8/23/2013

Labor Day Captain's Cod/Pollock

It was the end of summer. I wanted to take my daughter to party boat fishing once before it got cold so went to allday cod trip at Captain’s. I knew mack or scup was better. However, halfday mack trip had been switched to blue and going to cape was just like to get caught in terrible traffic. When I checked weather forecast, it looked good so I made a reservation.

I had two rods at that time but had only one conventional reel. It is very important to have a reel of light load for a kid. I researched and found that an entry model of Okuma CLX-450L has relatively lower gear ratio. I bought it at three lantern and spooled 150 YD of 65 lb PowerPro. This reel was set to UglyStik BWB1140 6’6’’ for her. Another rod was a 7’ refurbished one I bought at Raf’s bait wagon. I set Penn 555GS w/power handle to this rod.

The fleet had a marathon trip on the day so probably Captain’s Lady III left early morning. Allday boat was Captain’s Lady II. When we got into the boat around 7, rail spot was still spacious. I kept spots at port near stern. The boat left the dock at 7:30 with 30 plus people. She was OK in cabin for a while but got a little dizzy so we went to the upper deck. After two hours, the boat slowed down and got anchored. Once we started fishing, she was all right.
 
I hooked clam on the bait rig and let it down to the bottom for my daughter. A mate tied her rod to the rail with mono line not to drop the tackle from the boat. I started with jig but snagged immediately. I shook the rod but couldn’t remove. On pulling after tightening the drag, I lost the jig. Meantime she hooked something. She reeled in with my help and got a small cusk. I also switched to a bait rig but the rig got lots of scratch very soon. Bottom should be very rocky. Soon the captain gave up the spot and reset the boat.

As the captain said the next spot was rocky too, I started with a bait rig. She had a hard time handling the tackle because she was caught her finger with level wind. It was no good so I exchanged rod with her. She got a baby pollock and a dog. I released after taking photos. There were actions but catch was no good. The boat moved again.

At the new spot after 20 minutes of sail, fish bit upon setting her rod. It was too big for her to reel in. I reeled in and got double of decent size pollock. I set jig to my rod and got double pollock immediately. She hooked another one and I reeled in a good size pollock. They didn’t fit in my 50 QT cooler box so I left them under the bench but they became too many. I got a coffee bag and put them in it. Although I wanted to fish while school were there, she got tired and didn’t want to reel in any more. I asked her just hold the rod when she got big fish. When she hooked a small one, she managed to reel it in. It was a keeper cod. Jig fishing was non-stop and fish were mostly big. Double pollock were really nice fighters. We kept fishing for about two hours. The boat moved although we had still actions. At this time, we kept 12 pollock, 2 cod and 2 cusk. A few Pollock were over 15 lb and the total looked more than 100 lb.

When we started fishing at the last spot, it was 1:00 pm. One more hour or so left. During my daughter took video, I got a cod and a pollock. When I got the third fish, a mate said to me that blue shark was chasing after, reel in! Although I speeded up the reeling, it was too late. A 7’ blue shark bit on a pollock. I couldn’t shake rod because I used a jig. Finally I pulled a head of the pollock. As the mate unhooked the head and put it back to the sea, the blue shark ate it on the surface. Wow! She took all of that to a movie!

I got another pollock on jig and a large cod of 10 lb on bait by the end of fishing. We got 20 in total 14 pollock, 4 cod and 2 cusk. The biggest pollock was over 16 lb and half of pollock seemed more than 10 lb. A jigging regular, who was high hook and won the pool, got more than 25 fish. Unfortunately, he had his rod broken by a blue shark because he didn’t loosen the drag after he pulled snag at a rocky spot. Bait guys also got around 10 although overall size was a little smaller. Mostly pollock but it was a very good trip. Also super fun for us!
 
 
 

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