Friday and Saturday reports

By Tom O

Friday, 5/22:

Only one boat was out Friday, the open-boat all-day trip aboard the Yankee Patriot, with Capt. Ray at the wheel. Mate Ross reports a slow to fair day as a whole. They anchored all day, and as soon as they began fishing at a new spot they’d experience good action on mostly haddock with some short and keeper cod mixed in. Within a few minutes, however, the action would settle down to a slow pick. In addition to the haddock there was a gaggle of keeper cod aboard, with some 12-15-pound markets including 15-pound pool winner. Three wolffish and a smallish monkfish (@10 pounds) came up as well.

Saturday, 5/23:

Capt. Ray once again ran the Yankee Patriot all day trip. Unfortunately, mate Ross reports, the fishing was quite slow today. Just a slow pick on mostly haddock, with a handful of keeper cod mixed in. Not a lot of short fish today either–the bite just seemed to be off. A 15-pound wolffish won the pool.

On the Yankee Clipper, Capt. Smitty also ran an all-day trip, and had a slightly more productive day than the Patriot, calling it a fair trip. The first anchor stop in the morning produced a solid pick of both cod and haddock, mostly on bait. They stayed there for about an hour and a half. After that, however, the rest of the stops they made offered only a pick on haddock, with some cusk and a pile of redfish thrown in as well. A 12-pound codfish took pool honors.

Sounds like a pretty slow day all around–we’ll see what tomorrow brings!