Georges Bank codfishing

[overmodulated]

Greetings folks - first post here. Wondering if it's worth the long haul out to GB in a couple of weeks on the Helen H for their first trip of the year out there. I've not fished there before but have taken plenty of extended trips out of Gloucester.

Is it dogfish country like everywhere else? Do the cod run the typical range of sizes? Would appreciate any insight - thanks!

[Bristolfish]

this is a post form another site about ground fishing on Georges bank from another boat.

"Cod jigging was as good as it gets with all the market fish you cared to catch with several fish into the mid twenties caught. Shots of nice pollock were mixed to add to the catch. We put in a good effort to hook bluefins on this trip as we fished among the commercial BFT fleet the entire trip. The bite slacked off on Friday and through the weekend-just our luck. One fish was hooked up briefly on a jig while codfishing.

Capt Jim did a great job keeping us on the fish and wore everyone out catching groundfish"

[amarshall]

It's stupid the amount of cod out there.Big huge steakers too. We didn't catch one dog.

They have XXXL pollock out there too.

[heynow]

I am sure they exist but I have only heard of market sized fish caught out there, it would be cool to hear about some big rod and reel cod caught

[amarshall]

I was under the impression you couldn't keep any unless you had a federal groundfish license.

[On The Edge]

It's stupid the amount of cod out there.Big huge steakers too. We didn't catch one dog.

They have XXXL pollock out there too.

Yup saw some good ones come up out there. The week after you were out there Andrew. 2 at a time, good thing it was not deep water fishing.

[overmodulated]

I can't imagine cod fishing without dogs - seems too good to be true! I'm so used to coming back exhausted from a day of incessant reeling from depths of 250 - 300' with dogfish on the end of the line 95% of the time that I'd do anything to change that pace.

Seems to me that dogfish range the same habitats as the groundfish we seek. What do you think could be different on GB? Thanks again for the feedback!