When I looked into the weather forecast, Sunday was cold but light wind. Report of Eastman’s for Friday trip was excellent. Lots of big pollock were caught. I made a reservation Saturday morning for Sunday allday trip. The man in the office said that they could add one. Might be they had good number of crowd.
Allday trip became 7-4 after summer time ended. I made lunch and left home at 5. When I got into the boat, cabin seats were not available anymore. It is not unusual for Eastman’s. Some fishermen drove more than 100 miles to the fleet. After keeping a spot at port side near the stern, I brought my cooler box to the cabin for seating. Several were at the deck but jumped into the cabin as the boat sailed out. Temperature was low 20s and it was very tough to stay out.
Lady Merrilee Ann 3 got anchored at 9 and we started fishing. There was no bait and all started with jig or flies on a high-low rig. I set a 14 oz LavJig and a pink hand-tied cod fly (6/0 O'Shaughnessy) to Ugly Stik BWB1140 6’6’’ and Okuma Classic Pro XP-452L. The spot was relatively deep, 300 feet. I got a hit at the bottom. It was a baby size pollock. After another small pollock, I got a keeper. It was not so big, 4 lb size. I found that I was only fisherman without gloves. Although heated rail helped a lot to warm up my hands, I should have prepared ones.
I realized that pollock was the only game that day. I tried squidding, reeling up 30-40 turns and falling to the bottom. I got hits during reeling, 20-30 feet above the bottom. In most case, the fish was hooked on the teaser. I kept 4 pollock up to 8 lb until 10:30. After a few resets, I got a double and a nice 13 lb one. Both came up with tangle. There were too many people. It was impossible to avoid tangle once you got a pollock. I had to cut braided main line twice. It was the last thing I expected in a trip in December!
Catch got slower before noon. The captain reset the boat. Small hake, redfish and cod showed up there. I wanted to catch redfish. Although I looked for Gulp in my jig box, I didn't have any. I changed a treble hook to a smaller one with an octopus bait and switched a cod fly with a gummy shrimp. As I stuck to the bottom, I felt like a snag. When I pulled the line, it moved. I thought it was a nice fish. I guessed it might be a cod because it didn’t run like pollock. After reeling in, what I found was a nice pollock, with tangle as usual… After another slow hour, fishing ended at 1:30.
I kept 8 and released 3 shorts. In the boat, some caught a dozen and others just got 2. Several per person was average. I saw several 20 lb up pollock, too. I had fish filleted and got some milt as well. Although it was not a super trip, I enjoyed steady catch with a few 10 lb class. Fish tasted good. I would like to thank the captain and the mates providing a nice fishing trip in this season!
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