Choppy off Sandy Point 6/27

[27 sailfish]

The preacher at my dad's church ( Jim ) has been wanting to fish with us for a while but he is only off on Wednesdays.

I hate planning a trip based on a day - prefer to fish when weather allows. Small craft was posted but predicted west / north west. Even though gusts were predicted above 20 knots - as long as it was mostly west - no big deal.

We left Sandy Point at 7:30 and ran to Dolly's lump. Had my son and co worker Steve along and soon 5 rods baited with bloodworms were sent to bottom. We caught small Croaker just about every where in that area but all were well short of the 9" min. to keep for bait or to eat. Worked our way to Hacketts and found more small Croaker and 6-12 inch Rock.

If all these little Croaker and Rock live - in 2-3 years the fishing will be awesome.

The little Rock got so thick we stopped baiting top hook. Moved deeper towards can and found some Perch but no big ones. Ran to Tolly's but meter was barren of any thing big enough to drop jigs on. Ran back to Dolly's and went into 12 feet and found a clear area in the pots big enough to anchor. More Croaker but then we got some Spot . We would get 2-3 Spot - then more Croakers - then 2-3 Spot. We ran north towards Podickery to live line but once past Sandy Point light - it got right nasty. Saw a few Cownose Rays appear to be surfing the white caps. Jim and Steve do not go out much on boats and I knew it would be ugly off Podickery so we swung back and tried a few other spots. The wind gusts shoved the boat around on her anchor but we did manage to get enough Rock for dinner. No big ones - just nice 20 to 25 inchers.

Added a 1/4 oz weight to the rigs to help convince the Spot to go towards bottom and offset the line bow from wind.

Had to call it a day at 4:00 - wish we could have stayed longer and fish the tail end of out going current.

[Capt.Nick]

You should have asked the preacher if he new anyone that he could ask a favor of to open the seas to flatten them out for awhile.

[snakesvt04]

sure was choppy, i saw you out there. I managed one keeper