Whats up with cod?

[Foul Hook]

Anyone been catching cod in numbers? I wouldn't mind hauling up a few. I haven't seen or heard anything, couple of boats have been going but the lack of reports isn't promising. Leif any input?

[kevin kovach]

Soon, very soon. If you look at the reports from one boat out of Cape lookout, which isn't that far away, they are catching them in good numbers and shallow. 70-100 ft.... they say they are fishing south of their inlet which would put them at the very northern edge of the hole, I am guessing. Last year we didn't have a run of cod inshore and we didn't have any bait... this year it looks like we have some herring in decent numbers and the cod are right behind them. My question is, has any body been over the farms in the past couple days? If they were to show inshore that would be one of first places I would look. Time will tell tho, however I do think it's going to happen sooner than later.

Kevin

[jmurr711]

heard theres alot of rats around i know there was alot on the reef in november

[Capt. Lou]

A local boat is out today , might have report later.That being said some decent days r being enjoyed up north.
I'm up there this week for a show so I'm gonna fish couple days before I come home.
Actually the local cod fishing was not bad last year. It's all wreck fishing , R red square open bottom jigging etc is long gone. However for the past three years it's been decent locally .
I've made about 50 trips during this time frame & it's been pretty good on many trips. Also bear in mind that GOM might be closed to cod fishing on many areas. For hire boats up there might have to concentrate on other species , very tough deal for them.

[NJ Dave]

Had a shortie in dec while blackfishing in Dec inshore 2 miles out.
Last Lady Capt Ralph should be out now. He usually always finds em and boxes em up.

[Chumslick]

Point Lobster, 11 bucks a pound, catch um up!

[Dino]

I did a mudhole wrecks trip with Denis on Russian roullette couple weeks ago.. ling was on the slow side, think we had 2 dozen. but we did have 6 nice codfish 5 to 15 lbs. a few good ones on each drop.. just had to weed through a dozen, 2 dozen dogfish before you could get a bait to the codfish. it will only get better into the spring.

[jmurr711]

be cool to see a bunch like this show up

[Foul Hook]

Originally Posted by jmurr711

be cool to see a bunch like this show up

Showoff

[Leif]

The Jamaica II has been getting some nice cod locally. There have been some good reports north and east but nothing consistent and nothing like previous years went those larger groups of fish moved in off Block and Montauk. Those fish sustained too much pressure and were not allowed to recover.

I think The best bet is to hit a boat that is familiar with the cod wrecks and do that. If we let the fishery recover on Georges, Stellwagen ect, we would see more fish trickle down to us but we didn't and we basically have a Cod wreck fishery that allows you to get a shot at a few. As the water gets really cold, it becomes tougher. As mentioned above, long gone are the days of open bottom cod but who knows what may happen.

Leif