On Tuesday evening, everything came up roses for the Sciortinos, owners of the Tackle Shop in Hazlet.
No sooner than an hour after Phil Sciortino Jr, his son Paddy and nephew Billy Phillips locked up for the day, they found themselves in a “magic hour” bite with famished, 40-pound class striped bass right off Sandy Hook. One of the fish they landed hadn’t even swallowed a whole bunker in its mouth before it bit down on a metal lip swimmer.
“It got crazy. We worked the shop all day, closed up, ran down to the boat and were ocean side of Sandy Hook by 6:15 p.m.” Paddy Sciortino said. “We had to go then because that was the weather window.”…