July Clipper

I planned on going to allday cod trip with my friends. Weather looked OK so it was the matter of fleet choice. I heard they wanted to jig. Drifting boat works better for jigging because you don’t have to cast a jig. I reserved spots at Clipper Fleet. Clipper fleet always tries to drift as weather permits.

I got a few Lav Jigs of 12-14 oz at Three Lantern before the trip. Weather forecast for Saturday was few showers. During summer time, this forecast is very good because it usually reduces crowds and most likely shower doesn’t matter if any.

We kept 3 spots at bow. As I expected, there were only 20 on board and only 5 on port side. It couldn’t be better for jigging, super spacious. Challenger left the dock at 7 and started fishing at the first spot minutes past 9. I brought Ugly Stik and Okuma reel with level wind as usual. The rig was 14 oz Lav Jig and a yellow cod fly as a teaser.

All three of us started with jigs. We caught fish steadily but they were small pollock. Bait fishermen got some undersize haddock. I got a hit of nice one but lost it during the reeling. When I got another hit, I reeled it in carefully. It was a side-hooked whiting. Around 10 o’clock, the captain decided to move to deeper water.

After sailing 20 minutes, the boat started drifting. I got a keeper pollock soon. New spot seemed better. I kept 5-6 of pollock/cod/haddock mix during the drift. My friends kept some, too. When the fishing became slow, the captain reset a drift. Next drift started with dogs even on jigs. The captain gave up the spot soon.

I switched to bait around noon. I felt bites but couldn’t hook up. As the current got weaker, my friends started to try smaller jigs. After a short reset, I got back to jigging, seeking for the pool fish.

Cusk were caught during the new drift. It seemed like rocky bottom. A friend of mine caught a nice pollock on a jig. He said it bit 20-30 feet off the bottom. I tried squidding up to 30 feet and got a hit. Although I didn’t felt it big during reeling, what I found was a nice 10 LB pollock. It was the biggest of my catch that day. I got another pollock of just 19’’ off the bottom soon. I released it because I kept 10 or so at that time. The fishing ended a little before 2.

I kept 11 fish, mix of pollock, cod, cusk, haddock and whiting. They kept several. It was very good for the catch of jig at this time of year. Bait guys kept up to 4-5 so jigs out fished. My biggest pollock won the pool. Steady catch, a bunch of species, drift perfect weather and super spacious boat all made the trip excellent!