Roger from the Frances Fleet reported a much improved day of local cod fishing with Capt. Rich today on the Gail Frances and the best fishing of the day was actually much closer to home for the cod! A good number of jumbo sea bass today with quite a few fish over 3lbs and the best of the lot over 4lbs. Hi hooks on the sea bass had upwards to about ten apiece with quite a few of the anglers aboard getting four to seven nice size sea bass apiece. Longtime regular Dave from CT was hi hook with 4 cod to 15lbs. Congrats to John Andre of Cumberland RI who had three nice cod today to 16lbs and took home the prize money as well. Well done John! John’s uncle Bob Andre has been a longtime customer at the Frances Fleet for more than 20 years and it is great to see that excellent rod handling skills run in the family! Pics of both of these gentlemen with good size cod can be seen with today’s posted report. A pile of pics showcasing some of today’s angler hi lights will be posted today courtesy of Roger. Back to the fishing report….there were a few other anglers with three cod apiece and some with two to go along with their sea bass and a better number of good size porgies. Hi hook on the porgies had upwards to about a dozen big scup however that angler was using smaller hooks and small baits to target the porgies. Some good size ocean perch and a few blue fish to round out the day’s catch. While a few big sea bass were jigged up on the drift early in the day everything else was on bait. While the fishing was much improved over yesterday it was not outstanding but rather respectable. It would have been nice if the cod had been a bit more spread out and if there had been a few more of them and even better had we not caught more than half of them in the last hour of the trip but i suppose a strong finish is better than a slow one. The bite on the cod scup and sea bass was definitely on the soft side and really took a deft touch to feel the fish eating the bait. A number of good size cod and sea bass were caught by the anglers just lifting up their rods and and feeling weight and thus setting the hook. A nice mix of green and dark fish today. Biggest fish of the day was around 18lbs and was not in the pool. Most of the cod taken today were in the 8 to 15lb range again illustrating and excellent average size. Well today was it for what will probably be several days as the crew must now prepare to batten down the hatches for the impending effects from Sandy. Stay tuned to the web site or give us a call regarding our next scheduled sailing day. Remember by the time we start sailing again for cod that sea bass will likely be closed (Nov 1st closure) and that our sailing time will be moved up to 6am (Nov 2nd). We wish everyone a safe and healthy next several days and hope the effects of the storm will be minimal to none.
Capt. Mike reported an awesome turnout of tog enthusiasts today on the Lady Frances. The tog responded positively in general with a good haul of nice tog and 100 or so keeper sea bass and a few more nice cod. Pool fish was taken with a fine tog of just shy of 10lbs and was taken by longtime regular Peter Tu from Warwick RI. Pete and Connie both had a great day of togging combining for 11 big tog today. At least a handful of limit tog catches today. A good number of tog that were in the six to eight pound range as well. A tremendous number of short tog kept things busy as well today. Best scores on the sea bass today again were on the clam baits while the tog definitely preferred the crabs. Again stay tuned to web site for the next scheduled sailing day as we will likely not be back out on the tog grounds for several days.