By willy
Tuesday, 4/27:
Capt. Josh reports a fair to good day on the open-boat trip aboard the Yankee Clipper. There were a load of fish feeding on a load of bait, and pretty much every drop produced a fish, but the short:keeper ratio was atrocious, something along the lines of 7:1. Nevertheless, they were able to put a pile of fish in the boat, mostly 24-26-inch scrod but some better markets in the mix as well. A 12-pound cod took the pool.
Thursday, 4/29:
Another good day on the Yankee Clipper despite rather sporty conditions for much of the day. They began with a couple of anchor stops that produced fair fishing, with a handful of cod coming up at each one. They then made a shift and proceeded to motor-fish in rather difficult conditions for the rest of the day. But the fish, in Capt. Josh’s words, “chewed their faces off,” and anglers enjoyed non-stop action for the last two and a half hours of the trip, bringing up one or two cod each time they dropped to the bottom.
Friday, 4/30:
Capt. Josh reports another good day overall with a full load of anglers on the Yankee Clipper . For some anglers, like high hook Pete Jones, the action was very good, but other anglers only walked off the boat with enough fish for dinner. The average was around 5-8 fish per person. The first few anchor stops in the morning were slow, but the action steadily improved along with the drifting conditions over the course of the day, and they ended the day with an excellent drift on market-sized cod. An 18-pound cod won the pool.
By willy
4/23:
Capt. Josh’s contented comment on Friday when he called during the ride in: “Things are well.” Friday’s charter enjoyed another bang-up day aboard the Yankee Clipper, with a good bite on haddock on the anchor in the morning followed by fast jig-fishing action on a mix of cod and pollock in the afternoon. A good number of cod were large markets/small large from 10-22 pounds; pollock were mostly small mediums in the 5-10-pound range.
Capt. Dave reports a tougher day on the open-boat trip aboard the Yankee Freedom. The jig bite on cod was good in the morning but it dropped right off after an hour or so. They spent the rest of the day looking for haddock, picking away at them with some cod and cusk mixed in. A chunky 18-pound cod took pool honors.
4/24:
Capt. Josh had yet another charter on the Yankee Clipper, and reports yet another great day. The morning jig bite was excellent, both for quantity and quality, with a number of fish in the high teens and low twenties coming aboard. At some points every member of the charter was tight to one or two keeper cod–doesn’t get much better than that. After the assault had gone on for a couple of hours, the charter decided to try for some haddock on the anchor, but found very limited success, with only a handful coming aboard. They finished up the day with another excellent series of drifts on market-sized codfish.
Capt. Dave reports a good day on the open-boat trip aboard the Yankee Freedom. It was pretty windy early on so they started out on the anchor in search of haddock, experiencing a steady pick on a mix of haddock and mostly-sublegal codfish. When the wind abated in the late morning, they began to drift and motor-fish, and did quite well on the cod for the remainder of the day. Lots of quality cod, with a pile on the mid- to high teens, a couple in the low 20s and a 26-pound pool winner caught by Dave Parsons.
4/25:
Capt. Josh ran today’s open-boat trip aboard the Yankee Clipper, reporting a good day overall. The fish were there, and some of them bit, but the action wasn’t quite as intense as it had been the day before or earlier in the week. They began the morning with a good pick of haddock before heading off in search of some cod. Breezy conditions made motor-fishing imperative, and while there was a good sign on the machine anglers experienced only a steady pick on cod and some pollock. The bite finally turned on late in the day–they ended up staying on the grounds almost two hours late in order to capitalize on the strong bite.
Plenty of fish around, and the action shows no signs of abating. If you like jig-fishing for cod, maybe catching some haddock and pollock in the process, now is your time! Give the office a call for reservations or book online.
By willy
Sorry for the recent lag in reports, gang. Here’s an update:
4/19:
Capt. Josh had a 5-2 charter aboard the Yankee Clipper, reporting a fair to good day of fishing for the fairly inexperienced crew of anglers who worked hard throughout the day. They motor-fished in the morning, when they’d hook up to a bunch of nice fish immediately after dropping and then it would die off. They stuck with the motor-fishing until around noon, putting a number of keeper cod in the boat, before making a series of anchor stops in the afternoon that yielded a steady pick of cod and haddock.
