HEL-CAT II Running Fish Reports
May 20, 2013: This past weekend we started our Banker's Hours Special trips at 9 AM. For now we are on a Sat., Sun. Holidays schedule. This coming weekend is Memorial Day so we will be sailing on Monday the 27th of May as well as the Sat. and Sun. How was the fishing you ask? OK but tough as it always is this early. We had to take a couple of loooong rides to get blues over the rail and we did get some. As a matter of fact we had the pleasant surprise on Sunday of nailing three nice Week Fish. Haven't seen them for awhile. The whole thing with mid May fishing is that they are where they want to be when they want to be there. If you make the connection it is very good. If you're off just a little bit in the tide it is picky. Add to that the weakest tides of the month and it spells pick. We're looking forward to this next weekend because traditionally the Bass move into the Race area and we will also have the "fish preferred" tide to fish on.
If you have not already noticed it, we added a new page to this web site. It is the "History" page and it contains pictures with comments about the boats of this business since its inception in 1946. It is very interesting as some of the pictures show not only the boats as they changed but also development of coastal land showing in the background. The last part of the page is devoted to a pictorial log with written descriptions of the actual construction of Hel-Cat II. Enjoy!
March 23, 2013: It is with a heavy heart that we announce the discontinuance of the remainder of the scheduled Cod trips for the rest of 2013. This winter has been so uncooperative on both the weather and fishing fronts that it makes little to no sense to continue. The current cost of fuel to run out there and back is driving the prices we have to charge you and we just don't see the value in it. The few trips we were able to make were horrible. Weather was anything but enjoyable and the best day of fishing left way too much to be desired. We do not see a break in the trend. Usually the winter run starts to peter out in early April and there is just too little to take away from. We cannot make our customers happy in constantly lousy weather when they are catching basically nothing. It is not going to improve. Why? Probably due to the constant rotten weather we've had all winter. It could have pushed their food elsewhere, it could be that it is so perpetually stirred up that the fish won't eat even if they are there. Bottom line is that it is no longer a viable fishery for us and until it turns around sometime in the future we will not be partaking of it. Sorry to disappoint you if this is your bag but we'd rather you were disappointed because we didn't take you than because of the day you had because we did. All we want is an even chance for you to come home with a respectable catch but that has not been the case this winter.
If you look at our Trips and Prices page you will find our revised schedule for the rest of 2013. Blues and Bass trips will start on weekends and holidays as of the 18th of May. Some good news is that the Govt. is now giving us a 45 fish limit for Party Boat anglers catching Scup (Porgies). That's 5 more per person than last year. We have also extended the "Post Porgy Season" Blue fish trips on Fri, Sat and Sun sailing at 9AM to the first weekend in November. Hopefully there won't be another big weather event to mess that up this year. As they used to say in the old west,"Keep yer fingers crossed."
So, from now until May 18th we will take the opportunity to clean up and pretty up the boat after last season and the few beatings we took this winter. It's only going to get better!
Jan.13, 2013: We were scheduled to start our Cod trips on the 5th of Jan. The first trip had to be cancelled due to the weather reports that included not only gale warnings but also sustained gale force winds. We contacted all those who had made the required reservations and cancelled the trip.
Saturday Jan. 12th was supposed to be pretty quiet with some intermittent drizzle during the day. Seemed like a very good day for a Cod trip, after all isn't that what foul weather gear was invented for? The boat got underway as scheduled with happy fisherman full of great expectations aboard. That lasted for the first 35 minutes of the trip when the boat rounded Race Rock Light bound for the grounds off Block Island. Not shown in the weather predictions for the day was a stiff ESE wind with the ebb current up against it. The seas were piled up one on top of the other with an occasional 12 footer crashing in out of the dark. Speed was cut and cut again. The conditions did not improve as the boat made slow progress to the east. When hour number two was coming to an end and still 8 miles short of where the boat should have been at that time combined with no change in current direction for more than an hour that would allow the seas to spread out a bit, the decision was made to turn around and go back to the dock. We don't do this often but when it becomes obvious that that fishing conditions will be no better than traveling conditions the decision becomes a no brainer. Our passengers are there to enjoy a day of fishing. Getting the living snot beat out of them all day does not fit into the term "enjoyment". So… as we said last week, "Isn't Winter grand!" Watch the weather, book your places and one of these Saturdays it will all come together.
Oct. 8th, 2012: Today was the last trip of our Porgy schedule for this year ending that fishery on an excellent note.
