Don't expect to catch a cod of this size on every party boat trip; however, if you do, you put yourself in the running to win the day's pool. Photo by Milt Rosko.

I must in all honesty admit that as the day drew to a close, both my arms, and especially my left wrist, ached. For relief I rested the rod's foregrip on the rail of the party boat as I continued to apply pressure to the stubborn thumping of a codfish. The cod was understandably annoyed that it had mistaken my chromed Viking jig for the herring that were schooled some 150 feet below.

Constant pressure and a moderately set drag finally took its toll, and soon I saw color in the clear offshore water. Moments later, the codfish was just a couple of feet beneath the surface where the mate's gaff found its mark. It was but one of several beauties weighing in somewhere in the teens that I'd landed already. Indeed, it was the final catch of a fine day's worth of cod fishing, something that just a half dozen years ago I would never have thought possible.

It seems like only yesterday that Georges Bank was closed to cod fishing as a result of the population of winter kings having been severely depleted. The Georges Bank codfish population, along with an equally important population of cod located in the Gulf of Maine, had suffered from many years of both commercial and recreational overfishing, which when coupled with normal cyclical anomalies could well have resulted in the complete demise of this once thriving fishery.

Just recently, I had the opportunity to read an extremely well-written article penned by Ben Neal a couple of years ago that appeared in the Working Waterfront. In it Ben posed the question, "What's going on? Are the codfish, once king of the New England fishery and a mainstay of the economy, indeed recovering? Are they stable but depleted, or are these important fish perhaps even declining further in their abundance?"

His extensive article traced the happenings in recent years that had a direct impact upon codfish stocks. Indeed, as one traces the actions taken, it becomes apparent that it was fortunate that the powers that be finally realized that something was amiss with this important groundfish. Measures were finally put into place to (hopefully) resurrect what was once a world-renowned fishery. Remedial action of complete closure, spawning season closure and other actions by the state of Maine, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Canadian government have all in their respective ways contributed to the comeback of what many of us call "the winter king," the majestic codfish.

Suffice to say, the codfish hasn't made a total recovery and will continue to be classified as overfished. But in the view of both commercial and recreational watermen and captains, the men who are on the water all seasons of the year, the situation today is much improved, with what appears to be a gradual but slow process of codfish on the comeback trail.

This observation is taking place all along the coast, from Maine's rocky shoreline even off Maryland, where codfish stocks are showing marked signs of improvement. Simply stated, while catches of codfish have improved, the biomass has improved, too, with more fish being added to the population than are being removed.

Such positive results should bode well for anglers who decide to target what many term one of the tastiest groundfish in the ocean. The bulk of codfish inshore movement takes place during the cold weather months, at a time when many private boats in this region are up on blocks in the boat yard. As such, the codfish fishery is dominated by party boats, which are built to withstand the rigors of winter while providing creature comforts to anglers for their trips to and from the grounds.