Capt. Rich reported a good day of local cod fishing. The bite was steady all day with a nice pop during the last hour of the trip when the big green cod really made their presence known. The fish were more spread out around the boat today and a number of anglers went home with four to eight cod apiece today and most also went home with at least one or two big sea bass, with a few anglers getting upwards to six to eight nice sea bass apiece to go along with their cod. Sizes on sea bass up to nearly 5lbs. The cod varied quite a bit in size from many throwbacks to a lot of market size fish to quite a few in the 10 to 15lb range with about eight to ten really nice fish in the 18-25lb range boated today. Jerry Cahalan from Lee Mass had the pool fish with a beautiful green cod of 25lbs brought aboard right before Capt. Rich started the engines to go home. Longtime regular Barbara from CT was pleased with her three cod up to at least 20lbs and two slammer sea bass while Ken from CT filled his cooler with 7 cod to 15lbs and six big sea bass to 4.5lbs. John W from NY was pleased with his assortment of six nice cod to 15lbs and several slammer sea bass while three gentlemen from the NYC area combined for 22 cod to 20lbs (many in the teens) and a nice mess of big sea bass and so on. While a couple fish fell to the iron clam today the best scores and sizes on the gadids once again came from plain bait on a hook fished down low near the sinker. Some big fish were dropped again today and we cannot caution folks enough this time of year to let those big fish dig! Braid anglers be sure to be using plenty of mono top shot or a really loose drag. A few blue fish, some nice size porgies and some good size ocean perch rounded out a nice catch of cod and sea bass today and Capt. Rich looks forward to another good day on the water Friday with the Gail Frances set to sail at 7am.
The word from Capt. Ray was that the porgy fishing remains top notch with at least some angler limits and a nice mix of sea bass of large to jumbo size in the mix along with the big porgies. Capt. Ray looks forward to another good day of porgy fishing tomorrow with the Admiral Frances set to sail at 8am.
