Roger reported solid fishing today aboard the Gail Frances but things were a bit different than yesterday. There was more wind today so a quick drift quickly caused us to drop the hook. In doing so we did get some larger cod to come around the clam baited hooks and a respectable amount of good size sea bass but the scup however couldn’t resist the fresh shucked clams and piled up under the Gail time and time again and they were generally big ones with fish to 3 lbs and beyond. Numerous limit catches on big scup for those who were interested. There were a few sea bass limits but most fishers had a few to several apiece and best of the lot around three pounds. We had some big ocean perch and one large Christmas eel (conger eel) and only a couple of the unmentionables. For the cod we once again did have some sizeable fish with the biggest fish (not in the pool) a solid 25 lbs and there were several others in the mid to upper teens and then some more in the 8 to 10 lb range. A fair amount of short cod today as well. Hi hook boxed five keeper cod and there were a few other fishers who had 3-4 nice cod apiece to take home with their scup and sea bass. We had a fairly enthusiastic group of fishers today but overall a few less cod than the past two days. Still most of the cod taken were as green as could be lice covered fish brand new to the area. A few of our best rod handlers put forth valiant effort with the iron clam today but to little avail. Fresh shucked bait was the way to go and the bite was generally very soft. Those hi lo cod rigs that have been mentioned before again seemed to have an edge. Also a number of the bigger cod today were again taken on small baits so sometimes just one piece of good bait is needed. Some pictures today courtesy of Roger. Tomorrow is a new day and the weather looks amazing. Capt. Rich will be set to sail aboard the Gail Frances at 6 am.
Capt. Mike reported a slower day on tog boat with some really nice fish to nearly ten pounds along with a few nice sea bass and a decent shot of cod fish into the low teens. Some fishers had a few to several tog apiece but we are not certain anyone had a limit catch. A good amount of short tog did provide some good catch and release action though for some fishers. Tomorrow is a new day and Capt. Mike will set sail at 6 am aboard the Lady Frances for tatoug.
Roger
