Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Thursday, April 24, 2025, 3:10 AM EDT
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Proposed cod & haddock regulations for the 2025 fishing season (May 1, 2025 thru April 30, 2026):
Gulf of Maine cod
Gulf of Maine haddock
It rained periodically until around 8:00 or 9:00 AM and then stopped for the day. The sky remained overcast all day despite. The visibility changed to excellent once the rain stopped. The wind blew out of the northeast at ten knots or less all day. The high air temperature in Ogunquit was probably 44°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 43°F (with a low of 35°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 43°F (with a low of 33°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 41°F (with a low of 35°F).
I spent a little more time arranging this site before I posted this morning. For the rest of the morning, I worked on the Bunny Clark, mostly in the engine room area. Before noon, I left the Bunny Clark to get ready to work in Barnacle Billy's restaurant. I worked there for a couple of hours. It was very slow, business wise. After a couple of hours I drove to Portland to pick up enough lubricating engine oil and Volvo oil filters to get me through the season. Once home I distributed the cases of oil and filters to places where I needed to have them.
After dinner, I spent the rest of my time talking to the few customers we had in the dining room of Barnacle Billy's (Original). It was great to see and talk to Bill & Roseann Pakenham in front of their usual place by the fire.
It started to snow around 8:00 AM, maybe sooner than that. I had to drive in it to go pick up some stuff I left in the barn, where the Bunny Clark resided all winter. According to the thermometer in the truck, the air temperature got down to 32°F. The snow might have accumulated about an inch on the side of the road. On the road it was slush. But, of course, where I was going was all coastal driving. Inland, the roads were slippery, causing a friend of mine's son to total his car, a Subaru Outback. In fact, there were a lot of accidents today. And further inland, there were some towns that got as much as seven inches of snow today. This is pretty late for snow here. But it does happen. And it has happened in the past.
It was raw and cold all day today. I could not get warm. The wind blew out of the east northeast at fifteen to twenty knots to start and a bit stronger than that in the afternoon. The snow turned to rain. It rained all day. When it wasn't raining, it was misting so badly that it might as well have been raining. There was no time that I could work on the boat and feel that I would be dry in so doing. My uniform at the restaurant is summer clothes with dungarees and a lot of cotton layers up top, which really doesn't do the trick when the wind is cold and raw off the ocean. The highest air temperature that I saw during the day was 38°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 39°F (with a low of 35°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 38°F (with a low of 33°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 38°F (with a low of 32°F).
I spent the morning doing Bunny Clark things. After 12:30 PM, I was in the restaurant the restaurant all day. As I mentioned above, I could not get warm all day. My time was spent on the floor talking to patrons or standing in front of one of the two fireplaces we have. It was definitely a fireplace day. Part of my day was also spent catching up in the office at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. Business was slow as you would expect with the weather the way it was.
Tomorrow, Danny DellaMonica and Tyler Carpenter will be working getting the boat in shape to sail on Tuesday. I will be working on the Bunny Clark as well during the morning.
The weather remained miserable all day today. We didn't have a drop of rain in the morning until 9:00 AM. Then it started. It rained continuously after that. It never did rain very hard. It was just light. But it never stopped. Working on the after part of the engine and transmission, just aft of the edge of the canopy, my Bunny Clark hoodie soaked. The wind blew out of the north all day. In some ways this was good because Perkins Cove is in the lee with the wind out of that direction. It really didn't seem like it was blowing very hard. But, out on the ocean, wind speeds were about twenty knots, more or less, all day. The sky remained overcast all day, it rained until I went to bed at 8:00 PM and the visibility over the ocean stayed in the "good" category. The highest air temperature that I saw was 42°F in the Cove. But everywhere else in Ogunquit it got up to 45°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 45°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 49°F (with a low of 32°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 41°F (with a low of 37°F).
I spent the day in the engine room of the Bunny Clark. From 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM. I changed all the oil, engine/transmission, all the filters and the sacrificial anodes to start the season. If I have an engine problem, I want to know where I stand after having gone over all that stuff. I also worked with Danny DellaMonica and Tyler Carpenter, who were getting the deck gear together and rods and reels. Both fuel tanks were filled in the morning by Estes Oil men (Drew and Leo?).
