Great cod and haddock fishing
Capt. Rich Antonino
April 11, 2009
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
Ok, the beat goes on. And it's a good beat. What a day for fishing. Saturday's trip was cancelled due to the nasty weather coming through, so we moved some people from Saturday to today's trip and really had a blast. The weather was as good as you could ever hope, for any time of the year. The ride out was chilly, but we were all in the cabin comfortable--we actually fogged up the windows!
I had heard that the bite had moved to a different part of the bank, so I was reluctant to fish the same area as last week. In fact, I started at the old BE buoy, catching lots of small cod. We then moved up by the new BE buoy, only to find more of the same. Instead of travelling further north, I made the decision to head east. It paid off. The first few spots, same as last year, brought us great cod fishing with many keeper cod. In fact, we quickly approached our limits, so we moved on from that spot to search for haddock. Man did we find them. It was lock-and-load until arms cramped up and people had to take breaks. It was strange watching two of my customers sit back and relax! Usually it's "fish all day". I even caught one customer sneaking a break in....he was putting his bait on so slowly that he was using the long bait-switch as a hidden break. I called him on it and we all laughed. He knew that he'd have a fish on as soon as he got to the bottom and he wanted a breather!
I fished a little, but I filleted for most of the day. I couldn't keep up! I love those days. We used bait and we also used jigs with bait on the teaser. I told Dave Stingo, of Stingo-Fish Lures, to expect phone calls. Jigging with his new diamond jigs, we caught dozens of haddock. It was amazing catching haddock on the jigs. After I caugth up filleting, I dropped a jig and caught 4 haddock within instants of getting to the bottom. I was using a spinning rod, which was a blast.
I'm not sure if it was a baby halibut, or some other flatfish, but Ron's flatfish was cool. If it was a halibut, it was the smallest one(and second one) I've ever seen. Great day on the water!
See you out there soon, when the weather breaks. With this economy, I have a feeling that I'll be running more and more shared charters. My boat is perfect for that! Keep in touch.
Capt. Rich Antonino, 508-269-1882, Black Rose Fishing Charters
Target Species:
cod and haddock
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