Now we are back to the Blues and Striped Bass sailing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 9AM returning to the dock at 3PM. These trips will contuine through the last weekend of October so those of you who have been waiting for these Banker's Hours Special trips to return, here they are! Don't forget that some of the best fishing for these species is this time of year.
Sept. 10, 2012: The Porgy fishing for us has been excellent. For those who want to catch their limit of 40 fish there is no problem. Most of the fish are what we call "Jumbo's". Of course there are some other species being caught as well; several fluke, some trigger fish, some blues and even a striped bass. There is also an ever present population of small Sea Bass that some time in the future are going to make up a very large harvestable bio mass of that species. Amongst them there are a few keepers and even some real slammers.
Sept.4, 2012: We finished the summer Blues and Bass trips yesterday with fishing just as it has been for the last few weeks, FABULOUS! It's just been Blitz time out there after a long wait through mid summer. We are now in our Porgy season sailing daily at 7AM.This will continue through the 8th of Oct. then on the 12th of Oct. we will go back to running at 9AM for Blues and Bass on Friday, Sat and Sun.
Today was our first Porgy trip of the season and we are happy to say that we did very well despite a day of presistant rain puncuated by total down pours. Fish didn't blink, just kept on biting and when the day was over everyone went home with their load of Porgies, some wet clothes and big smiles. Other than the weather it doesn't get much better than this was.
July 27, 2012: Ooooh, we have been remiss in getting reports up on this page. Seems that there are just a few to few hours in the day this time of year. Let's catch up. Since the last report fishing was super on both tides for the better part of July. For some reason, a couple of weeks ago the rascals decided that they would get lock jaw on the flood tide. If you ever wondered why most party boat skippers have grey hair, fish tricks like this will do it. There have been some fits and starts to the flood tide fishery in the lst week so apparently things may be turning around. While we fished mostly ebb today and did well, we did fish the beginning of the flood and caught better than we did in the few days before which is a good sign.
We have also been fishing for Fluke, Black Sea Bass and Porgies on our Sat. afternoon trips. For the most part there is plenty of action but the keeper count is low. That trip is really about getting out on the sound for the late afternoon and just relaxing so I guess we're doing just fine.
June 10, 2012: Another great weekend of Blue fishing. Our "Old Faithful" is still producing and well. Big blues are the norm with a nice mix (20%) of striped bass. For the entire weekend we only hqad one throw back bass, all the rest were keepers and then some. As of this report we are still sticking to the doamond jigs and buck tails. That will be changing within the next couple of weeks as we feel that the time is getting near that bait will be effective in a positive direction.
A reminder to check our trips and Prices page as new things are happening. This coming weekend, Sat. June 16th marks the beginning of our full time schedule. The boat will sail every day at 9AM returning to the dock at 3 PM, thus know as the "Banker's Hours Special." On top of that we will be adding Sat. afternoon/ evening fluke, Sea Bass and Porgies bottom fishing trips as of the 23rd of June. Only exception to that is the 7th of July as that is the night of the Groton New London Fireworks and the boat is sold out.
May 31, 2012. Sorry for the delay in this report but other things sort of got in the way. We sailed all three days of the Memorial Day weekend with excellent fishing all three days. Mostly Blues with some nice Striped Bass mixed in. These blues were not the usual early summer little "cocktail" variety. Instead they were all good size fish many of which could be termed large. Most fish were taken on jigs with a few on buck tails. Where we were fishing for the most part did not lend itself to bucktailing but when we moved to another area at the end of the tide some of the folks did work the tails with success.
May 20, 2012. this weekend was the first of our 9AM to 3 PM Banker's Hours Special trips for 2012. The weather was delightful making for two very enjoyable days on the water. Fishing on Saturday was spotty and a struggle. Can't say why but there was a large amount of boat traffic as well as some heave coming in from off shore. Most of the time a heave like that won't matter much but combined with the early date, water temp and boat traffic it just may have been enough to make the difference. Sunday, no heave, fewer boats and far better fishing.
All of the fish were taken on either buck tails or jigs as this time of year it is counter productive to hang bait. It won't catch what you want but more times than not it will catch what you really don't want. This is a tempory condition that heals over time depending on how quickly the water temperature warms up. Most of the time it's only a few weeks but last year it took over a month. Most of the fish caught this weekend were Striped Bass and a sprinkling of Blues. Bass up to 20 pounds took the pools.
A reminder that next week is the Memorial Day Weekend so we will be sailing on Monday the 28th of May as well as Sat. and Sunday.
We hope you like our new web site design. We made the change so it would be easier for you folks to navigate. The old one was a bit of a chore for us to modify the reports page so some of the change was also to make it easier for us as well.
As of this writing we are in our last week of Spring Cleaning and painting, looking forward to starting our late spring schedule. We will be fishing for Bass and Blues on Weekends and Holidays starting the 19th of May. Boat sails promptly at 9AM and returns to the dock at 3PM. this schedule will be in effect until June 16th when we start our full time schedule. then we will be sailing every day as well as Sat afternoons (see trips and prices page). Hope to see you aboard.
If you have not already noticed it, we added a new page to this web site. It is the "History" page and it contains pictures with comments about the boats of this business since its inception in 1946. It is very interesting as some of the pictures show not only the boats as they changed but also development of coastal land showing in the background. The last part of the page is devoted to a pictorial log with written descriptions of the actual construction of Hel-Cat II. Enjoy!
March 23, 2013: It is with a heavy heart that we announce the discontinuance of the remainder of the scheduled Cod trips for the rest of 2013. This winter has been so uncooperative on both the weather and fishing fronts that it makes little to no sense to continue. The current cost of fuel to run out there and back is driving the prices we have to charge you and we just don't see the value in it. The few trips we were able to make were horrible. Weather was anything but enjoyable and the best day of fishing left way too much to be desired. We do not see a break in the trend. Usually the winter run starts to peter out in early April and there is just too little to take away from. We cannot make our customers happy in constantly lousy weather when they are catching basically nothing. It is not going to improve. Why? Probably due to the constant rotten weather we've had all winter. It could have pushed their food elsewhere, it could be that it is so perpetually stirred up that the fish won't eat even if they are there. Bottom line is that it is no longer a viable fishery for us and until it turns around sometime in the future we will not be partaking of it. Sorry to disappoint you if this is your bag but we'd rather you were disappointed because we didn't take you than because of the day you had because we did. All we want is an even chance for you to come home with a respectable catch but that has not been the case this winter.
If you look at our Trips and Prices page you will find our revised schedule for the rest of 2013. Blues and Bass trips will start on weekends and holidays as of the 18th of May. Some good news is that the Govt. is now giving us a 45 fish limit for Party Boat anglers catching Scup (Porgies). That's 5 more per person than last year. We have also extended the "Post Porgy Season" Blue fish trips on Fri, Sat and Sun sailing at 9AM to the first weekend in November. Hopefully there won't be another big weather event to mess that up this year. As they used to say in the old west,"Keep yer fingers crossed."
So, from now until May 18th we will take the opportunity to clean up and pretty up the boat after last season and the few beatings we took this winter. It's only going to get better!
Jan.13, 2013: We were scheduled to start our Cod trips on the 5th of Jan. The first trip had to be cancelled due to the weather reports that included not only gale warnings but also sustained gale force winds. We contacted all those who had made the required reservations and cancelled the trip.
Saturday Jan. 12th was supposed to be pretty quiet with some intermittent drizzle during the day. Seemed like a very good day for a Cod trip, after all isn't that what foul weather gear was invented for? The boat got underway as scheduled with happy fisherman full of great expectations aboard. That lasted for the first 35 minutes of the trip when the boat rounded Race Rock Light bound for the grounds off Block Island. Not shown in the weather predictions for the day was a stiff ESE wind with the ebb current up against it. The seas were piled up one on top of the other with an occasional 12 footer crashing in out of the dark. Speed was cut and cut again. The conditions did not improve as the boat made slow progress to the east. When hour number two was coming to an end and still 8 miles short of where the boat should have been at that time combined with no change in current direction for more than an hour that would allow the seas to spread out a bit, the decision was made to turn around and go back to the dock. We don't do this often but when it becomes obvious that that fishing conditions will be no better than traveling conditions the decision becomes a no brainer. Our passengers are there to enjoy a day of fishing. Getting the living snot beat out of them all day does not fit into the term "enjoyment". So… as we said last week, "Isn't Winter grand!" Watch the weather, book your places and one of these Saturdays it will all come together.
Oct. 8th, 2012: Today was the last trip of our Porgy schedule for this year ending that fishery on an excellent note.
Now we are back to the Blues and Striped Bass sailing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 9AM returning to the dock at 3PM. These trips will contuine through the last weekend of October so those of you who have been waiting for these Banker's Hours Special trips to return, here they are! Don't forget that some of the best fishing for these species is this time of year.
Sept. 10, 2012: The Porgy fishing for us has been excellent. For those who want to catch their limit of 40 fish there is no problem. Most of the fish are what we call "Jumbo's". Of course there are some other species being caught as well; several fluke, some trigger fish, some blues and even a striped bass. There is also an ever present population of small Sea Bass that some time in the future are going to make up a very large harvestable bio mass of that species. Amongst them there are a few keepers and even some real slammers.