I went to work in Barnacle Billy's restaurant after 2:00 PM. I have had some respiratory issue for the last week where I have been coughing a lot. Being cold and wet today didn't help. It was so slow, business wise, in the restaurant that I felt the best thing for me to do was to take a nap. Which I did. I got back to the restaurant at 4:30 PM. But the business remained slow so I called it a day before 7:00 PM and went home.
Danny and Tyler worked through the morning and into the afternoon and night. The last part of the day was spent working on the rods and reels we will need for the season, getting the reels with their backing plates on the rods, making sure we had enough left handed reels available and getting the right number of jig sticks available. Tyler left earlier than Danny. Danny left just before 7:00 PM.
Dana Decormier (NH) showed up on my doorstep this morning to say hello but, mostly, to give me memorabilia of the reign of one super captain, Ian Keniston. Dana had the best Bunny Clark caps made up that had our "hake face" logo on the front and "Capt. Ian Keniston, 1970-2024, CUSK" on the back. The "CUSK" on the back in reference to Ian's license plate on his truck. Actually, the original reason that Ian got a license plate with "CUSK" on it stemmed from a trip where he filleted 264 of them, along with other fish on an early trip with me. But it also references a funny thing he had with Captain John Daley when he worked with John on the Indian II out of Portland, Maine. John also captained the Bunny Clark for me during one season. John passed away a few years ago, also way too young. Dana left my house after giving me a $50.00 donation from his family "In memory of the Bunny Clark Family", a reference to all the good times we have had together over the years with Ian Keniston. For me, I will be glad to get past this initial period of provisioning the Bunny Clark for the first trip. There have just been too many times where I am back taking the lead on things that Ian used to do for me. Thank you, Dana, (and family) for your support of my Pan-Mass Challenge involvement. But did you have to make me cry in the process? I do appreciate your help and, of course, all the good memories that go along with it.
It was a glorious warm day today, just what we needed before our first fishing trip of the season. The sky stayed clear all day with few, if any, clouds. The visibility was excellent. The wind was light from the northwest in the morning, died out to nothing by late morning and then blew out of the south in the afternoon. Wind speeds were not quite nine knots at 6:00 PM. The air temperature reached a high of 62°F, that I saw. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 68°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 67°F (with a low of 27°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 62°F (with a low of 36°F).
I spent the day getting the boat ready to sail tomorrow. Much of my time was spent at home accumulating gear to bring to the boat and organizing my side of things in order to run the trip. Danny DellaMonica showed up later in the morning. So I worked with him for a while deciding on different things while Danny did the bulk of the work and did all of the organizing of the deck. Tyler Carpenter showed up after his work and helped Danny load rods, put the life preservers away, jigs, etc., etc. and etc. There was really a lot left to do.
I spent very little time in the restaurant today. What time I did spend was spent going around to different tables incognito and asking how their food and service was. As a result of being so much more involved in getting the boat ready, I am quite a bit behind in the desk work I need to do at the restaurant. I'll catch up. But I don't like the feeling of being behind.
I'm not exactly sure what we will do tomorrow, on the fishing end of things. But I have two ideas. I will go with one of those two. I'm pretty excited about going. And it's nice to know that everything is ready to do it. Do it we will!
At 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature was a 43°F, the sky was overcast, the roads were dry, the wind was light out of the south and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
It was a fairly comfortable ride to the fishing grounds except for the left over rout we had from the southeast. It was just a little bit bumpy despite the fact that there was no wind to speak of. We carried overcast skies above us all the way out. Ahead of us it was fairly clear. We saw a nice sunrise. We had zero rain. The visibility was excellent. And the air temperature hung around 45°F for the whole ride.
On the fishing grounds, the wind blew out of the south southeast at five or six knots to start, increased in the occasional rain squall to nearly ten knots, was out of the south at about eight knots before noon and, then, blew out of the south southwest at ten knots. We carried this all the way home. Seas were chops of a foot for most of the morning, in chops. Chops increased during the day to a couple feet. Seas were a bit larger for the ride home. It started to rain shortly after we started to fish. The rain was sporadic and gone by noon. The sky was overcast for the whole time fishing. We got a peek at the sun half way home. The visibility ranged from ten miles to over twenty-five miles. The tide (current) was light to moderate. The surface water temperature reached a high of 40.1°F. The high air temperature was 47°F
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 61°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 67°F (with a low of 48°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 70°F (with a low of 43°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 55°F (with a low of 42°F).
