From Captain Mike, 

Admittedly, the fishing for us so far this season has been a grind. We have had some decent trips, mixed with some really slow fishing. The haddock this year for us have been spotty and tough to keep biting consistently. I know that I’m not painting the prettiest picture of fishing lately, but it is extremely important to me to be honest when it comes to these reports. I think that as an industry, it’s easy to report when the fishing is great and the fish just seem to jump on the boat. I’ve been lucky enough to have more than my fair share of good fishing over the years. But, right now, the bite has been slow.  The fishing will get better, then it will get slow again, then it will heat up again. That’s fishing. That’s the reality of going out onto the ocean and counting on wild fish stokes to cooperate day in and day out. 

However, on the same note, our level of effort and dedication to trying to put our customers in the best position to catch fish has never changed. On the Lady Sea, we always try to go above and beyond for our customers. Not just with fishing either. We are a small family, family owned business, and our relationships with our customers mean everything to us. 

A recent Google review from an unhappy customer has brought up some thoughts for me on the subjects of customer service and fishing productivity as they relate to each other. I’m paraphrasing, but basically the customer said the boat and crew were great, but the fishing was exceptionally slow. Then the person went on to say that as a company we should have offered him a discount to come back because he himself didn’t catch a keeper. The last part of the review stated that giving a future discount would have been the right thing to do, but we’re obviously all about money and he wouldn’t be back. 

My first thought, is that I appreciate the mans honest account of his experience. Although he was unhappy with the fishing, he gave credit to our operation where it was due. Our crew is friendly and fun, and are very good at what they do. We are very proud of the way they make us look as a business. 

Where I take offense with the gentleman’s review, is the last part. I personally have been in and around this business for 25 years now. I have never once encountered an operation around the world that would return ticket fair for a slow day of fishing. I would be lying if I said i don’t run this business to make money. It is a business. However, this is a labor of love for me personally. Slow fishing is aggravating and tough for me too. But that’s the game that is fishing, it doesn’t always work out in our favor. But to say that we as a company are all about the money because of slow fishing speaks to a lack of understanding of how this industry works. As a business we have cost ourselves countless thousands of dollars over the years putting the customer first, and we will continue to do so when it’s the right thing to do. We pride ourselves on that. But slow fishing is not that kind of situation in our business. On that particular trip, I put in an extreme amount of effort trying to put fish on the boat. Without hesitation, I burned a huge amount of fuel trying to make it happen. The fuel burned actually lowered our bottom line for the day significantly.

So, in the future, if you want to write about a bad day of fishing, I encourage you to do so as it is your right. However, badmouthing the company that put in a huge amount of effort to try to make your day better because they wouldn’t give you a discount is unfair.   

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

Saturday, April 8th, FISHING REPORT

Saturday’s marathon trip was our first day of the season. We had a windy Friday into Saturday morning, and the weather was a little bumpy to start the day. As the morning went on, the weather got much nicer. Although, it was cold out.

The fishing was mediocre. We started out in 250ft of water, with a good sign of life on the bottom unfortunately, it didn’t translate to a lot of fish on the deck. 

From there, we spent the day exploring up onto Jeffrey’s ledge. The fishing stayed spotty all day, some on bait, some on jig. We ended the day with a mix of haddock, cod, cusk, Pollock and redfish. 

Reports from other charter boats around us were the same as what we did all day. Just mediocre fishing following a windy day. Totally normal. However, there’s a lot of life to the east and north. We expect that the fishing will be steady going through the spring. 

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

FRIDAY IS THE LAST DAY TO CATCH COD UNTIL SEPTEMBER.  GIVE US A CALL AT TO MAKE YOUR RESERVATION NOW! 

978 559 1978

“It was definitely a catch of a lifetime,” said Michael Mann, captain of the 72-foot Lady Sea recreational fishing vessel, about the approximately 190-pound Atlantic halibut. He estimated that was the weight when they hooked it during a roughly 20-hour overnight deep sea fishing trip from Sunday to Monday.

At the docks, the fish weighed in at 161.5 pounds and measured 6 feet, or 72 inches long, Mann said.

