20.   It was pretty well last minute when government finally announced open/close dates for the 2018 Recreational Groudfish Fishery. This year the dates changed again with the summer fishery open only on weekends, including long holiday weekends beginning Saturday June 30th and ending Monday September 3rd. Retention limits remain unchanged at 5 fish per person per day and 15 fish per boat.

19.   The opening dates (from the DFO website) for the 2018 Recreational Groundfish Fishery were as follows:

Saturday, June 30, 2018 to Monday, July 2, 2018
Saturday, July 7, 2018 to Monday, July 09, 2018
Saturday, July 14, 2018 to Monday, July 16, 2018
Saturday, July 21, 2018 to Monday, July 23, 2018
Saturday, July 28, 2018 to Monday, July 30, 2018
Saturday, August 4, 2018 to Monday, August 6, 2018
Saturday, August 11, 2018 to Monday, August 13, 2018
Saturday, August 18, 2018 to Monday, August 20, 2018
Saturday, August 25, 2018 to Monday, August 27, 2018
Saturday, September 1, 2018 to Monday, September 3, 2018

Fall Fishery: Saturday, September 22, 2018 to Sunday, September 30, 2018.

18.   On August 4th Matthew, Mark and I hit the water for the first time during this fishery. Under ideal weather conditions we headed towards Cape St. Francis where we always had great success catching our quota of large codfish.

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16.   Mark's 90 Yamaha which we serviced last month ran as smooth as ever, the boat and motor are 10 years old this year and are in just as good shape as they were new.

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14.   Passing the village of Bauline on the way to the cape.

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11.   As expected, we struck into great fish straight away!

10.  Late last season French and I upgraded our old Penn 109 salt water reels to state of the art Penn Fathom 60LW Level Wind units and a pair of fresh rods. These new reels are absolutely fantastic. The retrieval rate is much much faster without sacrificing the ability to wind in a heavy fish. They look great and performed very well.

9.   We always bleed and gut our fish at sea. Bleeding makes for a better quality fillet, and gutting takes up less space in the already overstuffed cooler! The cooler can hold 15  nice size fish no problem, but these big brutes take up a lot more space.

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5.   With our quota filled we packed up our lines and headed back to St. Phillip's to clean our catch.

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2.   Meanwhile in Trinity Bay, Sooley and kids had an awesome time on the water leaving from his parents Summer Home in Hearts Delight.

1.  So far its been a very successful 2018 Recreational Fishery. From all reports there has been a lot of fish around just about every weekend. The new open/close dates seem to be working well allowing boaters more weekends to get out, while weekday closures reduce pressure on the stocks. Hopefully we will get out again before the season ends.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith