After
reviewing the weather report it looked like I had the green
light to get out and do some fishing, Dismal fishing reports and
great weather prompted me to make the run to the southeast
extremes of Stellwagen Sanctuary where I have experienced some
fantastic early season fishing in the past. I arrived at North
Ninety Bank- 42.16.8 x 70.05.0 I was surprised to see about ten
boats working the area. Most seemed to be moving around a lot. I
discovered that it was due to the lack of fish. After loosing
interest in the area it was time to move, A short haul east put
me on East Ninety Bank- 42.16.7 x 70.02.5 This resulted in
locating fish but they were all short and pulling them up out of
300 ft of water got old fast. Moving West I located a cluster of
what appeared to be gillnets at 42.18.154 x 70.09.609 After some
thought I figured they were more like offshore lobster traps. I
gave the place a try and this was the ticket. Obviously a loose
sand and gravel bottom was littered with Codfish of mixed sizes,
Fish were hitting the deck! I managed six keeper size Cod to about 8
pounds. Small sand crabs fell from the mouths of nearly every
fish that came over the side. The breeze out of the Southeast
was stiff enough to develop a nice chop. I pulled the plug on
the trip and headed in with a following sea. If nothing else I
got a chance to put the boat through it's paces while waiting
for something to rattle loose. Nice day on the water!
