Yellow eyed devils, Dave Spendiff

Posted on May 10, 2015 by VHFC

It started with call to a friend to go fresh water fishing, he said that he was returning from Barnegat Bay area with his brother having just fished himself to near exhaustion fighting BIG bluefish! I was invited to join them the following day, Sunday, May 3rd. We fished 5 hours with spoons, bait and top water lures – caught one 11lb blue. Should have been there yesterday!
Monday received a call from same friend stating he and brother were in Manahawkin Bay surrounded with BIG bluefish – I jumped in my boat and headed out. I hooked and fought 21, boated 11, lost 3 top water lures and 2 spoons. The rest of the week went like this:
Tuesday – hooked and fought 37, boated 23, lost 2 top water lures and 4 spoons.
Wednesday – W/ Bill Dabney and 20 mile an hour wind trolled up 12 blues.
Thursday – went out in afternoon fog, boated 9 all on spoons, none in the fog bank.
Friday – went out in early morning fog, caught nothing in the fog. Around 10:30 found fish in clearing around ICW channel in Manahawkin Bay – hooked 31, boated 24(all but 4 on top water plugs) lost 1 top water plug.
All totaled I was able to boat over 70 bluefish 7 to 12lbs, hook and fight many more and keep the bait and tackle businesses alive by losing lots of tackle that has to be replaced. All of this was in water depths of 2 ½ to 6’ which caused many of the fish to jump out of the water like tarpon in an attempt to shake the hook. The fish were so thick in areas that you actually saw them tailing. What was unusual, there were no bird working, none!
This was probably a once in a lifetime experience that I will cherish, but I sure hope it happens again.

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

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