I guess you can have the best of all worlds. First of all, what a blast seeing these guys from E. Straudsburg (my wife's college town) fish for cod for the first time. Second, we got to my fishing spot and had three whales right next to the boat (their first whales). Thirdly--there wasn't a 2 minute stretch all day when someone's rod wasn't bending!!!
I was lock-and-load all day. We cod fished on Stellwagen Bank while leaving Green Harbor this morning around 5:30. It was a great ride all day with little or no wind and a perfect drift. If they were all keepers....ok, they weren't, but we still managed a full cooler of fillets and everyone on board had sore arms early in the day. Stealing the day...the 11 year-old caught more keepers than anyone else by far, all while using an Okuma Baitrunner spinning rod/reel. It was a perfect match for the slow current and light jig. He did great and landed the highest percentage of keepers to total fish on the boat.
Happily, we have them on board for tomorrow's trip once again and we hope to get more haddock into the mix for Saturday's trip. We'll see. Keeping the fun flowing here. Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters