8/30-9/1

By tomconley

As we begin to enter the fall fishing season, I’ll try to stay more on top of reports, hopefully checking in every couple of days or even daily, depending on how things go. To get started, here’s a recap of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Anglers enjoyed good fishing on a variety of species, with haddock, 6-10-pound cod, and medium-sized pollock in the 8-12-pound range comprising the majority of the legal catch. The pollock, which the captains have been marking on the machine over the past couple of weeks but which have frequently refused to cooperate, are finally begin to feed more consistently, a promising sign for those who enjoy tangling with these hard-pulling gadiforms.

8/30: Capt. Ray, in the wheelhouse of the Yankee Patriot on Sunday, reports a fair to good day overall, with a steady pick of haddock, cod, and cusk on the anchor. High hooks had as many as 10 haddock in the bag by day’s end. Bait was key for numbers, but those who put in their time with the jig captured some good-sized haddock in addition to some small market cod in the 6-8-pound range.

8/31: With classes starting on Wednesday, I elected to jump on the Yankee Clipper with Capt. Josh to sneak in one last trip before the academic grind begins. The morning started off a bit snappy, with a brisk northwest wind of 15-18 knots greeting us offshore, but it tapered off to a refreshing breeze by late morning. Nevertheless, the wind, which blew perpendicular to a moderate tide for much of the day, made anchoring imperative, and we made four anchor stops over the course of the trip. The tide/wind combo made for challenging conditions, but the group of 25 anglers worked hard and was able to fish effectively for most of the day. Joining us on this adventure were fisheries observers Brandt and Brad from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, who measured and weighed each fish that came aboard today.

The morning started off with the best of omens. On my first cast, before the jig reached the bottom, line started zipping frantically off of my reel in spurts, a signal that any seasoned ground fisherman knows well. I put the reel in gear and cranked tight, and there they were—double-header pollock, ripping line off the spool and shaking their heads nearly in unison as they sought to dislodge the Lavjig and Cocahoe Minnow teaser, respectively. No dice for them, and after a few minutes a pair of 10-pound pollock flopped about in the pulpit.

A pollock slam looked to be in the making, but it was not to be. Other jig anglers caught a few right away, but the action tapered off quickly. My next cast resulted in a short cod; my next, a little 20-inch pollock. Josh wasn’t happy with what he was seeing, and made the “lines up” call.

The next stop was better. Much better. We sat on the anchor for close to two hours, with jig fishermen capturing a mix of pollock and short-to-small-market-sized codfish, while the bait anglers caught haddock, short cod, and the oh-so-occasional dogfish. Jiggers who dropped their jigs straight down caught the occasional pollock, but the fish seemed to be boat shy, and while a pack would sometimes streak under the boat, resulting in many anglers hooking up at once, being able to cast the jig was the ticket for fish-a-cast action. At this stop, almost every time I casted out, I hooked up with one or two pollock in the 8-14-pound range before my jig touched bottom. No secrets, just casting. We had a smallish (150-pound) blue shark around the boat that harassed us for a bit, including me when it grabbed a pollock ten feet below the surface and after a bit of a tussle made off with the aft portion. It seemed to get bored quickly, however, and left us alone after a few minutes.

The action eventually tapered off on Spot 2, and Josh made a substantial shift. Our third anchor stop resulted in still more pollock but with more haddock and cod mixed in too. I even captured my token cusk, a fat 5-pounder. The final stop of the day resulted in more mixed-bag action for both the bait and jig fishermen, with a good number of large haddock coming up on the clams.

All told, Josh deemed it a good day overall. There was roughly an equal number of haddock and pollock on board, with keeper cod coming in a distant third and just a few cusk. As I mentioned, jig fishermen who could cast away from the boat did far better with the pollock than those who dropped straight down, while bait anglers who put in their time and kept their baits close to the bottom dragged a burlap-full of cod and haddock to the stern when the time came to get their catch filleted.

According to DMF observer Brandt, by day’s end I had captured 25 pollock, all 7-15 pounds except for one 20-incher. In addition, I managed one barely-legal cod that I released, 2 haddock, and a cusk, plus eleven short codfish. I’d call that a heck of a good day trip by anyone’s standards, and as I mentioned, all it took was the ability to cast the jig away from the boat. A 15-pound pollock beat out a number of similarly-sized specimens to take the pool. The largest cod weighed 9 pounds.

9/1: An enthusiastic Capt. Kirk called in to report a very good to excellent trip aboard the Yankee Patriot on the limited-load day trip today. Unlike yesterday’s trip, where pollock made a strong showing, only two large specimens were caught today. Instead, anglers put a hurting on the haddock and codfish, with a number of nice market cod in the 10-15-pound range hitting the deck. Bait was best for numbers, but jigs caught most of the larger codfish, including the high-teens pool winner. They anchored in the morning, enjoying a 2-hour stop to begin the day that yielded a pile of haddock with some cod mixed in. They then made two drifts of 1.5 hours each, continuing to assault the haddock and catching more cod than they’d seen in the morning too. Anglers averaged 7 or 8 keepers apiece, and high hooks had around 20 fish each. Sounds good to me!

Willy