10/9-10/10, Plus Overnighter Report

By Tom O

10/8-10/9 Overnighter: Capts. Dave and Tom report just fair fishing on the overnight trip aboard the Yankee Freedom. They anchored all day, and would experience a quick flurry on mixed-size cod and haddock before settling into a slow grind of haddock, cusk, and dogs. They covered a lot of ground, making over 10 stops over the course of the trip, but the bite never really got hot. Nevertheless, with a full 12 hours of fishing under their belts most anglers had plenty of meat to take home. A 20-pound white hake, one of a couple, won the pool.

Friday, 10/9: I made the last-minute decision to jump aboard the Yankee Clipper with Capt. Kirk at the wheel. We began the morning under overcast skies with good drifting conditions and good fishing to match, with fish-a-cast action on a mix of cusk, short and legal cod, and haddock on the first drift. Both jiggers and bait fishermen caught well, although those using clams had to contend with doggies. However, bait anglers who fished with only a single bait hook close to the sinker managed to catch mostly haddock. On that first drift, I believe I put 5 haddock, a cusk and a scrod in the boat. The second drift offered more steady action, but the drift speed became progressively faster until we were moving almost a knot and Kirk elected to anchor up. We made four anchor stops, and with the exception of the second, which produced only a grinding pick, we enjoyed good to very good action on a mixed bag of species. Dogs were once again an issue for the bait guys, and many anglers—especially those fishing midships where I was, had a hard time avoiding tangles, since lines were scoping hard under the port side. The best stop of the day was the second-to-last, where we had fast action on mostly haddock and small-market cod to 8lbs or so. Kirk kept us out a bit late to capitalize on the strong afternoon bite. A 14-pound cod won the pool.

Overall, I’d call it a good to very good day. It was just fair for more inexperienced anglers, but those who had the drill down did quite well on a variety of species. It was one of those days when we caught fish everywhere we went, and people were surprised by how many fish they’d caught at day’s end. Indeed, Ross, Greg, and even regular angler Dave were cutting fish in the rain until we reached the Gloucester breakwater! I finished up with 8 haddock, 4 codfish, 3 cusk and a stray pollock.

Saturday, 10/10: Capt. Kirk reports another good day on the Yankee Clipper. He reported that the fishing was quite similar to yesterday’s, with the exception of a good pollock blitz at the end of the day, during which a few dozen 8-14-pounders were gaffed aboard. They anchored all day and caught fish at every stop. Dogs were once again an issue for the bait guys but weren’t completely intolerable. The last two stops were the best of the trip; one yielded a good pick of market-sized codfish while the other produced the pollock plus a good slug of big haddock. High hooks had around 15 fish. A 16-pound cod beat out a number of pollock to sneak out the pool.

Willy