Well, we headed on down to Cape May for our first blackfishing trip of the season, which opened just a week ago.
Tom headed over from PA bright and early to meet up at my place, where we carpooled down and met up with Craig, Charlie, Mike, and Sam at the boat.
Weather was pretty nippy out, temps bottoming out around 17 on the drive down, but around 23 when arriving at the boat.
Winds were fair, around 10-15 but calmed down in the afternoon.
We had a great day on the water, the tog bite was pretty good, not on fire but really strange conditions having the wind cross-sectioned by shifting currents made it difficult to stay on the pieces.
Nevertheless, we put together a solid catch and finished just 2 shy of the boat limit, with Mike leading the way with a 10lb tog, and a few 5-6lbers by the crew mixed in as well.
Here's a few shots from the day...unfortunately my camera battery died halfway through the trip, so I didn't get a ton of pics this time.
El capitan...leading us to the tog promise land! ;)
Tom, aka the Krieb Factor, ready for some action!
Sam, aka Professor Pantene, looking a little like Satan and getting ready to put on the clinic on his first tog fishing trip ever!
Mike, aka Mike The Mugger...clearly already scheming based on that look!
Scrub, with some kind of surgical camo condom cap...
Charlie, in standard welcoming picture form...lol
Nice sunrise and rays peering through the clouds...
Professor Pantene!!! His hair hates him today after smothering it with that hat. Charlie ensures us Sam surely protected the doo with a pre-hat conditioner treatment...good lookin out Professor!
Scrub...why are you winking at me? Ummm...yeah Hi! lol
The Krieb!!!
JR hiding the GPS coordinates from view...note the hat...it gives him about 8 inches of additional height, but he still can't see over the center console.
Sam with his first keeper tog ever! The Professor was just warming up! Note the Hollywood rod bent over behind him...
Craig with his giant catch!
Then Mike The Mugger coming through with this monster tog! Nice try holding it out with those goon arms to increase the size! Haha
Don't worry, Mike gets the real one later!
JR, The Camo Pope
Later in the day...Sam is still goin strong...
Charlie is still at it and smiling...
Tom...not so much...what's up with the frown! Tom, The Frowning Knome?
Mike...posing and claiming to be doing some anchor work...
Craig, the rockstar, showing a little too much interest...
Alright, Public Notice...Mike was actually working a little on this trip...I know, I know...hard to believe that the full time part time student would take moment out of his laborious days to offer a helping hand...but here we have it...post anchor pull...some really well organized and coiled rope! Haha, good job Mikey!
And he was indeed rewarded with this awesome tog a short while later...in the net!
And Mike The Mugger holding him...nice fish dude! Scaled him out hovering in the 10lb mark! Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!
Wow...even I managed to catch a few this trip! They must be thick!
And then Charlie landed this nice tog! Notice he is so excited he kind of almost has a smile forming...OK...not quite, but we know he's feelin it! ;)
Well then my camera died right when Charlie landed a double header on a single bait! Two hook setup...the fish were hungry!
I missed a bunch of pics including some really solid midday action filled with a mixture of short tog, seabass and the near boat limit of keepers.
Ultimately, a great day on the water with the boys!
The weather cooperated and the tog were chewin pretty good, and despite quite a scratchy bite late in the day, we put a good catch together!
Until next time...