The fishing was up and down. We had one bone move stop. The rest of the stops were a steady pick, two very good stops and one excellent stop. The last stop was excellent. We left them biting there to go home. The fishing itself was excellent. The catching was good to very good. Landings were a bit better than good. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. Legal landings also included seventy-one cusk, a halibut, six redfish and a 5 pound pollock. Released fish included fifty-five haddock, seven pollock, one cod of 6 pounds, eleven small cod, twenty cusk, a wolffish and a redfish. We alternated between drifting and anchoring. Our best spot was an anchor stop.
Mark Girard (NH) had to be high hook with the most legal fish. He released too many smaller legal haddock for me to count, countless cusk and a wolffish. But he kept a lot of haddock and a few cusk. His largest fish was the 14.5 pound wolffish which I took a picture of and released alive. The wolffish was the second largest fish of the trip. With this fish, Mark won the boat pool for the second largest fish. His largest haddock weighed 5.25 pounds. Troy Galloway (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 76 pound halibut. This is his first halibut. I believe that it's the earliest legal halibut that we have ever caught on the Bunny Clark. And we have never caught a halibut on the first trip of the year until today. Some of Troy's other good fish included a 6 pound cod, the biggest cod of the trip, a 6 pound cusk and a 5 pound haddock. Bobby Allen (CT) caught the third largest fish of the trip, a 7 pound cusk.. He did not enter the boat pool for the third largest fish. He did catch our first fish of the season, a 4.5 pound haddock. I took a picture of Bobby holding this first fish. The digital image appears on the left. Matt Luce (ME) won the boat pool for the third largest fish with the fourth largest fish, 6.5 pound haddock, our largest haddock of the season so far. I expected him to catch a halibut. But he didn't.
Other Angler Highlights: Monika Patenaude (ME), on her maiden voyage aboard the Bunny Clark, caught the Bunny Clark's second largest haddock of the season today. It weighed 6 pounds. I took a picture of her holding this nice haddock. The digital image appears on the right. Jasper Downs (ME) caught one of the early haddock, at 4 pounds. Chris Silver (NH) caught a 5 pound haddock. Willy Thurston caught an early 4 pound haddock. Dave Symes (ME) caught a 5.5 pound haddock, his best haddock. Jared Lavers (ME) caught a 5.5 pound cusk. Jonah Rogers (ME) landed a 5.25 pound haddock. It was a great day out on the ocean with wonderful anglers, a real treat to be here after all that went on this winter.
I received three wonderful donations sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge from two wonderful anglers. The first donation was for $100.00 from Dave & Rebecca Symes. The other was also for $100.00 from Mark Girard. But the third was a very generous $2,000.00 from Wayne & Jackie Griffin (MA) in a package that had been delivered by FedEx that had been setting behind a bush for two days in the rain. Thank you, all, so very much for your constant support in this cancer project. You are always so thoughtful and generous - to a fault. And, of course, it's very much appreciated by so many!
In Perkins Cove, the wind blew out of the northwest at fifteen knots or more all day long. The sky was clear to start the day but became partly cloudy for most of the day. The wind gained strength in the late afternoon with some gusts to twenty-five knots and a lilt from the west. The closest offshore buoy, nine miles away, showed the wind out of the west at about twenty knots all day. By 5:00 PM, I saw gusts to thirty knots. The visibility was excellent all day. I was surprised as to how mild it was, more in line with a westerly wind. Just after noon, I saw 51°F. I actually thought it was milder than that but it must have been the sun that made me feel that way. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 48°F (with a low of 39°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 50°F (with a low of 39°F).
After yesterday's great fishing, I felt great. I was surprised that I didn't feel sore at all from rolling around on the ocean all day. I guess all the running, core work, fluid trainer and swimming this winter had to help. Last night I felt like I was going to feel it today. What I did feel was elated with the success of our anglers, particularly with Troy's halibut. So unusual.
I spent a long time this morning bringing this site up to date after the first fishing trip of the season. I wanted to put the halibut on the index page, change out images and bring my fund raising page up to date.
I had to talk the Estes Oil fuel guys before I was done. And I had to address a propane leak at the restaurant that was easily resolved. I worked at the restaurant for most of the afternoon, leaving a bit earlier than normal to get ready for fishing tomorrow. I did get caught up on some of the office work I had to do at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. It seemed a more relaxed day than it was the day before yesterday.
