No fish is more woven into New England than the cod, it is on the state seal, it named a whole peninsula, and it fed the region for four centuries. That history is also a cautionary tale: the Gulf of Maine cod stock has collapsed from its historic abundance and is now under some of the tightest regulation in the fishery. Understanding the fish means understanding why we handle it so carefully.
How to identify them
Cod have the three dorsal and two anal fins of their family, a squarish tail, and a prominent chin barbel. The quickest way to separate a cod from a haddock is the lateral line: cod have a pale, curved lateral line, haddock a dark one, and haddock wear that dark thumbprint smudge. Color ranges from greenish to reddish-brown, usually with speckling.
Where they live
Cod are a cold-water groundfish, holding over wrecks, ledges, rockpiles and hard bottom in the Gulf of Maine, often on the same structure as haddock, pollock and cusk. From Massachusetts that means the offshore banks and ledges, weather permitting.
Tip Cod hold tight to structure and often sit right in the rocks. Jig vertically and stay in contact with the bottom, but be ready to lift a fish quickly so it cannot bury you in the wreck.
How to catch them
When and where it is legal to target them, cod eat readily. Diamond jigs and heavy metal jigs worked near the bottom, and bait rigs with clam or cut bait, are the standard methods. A stout conventional setup gets a big fish up from depth.
Handling and conservation
Because so much cod fishing is now catch-and-release, careful handling matters. Fish brought up from deep water can suffer barotrauma (a distended stomach and buoyancy problems); use a descending device to return them to depth when required, and minimize air time. Every cod is part of a stock we are trying to rebuild.