Steakers
20 Jun 2009
Saturday's charter was a special one as I had on board Ralph DaSilva, his daughter Megan, and friend David for a day of mixed bag fishing. Ralph works as a custodian in the school I teach in and I was hoping that today would find the fish eager to tug on his line. The weather forecast was a tough one and only the day before we decided to give the trip a try. As we rounded eastern point we found calm winds but large swells from the east left over from a storm that passed offshore the day before. I needed to throttle back to 18 knots for the ride to the grounds as the period (spacing between wave peaks) was about 6 seconds. The sky was clearing so I knew we were going to be able to steal a day from the weatherman.
Since this crew wanted to try fishing for multiple species, I decided to start on the northern and work my way south. We put out the 50s in the hopes that Charlie was in the area but the machine lacked the characteristic red arches, that indicates his presence. In a short while we can on some frantic bird activity and one of the 50s goes off. Unfortunately, while the hit was tuna like, the run wasn’t and pretty soon we winched to the boat a striper of about 20lbs. Since we were in federal waters we released the fish at boat side and continue or southerly track.
Megan had never caught a fish on the ocean so when I saw swirls under birds I threw out a lure on the spinning rods and she immediately hooked up. It was quite a battle as can be seen in this photo
and pretty soon she landed an fat 10 lb bluefish. I was amazed that we were able to land this fish as we were using straight mono leaders. Lady Luck was on our side. While Megan fought her fish David tied into a fish on the other side of the boat. I could see in a distance it was a good size striper so I waited until David brought the fish alongside for release. Once close I was surprised to see a 40lb+ bass come up from the shadows below the boat…a quick head shake and she released herself…I just wished I had had a chance to snap a photo while she laid in the water…she was a big old girl!
We decided to put away the tuna gear and head to the ground fish grounds. My plan was to first fish the shallow area where I fished the previous weekend. When we arrived we found the nets had been removed (not a good sign) and the reason was the bottom was covered with thick schools of dog fish. No sense wasting time here so I pointed the bow east and we headed for the offshore grounds.
I was heading for a waypoint I had fished last year but along the way I saw a piece of structure that looked interesting. The bottom only raised 5 feet from the surrounding area but sometimes that’s all you need to hold bait. The crew dropped their jigs and Ralph’s jig immediately gets slammed 50 ft from the bottom.
We were fishing in about 45 fathoms so in about 5 minutes, Ralph worked the fish to the surface and I sank the gaff into a nice slammer Pollack.
The rest of the crew got in on the action and I was gaffing and unhooking fish on both sides of the boat. We had found a school of large market and steaker cod mixed with haddock and Pollack above which were on the bite. As I ripped the fish for the box I found them full of spike mackerel which had just been eaten. Everyone caught fish including David show here with a nice market
Megan with her first big cod fish
And Ralph with a nice 25lb steaker.
The cooler was filled in short time
And cod and haddock (4-7lbs) littered the deck
Around Noon the crew decided to call it quits and go play with a couple more bluefish, so as much I hated to leave biting codfish, I put the Lady Diane on a northerly heading and as Ralph took the helm I manned the cutting board. As we approached the area, I saw lots of bird activity and as we got closer we saw the blues were on the surface crashing on sand eels. Ralph cast a plug into the frenzy and immediately hooked up. After a short battle he landed a blue that was a little over 14lbs…a real alligator. After a couple more fish time ran out and we headed for the barn at 1400.
Back on the dock the crew loaded 120lbs of fillets into their coolers and headed for home. We traveled a long ways today to find these fish but as I have said in the past, I will take you to where the fish are…not where I wish they are. Sometimes that means I burn a little more fuel and cut into the profits, but as the world’s greatest football coach says…”It is ..what it is”
Tight Lines
Capt George
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