Roger reported another great day of mixed bag fishing with Capt. Rich on the Gail Frances. We had a mesmerizing variety of fish today that included cod, sea bass, scup, ocean perch, bonito, bluefish, flounder, trigger fish, red hake, sculpin and just a few handfuls of unmentionables. We had several really nice cod today with the biggest in the low 20’s and another right around 20 lbs and another in the mid to high teens. A few others around ten pounds with the rest just nice market size keepers. Nearly all were green fish and hi hook took home three nice cod today. A handful of short cod as well. The bite on the cod fish was super super soft. In fact for most of the cod caught, the anglers did not even feel a bite per se. What would happen is the bait would cease being attacked by scup and sea bass and then it would feel as though there was nothing going on but you’d lift up and feel weight and the cod would be rolling the bait around in their mouth. Even anglers using the most modern of the fabric lines reported not feeling the cod fish biting the bait! Tough to get a good hook set that way unless you swing hard blindly. Some other big cod were dropped today due to lack of a good hook set under these circumstances. When ever something feels different or a little strange, set that hook like your trying to reach the clouds in the sky! There were quite a few sea bass limits and most anglers had at least several nice ones apiece to take home. Several big sea bass were jigged up earlier in the day but once anchored bait was the way to go. Biggest sea bass around the 4 lb mark. The big scup were back in force today, similar to last Sunday. Most of the anglers aboard caught ten to thirty big porgies apiece and those who used smaller hooks had their thirty fish limit easily. Quite a few in the 1.75 to 2 lb range with a few up to 2.5lbs and some more average ones in the mix but most were platter size. Some good size red hake today as well with one angler bagging three of these delicious relatives of the cod fish. After a few drifts early on the wind came right up and we spent the rest of the day with a nice swing on the anchor. We did not start catching cod today of any size until we anchored up. A special thanks to Rick from Belchertown for bringing down a big pot of AWESOME beef stew and special shout out also to Ben from NYC for the delicious Chinese food. Thanks gentlemen! Looks like plenty of fresh air again tomorrow but it looks to be the nicest fishing day of the coming weekend and Capt. Rich will be ready to set sail at 6am aboard the Gail Frances. Some pictures today provided courtesy of Roger.
Capt. Mike reported an awesome day of togging. They were just a few fish short of a full boat limit and had some real quality as well today. A few fish in the 10 lb range fought it out for the pool honors with another dozen or so fish in the six to eight pound range. A decent amount of short tog kept things from getting dull and a couple short cod and just keeper and short sea bass rounded out the species assortment for the day. Tomorrow looks like another nice fishing day for tatoug and Capt. Mike will be ready to set sail on the Lady Frances at 6am.
