June Weekend Fishing Report Wrap-Up

June 27th, 28th & 29th
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
Weekend  Update

Two weekends in a row of outstanding weather. Gloucester was alive this weekend with the Fiesta. Fun and festivities rule the harbor.

The Lady Sea had 3 full boats on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All three days were pretty much the same. A slow pick from stop to stop. The fish have spread out throughout the fishing grounds, we are not seeing the big balls of bait anymore as that has spread out as well. We stop, we pick, we move. That is how we are getting it done. We still fight through a number of short fish, roughly 5 short fish for every keeper. The dog fish have been very manageable and we continue to see some real nice cod and haddock. Pool winners continue to be 6-8 lb cod, haddock and cusk.

On Sunday, the crew hosted a full day corporate fishing charter for 50 people. More than we usually take fishing, but this group was full of energy, created some great fun for themselves and the crew. As happy as they were to be on the ocean, the crew was just as happy to have them. The fishing was ok, the cigars were outstanding, and thanks Jimmy for showing us how not to come down the back stairs. Looking forward to next year.

The ocean is alive, we had a friendly seal visit on Friday and Saturday, dolphins were around all three days, and some distant whale spouts were also seen. It won’t be long before the blue sharks arrive and give a new challenge.

This week we have space available for the All Day trip on Wednesday, a 3/4 day on the 4th of July from 8am-2pm for those who don’t want to get up too early and make it back early enough for an afternoon cookout.  Saturday and Sunday we have both the 3/4 day and half day trips available.  

From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea
Captain Mike & Crew

June 25 Fishing Report

Wednesday, June 25th
Fishing Report

Well, after 9 straight days of warm, calm weather the fish officially went to sleep yesterday. No way to sugar coat this report, Wednesday was not a good day of catching. It can only get better from here. We moved frequently, would stop on some fish and they immediately scattered. We threw bait, jigs and cod flies at them and nothing seemed to get their attention. Though disappointing in the catching department, it certainly was better than being on land where the hazy, hot and humids ruled the day. The pool winner was a 6 lb cod. We did see some dolphins around today, we are also hearing of a pretty good whale show not far from where we were fishing.

St. Peter’s festival is in full swing in Gloucester, a weather system pushed through overnight, hopefully that will shake things up a bit and get the fish motivated to bite. The weekend weather looks absolutely fantastic, lots of fun to be had. We still have room for the July 4th holiday week, with all day trips on Wednesday the 2nd and Friday the 4th, together with the 3/4 day and half day trips for Saturday and Sunday.  

 A HAPPY AND SAFE, ST. PETER’S FIESTA AND 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE. 

June 15 Weekend Fishing Report Warp-Up

Saturday, June 14th, and Sunday, June 15th
Fishing Report

Friday’s full day trip was cancelled due to strong SE winds, 5 to 8 foot seas and heavy rain, a day that certainly would have had a negative impact on the customer experience.

Saturday we were able to run the 3/4 day trip in the morning as we turned out of the harbor, we were greeted by a leftover swell from the SE and fog. A perfect recipe for some sea sickness for all. Even some of the seasoned anglers were felling a little off balance. The catching of fish was not very good. We tried as best we could, found some piles of fish, pick away at a few, but slower than we like it. The kicker was the starter piston in the port engine failed, which left us with out a winch to haul the anchor, so the captain and crew had to manually haul it from 240 feet. No need for Crossfit that night.
Sunday, a perfect weather day, winds out of the NW, felt like the end of September weather. Fishing was much better than it has been, and the dog fish have arrived. Of course, the dogs created some of our better tangles of the year, but this expected on a party boat and our experienced crew can get things straightened out quickly. We were able to pick through the dogs and put some really nice cod, haddock and cusk in the filet bags. The pool winner was a 12 lb cod.
This week, we have and all day trip on Wednesday, the Marathon on Friday, 3/4 Day on Saturday, and the 3/4 Day and Half Day on Sunday.  Call for reservations soon as trips fill up fast.

From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea
Captain Mike & Crew

June 8 and 9 Fishing Reports

Sunday, June 8th & Monday, June 9th
Fishing Report

Sunday we ran our first 3/4 day, 1/2 day open boat trips. Both trips were a little on the slow side in terms of catching fish, as it was the whole weekend according to most captains. Good signs of fish starting to show on the inshore grounds along with some bait. Some tuna being reported in the area as well, though not a target fish of the Lady Sea, it is a good sign that there is bait and fish in the area. We worked mostly hard bottom as that has been most productive for keepers and fish variety. Thus we caught some cod, cusk, redfish, and mud hake (south shore calls them ling), all of which can produce a decent meal. A 9 lb cusk won the largest fish of the day honors.