At 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature was a 39°F, 40°F in the Cove at the float, the sky was clear, the wind was blowing out of the west at fifteen knots (more or less) and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The ride to the fishing grounds was uneventful and, oddly enough, exactly as the National Weather Service predicted. Who knew? Seas never got any larger that three feet, the wind from the west at fifteen to twenty knots. The sky was clear. The visibility was excellent. And the air temperature hung out at 47°F at the helm after we got past the ten mile mark. We carried a setting moon off the starboard beam that made it very easy to sail down the channel to the fishing grounds.
On the fishing grounds, the wind blew out of the west for the early part of the morning at about fifteen to twenty knots with seas of about three feet with the occasional queer one. We really had no tide (current) today. So the seas were very uniform throughout. Later morning saw a lull in the wind, dropping the velocity down to ten knots. My thoughts at the time were; "Wow! If this keeps up we will have an easy ride home." It didn't. After noon, the wind continued out of the west at fifteen to twenty knots. The sky was cloudless all day. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature reached a high of 48°F (52°F at the helm on the way back). The visibility ranged to over twenty-five miles. The surface water temperature reached a high of 40.5°F, the coldest surface water temperature at this time of year for many years.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 58°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 60°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 58°F (with a low of 30°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 55°F (with a low of 33°F).
The fishing was very good, although hard on the hands drifting. Plus, it was a little too quick at times on the drift in the morning. So we spent most of our time on anchor. Being on anchor was much more comfortable. And the bite was such that you needed to be on anchor for a while before the fish, haddock mostly, got into biting mode. Every anchor stop saw cusk biting when we would first start. After that, the haddock would filter in and dominate the rest of the time there. The catching was very good as were the landings. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far, just shy of the bag limit. We could have landed the bag limit had we kept every haddock that came over the rail that was exactly legal in overall length. Legal landings also included eighty-eight cusk and two cunners. Released fish included a few more than forty-two haddock, two wolffish, a sub-legal pollock, one cod of about 5 pounds, six small cod and about seven cusk. Bait was best today.
I would say that Fred Kunz (NH) was high hook with forty-three legal. Maybe more as he released some legal haddock. But everyone did well. Fred won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, an 8.75 pound cusk. This is the Bunny Clark's largest cusk of the fishing season so far. He had a contending pool cusk early in the trip that weighed 6 pounds. The bigger fish was caught on the last stop. Steve Selmer (ME/NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, an 11 pound wolffish. This is now the Bunny Clark's second largest wolffish of the season to date. I took a picture of Steve with his cat. This digital image appears on the left. Steve also caught the largest haddock of the trip at 6.5 pounds. This ties the largest haddock weight of our previous largest haddock caught on the Bunny Clark so far. I also took a picture of this fish as well. This digital image appears on the right. Hannah Smith (VT) won the boat pool for the third largest fish with the third largest fish, a 6.75 pound cusk. She had been leading the boat pool for the largest fish all day until the last stop. I believe that she caught the most fish that she has ever caught on the Bunny Clark today. She had done better under Captain Ian before today's trip. Hannah's largest haddock weighted 5.5 pounds, the second largest haddock of the trip. Actually, she and her dory mate, Dave Haberl (VT), commandeered the bow and did better than any other two anglers who have fished up there for years. I was very impressed.
Other Angler Highlights: Dave Burton (MA) lost so many sinkers today that, I figured, if he lost many more, he would have created an island on the fishing grounds. Along with a near brush from Steve's wolffish, he would surely have won the hard luck award t-shirt, had I been giving the shirts out today. Ron Neil (MA) had a lot of fish as well. He was very consistent. The only fish of his that I weighed was a 5.25 pound cusk. Anthony Lomonoco (NY) caught a cusk that weighed 6.25 pounds. His largest haddock weighed 5 pounds. Jeff Gellatly (ME) landed a 5 pound haddock, his largest fish. Steve Bemis (NY) also landed a 5 pound haddock as his largest fish.
I landed two donations today sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge. Dave Burton gave me another $50.00 to add to his very generous $250.00 donation he gave on April 2nd. And the team of Haberl & Hannah donated a generous $100.00 to the cause. Thank you all so very much for your support, thoughtfulness and generosity. It is so very much appreciated!
