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
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
Friday, June 6th & Saturday, June 7th
Fishing Report
Friday, we took a repeat group of customers on their all day fishing charter. The fish were there, as they have been all year, but maybe there is to much bait on the fishing grounds right now, or maybe they are just not interested, but fresh clams were not what they were looking for. We tried many different depths and locations, all showing fish, but just couldn’t get a bite going. We ended up wit a couple dozen keepers, but certainly the numbers we expect this time of year.
On Saturday, we took another full day charter with some first time customers. A group of experienced anglers, again we had high hopes. We changed the location from Friday, only to have a repeat of Friday. We were among a couple other party boats, a few 6 packs, and many private boats. Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing, pick a few and move. Everyone was crisscrossing the bank looking for that hungry group of fish. We were able to drift fish for most of the day which gave us more mobility and we picked away throughout the day. The short to keeper ratio was about 5 shorts for every keeper. One angler with a jig caught the most fish, but most were foul hooked. An 8 lb cusk took pool honors.
The whale show from last week was not back this week, but we did see our first basking shark of the year. The water temperature is increasing which makes it more comfortable for everyone. The chili was sweet and spicy, and though the fishing was tough, good times were had by all.
MORE TO COME FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY
From the Deck of the M/V Lady Sea
Captain Mike & Crew
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
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
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
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
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 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 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
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