The Monday’trip was another full day charter. It was better than it was on Friday and Saturday’s charter, but still not good enough for us to be satisfied. The bait was there, the fish were there, but the bite still lagged. With all the bait around, don’t be afraid to throw on a jig for a while, if bait isn’t producing, try something different. There were some whales around on Monday chasing the bait, but not as actively as last week. A 13lb white belly cod won the pool on Monday, our largest cod/fish of the year.

This week we are planning on having a full day trip on Friday, 3/4 and 1/2 day trips on Saturday, and our Sunday Father’s Day full day trip with a free rod rental to all fathers. Good weather is forecast so let’s go fishing, we don’t guarantee catching, but we try like hell!

From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea
Captain Mike & Crew

Weekend Fishing Report Update

May 30th, 31st & June 1st
Weekend Report

Saturday and Sunday fishing certainly changed from Friday. The weather was good for ground fishing, but the catching was less than desired. some would say quality over quantity, and we did have some nice fish. Saturday’s pool winner was a 7 lb cod, on Sunday, 6’s were wild, 6 lb cusk, 6 lb cod, and a 6 pound haddock, but the 8 lb cod took pool honors. On Sunday some of the GF regular anglers were happy with 4 keepers and felt that was the best they could do. Again, bait beat jigs by a large margin. The old adage, ‘fishing, not catching’ seemed to be the rule.

The real show on Tillies is the whale show. On Saturday, we were on anchor and had a whale surface within 50 yards of the stern. On Sunday, we arrived at the fishing grounds, we had balls of bait being chased to the surface. The surface feeding whale show as truly unreal, all around the boat until about 1pm, then it was over. There had to have been 40 whales, Finback, Pilot and Humpbacks. It was crazy awesome.
The crew put together a delicious fresh fish chowder for patrons to enjoy. This week, we are booked solid, Friday, Saturday, and Monday with charters, on Sunday, we will be having our first open boat 3/4 day, 7am-1pm, and half day 1:30 to 6pm.
Pick up this month’s North Shore Magazine for summer activities in and around Cape Ann, including a nice article about the Gloucester Fleet.
 
From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea
Captain Mike & Crew

Another Marathon Day

MARATHON FRIDAY – MAY 30TH

Friday’s marathon was exactly what a marathon should be. Good fishing, good exploring and happy customers. We headed out at 5am under partly cloudy skies with a solid southerly wind that made it a little chilly. It was chilly all day with the water temperature still in the 50s. It was a comfortable day of fishing with only 20 anglers willing to take advantage of this limited load marathon. Haddock and cod ruled the day with a few cusk mixed in. Our largest cod was caught by our own Kristy G. with an 11 lb cod. The pool winner had a nice 9 lb cusk.  We had plenty of cod in the 5-7 lb class and many haddock in the 4 lb class. We were very close to limiting out on haddock for the day, only a handful of fish shy of our limit. Bait seemed to have the advantage over jigs.

We also enjoyed another great chili and chili dogs that Kevin made for the galley to serve. We had a finback whale cruise by, checking us out about 100 yards off our port side. Just another great day on the Atlantic. We still have room for Sunday’s full day trip with perfect weather forecasted.
THANK YOU FROM THE DECK OF THE M/V LADY SEA
Captain Mike & Crew

Memorial Day Weekend Fishing Report

May 24th, 25th & 26th
Holiday Weekend Fishing Report

Everything comes in 3’s, this weekend, we had 3 full boats, 3 beautiful sailing days, and 3 good fishing days. The fishing grounds are coming alive. We saw many balls of herring on the screens. This is always a good sign. For the first time that we can remember, we brought a halibut aboard, a tiny, 2 lb halibut, but an interesting catch non the less. In addition, we caught a mixed bag of cod, haddock, cusk, and red fish, with a few dog fish and a wolf fish (released) to round out the catch. It seems anyone that wanted fish, went home with fish. The legal to sub legal was about 1 to 5. There was a better sign of cod in the 5-9 lb range this weekend, with nice, clean white bellies. Pool winners were a 7 lb haddock on Saturday and two 9 lb cod on Sunday and Monday, all of which were coughing up herring, thus, finally, the jig had some success.

Sunday and Monday we had the bonus of having some Finback whales around, especially on Sunday, they came within 200 yards of the boat and gave a good view of their flukes.

This week, we still have room on Friday, May 30th marathon, taking 30 people at $80 pp from 5am to 5 pm. Saturday is the last day for the Spring Special of $54.50.  Sunday is the last full day from 7am to 4pm at our full price of $64.00 pp.  We are now starting our summer schedule offering the 3/4 day and half day trips on the weekends.  Always call for reservations as we only put 40 people on a boat and it fills up fast.

Thank you for a great weekend.

From the deck of the M/V Lady Sea
Captain Mike

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

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