Still on ‘em!

By willy

Sorry for the lack of reports recently, folks. After this week we’ll be getting ‘em online more consistently. Suffice it to say that the fishing has remained quite good and remarkably consistent day in and day out. Cod and a surprisingly large number of early-season pollock have been filling up the bags, with large numbers of haddock mixed in on some days. Here’s a recap:

Tuesday, 5/4:

Capt. Josh ran the first limited-load trip of the season aboard the Yankee Clipper, reporting a good day overall with a healthy mix of cod, haddock and pollock. The fishing was okay in the morning but they elected to try something different and moved to a new area, where the action was better but not an all-out slam. They stuck with that for the remainder of the outing, completing a number of drifts and picking away at mostly cod and pollock. They did try a spot where Josh has been seeing some larger cod, and Ross Clayton, summer YF mate out on a busman’s holiday, connected with a 15-pounder and a 25-pound steaker on consecutive casts (we’re still waiting for the horseshoe to fall out if you know what I mean ), but nothing else came up, and that was it for the trip.

Wednesday, 5/5:

Capt. Kirk reports a decent day aboard the Yankee Patriot, putting together a good catch after a slow start in the morning. They ended up with a mix of mostly haddock with some cod and a pile of redfish mixed in too. The bite picked up toward the end of the day and Kirk stayed 45 minutes late in order to capitalize on the better action. a 14-pound cod won the pool.

Thursday, 5/6:

Capt. Josh ran the first Super Thursday 5-5 marathon trip of the season aboard the Yankee Clipper and deemed the day “a lesson in patience and hard work.” The fish were there all day but conditions made motor-fishing imperative, and Josh was at the throttles making the drift fishable from the first stop through the last. They made a LOT of short drifts, and anglers had to work hard to stay near the bottom, but the fishing was pretty darn good, with a number of cod, pollock, and some haddock coming up on each drift. A very good day overall.

Friday, 5/7:

Capt. Josh had the open boat aboard the Yankee Clipper, reporting a good day overall. They had a fair pick through the early afternoon, although the fish that came up were all decent markets in the 8-12-pound range. Later on they found a pack of hungry cod and pollock out in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed a strong afternoon bite, primarily on jigs.

Capt. Dave, on a charter aboard the Yankee Freedom, reports that they enjoyed a good morning bite while motor-fishing, although there were a lot of short cod mixed in. The action settled down to a steady pick in the afternoon, when anglers jigged up a mix of cod and pollock.

Saturday, 5/8:

An excellent day aboard the Yankee Clipper: “we numbed ‘em,” Capt. Josh reports. They began the morning with a mad-dog pollock bite around an insane whale show, with 15-20 humpbacks and minkes pounding sandeels and the pollock picking up the pieces. Everyone hooked up immediately on the two motor drifts they made in the middle of the melee before Josh elected to steam off in search of codfish.

They made a half-mile drift and enjoyed fish-a-cast action on a mix of cod and pollock, and repeated the drift although the action wasn’t quite as good the second time around. Then the madness came: a POLLOCK BLITZ! That’s right, pollock chowing down on sand eels right on the surface, a school about 100 yards across. Pretty neat. Anglers dropped jigs and hooked up 20 feet down–pretty crazy stuff.

Once the fog moved in and the rains began in the late morning, angler effort dropped off since most folks had all they needed, but the diehards continued to hammer away at the cod and pollock for the remainder of the outing. The pool fish was a 16-pound cod.

Capt. Dave also reports a great trip on his charter aboard the Yankee Freedom. Lots of pollock with some nice cod mixed in. The whales, he reports, were corralling sandeels around the boat, and the sandlance would hide underneath the boat, at which point a school of pollock would swim under the boat and everyone would hook up. Pretty cool. The whales eventually left, but the groundfish didn’t, and anglers enjoyed great action all day.

Sunday, 5/9: All trips were canceled due to weather.

This is spring fishing at its finest–give the office a call for schedule info and to make a reservation.