Well, I decided that I was sick of sitting around the house waiting for all this weather to blow through and so we went ahead and tried the HRBT last night, despite the small craft advisory! Launched from sunset around 8:30pm, the parking lot was empty! Outgoing tide was just begining to move, waves were probably around 2' with a nice even swell. Wind was high, 15-20 kt and the drizzle made visibility poor. I didn't check the water temp (obviously it has cooled off though!). Birds were hovering everywhere and some were working albeit not too much actual feeding. Surface action was present but not a lot of action. Started throwing the usual shad baits and found that schools of 4-6" bunker by the bazillions were running all over the water column. You had to be patient and wait for the strike instead of all those baitfish accidentally banging into your line and your lure. We were on the east-side of the bridge casting up-current past the light-line and letting the bait come through the line. Caught several rockfish 14-22", with some nice 2-3 lb blues mixed in (trashing our shad baits though!). Decided to move to the west-side to find some bigger fish but the action there wasn't all that better. Moved right up against the island, in-betweeen the bridges... same thing. Overall the surface action was slow, we were catching plently of smaller fish. Not wide-open-throttle, but consistently catching fish every 3-5 minutes or so. By this time it was getting late and decided to fish one of the deeper rips before we called it a night. Bingo! we were catching 25-29" fish by casting up-current in-front of the light-line and getting the bait down below the menhaden and dragging the bait along the light-line, oh and the bluefish were not in this mix of bigger fish! We could've stayed out at least until the tide slacked, but I did have to work this morning and pass on the news. We left around 11:30pm, took our legal limit and the fillets are in the fridge! Overall, the weather was just like the rockfish like-it (snotty) and the fishing was great...

Nice job!!! All I've been saying to myself this week is, "This is striper weather." Sometimes,you just gotta go!!
Thanks for the report!!

--Don

Great report

Thanks for the report! I almost did what you did and say heck with the reports and head out. I keep my boat at Sunset and like to fish those same spots. glad to hear there are some nicer fish mixed in with the small ones.

Very nice report, thanks for the input. I wish I could do the same, but the low beam of my boat keeps me off the bay in those winds.

I've actually just called Sunset to put my boat out for this evening. I've heard there are specks and grays out there mixed in with the stripers and blues--so unless it's blowing like crazy and breakin' over the bow, I'll have a report for tomorrow!!

Sunset doesn't have a ramp do they? I would like to launch from the Hampton side, but I hate the ride from Wallace's down to the tunnel. Any place closer? I usually go over Willoughby, but if I can cut that tunnel trip out it would be awesome.

braving the weather pays off again. I'll try one of the deep ruts. Sat nite.
look for the 21 ft sea pro blue top. I'm bringing family so I'm playing first mate.
(the one that not fishing, getting the knots out, breaking up fights etc... family
ya gotta lovem).