The hardest part of the chartering business I have found so far is determining whether or not a charter should run because of weather forecasts.  My charter on Saturday was with Fred Oliver and his buddies from NY.  It is about a 4 hour drive for them so I wanted to be sure I could get them off the dock if they came. At 1800 on Friday evening,   I finally made the decision to give it  a shot and made plans to meet the guys at the boat around 0400 the next morning to try to sneak through a weather window that seemed to be available.

We untied the lines at 0430 on Saturday, cleared the Annisquam river bridge and put the hammer down heading to Stellwagen Bank.  At a 26 knot cruise we flew across the calm seas and where the first boat on the grounds.  Lines in at 0540 and immediatley nice market cod and pollack hit the deck.  We moved from pod to pod and a good bite was developing until at 0640 the first of a line of Thunder storms came through.  For the next hour lightening cracked around the bank and I  as I have seen in the past,  the fishing completely shut off.  The machine showed the fish to be there in great abundance but they would not bite to any serious degree.  The electricity in the air definitely affects the fish so for the rest of the morning we dealt with a poor, sporadic bite.

About 0900 we got a brief glimpse of the sun but it soon clouded over and a stiff SE breeze developed.  The calm seas turned gray and an ocean of whitecaps soon surrounded us.  I made a move to a spot 2 miles south.  We caught a few more pollack and a couple cod but it was getting just too rough to move around.  I returned to our starting grounds around 1100 hoping with the tide change the fish would turn on...they didn't.  We did see our first school of stripers crashing bait around the boat and immediately the T word flashed in my head....it won't be long until Charlie is in town as the bait is plentiful and we reached a surface temperature of 51 today on the bank.

We headed to the north around 1130 and when heavy rains struck around Noon we pulled the plug on the trip.  The ocean had turned a steely gray and the chop was building from the east...time to head for the barn.  With the weather conditions I took the helm for the ride home (no auto pilot today) and gave the radar a good work out.  We tied the Lady Diane up to her slip around 1330 and the guys went ashore to get warm and have nice lunch at the Causeway Restaurant (best seafood in Gloucester) while I filleted their catch.

Fred and the guys returned to my slip around 1500 after a great meal, feeling much better.  I help them load 65 lbs of fillet into their coolers.  A disappointing day as far as catching but the guys took it in stride.  Personally, I know the fish are there and better days are ahead. No excuses on my part...I simply couldn't get them on a decent bite after those T Storms came through.  Speaking with some other Captains in the harbor I was satisfied to hear similiar results on their boats. No matter how good you are, no one can make them bite when they dont want to.  Unfortuately the rough seas limited my ability to run the Bank in search of other fish.  Hopefully, Mother Nature will be kind to us next weekend and I can give my fillet knife a much better workout.  Eventhough it was a tough day I felt great being back on the Bank and fishing with some great guys again.

No trips on Sunday (5/9) as the entire fleet is in port with Gale Warnings posted and winds to 40knots along the coast. 

Finally, I would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the great Moms out there!

Tight Lines,

Capt George