This report is going to seem out of character for me, but that aside, it was one heck of a day of fishing/catching. The shack nasties had me in their grasp and I needed to get the boat out on the water NOW! I called a few buddies to see about setting up a cod trip. The forcast was for FAC conditions and the word was the bottom fish bite was decent. Its not my thing but neither is going out of my mind waiting for stripers.
The guys responded and Jeff from Navionics suggested that we take the opportunity to test out the new Platinum + charts in the field. THese charts are just becoming availible and I had one of the first copies in existance. To say the detail on these things is amazing is an understatment. 3D charts that are created from the bathy chart data makes for an incredible fish finding tool.
so with the latest in software loaded up the boat wa outfitted with jigs and clams and a 4 man team was assembled. We met in Plymouth around 0730 and splashed without incident. The run out was fast and smooth. A light NW breeze barely rippled the water and we slid along at almost 40mph.
We headed east and after about 45 minutes we began to look at structure on the new charts. The first few locations looked good, but failed to give up any fish. The whales, bait and birds were all good signs and we knew it was just a matter of finding the "right spot". We moved to a conture line on the chart in the 180' range and the sounder lit up. From that point on it was lights out catching. The cod were few and far between, but the haddock were BIG FAT and HUNGRY! we bailed 24-34" and they ate anything we got to the bottom. Jigs or clams it didn't matter. Everyone was tight for the next 6 hours. We landed in excess of 100 fish with 4 guys. We only adjusted the drift twice and even that wasn't really needed If we went more than 3 or 4 minutes without a fish we were wondering what happened.
Final tally, well over 100 keeper haddock, around 10-12 cod they ranged from 18" to around 12#, there were also a few oddball fish in the mix including 2 dogfish (in April). The lure/bait of choice was Williamson Speed Jigs as weight with a small sluggo as a teaser. Most of Jeff and My fish came on this rig and ate the teaser. BIG Scotty Pills had the same rig, but all his fish came on the jig. Split was the clam man and was slaying fish often doing it two at a time. The water ranged between 170 and 190' deep. The area was alive with mamals birds and bait. The bottom 30' of the sounder was solid with fish most of the day. We needed 8-10 oz of weight to hold bottom. There was very little current or wind so it was very easy fishing.
Overall just a fantastic day of catching. Even for someone that is not into bottom fishing, it was tough not to appreciate how this day played out. Bright sun, flat water and TONS of fish. The only thing better than that was having the guys do my share of the fish cleaning and having a Venison / Fresh Haddock surf and turf on the grill for dinner. It doesn't get any better than that!
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