The Shoal Ground, stretching easterly from Thacher Island, has depths from 20 to 30 fathoms over a bottom of sand and gravel.  This area is about 15 miles long by 5 miles wide and is an important pollock ground in their spawning time as well as a good fall cod-fishing ground.  It is about 12 miles E. by N. from Thacher Island to its center and 21 miles Se. by S. from the Isle of Shoals.  Flounder draggers also operate here on the shoal ground and all around Thacher Island but mostly to eastward & southeastward.

Tillies Bank. [13] This bears E & S from Eastern Point Light just dropping Thacher Island Light, then 3 miles farther for best fishing:  and E. by S. 1/2 S. from Thacher Island, Cape Ann, from which the shoal on the center of the ground is distant 18 miles.  This is a small rocky spot with depths of from 25 to 28 fathoms, outside of which the water deepens to 40 fathoms over a considerable area.  The length of the entire ground is about 10 miles in an E. and W. direction and the width about 5 miles.  At the edge it falls off rapidly to depths of 50 to 60 fathoms before reaching the mud at still greater depths but an area of shoal water connects this ground with West Jeffreys.  The bottom is rocky and rough over the greater part of the bank.  Tillies was formerly regarded as one of the best fishing grounds off Cape Ann and is still resorted to for cod and haddock in the spring and fall; for hake in the spring, summer, and fall, and for pollock in the spring and fall.  The fishing is mainly by trawling, with the gillnetters operating on the shoal grounds in less than 50 fathoms.

Stellwagen Bank also called Middle Bank.  This separates Massachusetts Bay from the open water of the Gulf of Maine and extends from near Cape Ann nearly to Cape Cod.  The center of this ground bears S by E 1/2 E from Thacher Island and N by W 1/2 W from Highland Light, Cape Cod.  The Southern Part of the Bank is distant 5 1/2 miles from Race Point Cape Cod, and its northwest prong reaches to within 12 or 15 miles of Eastern Point Cape Cod.  The shoaler portion, with depths from 9 1/2 to 19 fathoms, is 17 1/2 miles long in a N by W and S by E direction and has a width of 4 miles.  This part is sandy but the eastern slope, in depths of from 25 to 55 fathoms, consists of coarse sand gravel and pebbles.  On this gravelly slope cod and haddock have been taken plentifully over a long term of years, the cod in the fall and spring and the haddock in the winter months.  On the southern end of the bank and between this and Race Point cod abound in fall and winter.  The whole bank is also a mackerel ground when the fish are in these waters, the best in the season averaging to be from July 15 through September.