I replaced scup tackles in a backpack with cod tackles. I found bait rigs were running short so decided to make some. I found a leader twisted as I reeled in a small cod last time and was interested in small dropperloop-swivel-leader design. Although I didn’t know how it works at that time, I made a few.
I prepared lunch around 4 am and left home at 5 with my daughter. Temperature was still low so we found cloud on river on the way. When we got into Yankee Clipper after checking in, there was still plenty of space except for stern. We kept spots at the starboard bench just behind the bow. I used UglyStik BWB 1140 6'6''with Okuma ClassicPro XP452L. My daughter used SturdyStik BWB 125 6'6'' and Okuma Classic CLX450L without level wind. As the captain said we would start with haddock, I set bait rigs to both of rods. The boat left the dock at 6 o’clock.
When the boat went out of the Gloucester harbor, the sea became rough. We got into the cabin and took a nap for a while. The boat arrived at the first spot around 7:30. I felt a little dizzy but my daughter was fine at least after the boat was anchored. My rig was a new swivel-leader high-low one. Her rig was a classic dropper loop high-low one, which was easy to untangle.
As we started, a few haddock came into the boat. I got a decent one soon. Size limit of haddock went up from 18’’ to 21’’ from May. I measured the fish and found it was OK to keep. My daughter got fish, too. A bigger one she got was a nice pollock, around 8lb. Modification of the reel was very successful because she could reel in this size of fish without any trouble. I tried jigging as I saw a pollock but snagged in one drop. I carried only two jigs that day so I got back to a bait rig. We kept 5 fish around 9 o’clock.
At the next spot after a reset, cod bit on. She reeled in nice fish, which turned out to be double keeper cod! I got double too but one was under. Some jig fishermen caught cod, too. So I re-tried jig. During an hour I used jig, she got nice haddock and cod one after another with a huge wolfish! Mates, captain and other passengers were all surprised at her performance. I took photos when she got nice ones. I got a good one felt like a pool cod but it was a side-hooked haddock, which was actually smaller than a pollock she caught.
I got into slow bite after catching three and meantime she went far away. I found cod were still being caught on bait rigs in port side so got back to the bait rig. I added two keeper cod in some shorts. She said she caught around 15 including released under size. I kept 5, got at most 10 including shorts. Fishing became slow and ended before 1 pm. As I counted at the time on cleaning, we got 14; 7 haddock, 6 cod and 1 pollock. Probably I kept 5 and she kept 9. Seemed like average was 6-7 pp. She did better than others, not only her dad.
I did all of works for two sets such as bait change, unhook fish, untangle and unsnag, which made the fishing time different indeed. However, I thought what made difference was that fish schooled around our spots bit on the bait rig when I fished with jig. The boat moved up and down by about 5 feet. She didn’t always catch up with the movement to keep the bottom. She just kept the rod in the middle; the line slacked at the bottom and the sinker taken from the sea floor by a foot at the top. It worked that day. Small movement of the rig attracted fish and helped her to set hook. I guessed softness of a solid glass rod also worked positively for sure bite of keeper fish. She did better than me, not complaining about sore arm. She was not a novice any more. It was very good trip and super fun for us!
No comments:
Post a Comment