I love Cod fishing!
 

Well I have been waiting for the perfect day to go off shore and we got it on Monday!
Had a 5 to 10 kt SW wind sea's 1 foot or less. Made the calls and only Tim (BS) was able to make it out.

Another couple of friends were headed out in there boat so I made plans to head out at the same time. We meet at 4 30 AM and headed for Ryders Cove Chatam Ma.

The trip is 4 miles from ramp to the ramp to the cut to open water, then another 28 miles out to the Cod grounds. These are also monster Tuna area, and we had the gear but there were none around on this day.

Tim has never been here and is soon shown why we go, every time you drop the line to the bottom (250 ft) you just give a lift and bam your on! We soon have some keepers on board (22") and Tim gets a nice 25 pounder.
We also got many double headers that give you a good work out from that deep!
My electric reel was not working and we did all by regular rod and reel, and man I will tell you, by noon we were beat to sh!t!!

Also the rule when you are that far out is at noon no matter what you head home!! The wind comes up every afternoon and can make that nice flat ride out a nightmare ride home!
So at 11 30 with are limit caught we head home, my friends stayed for some more fun, We had a great ride in and the wind was coming, when we got in it was at least 15 kt with a few higher gust, I was glad to be on the ramp!
My buddy's headed in like 3 30 and told me they were taking some waves over the bow of there 23' Contender.

We were home by 3 pm and decided to take a nap and then start cleaning the fish, from 6 pm till 9 pm we were cleaning fish and ended up with at least 50 pounds of fresh fresh Cod.

The OX was perfect all day and best of all on a 70 mile round trip just used 31 gal of gas! My buddy's Contender with a 250 Yamaha used near 60 gal, That's double us!

It was a great end to the season and I will putting the boat away soon. Thanks Tim for coming out with me!

Now a few pic's

John & Mark on the way out

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...2619.sized.jpg

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...2622.sized.jpg

Tim gutting and gilling some Cod

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...2625.sized.jpg

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...2624.sized.jpg

John & Mark

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...2629.sized.jpg

Tim
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...2627.sized.jpg

Tim & I in the OX

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...02_G.sized.jpg

Well there you have it a great end of 2009

Looks like you had perfect weather. You must have gotten in just before the blow. Thats a great pic with the deck all blooded up.That was definetly the perfect way to end the season. I'm hoping to get my decks to look like that soon. I think we are in for some bad weather till Sunday.

great way to end the season!! hand cranking in 250', definately a young mans game....

Great post MJ!
THANKS!!

Way to go MJ! I have never been out of Chatam. How do you pick your way out of there? Looks all shoaly and stuff.

Once your out then where do you go for the cod? 'Zackt numbers would be nice. :love:

Thanks guys!! It was a great day!!

Monkey, 'Zackt numbers would have been nice for me also 15 years ago!! :zip:

Sweet! Amazing weather.

I was wondering how you made out. It did look like a perfect day to be out fishing. When I was a kid, me and my dad had a catch like that. I was so pissed that my mom gave most of the fish away!

If you saw my post in the repairs section, you know how my day off went...

Looks perfect to me !!!!!!!!!!