Roger reported another excellent day of local cod fishing. Weather conditions were a tad more favorable today as well with the big yellow ball in the sky showing her face for the first time in what seemed like an eternity! The cod seemed to respond well to the sunny weather as well. A nice steady pick of keepers and throwbacks all day long with a few really intense flurries which included numerous double headers including a few double headers of fish in the 8 to 12 lb range. Numbers varied around the boat but EVERYONE had cod fish to take home and a good many of the anglers aboard had six to nine nice keepers apiece. We are unsure if anyone limited out but a lot of fishers were dangerously close. Jigs definitely seemed to outproduce bait overall however there were a handful of anglers who did quite well with bait using the prepackaged rigs with the orange and yellow or just orange tubing. For the jigs the Viking style jigs in the 10z size seemed to produce the best with the least amount of effort but all styles of jigs and teasers caught well. One angler worked an 8z blue fish jig and simple worm teaser like it was his job and wound up with 9 keepers and a nice whiting and returning another 20 or so small cod back to the ocean. The squidding method was hot today as was traditional up tide casting and working the jig back to the boat and or a combination of both. Many cod were hooked twenty to forty feet off the bottom!! More in the way of sea bass today with a few anglers having two or three apiece to go along with their cod. Some whiting and just a few mackerel mixed in as well as a lot of good size ocean perch. Sizes on the cod generally in the 5 to 10 lb range with a handful of bigger ones up to just under 15 lbs. All fat green lice covered healthy fish. Tremendous amount of shorts again and many anglers returning 10 to 25 young cod as safely as possible back to the drink. All sizes on the shorts from brook trout size to quite a few fish that just missed, again strongly signaling more than one year class of fish swimming in the local waters which is an outstanding sign! The unmentionables were worth some mention today on the bait rigs however in the grand scheme of things they were no big deal. A pile of pictures today showcasing some of the angler hi lights courtesy of Roger. Looks like some weather is fast approaching so it doesn’t look good for cod fishing until after the Christmas Holiday. Everyone here at the Frances Fleet would like to extend their warmest Holiday Greetings to all of our patrons and we look forward to more great cod fishing in the weeks ahead. Right now next most likely sailing day will be Friday or Saturday so stay tuned to the site for further updates. Starting January 2nd the cod boat is expected to sail daily 5am to 3pm weather permitting.
Roger