On Saturday Aug 8th,  I welcomed aboard the Smith families (Jennifer, Maureen, Rick Jr and Rick Sr) who hail from upstate New York.  Jennifer, a fellow school teacher,  had contacted me after viewing my website and booked the trip earlier this year.  We decided to do a custom charter which included both some ground fishing, a look see for charlie and on the way in, some lobstering.   The trip was scheduled to last only 8 hours,  so I hoped the cod fish were in the area I have been fishing for the past month.

We left the dock at 0600 and rounded eastern point and found a moderate NW breeze blowing.  NOAA had predicted very light winds and flat seas so right away I knew they had missed the target again.  The farther offshore we traveled the lumpier it got and by the time we got on the grounds,  the seas were full of diamonds in the rough.  The wind stayed steady at around 15knts most of the trip and unfortunatley Jennifer and Maureen began to suffer from the dreaded Mal de Mare.  Being the troopers they are though they started to do some jigging and before long the cod started coming aboard.  

As the tide increased so did the bite and the everyone nailed cod as soon as the jig hit bottom.  I even took a stick and found that I could feel the jig bouncing off cod in the last 15ft of the drop until one of them grabbed it.  No need to jig..just drop. lock and reel...my kind of cod fishing. Everyone on board caught nice markets including these the RIck Sr. managed to stick.

The real news of the day occured around 1000.  Rick Jr was on the starboard side and called for the gaff.  I grabbed my 2ft hand gaff and could see color coming from below.  Just as I went to stick the cod,  BLUE FEVER struck..a 8ft blue shark came flying up from below and passed with a few feet of my hand while trying to grabbed the cod.  This was the  first blue shark of the season I have seen and he really surprised the heck out of me.  The shark sounded heading away from the starboard side but within 10 seconds he swung around grabbed Rick Sr.'s jig on the port side of the boat..  Game on as we had a great hookset with the jig squarley in the corner of his mouth.

The shark headed east and we followed.  The rods I use are 80 class rods and rigged with Jerry Brown hollow core 130lb braid with a 80lb Momoi leader with a 130 bite leader.  I only splice line and use crimps (no knots) in my rigging and the reason is when a big fish hits (tuna or shark) my customers have a chance (albeit a small one because of the low capacity 113H reels) of landing the fish. However since I have a small fast boat I am able to maneuver quickly and stay with the fish.

The battle lasted about 50 minutes during which time RIck Sr. handled the rod like a pro.  Three times we brought the fish to boatside only to have him blast off into the depths again.  Near the 50 minute mark Rick passed the rod off to his son so he could get the experience of fighting such  a powerful fish.  Finally. the fish flattened and I got ready to grab the bite leader thus making the catch official.  Hand on the leader,  a slap on the nose and blue shark was cut off to fight another day.  High fives all around the deck and memories to last a lifetime.

During the  battle, Jennifer who had been feeling so poorly all day came up big and manned the camera taking some wonderful shots.  She has promised to send me the photos and they will appear here when I receive them...I am a terrible photographer so for now is is the one lousey shot I took.  (In my defense I was a little busy running the boat, and making sure everyone stayed safe while fighting a fish like this) 

We went back to cod fishing for the rest of the morning and headed for the barn at 1200.  Once back in Gloucester Harbor,  I stopped on my trap line and showed my crew how to lobster fish.  Jennifer, who was feeling much better at this point,  even got in on the action a pulled a trap.The traps were full of lobsters but many where short although we did get some keepers for them to take home.  I did catch a large female lobster ladden with eggs that I estimated to be in the 8lb class having a carpice length close to 8".  In Massachusetts any female lobster must be released as well as any lobster with a caprice length greater than 5" so we we released her back into the harbor's waters.

Back on the dock, the crew loaded over 120lbs of cod fillets into the cooler.  Considering we only actually fished for around 5 hours and part of that time we fought the shark it was a fantastic trip.    The crew took advantage of staying at the Cape Ann Marina Resort both before and after the charter (you get a 10% discount on your room rate when you fish with me) so we packed the fish on ice, spoke about future trips and said our good byes.  It was truely a pleasure having these folks on board today and seeing the excitement  Blue Fever brings on for both Captain and crew.

Tight lines,

Capt George