Today  I welcomed aboard  the Lady Diane George Medrerios and his buddies Joe and Carmine.  George and his friends  are veteran fisherman of many offshore overnight deep sea fishing trips aboard the large party boats that work in our area.  I was hoping that I would be able to show George how a private charter on a smaller boat can give a customer a whole different experience than what he was used to.

The guys arrived early, a sign of real fisherman, so we cast off lines and departed the harbor around 0500.  We were going to fish the southern grounds today in an area that I felt should provide some fast action on both pollack and cod.  The ocean held a 2-3 foot chop left over from the previous days storm, so I tabbed the hull down and the Lady Diane pushed through the slop at around 20 knots.

We stopped in an area in which along with the ground fish I was hoping we might get a shot at some football tuna during the slack water which was around 0700.  Sure enough within 30 minutes of our arrival half-beaks greyhounded across the water with Charlie in hot pursuit.  They guys reeled up their cod jigs as fast as they could and we took off after the tuna.  When the tuna are on half-beaks they are hard to fish as they swim so fast it is hard to get in front of them.  We finally got a chance at a couple shots but the tuna were not interested in our offerings today.  We decided to let them go and get back to putting some fish in the boat.

It was a slow pick in this area so around 1000 I started to move north to the area I hoped would hold some better fish.  After putting some nice market cod in the boat I moved to another spot and the machine lit up.  The guys sent their jigs downward and all three hooked up...the  pollack were on a bite and the fun was on.  The hot bite last for about an hour and during that time the guys also took some real nice market cod that were in the 12 to 18 lb class.

During the course of the day I moved from spot to spot and the guys continued to hammer away at the cod and pollack.  I is real nice having experienced fisherman on board as it makes my job so much easier.  These guys were ready to drop jigs as soon as I positioned the boat and worked the jigs until I was ready to move again.

On one of the last stops of the day Carmine took our seasons first wolfish (ocean pout). 

Don't let a wolf;'s appearance fool you as these fish are delicious on the table.  If you look closely at the photo you can see the large teeth on the upper and lower jaws that a wolf fish uses to grab crustaceans into its mouth were they are crushed by their powerful jaws.  Many people call this fish a poor mans lobster as the fillet has such a flavorful taste.

We headed for the barn around 1430 and as the Lady Diane steered home on auto pilot I proceeded to fillet the days catch.  Back at the dock the guys loaded well over a 100 lbs of fillets into their coolers.  Another fabulous day on the water with some  great fisherman whom I hope to welcome aboard again in the future.

Capt. George