The sky was nearly cloudless for most of the morning. After noon, clouds started to creep in from the south. By sunset, the sky was overcast. At sunrise, the ocean was flat calm with wind streaks here and there. By mid morning, the wind became established out of the south. We had ten knots of southerly wind by noon. The southerly wind was blowing from fifteen to twenty knots by late afternoon and stayed that way until I went to bed at 10:00 PM. The visibility was excellent all day. The air temperature reached a high of at least 63°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 67°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 70°F (with a low of 26°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 55°F (with a low of 27°F).
During yesterday's trip to the fishing grounds, during the last three miles, the steering wheel became hard to turn to port, just as easy to turn to starboard. This was at full cruise. I knew there was a problem. But it didn't seem like a bad one. When we got to a point where I could start slowing down and look at the bottom, the steering problem seemed to go away. And I, pretty much, forgot about it. But you never lose that feeling in the back of your mind if you are a boat owner. And I wondered if I had picked up something the rudder, like an old piece of float rope that limited the quadrant range when I was turning the steering wheel in a certain position. At the end of the day, when we started to head home, I couldn't get near full cruise as it was just too rough. The steering felt fine. I never did get into full cruise until the last three miles or so. The feeling in the wheel came back at that time. Backing the speed of the Bunny Clark off while coming into the outer Cove gave some steering glitches. I lost the steering altogether in the middle of the channel. I could not get the Bunny Clark from heading directly at the support structure on the west side of the footbridge over the Cove. I had to put the engine in reverse to avoid hitting the bridge. When I did, the wind caught the bow of the boat and put us sideways in the channel. This was okay because I couldn't steer forward anyway. So I backed and filled my way to the Barnacle Billy's float.
After I got our anglers off the boat and Danny had passed out all the bags of fish, he popped the two hatches over the lazarette so I could get a look at the quadrant. The starboard piston rod had come out of the rod end that was attached to the steering quadrant. We didn't have a trip scheduled for the next day. So I made some calls, finished all the other things I had to do and Danny finished cleaning the boat.
At 7:00 AM this morning, I met our harbormaster, Erin Gott, who had agreed to dive on the Bunny Clark to check out the rudder and wheel. Everything was as perfect as it was when we launched. The rudder was tight, all the bolts were tight, the wheel looked great and everything down there was clean. So my problem was definitely isolated in the quadrant area. By 9:00 AM, I met David Pease at the Bunny Clark. Together, under his instruction, we put the hydraulic system back together in a "better way" so that this wouldn't happen again. Boats are funny. My experience has been that when you have a problem, unless you totally revamp something, it will probably occur again. I had the rudder completely re-tooled with a new rudder shaft, along with a change of wheel design and a whole new set of bearings. Was a different vibration back there causing this to happen? Will it happen again? Or was it something that was just overlooked in tightening the locking nut on the hydraulic ram? Boats; you have to love them. Otherwise, they would drive you crazy.
The rest of my day was spent at the restaurant. At 4:00 PM, I needed a nap. I slept for two hours or until Deb woke me up. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Yes, I was. I had fallen asleep fully clothed on the bed upstairs with our smallest cat, Mizzen, curled up at my head. So I jumped up and drove to the Cove where I stayed until nearly closing time.
When I got home, I still had the Bunny Clark truck parked at the Cove. So I walked our border collie, Gill, down to the Cove to get him outside. He loves going to the restaurant. Our employees give him a lot of attention, which he loves, and he finds pieces of food on the floor there. And they feed him bits. And so do I. He's a very happy dog when he gets in the cab of the truck to drive home. What's best is that he sleeps through the night.
The sky looked like it was going to clear as daylight approached. But it really never did. The sky was overcast all day. But the major feature of the weather today was the air temperature. It was warm all day, starting around 9:00 AM when the air temperature was 62°F. After noon, the air temperature got up to 81°F at the house. I never did look at the Cove's air temperature. But it seemed cooler there, being so close to the ocean. The wind blew out of the south at about ten knots. We had very little wind in the evening. The visibility dropped to very good with the rising air temperatures. It seemed a bit hazy over the ocean. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 83°F (with a low of 56°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 80°F (with a low of 53°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 79°F (with a low of 46°F). The high air temperature of 79°F recorded at the Portland Jetport breaks the previous record high for this date of 75°F last set in 1973. Portland has been keeping temperature records for about eighty years. So not very long.
