I fished with Joe Ryan and his friend Mike in the stafford Twp Fire Dept hook and ladder fluke tourney. We had a great morning. Very quickly we put 7 keepers in the box with 3 in the 5-6lb class. Nice fish but not tournament winning fish. We kept hitting structure in the 60-75 ft depths. But only picked a couple more fluke. At 2pm we headed for the barn figuring we had very slim chance. We got to the scales at 3:50 pm and saw the leader board. At that time it was a 5.08 and 4.56lb fluke in 1st and 2nd. After weighing in we had first and second and the Calcutta. We were watching the clock as the minutes ticked by. A few more boats but nothing close to us until 3:55 and the. It happened. A boat out of tuckerton put a 6.86 on the board and knocked our 6.08 and 5.97 out of 1st and 2nd. This put us into second. We won $800 for second but we were hoping for the whole pot $1800 for 1st and another $800 in calcuttas.

All in all a great day on the water. We had 10 quality keepers. Not a single fish needed to be measured. Again S&S Rattletail bucktails and gulp did the trick.

Look for structure in 60-80 feet and make short drifts once you locate a hot spot. Long drifts over unproductive water is relaxing but does not produce full coolers.