Capt. Rich reported that they enjoyed a gorgeous first weather day of the Fall Cod 2011 season and the fishing wound up pretty good as well. Cod were caught at every stop but the pickings nothing more than encouraging until late in the day when the cod began to bend the rods up and down the sides of the Gail Frances. Late in the day there was a nice steady pick of BIG GREEN FISH with at least a half dozen fish in the 20lb range and a few bigger ones up to 25lbs. In fact Wally Frey had a fine brace of cod over 20lbs with the pool winning 25lbr and had a total of four nice cod for the day. Longtime regular Willie from the Bronx was hi hook with a total of 8 keeper cod up to 12lbs while Lou from Niantic had six keeper cod including a 20lbr and a couple other hefty cod well into the teens. Mr. Pak was also a force to reckon with today as he put 5 nice cod into his cooler including two fish in the 20lb range. Fluke sharpie Mike T from Narragansett laid a fine 20lbr to rest on the deck while longtime regular Norman had four nice keepers today and so on. All in all a pretty good first day. Other than the bigger cod there was a nice scattering of market size cod caught before the late bite and anglers also had some sea bass and a few hubcap size scup and some nice ocean perch as well. The bite was very very soft today and A LOT of big cod were missed or dropped, some even half way or more up. For those waiting for the big cod to bite really hard you may have a long wait and also if you think these big green cod cannot strip a bait off the hook think again! Almost all the cod over ten pounds today were just hooked in the corner of the mouth. Some pics will be posted above this report today to showcase a few angler hi lights. Capt. Rich was very encouraged by the results of the first day and looks forward to more good fishing tomorrow with the Gail Frances set to sail at 7am.
First mate Cory reported very good Porgy fishing today on the Admiral Frances. Experience made the difference and the guys who were really dialed in had no problem getting their limits of platter size scup and YES the big scup were BACK! The 1.5 to 2lb fish were quite common once again and there were bigger fish up to and just over 3lbs! A nice showing of big sea bass to 4lbs mixed in as well with hi hooks on the sea bass getting upwards to a half dozen keepers apiece to take home. A handful of handsome blue fish up to 12lbs added some excitement to the great day of porgy fishing. Capt. Chris looks forward to another good day of Porgy fishing tomorrow with the Captain Frances set to sail at 8am.
