About 35 miles due east of Montauk Point, about 20 miles a little east of due south out of Point Judith’s Harbor of Refuge and easily accessible from most of the MA coast south of Cape Cod sits a fabled fishing spot called Cox’s Ledge. The ledge is a large area which rises up from the sea floor to an average depth somewhere in the 110 to 120-foot range. During the summer it often gives up nice catches of sharks and tuna that come to feed on the smaller fish that call the rocky bottom home. While sharks and tuna may be the big attraction for some fishermen, my main reason for making the trip to the ledge is to go fishing for codfish.

There are three areas of the ledge which hold the cod at various times of the year. The northern, shallower edge is an old dumping ground for derelict ships and holds at least six or so fishable wrecks. The southwestern edge, where the ledge starts to drop off into deep water often produces good catches of cod. The eastern edge also often holds good quantities of the brown bomber. During the colder months of the year, the cod do not congregate on Cox’s, though they can often be found there. When the water is cold the fish tend to spread out, and the best fishing is often found somewhere between Cox’s Ledge and the southeastern side of Block Island. As the water warms the fish start to congregate up on the ledge, until the fishing hits its peak during the middle of the summer.

The old timers used to say: "The ledge gets hot on the fourth of July." That was generally true up until about 10 years ago when the cod populations started to decline. For a while the codfish on Cox’s ledge didn’t become really productive until the beginning of August. Recently the fishing has been slowly reverting to form, with good codfishing starting sometime in July. These days the biggest obstacle to putting together a good catch of codfish has been the proliferation of the spiny dogfish. Some days, particularly early in the season the bottom is so overrun with dogfish that it becomes impossible to fish with bait. When we hit those conditions we will go to jigging for the cod, which will produce fish, but jigging doesn’t seem to produce the same numbers of fish that bait fishing does. No matter what time of year you try for the cod on Cox’s you will catch dogfish, and plenty of them. You just have to be patient enough to fish through them until you start catching the cod.

Tackle used is pretty much basic cod tackle: rods in the 6 to 8-foot range that can handle up to 16 to 24 ounces of lead. That much lead is not always necessary. There have been lots of days when we have been able to fish with 12 to 14 ounces. But on many days the wind and tides combine to require much heavier weight to hold bottom. Reels can range from the Penn 112 or 113 or any similar sized reels that can hold enough line to fish in the 120 to 140-foot depths. Braid is much preferred over mono, both for its sensitivity as well as to minimize the weight you will need to hold bottom. You want to keep your line as close to straight up and down as possible to avoid, or at least minimize, the snags on the bottom. The closer your line is to 90 degrees to the water, the less likely your hooks are to find something to hold onto the bottom. Rigs are the basic two hook cod rigs with a sinker loop or snap on the bottom; one hook about 18 inches above the sinker and the second hook about 18 inches above the first. Bring plenty of them; you will lose a lot of rigs. You won’t be fishing in depths of 200 to 300-feet like they do in some places in the Gulf of Maine, so you can lighten up on your tackle at least a little.

Most boats opt to drift fish on the ledge. The fish are often not on the high pieces and rock piles. Very often they are sitting anywhere from 100 feet to a couple of hundred yards away from the high pieces. It’s not the least bit uncommon to catch nothing but bergalls (cunners) as you drift over the high pieces and then start catching cod when you are well past the piece. Having said that, I still always set up my drift so that we will drift right over the high pieces, at least until we have located where the fish are actually sitting. Drifting seems to produce a little better than anchoring up, as the fish seem to move around during the course of the day. If you don’t mind anchoring and reanchoring in 120 to 140 feet of water, feel free to give it a try. Just keep an eye on the lobster gear so you don’t get your anchor fouled up in it. There is always lots of lobster gear on the ledge. The gear can range from individual pots to trawls of up to twenty pots. You have to keep a sharp eye out to keep from getting the gear wrapped up in your running gear and to also minimize the number of rigs you lose to the pot warp.

Skimmer clams are the bait of choice for codfishing on Cox’s Ledge. Cut mackerel, green crabs and most other codfish baits will work, but nothing will produce fish like the clams. Use a half of a clam on each hook. Getting clams can be problematic in both Montauk and Point Judith. If you don’t have them pre-ordered in either place your best bet is to pick them up before you head for the boat. I keep a good supply of frozen and salted clams in the freezer at all times. Fresh clams work best, but salted and frozen clams are a close second. My recipe for salting and freezing clams is pretty simple. For each bushel of shucked clams I add a 3-pound box of kosher salt and mix well in a five-gallon bucket. Then I put each half of the bushel into a 1-gallon freezer bag, seal it up and put it in the freezer. The clams will last almost indefinitely like this. A good rule of thumb for how much bait to bring, especially in these days with the dogfish, is a half a bushel per angler. If you bring frozen clams they will stay frozen until needed if you bury them in the flake ice in your fishbox. If you bring fresh clams you can always freeze any leftovers using the method I just described. 

Unfortunately, with the current exploding population of dogfish, one other piece of equipment I consider essential for codfishing on Cox’s Ledge these days is a dehooker. I use a "pistol" type of tool that I got from Steve at E-tackle that allows me to reach over the side and unhook the numerous dogfish we catch without ever bringing them into the boat. This not only makes things easier, but it just about eliminates the possibility of getting stuck by one of the dogfish’s spines and the resulting complications/infections. It also works well on the codfish, once they are in the boat!