Friday January 8th 2016

Capt. Mike was pleased to report another good day of cod fishing despite some rather challenging conditions. The drift was very fast and seas a bit sporty so heavy sinkers up to 20 oz were needed to tend bottom if even briefly before reeling up and dropping back down. While both bait and jigs produced bait seemed to have the edge and store bought cod rigs with swivels and heavier leader material and color tubing seemed to also have an edge. Catches varied wildly from fisher to fisher with several limit catches recorded and a few more who were very close along with many more who were on either side of a half dozen or so apiece. There were however some fishers who had zero or only one fish each to take home. Some days that is how it breaks on the big boats. Pool fish today was slightly larger than the past couple of trips with a solid fish in the mid teens. Quite a few throwbacks mixed in as well today. Some nice ocean perch, a couple of big red hake, and a lot of nice size mackerel, herring and even a few whiting mixed in. A few fishers who focused a bit more on the mackerel or had the “right” color had as many as 20 macks apiece and like yesterday there were some legit ones up to nearly a pound or so. Tremendous amounts of bait on the grounds. Unmentionables made a brief appearance again in the early morning but then were basically gone. We will be fishing tomorrow with the Lady Frances set to sail at 5 am with Capt. Mike at the helm and the office open no later than 3:30 am for ticket sales. Just one picture of the pool winning fish today from a Frances Fleet cod enthusiast.