I had looked forward to fishing today with Jeff Gogan and his buddies Paul and Jamie for a few weeks.  These gentlemen, who are fire fighters, were experienced fisherman and were willing to go to which ever port I thought would provide the best fishing.  Since the past couple trips had provided good fishing both down south and up north I decided to leave from Gloucester as it was more convenient for the guys.

We left the dock at 0530 and the calm seas allowed us to cruise across the water at over 23knots.  I decided to start on the southern most area and work my way north as the day progressed.  I marked a good show of fish and the jigs fell to the bottom on the first stop and everyone immediately hooked up.  Much to my dismay the lines brought up small harbor pollack (rat pollack) on both the teaser and jigs.  Time to move and that we did.....all day long!

During the course of the day I moved north up the ledge covering nearly two thirds of it's length.  While we did pick at keeper cod and pollack I could never get the guys on fish that were on a real bite.  I spoke with a couple other charter boats in the area and they were experiencing the same frustrations.  As a wise man once said...No matter how good you are...you cant make them bite!

The real excitement for the day happened late in the trip when Jamie was reeling up a small fish (probably another rat) when suddenly he yells I tight on a real big fish.  I looked over to see his 80 class rod doubled over and the poor little 4/0 reel spinning as though it was in free spool.  The rest of the crew reeled in as fast as they could and Jamie tried to palm the spool.  Unfortunately Charlie had different ideas and with a even greater burst of speed broke the bite leader (130 lb fluro) at the dropper loop which is the weakest link in the setup.  While disappointed we all realized that we were totally out gunned by this fish but the thrill of the short battle did wonders to lift the spirits of the crew and captain after a long frustrating day. 

We arrived back on the dock at 1700 after covering nearly 80 nautical miles and the guys put 60 lbs of fillets in their coolers... A slow day for catching to be sure but a great day of fishing for me with a competent and understanding crew.  I look forward to our next trip on which I know we will slam them. 

Capt George