MONTAUK SUN COLUMNS

Montauk Fishing with Captain Mark
By Capt. Mark Marose

Overall fishing this winter has been excellent. By mid-January nice catches of Cod were being landed with a mix of small pollock, ling and cunners in the catch.

We picked away at the cod in February with catches of 40 to 50 fish per trip common. My charter boat, the Capt Mark and the party boats of the Viking Fleet were the only boats on the cod scene. Most of the action was around the Fairway Bouy, the Gateway and locally at CIA.

Early in March, the party boat Sea Otter and the charter boat Blue Fin IV joined the fleet in pursue of cod.

In early March a huge body of 8 to 30 lb. cod moved into an area six miles west of Cox's Ledge called the Battlegrounds. For a solid two weeks it was cod mania. There were so many cod that they were eating biting pre-dawn in the dark. And when dawn came every boat in the

fleet was constantly hooked up. The fishing was simply amazing.

Charter boats averaged an easy sixty fish per boat and the party boats were landing between three hundred to five hundred fish per day. The Viking Starship had an impressive eight hundred fish hit one day as a huge school of cod followed them through a half mile drift.

As of this writing on March 24th the cod catch has fallen off, but hopefully another body of fish will show in April. All said it has been an amazing cod season, reminicent of fishing in the eighties.

In April, a mix of cod, pollock, ling and snoshoe flounder will be landed as well as some nice blackfish. The first striped bass will be plucked from the surf and hopefully some Boston mackerel.

Right now the wind is blowing, keeping us tied to the dock. Can't wait for the next nice day to hunt for more cod.

Keep Dreaming and Fishing,

Captain Mark