Deep Sea Fishing in Cape Cod!

I took a Deep Sea fishing trip out of Plymouth, MA. We boarded a "Captain John" fishing vessel at 6:30a.m. & paid $55 (includes the 8 hour day plus the rod/reel rental). There were about 20 other passengers/fishermen, with a crew of 2 boat hands, 1 captain, and 1 cook. The vessel drove out to sea for 1.5 hours, which afforded us an opportunity to eat breakfast, drink coffee and visit. The captain dropped anchor around 8am and we all dropped our lines. The crew cut-up clams and that was our bait; we fished on the very bottom of the ocean floor, which was 200 feet deep. You can feel the Cod and Haddock bite your hook/bait, and then you jerk your rod tip up immediately and powerfully to set the hook. However, it is very difficult to reel-up the struggling fish 200 feet upwards; takes about 6-8 minutes to finally pull up the fish! Your forearm and shoulder muscles will get pumped and sore quite quickly from the endeavour. Moreover, you'll sometimes find that only half of your fish (Cod, Haddock, Mug fish) is remaining--the sharks stole/bit-off the other half as you were reeling-in your catch! Also, you'll even catch the sharks (Sand Sharks, a.k.a. "dog fish"), and other sharks will bite them, too. We were all catching one fish every 10 minutes per person; so, as soon as you caught one fish, re-baited your line and dropped your hook back on the bottom of the seafloor, you waited only about 5-10 minutes before another fish was hitting the bait. It is a lot of fun to catch the Cod and Haddock, but not the sharks--you can't keep them (endangered species). Out of the 20 anglers, we all totalled about 100 fish that met the size regulations (need to be over 21 inches long). I caught and kept 1 Cod, 1 Haddock and 1 Eel fish that met exceeded the size limit and could be brought back; the boat deck hands fillet the fish and charge only $1 per fish! We gave them a very generous tip, since the guys were so helpful with teaching us how to use the deep sea rods, catch the fish, gaff the fish, cut the tangled lines and put on new hooks--sometimes the sharks tangled-up the adjacent fishermen's fishing lines.

We brought home the fish fillets (a beautiful, clean white meat) and baked them in the oven with a lot of spices: Cajun herbs and Spices, Basil leaves, Oregano leaves, parsley, lemon juice, garlic pepper, and a touch of cinnamon. All taste buds were touched! We baked the fillets for about 1 hour at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh, so goooood!