Aswesom Cod Fishing
Capt. Roland Lizotte
May 24, 2010
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
So what can we say about jigging for cod/haddock and pollack in less than 120' of water this time of year, TRULY AWESOME FISHING. Especially with the new Qualia Q12 high speed jigging reels paired with the Tiger Lite Ugly Stick rods or the Offshore Angler Extreme Jigging Rod.
On board today, we had Patrick and Rob for some great early spring ground fishing on the bank.Our day started by leaving Brewer's Marine in Plymouth around 5:30am and it was turning out to be one of those days where the weather was perfect, light winds and warm temperatures. As the sun started to pop up out of the water to the East, we started our run up to the middle bank where we had done so well in weeks past. It was a very quick ride today, the seas were flat calm, no wind and we ran the Jersey Girl out to the bank at 30-40mph the whole way out. When we hit the western edge of the middle bank, the fish finder lit up. There was huge schools of bait with feeding pods of cod right beneath them. At our first stop, it was not long and before the jigs could hit the bottom, we were onto fish. What we managed to find was a pile of 'just under cod' with a slow pick at market sized cod. This spot gave us the kind of fishing where it was a 1 to 15 ratio. You would go through 15 fish before you pulled a keeper. After a couple of drifts, we decided to make the move further north and man, was that the right call.
When we arrived at our spot up close to the NW corner of the bank, we were greeted with a fleet of boats (probably 100 or more boats tightly grouped in a small area). We were fishing just outside of the group of boats and that is when we found our next pile of fish. The cod and pollack were stacked up like a wall on the fish finder. The school of fish were so thick that the fish finder had a hard time picking up bottom. It would actually give a false bottom reading once we went over the school of fish. It was time to get the jigs down. Again, within minutes we had tight lines and this time, we were on much better fish. As the first fish came up, it was a nice, fat 20lb cod. Lines down again!! For the next 2hours, we would have some of the fastest and finest cod fishing I have seen in a while. We had doubles of 15-20lb cod all morning and we quickly reached out limit of fish. The Qualia Q12 reels performed flawlessly and really made the job of cranking up these fish easy. Two of the Q12 reels are two speed reels and we can not wait to try these out with those 150lb bluefin tuna that were roaming the waters last year. Talk about light tackle with big fish!!!
We ended our day moving off to the east into a little deeper water for some haddock. After a steady pick at haddock, we started our ride back home with warm air in our fast and running at 35mph, it was a quick ride back to the dock. Just enough time to fillet the fish on the way in. So whether you are looking for fresh cod/haddock for the Memorial Day weekend fish fry or want to plan a summer striper/tuna trip, contact Capt Roland Lizotte at 774-437-1882 for booking details!!!
Stellwagen Bank Fishing Forecast:
Cod fishing will remain great and striped bass fishing is HOT right now.
Target Species:
Striped Bass, Cod, Haddock, Tuna, Sharks, Bluefish
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