I spent all my working hours at the restaurant today. It was delightfully busy. But not too busy. Patrons could sit anywhere today. They were on the upper patio, the patio with some dogs, the whole deck with less people inside than outside. It was a beautifully lovely day with people wearing shorts and t-shirts. We ran out of lobster meat by 6:00 PM and had to cook up some "quarters" (pound and a quarter lobsters) to pick in order to offer lobster rolls and lobster sautés. Everybody was in a wonderful mood. The big surprise of the day was the larger number of Canadians at the restaurant. We love the Canadians. So I was worried that President Trump would scare a lot of them off with his trading policy and negativity towards that wonderful nation. I mean, could you ever think of a better nation to have a border with? I can't.
I had to laugh though, I had one Canadian woman ask where she could buy cigarettes in the Cove. I don't think there is a place. But she seemed desperate. I would really like to know how she made out. When I was growing up in the restaurant as a young busboy, part of my job was raking up the cigarette butts that littered the patio. In those days, our patio had wooden chairs and tables set on a ground of crushed pink granite. On Saturday nights, the dining room was so full of cigarette smoke, you couldn't see from one side of the dining room to the other. Another part of our job, as busboys, was to clean the ash trays on each table along with busing the table. Today, of course, we have none of that. The number of cigarette butts I pick up off the ground is minimal. I often think, why does anyone throw any cigarette butts on the ground, these days? It's a bit disrespectful.
The air temperature of 61°F was the warmest air temperature that I saw today. Most of the day, the air temperature was in the lower 50s, climbing to the high 50s after noon. I think that the highest air temperature that I saw was 57°F. But the air temperature might have been higher than that. And it was certainly higher than 61°F before 4:30 AM. The wind made it feel colder than it was today. In the early part of the daylight morning, the wind blew up as high as thirty-five knots. It was mostly a sustained twenty-five knots with some higher gusts during the rest of the morning. After 2:00 PM, the wind backed off a bit to about twenty knots sustained. But it never really backed off too much until around 8:00 PM. The wind direction at the restaurant was northwest. The visibility was excellent. The sky was clear with a bright sun all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 70°F - at 12:26 AM - (with a low of 48°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 67°F - at 12:20 AM - (with a low of 40°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 67°F - at 12:40 AM - (with a low of 41°F).
Aside from warming the engine of the Bunny Clark up, charging the batteries and making her presentable for tomorrow's trip, I worked at the restaurant all day.
It was not as busy at the restaurants as I would have thought it would be. But the weather was not the greatest. The wind blew so hard, with a lower air temperature than yesterday, that very few people ate on the deck. All the other outside eating areas were mostly vacant. It was still a very good day. It just wasn't as busy as yesterday.
At the Barnacle Billy's float at 6:00 AM, it was 32°F and the ramp was icy. I can't remember the last time I saw ice on the ramp this late in April.
The ride to the fishing grounds was excellent. The ocean was flat calm, the visibility was excellent, the sky was clear and, once we got outside of ten miles, the air temperature was 44°F.
On the fishing grounds, the air temperature only got warmer. By the time we were ready to go home, it had risen to 54°F. I really didn't look at the air temperature until then. So it could have been warmer earlier. There was a little wind at the time of viewing so it probably was a bit warmer. There was a very little northwest wind to start. But the wind kept changing direction in a clockwise pattern around the compass. Northerly, northeast, east and southeast before it became established out of the south. The southerly wind struck around 2:00 PM. It increased. Wind speeds were about ten knots or more out of the south on the way home. The other wind directions represented carried much less velocity. The sky was nearly cloudless until the last couple hours of the trip. High thin clouds moved in after that. We still had mostly clear skies until we got back to Perkins Cove. The visibility ranged to thirty miles. The tide (current) was light all day. The surface water temperature reached a high of 42.2°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 52°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 56°F (with a low of 43°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 63°F (with a low of 29°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 53°F (with a low of 32°F).
