We returned to the area we last fished and didn't hammer them ....this time we NUKED THEM!

Full report tomorrow as I need to ice down my cutting hand!

Sunday  1000 hours

The hand is better so here is the story.....

Robert, Steve and Mike who hail from northern Maine chartered the Lady Diane for a full day of ground fishing on Saturday July 26th. I explained to them that an early bite was happening and hoped we could leave the dock by 0500.  I pulled into the ramp  area around 0400 as I like to arrive at the ramp an hour or so before departure in order to have everything ship shape by the time my guests arrive.  Around 0420 a car pulls up and the driver asks if I am Capt George...I knew right then it was going to be a great day as these guys take their fishing very seriously.

We left the dock just before 0500 and headed east on calm seas that held a gentle swell from the tropical storm that had passed by earlier in the week.  I steered the Lady Diane to the area I had fished last Tuesday hoping the body of fish I had found was still in the area.  As we pulled onto the Bank the sounder lit up and I knew the fish were still there, but the question remaining was were they going to feed.  Three jigs that never reached the bottom answered that question in short order. The fish were on a great bite and we were ready to take full advantage.

These guys are all loggers  and they had the strength and stamina to haul double headed cod and pollack over the rails at an amazing rate.  I started filleting fish around 1000 hours out of necessity as all the coolers and totes on board were full of dressed cod and pollack.  This strong bite lasted for over 5 hours and during that time over 600lbs of fish were put on board.  It was so frantic a scene that I could only take time to snap a quick photo of the guys. Unfortunately,  I had all ready dressed the largest of the fish but the guys didn't seem to mind as they wanted to keep fishing and grabbed a few markets for  quick photo.

When the bite finally slowed around noon (slack water) we decided to take a run to see if any football tuna where in the area.  Even though this was a ground fish charter I always bring tackle for chasing the footballs at this time of year.  We cruise the area for a couple hours and stopped once in a while to drop the cod jigs (and thus filling out our cod limits) but "little Charlie" was not in the area today.  Earlier in the morning we did see a couple giants (500lb+) pushing but we were outgunned by those bad boys and did not try for them.

We arrived back at the dock around 1600 and the real problem was that the guys had nowhere near the cooler capacity to hold over 270 lbs of fillet.  We packed the coolers with as much as they could hold and stacked the remaining bags on a tarp covered with ice.  This is always a great problem to have. We made plans to fish again in the near future, said our good byes and the guys headed north with enough fish to feed a small town. 

I don't know how long this bite will last but I know I plan on heading out this week on my own to fill my own freezer.  The time to go fishing is when they are biting....NOW IS THE TIME!

Capt. George