Mann said he’s only caught small halibut, but never anything like that, though Atlantic halibut is considered the largest flatfish in the world and one of the largest fish found in the Gulf of Maine, according to NOAA Fisheries Atlantic halibut webpage. It can reach up to 15 feet in length and live up to 50 years. Fully grown females average 100 to 150 pounds, while males tend to be smaller.

Mann owns Gloucester Fleet Deep Sea Fishing and Charters with his father, Booty, and his mother, Carolann.

Mann said they started doing overnight trips, called “Super Marathon Fishing,” in part because of lower passenger capacity due to safety restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such trips are designed for 13 serious fishermen to get out to Fippennies Ledge, about 60 miles east of Gloucester, and only once a month. They do about three or four such trips a year.

Mann said on this trip about nine guys came with gear to catch a giant Atlantic halibut, bringing “every manner of tackle.” That includes 8-inch metal lures called jigs that can weigh 10 to 14 ounces.

But the person who hooked the monster fish on Monday, customer Nick Kirychuk, was using a boat rod from the 1980s. Mann said the man did not know what he hooked.

“He gave me the rod, and after an hour of battling, we got it on the boat,” said Mann, who wound up fighting and landing the halibut. Crew members also involved were Capt. Tim MacDonald and mates Brian Blaquiere and Matt Clark.

Mann said Kirychuk hooked the fish on a 12-ounce jig in 240 feet of water. He then handed the rod to Mann, but the halibut was not ready to give up the fight.

“After approximately 30 minutes, we got the fish to the surface, but it quickly (dove) down 200 feet again,” Mann said in an email. “We repeated the process; and when we saw it next, we got a gaff in it. The fish propelled itself off the gaff, and dove down 200 feet again. On the third try, all three crew members plus a customer gaffed it and brought it aboard.”

Mann said the landing of a fish this size was even more impressive when one considered the tackle that was used: a 6-foot solid fiberglass boat rod and a 1980s Penn Jigmaster reel with 50-pound test line.

Mann said after landing the halibut, they bled it and packed it on ice for the six-hour trip home. Mann said when they weighed it at the dock, it still weighed 161.5 pounds. It probably weighed about 190 pounds when they landed it, he said.

They are allowed to catch one halibut per boat per trip, Mann said.

Halibut was more prevalent in the 1970s and ‘80s, he said, but the fish has been wiped out. NOAA considers Atlantic halibut stock “at a very low level.”

Mann, who turns 37 this year, said he started working on fishing vessels when he was 12, and “catching halibut wasn’t a thing.”

When they arrived back in Gloucester on Monday around 8 p.m., they needed a place to weigh the fish, but everyone was closed, and Mann said Tessa Browne, owner of Cape Ann Lobstermen on East Main Street, let them use the company’s winch and scale. He said everyone on the boat went home with about 10 pounds of halibut, while the gentleman who hooked the giant fish got to keep 40 pounds.

Nick Giacalone, an owner of Fishermen’s Wharf seafood market on Rogers Street, said it’s “not too rare” for a large commercial dragger to come in with a halibut of anywhere from 85 to 200 pounds. The market has gotten those in the past. But Giacalone said he’s never heard of someone landing such a large halibut using a rod and reel.

“Me, personally, I’ve never heard of one coming in that big. That’s awesome,” Giacalone said.

NOAA Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries spokesperson Allison Ferreira said in an email that this was not a record fish or even unusual, after consulting with the agency’s groundfish team. NOAA’s Atlantic halibut webpage states that the largest Atlantic halibut ever recorded was taken off Cape Ann with a weight of 615 pounds, eviscerated with its head attached. It likely weighed 700 pounds when alive.

So, while this was not a record fish, it was still quite a feat. Ferreira said the International Gamefish Association says the largest Atlantic halibut landed in the United States with rod and reel gear weighed 255 pounds in 1989, and it was caught off Gloucester. She said colleagues told her the size of a halibut typically caught with a rod and reel are less than 100 pounds.

“So, although not unusual, this is a great fishing achievement!” she noted. Recreational fishing regulations for Atlantic halibut are one fish per vessel that is at least 41 inches in total length.