Capt. Dave ran the open-boat trip aboard the Yankee Freedom and reports a rather tough day overall. They caught fish everywhere but never to the extent that they would have liked to see; the bite never got better than a pick. Due to the windy conditions, they motor-fished in the morning, with experienced jig anglers doing pretty well on cod and everyone picking away. The bite slowed after the tide changed and they haddock-fished during the middle of the day, experiencing a steady pick. They steamed back to the cod grounds for a few last drifts toward the end of the day, and put a few more fish in the boat. The pool fish was a 10-pound cod.
4/20:
Capt. Josh’s 5-2 charter on the Yankee Clipper saw very good fishing on cod, haddock and pollock today. They caught fish everywhere they went, with jiggers in the know experiencing fish-a-cast action just about all day! A surprising number of pollock were top on the bank in addition to the cod. During the middle of the day, Josh stopped on a few haddock spots to add some silver to the burlaps, with both bait and jig anglers catching some haddock. Everyone caught fish today.
4/21:
An absolute bailjob on Josh’s 5-2 charter on the Yankee Clipper! Anglers enjoyed non-stop action on cod, including a bunch of fish in the 15-20lb range, with a handful in the 20s including the 29.5 lb pool winner! Lots of medium pollock in the mix, too. Not much else to say–just great jig fishing all day long.
Over on the open boat, Capt. Kirk reports a fair to good day aboard the Yankee Patriot. They drifted all day, catching cod ranging from shorts to markets, with a 20lb fish taking the pool. Fish were stuffed to the gills with sand eels–so much so that they may have been full from the morning feed and not in a biting mood. Most of the day consisted of short drifts, on which some anglers would hook up immediately but the fish would then stop hitting. It was a lot of work to put fish in the boat today. A few guys did manage limits today but most anglers enjoyed less success. A pretty frustrating day, with tons of bait and a good sign on the machine but not a lot of hungry fishes.
4/22:
Josh had another charter on the Yankee Clipper, with the same results as yesterday: very good to excellent jig fishing on a mix of cod and pollock, with a 26-pound cod winning the pool!
Capt. Dave reports good fishing on the open-boat trip on the Yankee Freedom The day started off a bit slow, with only a few pollock coming up, but they found some hungry fish in the late morning and stayed with them for a few hours, repeatedly making short drifts in order to stay on ‘em. Dave kept the boat out an hour late to capitalize on the strong bite. A 14-pound cod took the pool.
The Stellwagen bite is officially on! Looks like there are some nicer-sized 20-30lb fish around in addition to the markets, plus a surprisingly large number of pollock. Plenty of bait to keep ‘em in the area, too.
By willy
Saturday, 4/17: Windy conditions made fishing a bit difficult for Capt. Josh and gang aboard the Yankee Clipper, making for a fair day overall. Unable to drift, anglers picked away at haddock and a mix of short and sublegal cod, catching fish at every stop but with the bite never really turning on. The best stop of the trip was the last one, which saw a good pick of haddock on both bait and jigs.
Sunday, 4/18:
Capt. Josh reports a good day of cod action aboard the Yankee Clipper today. Drift-fishing in the morning produced good numbers of keeper cod ranging from 24-inch scrod to fat markets in the 14-16-pound range. As usual, jig fishermen who could cast away from the boat had the edge. A few afternoon anchor stops produced a good bite on bait. An 18-pound wolffish snuck past the cod to win the pool.
By willy
Tuesday, 4/13:
Capt. Josh reports a good day of haddock fishing on the Yankee Clipper, despite a slow start in the morning. The first few stops yielded a slow pick of haddock and out-of-season cod plus a couple of wolffish. Following a late-morning tide change, however, the bite picked up substantially, and the light load of anglers enjoyed a good pick of haddock on the anchor from 11:30-1:00. After that stop slowed down, they made one last anchor stop and put another handful of haddock in the boat before heading home.
Friday, 4/16: COD OPENING DAY
A full complement of anglers joined Capt. Josh aboard the Yankee Clipper for the long-awaited opening day of cod season. The morning greeted them with less-than-ideal conditions that resulted in a fast drift, which made tending bottom difficult for some anglers and also caused some tangles. But anglers who could cast and work a jig enjoyed good action on cod ranging from shorts to nice markets in the 12-14-pound range. Tons of life down on Stellwagen: bait, birds, whales, and of course, cod.
With conditions deteriorating, they decided to make a couple of anchor stops in the afternoon, which made the fishing easier, but the catching slowed down to a slow pick of cod and redfish.
Josh called the day good overall, with savvy jig anglers tallying 12-14 fish apiece, but with some anglers enjoying significantly less success. A 14-pound cod took the pool.
