Having been out twice on the Mary M – once for the Elks on 5/18 and once for VHFC on 5/20 – with only 2 keeper Sea Bass each trip for me, I didn’t have the highest expectations for my third trip with the Shillelagh Club – a fraternal group dedicated to boosting the sales of Irish products like Guiness and Bushmills. And the weather forecast didn’t help with 4 – 6 footers forecast and delivered!
But off we went for a sporty ride out to some wreck which only the captain knew its location. Once anchored, it wasn’t too bad as long as you held onto the rails. But the fishing was fairly decent for most of the 21 members and really good for 5 of us. All together we had 110 Sea Bass, 10 Ling and one lone Boston Mackerel. High hook was new club member from West Marine, Dave Gering with 18, I had 16, John Barrett (trip organizer) had 15 and John’s nephews had 15+ between them. We all fished the port side near the stern. Did that matter? We all used bait, but Dave added a piece of cooked shrimp to his hooks. Did that matter?
Anyway, everyone was glad when we passed Ol Barney and returned to the docks. A nice bag of fish to take home was also nice. Note: The photo is my 18.5″ fish that weighed 2.7 lbs when weighed at the Elks for the May Sea Bass lead.
