Thanks to facebook I connected with my buddy who goes to another school down the street from mine and used to work the netters with me in Barnegat light. He invited me out on his boat today, the cold front that came through finally passed so we had high hopes of getting out and getting on some fish and lobster after the blow.
We broke haulover inlet at 10AM to a nice rolling swell and winds out of the east. Had a slow run to our first drop in 55-70 feet of water. Three of us in the water, viz was mucky and 15-20 due to the swells and wind from the past few days. I didnt shoot anything the first drop and spent the time hunting bugs, only found one but couldnt get him out of the hole he was in. Shame, it was a quality 2-3 lb bug.
2nd drop was insane, hit the bottom on a ledge and was greeted by a wall of yellow jacks. Picked one out and fed him steel. Buddies chased em down but didnt shoot any. We got seperated due to viz so I worked over the area and came up with 2 FAT lionfish and a decent hog. My buddy pulled his PB hogfish and another one to follow it up. I took great pleasure in killing these big lionfish as they were everywhere and the only good ones are dead ones.
Awesome dinner, lionfish shashimi, leftover grilled Wahoo loins, hogfish, and some mahi with beans and corn washed down with some good PBRs.The yellow jack was saved, the fruit vendor at my school market on tuesdays is an older Cuban gentleman who cant dive anymore due to health issues, so I bring him fish every week in exchange for fresh fruit. He always shares his stories of his spearfishing days with me when I stop by, very nice guy to talk to.