So Monday was my only free day and I had to fish. It was also the last day we would get to bring a cod home (North of Cape Cod), but the forecast was for 4 footers (at 16 sec.) and breezy in the morning. A little bumpy for my boat, I also did not feel like any hassle. As luck would have it Captains Fishing Parties up on Plum Island was going out Monday and it was a Marathon trip. Well, surprise, surprise they were bigger than 4' and only 5 sec apart! Fun ride out, but at least they got it right and it did calm down and fishing was easy. We only had about a half-full boat and most were old salts but as always there were tangled lines, I had a stern position and was able to stay out of most of it. The fishing was fast with lots of keeper haddock, I got well over my limit, but from the start was only keeping the nicer ones for the table. Some nice pollock, cust, and cod were had by most everyone. We did have a number of sharks plaguing us as the fish were brought up. Blues and porbeagles were both seen. I only had trouble once and as luck would have it I had pulled out a heavy cod rod I had not used in years for sling big jigs. I was bring up a good fish and I hooked what I am sure was a porbeagle and the fight was on. It seemed that the 18 oz Norwegian jig was protecting my line as I put the screws to the fish with everything my TLD 25 could take with 80 lb braid (with the Binnini it brakes at 117lbs) and the drag in a strike position I was still burning my thumbs! If the shark had stayed away from the boat I had a very good chance of landing it, but as my line started to sweep down the side of the boat and I feared I might cut someone's head off, I called for the line to be cut... Sad, but it was a fun 5 min! I left with a nice bag of fresh fish and a big smile (more than a little tired) and I still have that great ache of muscles used in the pursuit of happiness! I did not take any time for pictures, just to busy fishing!
