Challenging weather conditions over the past few days have made effective fishing difficult, but Capts. Josh and Kirk and their hardy patrons have managed to string together a series of good days on the water. Here’s a recap:
9/10: Capt. Josh reports a good day overall aboard the Yankee Clipper on Thursday’s marathon. A stiff east wind and choppy seas necessitated dropping the hook, and they made four anchor stops over the course of the day. The first stop lasted forty-five minutes, yielding a mixed bag of keeper cod and haddock on both bait and jigs with some cusk slipping into the burlaps as well. The next stop was the best of the day, lasting two hours, during which anglers picked at haddock on bait with a few on at all times and a few flurries as well. The occasional flash of pollock under the boat would result in double-headers of 8-14-pounders for the jig fishermen. The next two stops, each lasting about an hour, brought more haddock with some decent codfish mixed in as well. One of the larger pollock in the 15-pound range took pool honors.
9/11: Capt. Josh, in the wheelhouse of the Yankee Clipper for Friday’s day trip, reports another good day overall. The first stop around the tide change provided a solid pick of cod and haddock with some waves of pollock spicing the catch for those working jigs. The cod short: keeper ratio was about 3:1, with most shorts falling in the 22-23.5-inch bracket, resulting in fast action, especially for the jiggers. The second stop resulted in a pick of good-sized pollock for the jig fishermen but not much else. The third and final stop produced another good pick of cod and haddock, with some pollock mixed in, including the pool winner captured by Keith Miner.
9/12: Running the 6-3 day trip on the Yankee Clipper, Capt. Josh reports that “snappy” conditions and pouring rain dampened angler effort somewhat, but that after a slow start they finished up by putting together a fair to good day overall. The first three anchor stops, each lasting about a half hour, offered a pick on a mixed bag of species, with haddock dominating the take. The last stop of the day was the best; anglers picked away at haddock and cod with a 3:1 short: keeper ratio on the codfish. Some nice white hake came up too, including the 20-pound pool-winner. Loretta Miner was high hook with 13 legal fish.
Aboard the Yankee Patriot, Capt. Kirk reports a good day of fishing despite the challenging conditions—25-knot easterly winds, 4-7-foot seas, and the occasional torrential downpour. He made five stops overall, tallying a mix of cod, haddock, and cusk, in that order. A lack of participation among anglers negatively affected the total catch on board by day’s end, but the fish were certainly there for those willing to endure the conditions. A 12-pound cod beat out a couple of medium pollock to take pool honors.
9/13: Anglers aboard Sunday’s day trip on the Yankee Clipper encountered challenging tide conditions in the morning, Capt. Josh reports. Anchoring into the tide, lines scoped straight toward the stern, resulting in a fair amount of tangles. Nevertheless, in their first three anchor stops before the tide change anglers tallied a mix of haddock and codfish.
In the late morning, when the tide slacked off, Josh made a shift to a new area. They ended the day with two productive drifts, producing a good pick of mostly keeper cod with some haddock and pollock mixed in. Bait and jigs both took their fair share of legal fish.
Josh termed the day slow to fair in the morning and good in the afternoon, making for a fair to good day overall. A 14-pound pollock took pool honors.
Capt. Ray ran the annual “No Googans!” charter aboard the Yankee Patriot today. Capt. Kirk, who worked deck, reports a good day of fishing overall. Like anglers on the Clipper, they experienced just a slow pick in the morning on cod and haddock, but in the afternoon enjoyed better action on a mix of those two species as well as a handful of cusk and pollock. A large number of sub-legal cod in the 22-23.75-inch range provided fish-a-cast action for the jig fishermen. High hooks had 13-14 fish, and a 16-pound cod won the pool.
Willy
The pollock, mostly 8-15-pounders, generally cooperated in the morning, although they once again appeared to be a bit boat-shy. Those who launched their jigs away from the boat experienced fish-a-cast action on double-headers while those who dropped straight down did not have the same success. After chipping away at the pollock in the morning, Josh targeted haddock 
and cod in the late morning and afternoon, making a pair of anchor stops that offered a steady grind on those two species, with some pollock and white hake mixed in too. A 31-pound hake took pool honors, with a 24-pound codfish taking second. Both fish took jigs.
this time on the Yankee Clipper, with Capt. Josh running the show. Joining me in the pulpit were my father, YF mate Ross on a busman’s holiday, and regulars Dave Sullivan and Mike Abovsky (FishWisher to you nor’east groupies). The fishing was fair overall, just a grinding bite on 
cod, cusk, haddock and pollock. There were near-zero dogfish and very few short cod, which made the action seem slower than usual because nearly every fish that came aboard was a keeper.
p, making for an uncomfortable ride out and first couple hours of fishing. The first two anchor stops produced a grinding pick of cod, haddock and cusk, but the wind in conjunction with a strong tide made fishing effectively difficult for most anglers.
Around 11:30, the wind finally backed off and the tide slacked off as well. Anglers enjoyed better action after that, catching a mix of pollock, cod, and haddock, in that order. The second-to-last stop provided fish-a-cast action on pollock for those working jigs. High hooks had around 10 fish. A 28-pound white hake won the pool.
The light load of anglers managed to pick away at haddock, cusk, and a handful of legal-sized codfish. A 10-pound cusk beat out a couple of cod to take pool honors.
before the academic grind begins. The morning started off a bit snappy, with a brisk northwest wind of 15-18 knots greeting us offshore, but it tapered off to a refreshing breeze by late morning. Nevertheless, the wind, which blew perpendicular to a moderate tide for much of the day, made anchoring imperative, and we made four anchor stops over the course of the trip. The tide/wind combo made for challenging conditions, but the group of 25 anglers worked hard and was able to fish effectively for most of the day. Joining us on this adventure were fisheries observers Brandt and Brad from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, who measured and weighed each fish that came aboard today.
respectively. No dice for them, and after a few minutes a pair of 10-pound pollock flopped about in the pulpit.
According to DMF observer Brandt, by day’s end I had captured 25 pollock, all 7-15 pounds except for one 20-incher. In addition, I managed one barely-legal cod that I released, 2 haddock, and a cusk, plus eleven short codfish. I’d call that a heck of a good day trip by anyone’s standards, and as I mentioned, all it took was the ability to cast the jig away from the boat. A 15-pound pollock beat out a number of similarly-sized specimens to take the pool. The largest cod weighed 9 pounds.
but jigs caught most of the larger codfish, including the high-teens pool winner. They anchored in the morning, enjoying a 2-hour stop to begin the day that yielded a pile of haddock with some cod mixed in. They then made two drifts of 1.5 hours each, continuing to assault the haddock and catching more cod than they’d seen in the morning too. Anglers averaged 7 or 8 keepers apiece, and high hooks had around 20 fish each. Sounds good to me!