south, didn't even see a bass mark the rest of the day (after 9AM). Ran all the way back S of our inlet, tried the cod spot, couldn't even get a sniff the rest of the day.

Wound up with 15 nice bass in the box, which is a terrific day, but it wasn't yesterday by any standard. The boat traffic created a scene like in the original Jaws movie, boats flying all over in every direction, anglers screaming and shouting, it was a freakin' zoo up there.  The crew was great, lots of laughs and ball busting - can't beat that!