Weekend Fishing Report

May 17th & 18th, 2014
Weekend Fishing Report

Finally, back at it, after a week of some boat maintenance, The Lady Sea is running as well as she has in 5 years. Time well spent in the engine room. On Saturday, we had 2 scheduled charters, the morning charter chose to reschedule due to rain and wind, but the afternoon ½ day charter wanted to go for it. The skies cleared, bright sunshine and a leftover Southeast 4 to 5 foot swell met us as we exited the breakwater.

This was our first trip to the ½ day grounds of the year and really had no idea what to expect. The fishing was slow, but interesting. If you wanted to meet some creatures from the deep, this trip was for you. We caught our usual mix of haddock and cod, but also saw some large red fish, a mud hake, a wolf fish, a couple sculpin, and an eel pout. Some of the ugliest fish you will see, yet an interesting experience for people who have never fished off Gloucester.

Sunday we had a full boat full day trip. Cloudy, chilly start to the morning on calm seas, the sun broke through around mid-morning. We sailed to Tillies, where we were greeted by other party boats and six pack charters. The morning bite was slow, we pecked away at some small haddock with a fairly strong tide making tangles a bit of a problem. When the sun came out, the bite seems to pick up, we started seeing more keepers in the mix, cod and haddock, a few dog fish have started to arrive as well. People that continually put the effort in to have fresh bait out fished those that didn’t and bait definitely has the advantage over jigs.  An 8 pound cod took big fish honors.

This weekend is our last full weekend of the spring special, $54.50 per person, this week’s schedule is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, All Day Trips from 7am – 4pm and of course Monday, Memorial Day.   And don’t forget, we have a Marathon 5am-5pm scheduled for Friday May 30th, $80 per person, with the 31st of May being the last day for our Spring Special.

From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea

Marathon Fish Day

MAY 2nd & 3rd, 2014
FRIDAY MARATHON & ALL DAY SATURDAY

Friday we took our first 5 am to 5 pm marathon trip with flat seas and nice weather. I will not sugar coat it, It did not turn out to be what we were expecting. We had 30 very good anglers that threw bait, jigs, teasers, even candy at the fish and got very little in return. We moved the boat about 20 times, we worked 3 different fishing areas all showing promising signs of fish, we drift fished and we anchored, shallow water, deeper water. In the end, we took home about 35 legal fish. Who knows, I guess it’s fishing, pretty disappointing from the crew perspective and I am sure the customers were disappointed. Better days ahead.

Saturday’s open boat full day trip was another beautiful day on the water, the fishing was better than the previous day. We fished in a similar location as we did on Friday, it seemed the fish were more active especially late morning. We had one anchor stop that lasted 2 hours yielding the majority of our fish. It was a nice steady pick, with a keeper ratio of 2 shorts for every legal fish. We ended the day with 76 keepers, with our largest haddock at 7 lbs, largest cod at 9 lbs, and largest pollock at 4 lbs of the season so far. Some of the cod were nice white belly cod, hopefully that is a sign of new fish entering our fishing area.

This week we have another 5 to 5 marathon on Friday, limited space available, with the all day trips on Saturday and Sunday from 7- 4.  Remember, we still have the spring special of $54.50 per person for the all day trip max of 40 people, marathons are $80.00 max 30 people. We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you aboard. 

Besides the fishing we have had some whale and dolphin sightings along the way for an added bonus, it is not ALWAYS about catching fish.

From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea

Sunday April 27 2014 Fishing Report

Sunday, April 27th, 2014
All Day Fishing

Sunday April 27, Cloudy start to the day over calm seas with 25 people,  we headed back toward Tillies for another look around. The sounding machine showed great promise, the first couple of stops produced a few keepers, but certainly not enough to keep us interested. Captain decided to change the location a little, steamed about 1.5 miles, similar look on the fish finder, but these fish were hungry. We had a very steady bite for about an hour and a half of white belly market cod, decent haddock and a few cusk. We also landed our first couple dog fish of the season. The pool winning fish was a nice 8 lb cod caught by regular angler Mark T. Everybody went home with fish as we landed close to 100 keepers.

From the Deck of the Lady Sea

First Fishing Report for 2014 Season

FIRST REPORT OF THE SEASON
OPENING WEEKEND’S ALL DAY FISHING TRIPS
APRIL 18-20, 2014

Opening day started a little sloppy with 3-5 foot rolling swell coming from the east and a 2-3 foot chop on top. Instead of heading to NE to where the haddock have been reported and covered by 8-10 other party boats, we headed to Tillies Ledge which has basically been untouched since the fall. This put the sea on the bow instead of the keel making it a much more comfortable ride and we would have the sea on our stern coming home. Saturday and Sunday were much more comfortable for traveling the ocean with more sunshine and calm ocean.

April fishing is always a challenge, finding fish, knowing what is happening, where, and water depths are productive. Since we were doing our own thing, we needed to make extra moves to stay on the fish. We did in fact find plenty of fish, but the bite was less than impressive until the early afternoon high tide. We marked fish everywhere we went.  We would pick a few and move on.   Captain Mike even stayed a little late on Friday to get a few more fish on the boat, which was also a good decision.  Some anglers did better than others at picking, but by the end of the trip we had between 40 and 60 keepers with a mix of cod and haddock.

As of May 1, there will be new regulations in terms of bag limits on haddock and cod. We believe, and still waiting for confirmation, 9 cod per person at minimum 21”, 3 haddock per person at 21”, redfish unlimited at 9”, cusk have no restrictions, Pollock are unlimited at 19”, and mackerel is unlimited.  For example, from what we understand, if there are 20 customers and 5 crew members, 25 people on the boat, the boat can keep 225 cod and 75 haddock for that trip. Only a few times a year will that limit be reached.

We continue to offer $54.50 per person spring special on all full day trips, and we plan to operate Friday through Sunday, 7am to 4pm.

Please call for reservations 978 559 1978

From the M/V Lady Sea
Capt. Mike