5/24-5/26: Jig fish!

By tomconley

Sorry for the recent delay in reporting—too much fishing! Here’s what’s been happening over the past three days.

5/24: There were two open boats out today: the Yankee Clipper with Capt. Smitty at the wheel, and the Yankee Patriot driven by Capt. Ray. Both captains report a fair day of fishing overall, with periods of good cod fishing but mostly just a pick for the day, with jigs out-producing bait. There were a lot of short fish, but enough keepers around to keep things interesting. High hooks limited out on cod but some anglers had only a few fish to show for their efforts by day’s end. Gina Hart of Gloucester won the Patriot’s pool with a 23-pound codfish, while Joey Paige of Hampton, NH took the Clipper’s pool with a 12-pounder.

5/25: I jumped aboard the Yankee Clipper with Capt. Josh, with my mom coming along for her first cod trip in about ten years! In the morning, seas were flat calm but a strong current made anchoring imperative. We made a few anchor stops in a hard-bottom area and had a steady pick on mostly short cod but with enough keepers to 10 pounds around to keep things interesting. I spent most of these stops teaching Mom how to jig, and she caught a bunch of short fish and reeled in a few nice keepers as well.

After about an hour and a half, Josh wasn’t quite satisfied with the action or the short: keeper ratio, and made a move of a few miles. The tide had eased up enough to make drifting possible, and drift we did. In this location, those who knew how to cast and work a jig were able to capture some quality codfish; most were in the 6-14-pound range but a handful of larger markets between 17 and 21 pounds came to gaff as well. I managed to land my largest cod of the year thus far, a fat 21-pounder, in this location. Mom snared a few nice markets here too. Fat, frisky fish loaded with sand eels. Lots and lots of mackerel around too—at times it was near-impossible to fish a teaser because you’d catch ‘em on the way down!

After a few drifts in this zone, the action dried up. In order to try to “spread the wealth” around the boat, given that only the more skilled jig fishermen were consistently catching, Josh moved to a haddock spot over some softer bottom. There, we found a few haddock, but mostly more codfish! Again, mostly jig fish. However, it was just a pick here, and after a few slow drifts, Josh decided to call it a day, since we had already stayed out later than scheduled. Keith Miner of Virgins, VT won the pool with a 20-pound cod that snuck past a couple of close contenders.

Overall, Josh called it a fair trip, in terms of action and numbers of keepers given the number of people on board. However, I’d say it was good to very good for those who knew how to jig fish, such as Glenn Misco and Lisa Burke fishing in the pulpit. I had a limit of cod and my mom had four or five as well. A very fun day!

5/26: Once again, I decided to hop on the Yankee Clipper for the limited-load day trip with Capt. Josh. The morning started off a bit snappy, with a solid 15-knot northeast breeze obliging us to anchor to start things off. The first few stops had fast, fish-a-cast action for jig fishermen—however, anglers in the pulpit were catching mostly shorts while those in the stern were catching nice keepers in the 6-10-pound range! The next stop was the polar opposite—I put 5 market cod in the boat in my first four casts, fishing off the pulpit! No complaints there! We made one more anchor stop and also tried a drift in this area, enjoying a steady pick on short and keeper cod with some haddock mixed in as well.

Once the wind died down and we were presented with drifting conditions, Josh made the shift over to the area that had produced the better quality fish for us yesterday. There, we enjoyed the best action of the day, making a handful of drifts during which nearly everyone, including many anglers with rental jigs who had never jigged before, caught cod ranging from shorts to the pool-winning 24-pounder. There were lots of quality fish in the 7-10-pound range, which were fat, frisky, and positively loaded with sand eels. Lots of mackerel again too, just like yesterday.

Josh called the trip good overall, but for those who were effectively jigging all day I’d say it was very good or even excellent. I had an easy limit of cod as well as three or four haddock, and the cod were almost all quality fish over 7 pounds—“small markets,” if you will. There seem to be small, localized patches of active fish right now, but with the dynamic nature of the spring thus far we might see these fish spread out over the open bottom and provide more “equal-opportunity” fishing to anglers on board. We’ll see how it goes—lots of bait and life out there, for sure. Bring your jigs!