Posted on March 10th, 2025
Man, it has been a tough winter!! I only had two fishing reports for the entire month of February and that sucks! The weather is shaping up now that we are moving toward spring, so hopefully there are more reports to come on a more regular basis.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star just had to get out on the ocean today and he was able to scratch the itch and put his anglers on some fish at the same time.
Mate Joey tied her lose a bit past seven. Missed the best art in this morning’s sunrise but there was still color in the eastern sky as we cleared the inlet. A short southerly swell left pleasant conditions (if a tad rolly) as we wandered on off to this morning’s block drop.
A new spot, I intend to build a foundation of loose block built for a special pyramid at Crystal Ann Brinker’s Memorial Reef.
Blocks by the rail in only a moment, I then held course a fair distance to a piece of bottom where I’ve had excellent cod fishing before..
And tog.
In Oct of 2010 it began snowing in New England. Pummeled time and again into January, the Gulf of Maine became cold – too cold for a cod’s comfort. By year’s end they moved south around Cape Hatteras en-masse exactly as Goode’s 1880 study predicted they would.
In Feb 2011 I was advertising cod trips – first from OC MD I believe since the mid-1970s. There were even cod caught in Albemarle
Sound, NC. Saw nice fishing too. Where I began fishing this day I’d watched my dear friend (departed much too soon) Dae, boat a quick limit of cod. Other anglers were catching well, doubles even – including me.
Today was not similar. There were no cod caught. Saw a few short tog, a pair of decent ones & a few cbass implying bottom temps aren’t all that cold.
An exploratory trip, there was only one way to find out. Back to restoring my Mom’s old place for the spring market..
Cheers,
Monty
Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides Charters was back out on the rip today as well and though he’s out of practice and didn’t get any fish pics, he did have a limit of tautog for his crew that turned into some tog tacos.
