What I love about offshore fishing is every day is different and after yesterdays frustration with lock jawed fish I was ready for a change!

I welcomed aboard Melissa Meath, her son Austin and his buddy Ronnie and we headed out of the harbor at 0600.  These folks hail from Wisconsin and have never been on the ocean before so I hoped I could find some fish that would cooperate more than the previous days. 

The first stop was a little inshore of the area I usually fish but I thought it would be a good chance to give a quick "how to" jig lesson and possibly pick up some fish after a short boat ride.  Three jigs headed to the bottom and we immediately had three hookups...was today going to be better???  Unfortunately three prize dogfish appeared on the surface with 10/0 jig hooks inhaled in the mouths. When the hounds are this hungry it is time to move and thats just what we did.

We arrived on the offshore grounds and setup on what looked like a nice pile of cod on the machine.  The boys immediately hooked up and "Mom" took over the camera duties as the kids fought their first "real" fish of the day.  In a few minutes I sank the gaff into a couple nice market cod for the guys...we were off to a much better start.  As the morning progressed the kids continued to catch nice markets and they worked hard on filling the box.

After a while Mom decided to give this cod jigging a try as it looked like fun and on one of her first drops she boated a nice 15lb market to add to the days catch.

As the day progressed everyone had a ball jigging cod and pollack.  I noticed that Austin really had a knack for jig fishing so I let him try my butterfly rod and after a quick lesson he was nailing fish as fast as he could drop the jig to the bottom.  I discover that back home he is an avid musky fisherman and it sure showed on his first deep sea fishing trip.  Some things about fishing just cant be taught or explained.    On one of his last casts he hit a nice fish and after sticking it hard he fought the fish perfectly and landed a beautiful 18lb pollack on the deck.

All I can say is that Austin has the touch and is one of the best fisherman I have had on board this year regardless of age.

We headed for the barn around 1430 and as Mom and the boys relaxed  I  began filleting a great catch.  When on shore they filled their coolers with over a hundred pounds of fillet.  Mom had told me at the beginning of the trip  they had hoped to be able to catch 4 or 5 fish on the ocean so  I know they had great day on the water and so  did I with such a wonderful crew! 

Capt. George