In all the years I have fished on the ocean I can never remember a haddock bite the likes of which is now occurring on Stellwagen Bank. Both the quality and quantity this body of fish is amazing. People who know me know that personally, I would much rather catch and eat cod fish than haddock but I have to admit, when numbers of 7 & 8lb+ haddock are covering my decks, I am a happy Captain.

On Sunday, April 26^th, I welcomed aboard Barney Keezell and his crew of friends including Bobby, Jim and Evans. Barney was the first person to charter with me last year and I hoped that the day ahead would provide him and his friends with a few nice fillets to take home…I never imagined what was about to occur.

We cleared eastern point in Gloucester Harbor at 0610 and steered a course for Stellwagen bank. I decided to fish an area of the bank where on Friday a couple other 6 Pac boats found an excellent cod bite first thing in the morning. As I approached the area I notice a couple of the other high line captains searching the area and dropping on fish. My electronics said the fish were there so we set up on a nice pile and started to fishing. After 5 minutes without a single hit we moved, setup on another pile and again NADA. We continue to move in the area finding great piles of cod which simply would not eat. At 0800 we pulled out of the area and I steamed to where I had decent haddock fishing on Friday. In my “rear view mirror” I noticed the other two charter boats were steaming east as well. You just can’t make them bite.

 When I approached my numbers I noticed out to the east a pod of humpback whales feeding lazily in the deep water off the bank. I decided to check out the area as the tide was just starting to run in from dead low and I thought the fish might be deeper do to the strong moon tide we had during the previous ebb. The machine lit up and we dropped our jigs and immediately hooked into nice haddock. From 0900 until we headed for the barn at 1400 it was not fishing….it was non-stop catching. I started ripping fish and filleting in the morning and didn’t stop until I reached Gloucester harbor in the afternoon.

Around 1100 I found a nice hungry school of market cod and Jim managed to tag this nice 15lb market for the box.  

The cod bite only lasted a short time as the bull haddock moved in and it was back to slamming them.  Barney and Booby got in on the action and had a ball catching these feisty haddock on the light tackle they had brought aboard. 

 Evans, the “Almighty Haddock Killing Machine”, constantly hooked up and landed a ton of the bug eyes himself (although he managed to prematurely release a good number as well..thats the reason I call them Houdini fish). 

Barney proved that you dont need bait to catch haddock and in fact every single haddock taken today took a jig.  We all had a good time listening to other boats complain about not catching haddock even though they had the freshest bait money could buy...old habits are hard to break.

Evans was so intent on catching every bug eye in the ocean he even developed a revolutionary 2 handed jigging technique while enjoying his cigar!

 The fleet finally found us around noon and since I like to fish alone I decided to move off to find another body of fish. Every stop I made produced more haddock to fill the boxes on board even though I was cutting fish as fast as I could.

Around 1230 I was working in the stern and I heard Jim, who was on the bow, yell he was tight on a big fish. I looked up to see that the 80lb class rod we use was bent into the water and line was surging for the reel at an alarming rate. I immediately ordered all jigs retrieved and fired up the engine. Jim was tied into our first big Porbeagle shark of the season. Just one step down from a Mako these sharks are called Mackerel Sharks as they pursue mackerel as their primary food source. Dogged fighters these fish are a lot to handle even with 50 class reels on standup gear so we had our hands full.

The shark slammed Jim’s cod jig as he was retrieving it about 20 feet from the surface. Unfortunately on the initial strike the shark ran the 80 lb Momoi top shot under the hull and chaffed it. The fight lasted about 4 minutes until the top shot broke. The good news is the way I rig my equipment and the line connections I use held up to a fish much larger than you would normally encounter ground fishing. If that top shot had not been chaffed I believe we had a great chance at landing our first “bigun” of the season.

 At 1400 we stowed the rods, I put Lady Diane on autopilot and headed for home. The guys enjoyed the slow cruise relaxing in the bow as I cut fish in the stern. Seas were flat calm and harbor porpoise cavorted in our bow wake as we made our way home.   

 The Lady Diane came to rest in her slip at Cape Ann Marina at 1630 after an uneventful docking (much better than my last attempt). Barney and his friends loaded 150lbs of Haddock and 50 lbs of cod fillets into their coolers and had all they could do to get their catch up the gangway to their cars. 

So ended the greatest day haddock fishing I have ever participated in either as a fisherman, mate, or Captain. I don’t know how long this bite will last but I do know if you want to catch haddock you will never have a better chance at slamming them then right now.  As of this moment I only have three Sundays available in May. Call today and you will not be disappointed!

Tight lines,

Capt George