Sometimes the striped bass and bluefishing can be frustrating and produce little to no action. Bottom fishing for scup, black sea bass, fluke and smaller bass and blues can be a lot of fun. Often underrated and seen just for kids or beginners, scup and black sea bass can be intense with a lot of action and provide great table fare when you get into the larger keeper sized fish. I was targeting black sea bass but found a pocket of very large and very aggressive Scup. Using large hooks, bigger strips of squid or casting bucktails rigged with squid or Berkley Gulp can often weed out the Scup . . . just not last night ;) It was a fun night, very relaxing and just after dark I threw some small soft plastics and caught a couple schoolie bass. Sometimes fishing can be simple and fun, just change your expectations.