Andrea Holbrook contributed to this story by Ethan Forman, who may be contacted at 978-675-2714 or [email protected].

Source: https://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/a-catch-of-a-lifetime/article_6ec063b2-ece9-11ec-bd8c-4f13630d62cf.html

Friday, May 20th

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

Saturday, April 30th, Fishing Report

This weekend was a mixed bag for both the fishing and the weather. Saturday was a rough day, with winds around 20mph, and 4ft seas. But, the fish were active and we ended the trip with a respectable number of keeper haddock on board. The pool winner was a 10lb cusk. 

Sunday, May 1st, Fishing Report

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

Saturday, April 23rd, 2022 Fishing Report

The first trip of the year was definitely one for the books. Obviously, we wanted to start our season on April 1st, but things didn’t work out that way with unavoidable complications with construction at the marina. However, the wait seems to have been worth it.

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

July’s Fishing Report to date: 

Apologize again for the radio silence over the last few weeks.  Without going into too much detail about individual trips, here’s a report on the fishing lately. 

The all day trips last week alternated between very productive stops and slow stops. No one day has been exceptional all day long. We’ve had to be on our game, and in the right place at the right time. When the bite is happening we’ve been lucky enough to capitalize. We’ve been steadily catching haddock and redfish during those times of the day. We’ve been doing a good job avoiding the dogfish so far as well. 

The half day trips over the last 2 weeks have been pleasantly productive, with a bunch of haddock to be found inshore. We’ve been lucky to be getting a decent bite a little over 5 miles from the harbor. 

And lastly, our super marathon last weekend was a total homerun. We ventured a little further than normal, and found a big school of medium to large size pollock. The bite on the jig was fast and furious, and we put a good hurting on them. We managed a around few hundred for just 13 anglers. 

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTIAN MIKE & CREW

FISHING REPORT

June 18th – June 26th

I apologize for the lack of fishing reports over the last 2 weekends, we’ve been very busy aboard the Lady Sea.

To give you an update, the fishing has remained very mediocre on our all day fishing trips. Although, this past Saturday’s trip produced a good bite that saw healthy haddock coming over the rail at a good pace for a few hours. Last weekend and throughout the week, we caught a lot of redfish and cusk with haddock mixed in. 

Our first overnight trip from Sunday into Monday,  was a pretty good one. The first 2 stops of the day were slow, and the dogfish were heavy in the shallower water. But the haddock stacked up well in the deeper water. The weather was bumpy, with a solid 4ft out of the south. 

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th Fishing Report

Well, not too much to report from fishing this past weekend. We went all day fishing Friday and Saturday, and marathon fishing on Sunday. All three days had about the same weather, nothing rough throughout. The fishing was just all around mediocre.  Since the beginning of June when the temperature shot up, the fishing definitely slowed down a bit. Average to slow fishing was the story of the weekend, with some customers coming close to the ten fish mark, and others doing significantly less.  It didn’t seem to matter whether you used bait or jig; Sunday the codfish were biting pretty much anything put in front of them unfortunately. It wasn’t for lack of trying though, we definitely put in the work to catch what we did.  Anyone who fishes regularly will tell, you can’t crush it everyday.  The new moon definitely played a role, with a running tide making things unmanageable at times. 

We’d like to put our appreciation out there for our customers who fish with us week in and week out, no matter what the fish decide to do.  We can’t make them bite for you, but we’ll always give you folks our all. 

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKE & CREW

Friday, May 28th, Fishing Report

Today was another one of those epic bites for us. We left the dock at 6 am to avoid an extreme low tide, and were fishing by 7:45am. The bite started right away, and didn’t stop for 4 hours. It lulled here and there, then would pick up again. We fished in 260 feet of water, and bait was the way to go. The bite was so strong, it didn’t matter what was used for bait; mackerel, squid and clams all were productive. If it wasn’t for 7 to 10 people not feeling well, I’m confident we would have limited out much sooner in the morning. A few anglers caught upwards of 40 keepers per person, and distributed the overage of their personal quota to others who didn’t hit their own. 

FROM THE DECK OF THE LADY SEA
CAPTAIN MIKKE & CREW