Back

Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine

Temple Ledge aka Flat Ledge. -Two miles SW. of Bald Head. Cape Small Point, rises a piece of rocky ground 1mm the 20-fathom depths surrounding it. Over the shoal in the center are 5 fathoms. and from this the water deepens on all sides, there being 16 fathoms on the deepest part of the ledge and an average of 20 fathoms about it. The rocky bottom is about 1 ½ miles long, NE. and SW., by about 3/4 mile wide.

The ledge and the hard bottom about it make good gill-netting grounds for cod in the spring months. On the ledge a considerable amount of hand-lining fur cod and pollock is carried on in late May and through June. In the normal seasons of the mackerel fishery this is a good ground on which to seine these fish in June. July, and August.

It is also a good lobster ground and is a haddock ground in July and August.

Marks : Wallace House in Bald Head Cove on the western edge of Bald Head; Flag Island and the eastern Brown Cow into line.