Bait.....what's going on?

Years ago I would winter cod fish on the Marlin, which I think Richie Rade owned at the time. Freddie Shay was always on the boat, & would out fist everyone on most days, he was quite a character & always good for a laugh. That had to be early '80;s if I remember, hope he is still out fishing most folks somewhere.
John

John, I'm pretty sure you are correct about Richie Rade and the Marlin at that time.
I have a related and somewhat amusing story to tell about the same era. I was on a winter Cod trip aboard the Viking in the early 80's, one of those days when I definitely should have stayed home. Really nasty 6-8 foot seas running and the first drop was made near the SW Ledge, a very tough spot with any heavy weather.

Anyway, the mate was having trouble getting the anchor to hold so the Capt. (I believe it was Steve Forseberg) actually comes down from the wheelhouse to help! I was standing about 20 feet aft of the bow and a huge roller comes across literally burying the bow in a wall of green water. For a few seconds I am thinking OMG the Capt. just got swept over the side! The bow comes up on the next wave and there is Forseberg standing there, both hands on the anchor rode, dripping wet from head to toe, and a big grin on his face!! I was scared just watching this occur and he was probably thinking to himself "just another day at the office"!!!!

Nothing of value to add here but love reading these threads and some of the anecdotes about guys like Johnny Rade.

Johnny Rade could seriously take a look at your porgys and know where you caught them.....another thing he would do is ask you where you fished that day , of course no one ever told the truth so when you lied to him and said you were at Shagwong....He would say "funny I saw you down the south side". So he already knew, but he didn't care where you fished because he was on top of his game. I also get sad when I think of the guys who leave this planet with KNOWLEDGE like that and it's either not passed on or no one cares.....but in general I never found commercial guys to be very forth coming with info until they knew you well and that you could keep your mouth shut. And this being a bait thread he usually bucktailed with just a strip of squid. Shallow on the north side of the point as the wind and tide dictated. hopefully the statues of limitations is up on that one John 🙂

Fred Shay has the NYS cod record at 85lbs.....he is a bit ornery but all in all nice guy. I ask him why he didn't fish for a pinhooker...he said he wanted 200 a day plus expenses(that was years ago).....as good as he is....that wasn't gonna happen,,,,when he didn't fish he house painted