This past Saturday marked the start of the week long Fall Recreational Ground fish Fishery here in Newfoundland. Unfortunately this day also brought high winds and rain to Conception Bay so many boaters never got out. Fortunately the weather Sunday fared much better. Although Seas were still a little choppy, French and I hopped aboard his boat, while Maffer & Sooley hopped aboard Sooley's boat and headed out of St. Phillip's Marina for a day on the bay.

We headed up the Shore towards Portugal Cove and spent the day between there and Bauline. There were a lot of boats on the water that day, especially since Saturday was a write off due to the weather. By 3pm we had our quota of 5 fish each so we returned to the marina to fillet our catch. Once Filleted we headed up to French's house where we bagged some fresh Fillet for that evening's supper and put the rest of our catch in salt to be dried later.

With the forecast calling for unfavourable fishing conditions for the week, French and I decided to take the morning of work and catch a few more fish to put in salt. We left St. Phillip's and headed back to Portugal Cove to some of the same spots we fished the day before and managed to get most of our quota before we headed back to work. At one point we were sure that French hooked bottom with his hand line. With no luck in freeing the lure we tied the 500lb test to the tie off on the boat and powered forward. Whatever he was hooked in moved with us. Out of curiosity and for want of not cutting the line the 2 of us spent over 1/2 an hour slowly pulling the object to the surface. Finally, we found our treasure an ancient fishing grapnel and about 75' of old rotted rope in which his line was snagged. After a few pictures we cut off all the old rope and let the steel grapnel sink to the bottom. At least without the rope others wouldn't become snagged like we were!

With work, personal commitments, and poor weather, I never got out for more of this fishery. French managed a trip to the head of Conception Bay at Cape St. Francis for a windy attempt at big fish. He managed to land a couple but the waves managed to work against him in landing more. All in all it was a decent fishery.

Cheers, MIKE