Yankee Fleet is Fishing!

By admin

The Yankee Fleet began running full day trips, seven days a week, on April 1, and we’ve been enjoying good success on both market cod and haddock on Stellwagen Bank. When conditions allow for drifting, jig fishing on the open bottom has been very productive for cod. Otherwise, anchoring for a mix of cod and haddock has been the way to go. Here are a few of the more recent reports:

4/10: Capt. Josh reported an excellent day of drift fishing for actively feeding codfish on the Yankee Clipper today! They were gorging on sand eels, a fact not missed by the many whales that surrounded the boat for the majority of the day. Although the small:keeper ratio varied from 6:1 to 1:1, many anglers walked off the boat with limits at the end of the day, especially those who knew how to swing a jig and cast into the drift. The pool fish was a 26lb cod that beat out another fish of a similar size, and there were many nice cod in the 10-18lb range in addition to the smaller keepers that made up the bulk of the catch. A smattering of haddock and redfish were in the mix as well.

4/11: Strong winds and rough seas made for tricky conditions today. Capt Josh had to anchor for the duration of the trip, and anglers picked away at many small codfish to put keepers in the bags. Some anglers caught as many as 40 sublegal cod without a single keeper! It happens!

4/12 and 4/13 were cancelled due to weather.

4/14: Capt Josh reports a steady pick of cod and haddock on the Yankee Clipper today. Drift fishing in the morning produced numbers of codfish, although a substantial amount of them didn’t make the 24 inch size limit. The catching was good–the keeping was not! In the afternoon a few anchor stops produced a bunch of haddock as well. A few people managed to scratch out limits of cod in addition to some tasty haddock.

4/15: Capt. Smitty, sailing with a light load, focused on the haddock today, and was rewarded with a couple of productive anchor stops, fishing with both bait and jigs. A good number of cod, both legal and sublegal, were in the mix as well.

Willy G.