April Haddock Season on Cape Cod

One of the first fish we will pursue in the spring on Cape Cod are haddock. It’s a fun way to get the winter fishing blues out of our system. Plus it gives us a chance to work out some of the early season boat kinks that always seem to arise. Lastly, we get to load up on a great eating fish, haddock! Haddock is a mild white fish that freezes well and can be used for various dishes through out the year.

You will be able to find haddock along the entire coastline from Cape Cod Bay out to Stellwagen Bank starting in mid-April. In recent years the bottom-fishing areas have slowly begun to fill with haddock—sometimes only a few miles from shore. Typically people are drifting or anchoring up over an area where they have marked fish on their sonar. You can use light tackle spinning set-ups and drop jigs to the bottom to catch these fish. Most fisherman are using some sort of hi-lo or large sibiki type of a rig to be able to catch multiple fish on one drop. The photo below has one of my favorite rigs to us from Monomoy Tackle. The fish must be at least 17 inches to keep them, but each angler on your boat can keep up to 10 fish per day.

If you are like us, as we race through February and with daylight saving changes coming on March 10th, you are anxious and excited to get back on the water. Soon enough as we say here at Ortus! If you are looking to spend a day on the water this season, look at our calendar and reserve one of the prime dates still available in the coming months.

We do not book haddock charters because the weather is still so unpredictable. If you would like to email me your interest and you have the flexibility to go with 48 hour notice, I can reach out to you. Email scott@ortuscharter.com.