Plymouth Harbour Report

[peter from manomet]

Put the boat in Plymouth Harbour past Sunday. Out off of Gurnet a few miles, past the dump fishing for cod. Water temp. 49-51 deg. on the outside. Took three nice size ones before losing $25 worth of jigs to bottom snarls. Whats up with that? Anyone know how to avoid this or what I'm doing wrong? Seems to be alot of tough weeds or coral on the bottom.

Looked for schoolies inside,on the rough near Bug Lite and over by the Town Brook outflow. None were seen. Too early yet I guess.

[tyesafly]

Try using a bank sinker on the bottom of your rig and rubber sassy shad (4") 18" and 36" above, the sinker gets the bait down but doesn"t hang up on the bottom and you should also use spider wire or similar line to eliminate much of the drag of thicker and heavier mono or dacron, you will notice a better feel for the bottom since there is no stretch as in mono and much less belly in the line while drifting.

[John B]

Pete
Thanx for the report on fish being out there. I expect it to only get better for the next month or so.

The bad news:

The hard bottom ledges off the Gurnet are naturally "snaggy" because they are not gravel but instead strewn with boulders. If the boulders do not get your jig, then there is just as big a chance that you will lose one on all the ghost gear (mainly pots and the companion warp) that rest out there.

The good news:

You don't have to use a jig to be effective in these areas.
The first low cost bottom donation you could make is a piece of sea clam, hook, and a weight. I have seen no difference in catch between jigging and useing bait in this area so you might consider this option. The other effective option is to use a heavy weight on a teaser rig to jig. Those 4" shad rigged on dropper loops are deadly on cod fish. If you lose this rig, your only out the cost of an 8oz sinker and 3 shad bodies. Not only is this rig cheaper to part with, it also does not hang up much because of the lack of hooks on the weight.

John B