Haddock
Haddock are generally colored mostly brownish, to brown-grey colored over the very top area of their main body, while the majority of their body color is silver-white to grey-white in color, and becoming lighter as nearing the belly area.
There are three distinct or very noticeable features that help distinguish a Haddock from other species of fish, and these are:
1. 3 dorsal fins, with the front one being taller then the other two that are behind it.
2. A dark line that runs the length of the fish's body is found above it's pectoral fin, in fact it resembles a dark line that is drawn by a fat pointed marker.
3. A dark, blotch or spot below the front dorsal fin and above the pectoral fin.
Haddock can reach a pretty big size, in fact it's not too rare to catch one that measures well over 2 feet in length. They are a highly prized fish to catch by commercial fishermen, as well as seasoned anglers due to their great taste, their meat cooks up wonderfully and is nice and white and flakey. Haddock meat can be enjoyed when prepared in numerous ways, such as; frying, baked, broiled, dried and smoked.
Haddock have a very large range of water they live and forage for food in, as they can be found in water as shallow as 35 feet, and then again they can be found in water as deep as nearly 500 feet. Whatever the depth of the water they are found in, Haddock are generally a bottom feeding fish.
When fishing for Haddock, one of the first things to know is that their mouths are easily torn or ripped, so when you hook one with either a hook by baitfishing, or with a lure, you should firmly but slowly pull sideways on your pole to set the hook, many Haddock are lost by the angler jerking his pole fast and hard after they bite. And once you do have one hooked, reel slowly and steadily, and try not to jerk the rod much, or you may rip the fish's mouth and lose it.
When fishing for Haddock using bait, they seem to love dead, bait that is cut into strips or chunks, even more so then live bait, this may be because they are a slightly lazy or docile fish, that does not aggressively pursue fast moving creatures to feed on.
Some of the best baits for Haddock seem to be; shrimp, mackerel, scallops, clams and herring. Haddock can also be caught on lures such as jig's that are not fished aggressively, and are baited with the same baits used when bait fishing for them.
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