All signs put to another great spring out on the bank, and Josh looks forward to getting back out there tomorrow. Still plenty of space available.
-Willy.
By willy
A rather frustrated Capt. Josh reports a day spent driving the Yankee Clipper away from hungry market cod in search of haddock, and a fair day overall in terms of the targeted species. The cod were everywhere, and they bit–some jig anglers had a few dozen would-be keepers up to 12-14 pounds–but the haddock bite was nothing to write home about. One stop produced a few dozen haddock in flurries of four or five at a time, but the rest of the day was spent picking through wads of cod with the occasional haddock hitting the deck. Weather was gorgeous, and the rods stayed bent all day all around the boat, even if they did so under the burden of the “wrong” species. I think it’s safe to say that the gang is ready for cod season to open…
No trip tomorrow, but the Yankee Clipper is planning to run seven days a week, weather/interest permitting. Give the office a call for more info and to make a reservation.
-Willy.
By willy
Capt. Josh reports a rather slow day of haddock fishing aboard the Yankee Clipper. They made a number of stops over the course of the day, and caught some fish wherever they went, but the bite never turned on anywhere, with just a slow pick of haddock at each of them. Lots of cod around–one drop produced 30 or so would-be keepers in short order. A handful of cusk came over the rails as well.
No trip tomorrow, but the Yankee Clipper will be out Friday. Give the office a call to book a spot!
By willy
4/3:
Capt. Josh reports a good day of fishing aboard the Yankee Clipper on Saturday. It was essentially a one-stop day. They had a good flurry right after anchoring up, and a good pick of haddies continued for an hour or so before slowing a bit. But there were still some fish coming up and Josh didn’t want to abandon the established clam slick so they stuck with it. It was a good move–they had a few more decent blasts of haddock before the bite tapered off around 1PM. They tried one more stop with only minor success, and headed for the barn. Some anglers kicked butt, tallying over 20 haddock, whereas others only had a few fish to show for their efforts. Again, the boat set up on the anchor in such a way that the anglers on the stern did substantially better than those further forward. It would have been nice to see the bite spread more evenly around the boat. Plenty of keeper cod too, as Dave mentioned.
Capt. Kirk, working deck for Capt. Ray on the Yankee Patriot, reports a much slower day. They fished near the Clipper all day but could never get the bite to materialize, with only a slow pick of haddock and short and keeper cod.
4/4:
Capt. Tom reports a slow day aboard the Yankee Clipper, with only a handful of haddock coming aboard, plus a bunch of keeper cod that were released. He fished the same area as Josh did yesterday, but there wasn’t much going on.
No trips today or tomorrow, but the Yankee Clipper and the Patriot, if need be, will be sailing Wednesday-Sunday, weather permitting.
By willy
Capt. Josh reports a very good day of haddock fishing aboard the Yankee Clipper today. The morning started off a bit slow, with a pair of rather unproductive anchor stops, but a move and a short drift resulted in a quick few dozen haddock before tangles became troublesome. Anchoring up resulted in a solid bite that lasted for around two and a half hours, with some anglers tallying over twenty haddock apiece. It was one of those days when due to the way the boat set on the anchor the bite was better in the stern; Colorado Jerry had 20 fish on bait in the stern while Yankee Fleet highliner Mike Abovsky (FishWisher) tallied a measly one haddock on the pulpit. Them’s the breaks.
A good amount of short and legal cod came aboard today too, especially for the jig fishermen. Some better sized fish as well, with a bunch in the 12-15-pound range. All, of course, were released…14 days… A burly 9-pound haddock won the pool.
Two boats out tomorrow and one scheduled for Sunday–weather looks fantastic and it looks like Josh and the gang have the haddies dialed in!
By willy
Capt. Josh just called in to report a slow day of haddock fishing aboard the Yankee Clipper to kick off the 2010 season. They started off with two hour-long anchor stops in the morning, which yielded only a slow pick of haddock for the 38 anglers on board. There was a good sign on the machine, and the anglers were doing a good job of keeping their baits close to the bottom, but not much was going on in the way of biting fish. Shifting to the west resulted in a mix of short and keeper cod–not what they were looking for. They ended the day on some harder bottom, which didn’t yield much in the way of haddock but provided a pile of redfish.
Overall, a slow day, but Josh is looking forward to exploring some new areas tomorrow and is optimistic about getting on the meat soon. Weather looks great for the next few days.
-Willy.
Yankee Fleet