05-16-2001, 01:14 AM
STELLWAGEN BANK, MA- Cod Fishing 5/14/01<br><br>This week brought of favorable weather, calm seas and great cod fishing on Stellwagen’s shoal water as well as the hard bottom off the backside of the Cape southeast of the Bank. Plenty of sand and herring are providing the forage for the cod and pollock resulting in excellent jigging.<br><br>On Wednesday, Mark Bradford’s group from Pembroke,MA on JANET B and Frank Pabis and friends from Milford, CT on the DECISIVE had catches of medium cod to 18 pounds with a good number of pollock mixed in. Thursday’s group, Chuck Garen from Glastonbury, CT, had the same results on the bank’s shoals.<br><br>Walter Hawley’s second pilgrimage of the year was a three-boat safari on Friday. Walter had great fishing in April and vowed to return in May. It has been fourteen days since the commercial season opened on Bank. Walter’s groups had catches equal to their results in April. The draggers can’t work the hard bottom area we are fishing and they are excluded from the closed area to the east. As a result, we haven’t experienced any differences in our production for our traveling anglers.<br><br>New Jerseyans dominated B-Fast’s boats on Saturday. Terry McMullin’s (Rahway, NJ) annual three-boat cod trip has been scheduled at this time for the past eight years. Matty Degirolemo’s group from So. Amboy, NJ and John Michalsky’s group from Woodbridge joined in the jigging party. Piles of bait fish were showing on the color machine stacked up on the bottom , on both the shaols of Stellwagen and the hard-bottom of the backside of Cape. Terry’s group managed to put a few haddock in the mix of market cod and pollock fillets filling the boxes. Pool winners were cod in the high teens.<br><br>Sunday’s trips were both split-charters on the JANET B and DECISIVE. Wayne Davidson of Danielson, CT split a trip with Joe Wozniak from Waldwick, NJ while Jeff Savarese of Naugatuck, CT split a trip with Dave Walsh of Rowayton, CT and Herb Broestler of Stillwater, NY. <br><br>Stripers are starting to show in the bays and estuaries chasing the alewife or river herring. Pete Flaherty of Cohasset, MA put the first keeper of the year in the box off Cohasset’s Minot’s ledge.<br><br>Capt. Mike Bartlett<br>B-Fast Charters<br>www.bfastcharters.com<br><br><br>Capt. Mike Bartlett<br>B-Fast Charters<br>www.bfastcharters.com