Roger reported an outstanding day of local cod fishing aboard the Gail Frances. It was overcast and chilly with a bit more breeze than we were expecting but the fat green cod fish were wildly chasing herring whiting and mackerel through the column today and these pelagic characteristics were brought to light by the outstanding jig bite today. Jigs and teasers far outproduced bait. Those who worked the jigs hard did very well and for the most part had more of the bigger fish today. A few anglers who put on an exceptional jigging clinic today are as follows: Cory Blount, manager of the Frances Fleet, who jigged up 12 fine keepers to ten pounds and released countless shorts while Lucky (Orlando) from Norwalk CT jigged up ten fat keeper cod to ten pounds, Mike Tillelli from Narragansett RI with 9 nice fish to ten pounds and lost a few hear-tbreakingly bigger ones just before they could be brought to the safety of the gaff. There were a half dozen other fellas up towards the front of the boat who jigged up 8 to 12 Keepers apiece and released upwards to 20 plus shorts apiece! A few anglers who fished mid ship also did just fine swinging the iron clam today as well such as our own Troy Bique who put six nice keepers aboard and had the biggest fish of the day with a fine fat green fish of just under 20 lbs. Way to go Troy!! Longtime regular Sean from CT was right behind with a half dozen nice fish into the mid teens and so on. For bait fishing…Mike Turbak from Cantebury CT had a good day boxing seven nice cod and throwing back many smaller ones, especially after employing the use of an orange squid teaser with the fresh shucked clams. Mike’s fishing partner Troy Hatfield from Montville CT however took home the prize money for the day with a cod in the mid teens. In addition to Troy’s bigger fish there was also another one of comparable(18-20 lbs) size caught by a patron who was not in the pool. Longtime regulars Norm from Cumberland RI and Lisa Loprenzo from Greenwich CT also did well today with 6-8 nice fish apiece and so on. Everyone left with cod fish today and the majority had at least three or four to take home. Quite a few cod today in the 8 to 12 lb range as well. As i mentioned there were lots and lots of young cod released and there was also a by-catch of nice size whiting and good size mackerel with a few anglers putting one to two dozen mackerel apiece in their coolers!! Quite a few good size ocean perch again today and a few handfuls of sea bass including a couple bigger ones in the 2 lb range. The unmentionables were hardly worth a mention today as well which is always great news! Both Roger and Capt. Rich commented that they have not seen bait like this on the grounds in quite some time. While jigs did a lot of damage today, the fresh shucked clams were also working just fine but again a higher hook far outproduced the lower ones and an orange teaser or bit of tubing (those pre packaged rigs) seemed to have an edge as well. Looks like more good fishing weather the next two days so if your are looking for some Christmas Cod herein lies a pretty good opportunity as the Gail Frances will be set to sail both Sunday and Monday at 6 am with Capt. Rich at the helm. A bunch of pics today provided courtesy of Roger.
Roger