Marathon Trip and Weekend Wrap-Up

June 20th, 21st & 22nd
Marathon Friday, Saturday & Sunday
Weekend  Wrap-up

With weather like this, what could possibly go wrong? For the customers, it was great weekend to be on the water, for the crew, a little pain and suffering, but we all survived.

Friday’s marathon, we had a light crowd, at the request of some of our ‘regular’ anglers, sometimes I like to call them irregular, but we headed to parts seldom traveled by the Lady Sea to southern Jeffries, pretty much as far north as we go. It was a slow start to the catching of legal size fish, plenty of small haddock, but that’s not what we want. We worked our way to the south, picking away at the fish. By the afternoon, we were on Tillies which is where we found the rest of the fishing armada, boats from Boston to New Hampshire in the area we typically fish on our day trips. The pick was a little better and we scraped together a decent day, depending on who you ask. The low point of the trip was when deckhand Mike decided to lodge a circle hook into his hand, that pretty much put him on ice for the majority of the day and a trip to the ER upon our return. Sorry Hammer, you don’t get that hook back!

Saturday we again had a light crowd for the ¾ day trip. Fishing was good, lots of activity, a mix bag of fish, some very nice cod and haddock have appeared on the ¾ grounds. We had a bachelor party among us, only appropriate that the groom to be catches a 6 lb cusk and wins the pool. While cutting fish, deckhand Joey decided to slip the filet knife over his middle finger knuckle, which required a call to the bullpen for another meat cutter. In the afternoon, we hosted a boy scout troop, an eager group of 40, many of whom have never been on the ocean. As luck would have it for them, one of our regular anglers is also a registered merit badge counselor for Fishing merit badge, so with a little prework by the scouts, we were able to complete the badge for 5 scouts and 3 are just about done. Great fun, great day, great group of people.

Sunday, we had a full boat for the ¾ day trip, the fishing was good, the dog fish took a nap today which made our overall keeper production higher. We had a nice mix of cod, haddock, red fish and cusk. Just as the captain called the trip a lucky angler landed an 8 lb cusk to take the pool. One person had 7 legal fish, pretty good for a ¾ day trip. The half day trip was a little on the slow side, the weather has lulled the fish to sleep, we caught a few nice haddock and cod, but not enough to send everyone home with fish.

 It was really a fun weekend to be aboard the Lady Sea. This week, Gloucester has ST Peter’s Fiesta, one of the summer highlights.

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

We have scheduled trips this week for Wednesday, the 25th and Friday the 27th for the All Day Trip

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