New England Fishing

New England Regional Fishing with Tim Coleman | Soundings Online Column

Party (boat) time for the whole family

During the summer, Yankee Capts offers overnight and multiday trips to Cashes Ledge, perhaps the best fishing for cod, haddock and hard-fighting pollock in New England. Your son just announced that his two friends are coming for the weekend. Both like to fish and would like to take a trip, but your boat is either in the shop or laid up for the winter, and your friend with the 42-footer is away on business. What do you do?

The answer might be to board one of the many safe party boats up and down the coast from New Jersey to Maine, weather and season permitting. For instance, the last three winters have seen an increase in the cod catches from Block Island, R.I., to northern New Jersey.

Versatile rods and reels that won’t break the budget

The heavier DLX 33 rod with a Penn 950SS can be used for a variety of fishing. Here, an angler battles a big amberjack on an artificial reef in Florida. Good tackle shops typically have 300 to 500 rods on display, so it can be a daunting task when the casual angler goes looking for a rod-and-reel combo for the boat that will last yet not break the budget. Here are two suggestions that will work not only in the Northeast, but also if you are taking your boat to Florida for the winter.

Ready when the weather is? Fall fishing will reward you

Many of your neighbors have called it quits, but for you and others who still have a boat at the ready, November offers chances for a great day on the water. For those with the patience to watch and wait for that calm day between fall storms, there are rewards.

Want to catch some fish? Try a Yankee Capts charter

Steve Cannizzo, who organized the trip through his www.fishingunited.com, jigged up a nice cod on Fippennies Ledge, one of three spots fished.

It was the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, but we weren’t at the marina, the beach or a cookout. We were 80 miles off Gloucester, Mass., dropping lines as the sun came up on Parker Ridge, a rocky high spot that, along with Cashes Ledge and nearby Fippennies Ledge, offers anglers their best chance to catch a load of New England groundfish — a mix of cod, pollock, haddock and cusk.

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Hot spots are ripe as the weather cools

It's easy to fish for sea bass off Montauk, N.Y., in the morning, then spend the afternoon diamond-jigging for bass and blues in the rips closer to the point.

That cool north wind isn’t your imagination. Mother Nature has turned a page in her book, the summer heat is giving way to more bearable temperatures, and fish throughout the Northeast will respond to the changing seasons. Don’t touch that dial or take the boat out too early; we have plenty of fishing opportunities between now and Thanksgiving.

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Tim Coleman

Tim Coleman has been fishing New England and Long Island waters for more than 30 years. He was managing editor of The Fisherman magazine's New England edition until 2001, and is now a freelance writer based in Rhode Island.