Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Deep Sea Fishing - What Fun!
So far, the vacation has focused on New England beach pursuits.
We flew into Logan, and went up to York Beach in Maine. Our first order of business was to get lobster rolls for lunch, then to proceed to the gathering of the Abbott clan at Walter's beach house.
It was great weather until Sunday the 15th, which of course was the day that Elizabeth and Ruth had planned to go deep sea fishing with Walter and Mark.
The consequence? From the web site of the MV Bunny Clark (http://www.bunnyclark.com/update.htm):
Jared Keniston and I ran the full day trip today (Tom Corbett couldn't make the trip - previous commitments). At 5:00 AM EDT, the air temperature was 63°F, the wind was blowing out of the southwest at ten knots, the sky was clear and the visibility was fair to good in haze. It was a lumpy ride to the fishing grounds but easy enough to keep the throttle at full cruise. Once on the grounds, the wind was blowing out of the south at fifteen knots with seas in chops of two to three feet. These conditions kept up all day. The sky remained sunny, the air temperature was warm even with the wind and the visibility was about two to three miles in haze. The sea surface water temperature reached a high of 61.9°F on the fishing grounds. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 62°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 90°F (with a low of 68°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 82°F (with a low of 63°F) today.
The fishing was fair for everyone except Tim Williams (CT). He crept up into the "good" category and caught almost thirty-three percent of the total legal catch (not including dogfish). We really caught mostly dogfish and got into such a mess with them that we lost at least an hour and a half of our precious fishing time trying to get out from under the tangles that they incurred. The tide was running too hard for us to effectively catch fish while drifting so we had to anchor (which also cost us fishing time) where the dogs held us captive and certainly had their way with us on every stop. We also had a few more anglers who succumbed to sea sickness than I would have expected which didn't help the catch rate either. Legal landings of desired fish included mostly pollock and redfish. Landings also included a couple cusk, two legal haddock and two legal cod.
Tim Williams (CT) was the fisherman of the day. He was high hook with nine legal fish and he won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 14 pound pollock. His second largest fish was a 10 pound pollock, the third largest fish of the trip. Paul Potvin (NH) caught the second largest fish, a 10.5 pound pollock. His second fish was an 8.5 pound pollock.
Other Angler Highlights: Steve Benoit (MA), a self proclaimed pollock catcher, caught the first fish of the day, a pollock of about 6 pounds. The only reason I tell you this is that he told me all the way out that this is what he would catch even though I tried to tell him that we haven't been catching pollock as of late! Shows you what the captain knows! Six year old James Temple (NY) caught the second fish of the trip, a 7 pound cusk. His father, Mark Temple (NY), a past cat-2 racing cyclist of some renown, did give James a bit of help but not as much as one would think. Joe Yakel (NY) caught a 9.5 pound pollock. Elizabeth Fitzgerald (OR) won the hard luck award for being high hurler of the trip. James Gajarski (ME) would have taken the award but Elizabeth was just a little bit quicker on the trigger!
Elizabeth says she has exhausted her interest in deep sea fishing.
We flew into Logan, and went up to York Beach in Maine. Our first order of business was to get lobster rolls for lunch, then to proceed to the gathering of the Abbott clan at Walter's beach house.
It was great weather until Sunday the 15th, which of course was the day that Elizabeth and Ruth had planned to go deep sea fishing with Walter and Mark.
The consequence? From the web site of the MV Bunny Clark (http://www.bunnyclark.com/update.htm):
Jared Keniston and I ran the full day trip today (Tom Corbett couldn't make the trip - previous commitments). At 5:00 AM EDT, the air temperature was 63°F, the wind was blowing out of the southwest at ten knots, the sky was clear and the visibility was fair to good in haze. It was a lumpy ride to the fishing grounds but easy enough to keep the throttle at full cruise. Once on the grounds, the wind was blowing out of the south at fifteen knots with seas in chops of two to three feet. These conditions kept up all day. The sky remained sunny, the air temperature was warm even with the wind and the visibility was about two to three miles in haze. The sea surface water temperature reached a high of 61.9°F on the fishing grounds. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 62°F) today. In Boston, Massachusetts the high was 90°F (with a low of 68°F) today. Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 82°F (with a low of 63°F) today.
The fishing was fair for everyone except Tim Williams (CT). He crept up into the "good" category and caught almost thirty-three percent of the total legal catch (not including dogfish). We really caught mostly dogfish and got into such a mess with them that we lost at least an hour and a half of our precious fishing time trying to get out from under the tangles that they incurred. The tide was running too hard for us to effectively catch fish while drifting so we had to anchor (which also cost us fishing time) where the dogs held us captive and certainly had their way with us on every stop. We also had a few more anglers who succumbed to sea sickness than I would have expected which didn't help the catch rate either. Legal landings of desired fish included mostly pollock and redfish. Landings also included a couple cusk, two legal haddock and two legal cod.
Tim Williams (CT) was the fisherman of the day. He was high hook with nine legal fish and he won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 14 pound pollock. His second largest fish was a 10 pound pollock, the third largest fish of the trip. Paul Potvin (NH) caught the second largest fish, a 10.5 pound pollock. His second fish was an 8.5 pound pollock.
Other Angler Highlights: Steve Benoit (MA), a self proclaimed pollock catcher, caught the first fish of the day, a pollock of about 6 pounds. The only reason I tell you this is that he told me all the way out that this is what he would catch even though I tried to tell him that we haven't been catching pollock as of late! Shows you what the captain knows! Six year old James Temple (NY) caught the second fish of the trip, a 7 pound cusk. His father, Mark Temple (NY), a past cat-2 racing cyclist of some renown, did give James a bit of help but not as much as one would think. Joe Yakel (NY) caught a 9.5 pound pollock. Elizabeth Fitzgerald (OR) won the hard luck award for being high hurler of the trip. James Gajarski (ME) would have taken the award but Elizabeth was just a little bit quicker on the trigger!
Elizabeth says she has exhausted her interest in deep sea fishing.