Sept.4, 2012: We finished the summer Blues and Bass trips yesterday with fishing just as it has been for the last few weeks, FABULOUS! It's just been Blitz time out there after a long wait through mid summer. We are now in our Porgy season sailing daily at 7AM.This will continue through the 8th of Oct. then on the 12th of Oct. we will go back to running at 9AM for Blues and Bass on Friday, Sat and Sun.
Today was our first Porgy trip of the season and we are happy to say that we did very well despite a day of presistant rain puncuated by total down pours. Fish didn't blink, just kept on biting and when the day was over everyone went home with their load of Porgies, some wet clothes and big smiles. Other than the weather it doesn't get much better than this was.
July 27, 2012: Ooooh, we have been remiss in getting reports up on this page. Seems that there are just a few to few hours in the day this time of year. Let's catch up. Since the last report fishing was super on both tides for the better part of July. For some reason, a couple of weeks ago the rascals decided that they would get lock jaw on the flood tide. If you ever wondered why most party boat skippers have grey hair, fish tricks like this will do it. There have been some fits and starts to the flood tide fishery in the lst week so apparently things may be turning around. While we fished mostly ebb today and did well, we did fish the beginning of the flood and caught better than we did in the few days before which is a good sign.
We have also been fishing for Fluke, Black Sea Bass and Porgies on our Sat. afternoon trips. For the most part there is plenty of action but the keeper count is low. That trip is really about getting out on the sound for the late afternoon and just relaxing so I guess we're doing just fine.
June 10, 2012: Another great weekend of Blue fishing. Our "Old Faithful" is still producing and well. Big blues are the norm with a nice mix (20%) of striped bass. For the entire weekend we only hqad one throw back bass, all the rest were keepers and then some. As of this report we are still sticking to the doamond jigs and buck tails. That will be changing within the next couple of weeks as we feel that the time is getting near that bait will be effective in a positive direction.
A reminder to check our trips and Prices page as new things are happening. This coming weekend, Sat. June 16th marks the beginning of our full time schedule. The boat will sail every day at 9AM returning to the dock at 3 PM, thus know as the "Banker's Hours Special." On top of that we will be adding Sat. afternoon/ evening fluke, Sea Bass and Porgies bottom fishing trips as of the 23rd of June. Only exception to that is the 7th of July as that is the night of the Groton New London Fireworks and the boat is sold out.
May 31, 2012. Sorry for the delay in this report but other things sort of got in the way. We sailed all three days of the Memorial Day weekend with excellent fishing all three days. Mostly Blues with some nice Striped Bass mixed in. These blues were not the usual early summer little "cocktail" variety. Instead they were all good size fish many of which could be termed large. Most fish were taken on jigs with a few on buck tails. Where we were fishing for the most part did not lend itself to bucktailing but when we moved to another area at the end of the tide some of the folks did work the tails with success.
May 20, 2012. this weekend was the first of our 9AM to 3 PM Banker's Hours Special trips for 2012. The weather was delightful making for two very enjoyable days on the water. Fishing on Saturday was spotty and a struggle. Can't say why but there was a large amount of boat traffic as well as some heave coming in from off shore. Most of the time a heave like that won't matter much but combined with the early date, water temp and boat traffic it just may have been enough to make the difference. Sunday, no heave, fewer boats and far better fishing.
All of the fish were taken on either buck tails or jigs as this time of year it is counter productive to hang bait. It won't catch what you want but more times than not it will catch what you really don't want. This is a tempory condition that heals over time depending on how quickly the water temperature warms up. Most of the time it's only a few weeks but last year it took over a month. Most of the fish caught this weekend were Striped Bass and a sprinkling of Blues. Bass up to 20 pounds took the pools.
A reminder that next week is the Memorial Day Weekend so we will be sailing on Monday the 28th of May as well as Sat. and Sunday.
We hope you like our new web site design. We made the change so it would be easier for you folks to navigate. The old one was a bit of a chore for us to modify the reports page so some of the change was also to make it easier for us as well.
As of this writing we are in our last week of Spring Cleaning and painting, looking forward to starting our late spring schedule. We will be fishing for Bass and Blues on Weekends and Holidays starting the 19th of May. Boat sails promptly at 9AM and returns to the dock at 3PM. this schedule will be in effect until June 16th when we start our full time schedule. then we will be sailing every day as well as Sat afternoons (see trips and prices page). Hope to see you aboard.