captmike28
Well-Known Angler
When I first started fishing with my Dad at 8 years of age, we did mostly skiff trips and some inshore Party Boat outings. By the time I reached 10 he felt I could handle an ocean trip and we began doing a few ocean trips for Fluke and by 12 he thought I was ready for some winter action. Because Dad and I did not fish for Stripers or any offshore species the chance to land a Cod of 20 or more pounds represented some of the largest fish I would tangle with as a young teenager. By the way, although some may feel that reeling in a big Cod is like catching an old boot I beg to differ. Sure, every fish has it’s own personality but a Cod of 20+ pounds can give you quite a fight taking plenty of drag and sometimes stonewalling you, as I am about to relay.
During one segment of my life the pursuit of Cod became somewhat of an obsession for me. When I graduated college in 1972 I spent the next 7 summer vacations on camping trips to Nova Scotia with stops both in Bar Harbor and Boothbay Harbor, ME. To be sure I caught a lot of nice Cod in Canada and a few truly impressive 5-6# Winter Flounder on the very same jigs. But Bootbay was the place that really captured me. I found a 6 pack charter boat named the “Codfather” that first year and made trips with Capt. Bill Bibber every summer after that for the next 6 years straight. BTW, Bibber himself was a walking cartoon character, almost a dead ringer for Bluto of Popeye cartoon fame! You will get a good laugh seeing his photo below.
At that time the ME folks fished no bait at all, only the classic style Norwegian Cod jigs with treble hooks. I came on the scene with my East End LI addition of a tube teaser about 18” above the jig and really blew them away with many double headers. You will see in another photo my rig was a, heavy by today’s standards, 7’ Lamiglass blank with a small Daiwa 27 conventional reel spooled with 20# mono; no braid in those days. Most of the drops were between 160-200’ so it was a grueling day of non-stop jigging and long cranks with heavy fish to the surface. I caught many 20-40#+ Cod on those trips but I was also much younger and in significantly better shape then. Another incredible bonus were the 15-30# Pollock that were also cruising those same drops. Let me tell you even as a young guy trying to winch in a double header of 15#+ Pollock from those depths was exhausting!
I can’t recall the exact year but around ’75,’76 I landed my personal best Cod on one of those trips, a monstrous 54# brute. What a belly on this fish as the photo reveals. To this day I can vividly remember the battle. Since I was using only 20# test line there was no way I could horse that fish in. I got him maybe 30-40’ off the bottom and he made a run back to the rocks and then merely sat still and sulked! I could feel him moving his tail a bit from time to time but that was a tug of war he intially refused to back off from. Finally, my careful but my steady pressure turned his head and I began to gain line as he stripped drag off on several more attempts to reach his home.
One more very special aspect to this trip. Capt. Bibber had gone back to his full-time commercial boat that summer and his mate Herb was running the charters. He knew me well from previous outings so I was riding with him in the wheelhouse that day. Herb needed to take care of some chores so he asked me if I knew how to pilot via Loran C (those were the days before GPS). I said sure as I had just installed a new Raytheon Raynav 580 on my own boat a few seasons before that. So, I actually steered the “Codfather” right to the location where I caught my PB Cod!
Now, to finish the story and come full circle back to the title of this thread. One late fall day about 10 years ago when I was already laid up for the season a nice weather day came up and I was itching to go Tog fishing. My buddy Pete already had a full crew so I made a call to Mike Barnett of the Freeport based “Codfather” and found he had room for one more on his split that day. On the way out to the grounds I told him I bet I know where he got the name for his boat. He admitted to me he too had fished with Capt. Bibber in Boothbay. However, when I suggested that he “borrowed” the name from Bibber he gave me a pretty cold stare. I certainly meant no disrespect to this fine south shore Captain and I recall doing very well with him on the Tog that day.
So which “Codfather” really came first? For all I know there probably have been several other boats carrying the same name over the years!
During one segment of my life the pursuit of Cod became somewhat of an obsession for me. When I graduated college in 1972 I spent the next 7 summer vacations on camping trips to Nova Scotia with stops both in Bar Harbor and Boothbay Harbor, ME. To be sure I caught a lot of nice Cod in Canada and a few truly impressive 5-6# Winter Flounder on the very same jigs. But Bootbay was the place that really captured me. I found a 6 pack charter boat named the “Codfather” that first year and made trips with Capt. Bill Bibber every summer after that for the next 6 years straight. BTW, Bibber himself was a walking cartoon character, almost a dead ringer for Bluto of Popeye cartoon fame! You will get a good laugh seeing his photo below.
At that time the ME folks fished no bait at all, only the classic style Norwegian Cod jigs with treble hooks. I came on the scene with my East End LI addition of a tube teaser about 18” above the jig and really blew them away with many double headers. You will see in another photo my rig was a, heavy by today’s standards, 7’ Lamiglass blank with a small Daiwa 27 conventional reel spooled with 20# mono; no braid in those days. Most of the drops were between 160-200’ so it was a grueling day of non-stop jigging and long cranks with heavy fish to the surface. I caught many 20-40#+ Cod on those trips but I was also much younger and in significantly better shape then. Another incredible bonus were the 15-30# Pollock that were also cruising those same drops. Let me tell you even as a young guy trying to winch in a double header of 15#+ Pollock from those depths was exhausting!
I can’t recall the exact year but around ’75,’76 I landed my personal best Cod on one of those trips, a monstrous 54# brute. What a belly on this fish as the photo reveals. To this day I can vividly remember the battle. Since I was using only 20# test line there was no way I could horse that fish in. I got him maybe 30-40’ off the bottom and he made a run back to the rocks and then merely sat still and sulked! I could feel him moving his tail a bit from time to time but that was a tug of war he intially refused to back off from. Finally, my careful but my steady pressure turned his head and I began to gain line as he stripped drag off on several more attempts to reach his home.
One more very special aspect to this trip. Capt. Bibber had gone back to his full-time commercial boat that summer and his mate Herb was running the charters. He knew me well from previous outings so I was riding with him in the wheelhouse that day. Herb needed to take care of some chores so he asked me if I knew how to pilot via Loran C (those were the days before GPS). I said sure as I had just installed a new Raytheon Raynav 580 on my own boat a few seasons before that. So, I actually steered the “Codfather” right to the location where I caught my PB Cod!
Now, to finish the story and come full circle back to the title of this thread. One late fall day about 10 years ago when I was already laid up for the season a nice weather day came up and I was itching to go Tog fishing. My buddy Pete already had a full crew so I made a call to Mike Barnett of the Freeport based “Codfather” and found he had room for one more on his split that day. On the way out to the grounds I told him I bet I know where he got the name for his boat. He admitted to me he too had fished with Capt. Bibber in Boothbay. However, when I suggested that he “borrowed” the name from Bibber he gave me a pretty cold stare. I certainly meant no disrespect to this fine south shore Captain and I recall doing very well with him on the Tog that day.
So which “Codfather” really came first? For all I know there probably have been several other boats carrying the same name over the years!
in Carle Place a few months ago .........
