8/18-8/28

By tomconley

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of reports over the past few weeks—have been busy moving out of Woods Hole, a quick fishing trip to Florida, and now moving back into the dorms for the fall semester. Here’s a run-through of what the guys have been doing since last Tuesday the 18th.

8/18: Capt. Tom O. himself ran the Yankee Clipper’s limited-load trip last Tuesday, but reports a slow day of fishing. The weather was perfect, but the fish just weren’t in the mood. Just a slow pick of cusk and a handful of haddock.

Capt. Kirk, who had a charter on the Yankee Patriot, reports similar results. Not a lot going on, with some cusk, haddock, and a couple of codfish coming aboard.

8/19: Capt. Kirk ran Wednesday’s day trip aboard the Yankee Patriot, and reports much better action than the previous day, with good fishing on mostly haddock with cod to 14 pounds and a few pollock to 15 pounds mixed in as well. They enjoyed steady action all day with some solid flurries of haddock punctuating the day. A beautiful 24-pound wolfish that swallowed a hunk of clam took pool honors.

8/20: Capt. Josh had the wheel for the Super Thursday trip on the Yankee Clipper, and called the day fair to good. The fish were mainly biting the clams rather than jigs, and catches were well-spread around the bait, with a number of anglers tallying 10-12 legal fish by day’s end. Large haddock, market cod to 17 pounds (the pool winner), and a handful of pollock constituted the catch. The bite was best on the anchor in the morning, but they caught fish while drifting in the afternoon as well.

8/21: Capt. Kirk had the day trip on the Yankee Patriot on Friday, and reports a good day of fishing despite difficult conditions. The wind blew 25 knots out of the southwest, so they anchored all day, catching mostly haddock with a few cod and large cusk mixed in. In fact, a big cusk of about 12 pounds took the pool. The dogfish were pretty thick but the good amount of haddock mixed in with them made weeding through them worthwhile.

Capt. Josh led the charge on a charter aboard the Yankee Clipper, and reports that the fishing was slow in the morning, where the fishing had been good on the marathon yesterday. After catching just a few haddock and cusk they shifted to some hard bottom where they found a steady to good pick on some haddock, but tide-versus-wind conditions made fishing effectively difficult. Their best bite occurred in the afternoon just after slack tide. A fair day overall, he said, with slow fishing to start in the morning and a fair to good bite for the last two thirds of the trip.

8/22: On the Yankee Patriot, Capt. Kirk reports a good day of angling. Dogs weren’t too bad, the haddock bit pretty well with some cod and cusk mixed in, and a 12-pound cod took pool honors. They anchored all day, and bait seemed to produce better on the groundfish than the jigs even though it attracted more dogfish as well.

Josh reports a fair to good day on the Yankee Clipper. They made five anchor stops, with some better than others, catching a mix of cod and haddock, with more keeper cod than he’s been seeing recently. A 12-pound cod won the pool. Jigs and bait were more-or-less equally effective.

8/23: All trips were canceled Sunday due to Tropical Storm Bill.

8/24: Capt. Josh ran the Yankee Clipper today, and reports a fair day of fishing. They had a couple of slow stops to start off, then made a shift and found a steady pick of cod to 18 pounds, cusk, haddock, and a brief pollock blitz of 8-14-pound specimens. The 18-pound cod took pool honors.

8/25:
There were two limited-load trips on Tuesday. Aboard the Yankee Clipper, Josh reports another fair day. After a few slow stops, they moved to some deeper water, where Josh located a large sign of pollock. However, the fish seemed finicky and anglers only boated a handful of them. Hopefully those fish will turn on soon and provide some fast, exciting action for the jig fishermen. Since the pollock didn’t pan out Josh made another shift and picked away at cusk and haddock to finish out the day.

On the Yankee Patriot, Kirk, sailing with a light load, reports a very good day of fishing. Drifting all day, they had a good pick of haddock with some market cod and cusk mixed in. Jigs and bait both produced, although jigs caught most of the better-sized cod, including the pool-winning 15-pounder.

8/26: Kirk ran Wednesday’s day trip on the Yankee Patriot, reporting fair to good fishing overall. The first anchor stop was very good, with anglers putting dozens of nice haddock in the boat during their two hours there. Once the bite petered out, Kirk made a short shift but found only a slow pick on haddock with a pile of dogfish mixed in, a surprise because there had been almost no dogs at the first stop. The third anchor stop offered more of the same, with some haddock but lots of dogs too. Conditions made fishing difficult during the second half of the day, when the wind hauled out of the southwest at 25 knots and the boat began to swing on the anchor in choppy 3-5-foot seas. An 11-pound cod won the pool.

Capt. Josh had a charter on the Yankee Clipper, and reports a fair day of haddock fishing despite the mostly inexperienced angling crew on board. Cusk and a couple of nice cod in the 8-14-pound range were mixed in too.

8/27:
Capt. Josh reports a good day of fishing on the Super Thursday trip on the Yankee Clipper. The pollock bit fairly well in the morning, although they were concentrated in small areas and would only eat a jig twitched slowly right on the bottom. After moving off the pollock, they had a steady bait bite on haddock with some codfish to 20 pounds mixed in too. Many anglers had upwards of ten legal fish by day’s end. A 20-pound cod won the pool.

8/28: Capt. Josh ran the day trip aboard the Yankee Clipper yesterday and reports a fair day, with some anglers catching over a dozen keepers while others had only two or three. They began in the morning by looking for the pollock, but they once again proved quite finicky, although a handful of them including the 16-pound pool-winner did succumb to jigs. After targeting the pollock, anglers picked away at haddock, cusk, and cod for the remainder of the day, despite a ripping tide that made tending bottom difficult.

8/29: All trips were canceled today due to weather.

Willy