July or November?

I headed out on the Manasquan River with Bill for a evening fluke trip. We launch and were met by ice cold incoming tide of ocean water that plummeted over the past few days. A constant South wind caused upwelling and the cooler ocean water near the bottom to surface and keep the ocean a frigid temp all week. Just a few miles off the beach the water was in the 70 and clear. The lowest temp we would read all afternoon was 51 degrees with the temp hovering around 55 degrees of so. Just enough to turn the fluke bite off.

We fished a few hours of the incoming with nothing to show except a few taps and no fish to the boat. We tried all the usual holes and ledges with every bait and presentation imaginable. Bill said why don't we try up river where we usually bass fish in the fall, so we made the drift further up.

I drifted around a piece of structure jigged and felt a nice hit, then slack. Nothing and then it was game on. The fish was head shaking and taking line. I thought I had a big fluke on when it took off away from the boat. A few minutes later after doging some boats and a ferry A fat, healthy 31" striper was in the boat. Some pics, an ALS tag, and she swam away strong.