Well we made it! Fished with Capt John Peterson, on the Unreel, out of Harbor View Marina,Cape May, with some good Friends, Andy & son,Jason, Capt. Bob (SandyHook FIshing Adventures) & son Matt, Willie and my good buddy Bruce R.

We had an evening trip, supposed to leave at 2:30, but since we were all there early, Capt. John said let's shove off early. I think he was just as anxious to find the Drum as we were. We got out to one of the Captain's favorite spots and dropped anchor and waited for that first bite. We had action almost immediately, unfortunately they were all skates. There weren't many reports of fish being caught coming over the radio, Captain John decided to try another spot and we had more action. This time Doggies, I have to say I saw some of the biggest and smallest Dogfish I have ever seen last night. I caught a Doggie that could not have been 10" long and I saw others caught that had to top 25lbs.

Anyway, after another move, we watched the "passing" T-storms roll toward us and as the rain started most guys moved into the cabin for shelter. Right at that time I have something knocking at my bait. Doesn't feel like a skate and don't feel like a shark, got to wait it out and give it time. Now Bob is making fun of me for being too dumb to come out of the rain. What the heck, I got my skins on, got to wait it out a little more. He starts taking good, BAMM set the hook & game on! Definitely ain't no skate! After a few minutes I know it ain't no shark. Yup, it is the targeted species. Couple more minutes and Ron has the yo' dollar fish in da boat. Small fish, maybe 30# but nice to have something in the boat.

The passing T-storm never passed, it just hung over us for the rest of the night. (May have been my old G/F's little sister, Stormey?) Not a heavy rain but a constant rain and sometimes a spectacular light show. Now every one is kind of baiting up, casting the clam out and letting the rod sit in a holder. Capt. John sees one line that seems to be sitting opposite the direction all the other lines are going, he lifts and bang, hook set hand off to Jason. After much teasing and "genteel" coaxing from Dad & company Jason manages to bring his fish to the net. Actually, while Jason is still fighting his fish another rod goes off. Andy was closest to to the rod but being the nice guy that he is he backs off and lets Bob's son Matt pick up the rod & set the hook. Now we are fighting two fish, trying to take pictures and holding other rods because it looks like a serious bite is developing. No more bites but what a laugh as the two proud dads continue to coax their offspring in the gentle art of reeling in a small tank!

Jason gets his fish to the net and now we have a 60-65# fish on the deck. Oh well I had bragging rights for a little while anyway. Then Matt gets his fish to the net and wow, 70-80 lb fish on the deck. Many pictures taken, high fives and backslaps. Not sure who was smiling more the boys or the proud dads?

That, unfortunately, was the end of the bite for us. Jason opted to release his fish after the photo op. We thought it was gonna go belly up on us but it finally recovered and swam off. Matt wanted to keep his fish as Bob kept his last year and said they had a few good meals from it. Bruce had told me on the way down that his girlfriend gave him orders to bring fish home as she had a recipe to try out. I said we would keep a fish if we had a small one between us so with my fish being "small" we kept it. Bruce took a filet and I have one. Not exactly sure what I am going to try and do with it, but I did see a recipe for Drum Parmigiana on another site.

Around 9:30 Captain John noticed that now everyone was huddle out of the rain and he was the only one checking & baiting lines so he asked if anyone had any objection to calling it a night. No objections and off we go, heading back to the marina. Had the two fish cut. Just not a lot of meat recovered from those big fish. A 20% return of fish is about all you can expect. Another reason to just grab a few pics and put it back.

All and all, a soggy but great night with some good friends. If you haven't gone yet, what are you waiting for?

On the down side, I took quite a few pictures, but when I put the memory card in my printer the printer shuts down? Got to work on that, any ideas?