The fishing was nearly excellent. There was very little current, we saw few tangles and the fish were in shallow enough water to make it enjoyable. The catching was very good. Landings were good, no better than that. Most legal fish landed were haddock. We actually caught more sub-legal haddock than legal haddock. I haven't seen that since last August. We also caught quite a few sub-legal pollock. Legal landings also included seven redfish and a pollock. Released fish also included four sculpins. We drift fished and anchored. Anchoring seemed to work the best. Jigs and flies caught the most fish, both legal and sub-legal.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook with the most legal fish. If I had to guess, I would say it was Greg Fitzgerald (VT). He was fishing with a jig and a fly. Dick Mowatt (ME) caught the largest fish of the trip, a 6.25 pound haddock. This is the Bunny Clark's third largest haddock of the fishing season so far. Dick did not enter the boat pool. Seamus Kelly (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the second largest fish, a 6 pound haddock. The third largest fish was a 5.5 pound haddock caught by Brian Trahan, II (ME).
Other Angler Highlights: Phil Merrill (ME) caught the fourth largest fish, a 4.5 pound haddock. We caught a couple other haddock that were a little over 4 pounds. But most haddock weighed less than 4 pounds. And many were just over the legal limit. It was a beautiful day which I think was most of the problem. We found many haddock schools. They were very easy to find. They just didn't bite like they showed on the sounding machine.
It had stopped raining by the time we pushed off the float to head down the channel. It never rained for the rest of the ride out. The wind blew out of the southeast for the whole way. Seas were chops of a couple feet with the occasional three footer. It wasn't bad. And we were able to run full cruise.The air temperature was 43°F after the ten mile mark. The visibility ranged to about twenty miles or more. The sky remained overcast.
On the fishing grounds, the wind started out by blowing out of the southeast at ten knots with a two foot chop, at most. This wind and sea state remained unchanged for about three hours. The wind dropped after that and the fog rolled in. What little wind we did have kept working clockwise until it was out of the west. But it was so light as to be no wind at all. We had just a light westerly wind on the ride home. There was not enough wind to get rid of the fog. Two hours in the fog and we found the sun gazing down on us. The ocean was glassy for the last part of the fishing and the ride in. There was a left over two foot roll. The highest air temperature that I saw was 53°F. The tide (current) was light. The visibility ranged to three hundred yards. The surface water temperature reached a high of 42.5°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 58°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 58°F (with a low of 46°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 73°F (with a low of 43°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 56°F (with a low of 40°F).
The fishing was excellent, the catching was excellent and landings were excellent. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. And every angler caught a haddock of 6 pounds or more. I didn't weigh them all. By 9:30 AM, I prohibited anyone from keeping a haddock less than twenty inches fork length. As it was, we still reached the bag limit with two hours of fishing to go. The last stop was all big haddock, rivaling most of the great haddock trips of last year. Legal landings also included ten cusk and two pollock. Released fish included over eighty-six legal haddock to 6 pounds, about fifty sub-legal haddock or small keepers, a dogfish, a small wolffish, three small pollock and a small redfish. We anchored mostly but did drift a few times. All terminal gear worked well but bait was best.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook with the most legal fish. I couldn't even guess. For those who go with me every year it was fish a cast - all day long. John Pereira (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, an 8 pound Maine state trophy haddock. This is Largest haddock that John has ever caught. It's also the Bunny Clark's largest haddock of the season to date. I took a picture of John holding up his nice haddock. This digital image appears on the left. The second largest fish was a 7.5 pound cod caught by Yuchen "Sam" Yang (ME). With this fish Sam won the boat pool for the third largest fish. He only entered the boat pool for the third largest fish. The biggest haddock of his that I weighed was 6.25 pounds. He had several haddock that weighed 6 pounds. The third largest fish was a 7.25 pound pollock caught by Marty Rivard (VT). He did not enter the boat pool. I weighed two haddock for Marty that weighed 6 pounds each. He also caught a 6.75 pound haddock, a tie for the fourth largest haddock of the Bunny Clark season so far. The fourth largest fish of the trip was a 7.1 pound Maine state trophy haddock caught by Nino Pierdifino (NY). He did not enter any boat pool. This is the Bunny Clark's second largest haddock of the season so far. Steve Clark (VT) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the fifth largest fish, a 7 pound Maine state trophy haddock. This is the Bunny Clark's third largest haddock of the fishing season so far. I took a picture of Steve holding this long thin haddock that should have weighed 9 pounds had it been filled out. This digital image appears on the right.
Other Angler Highlights: Greg Fitzgerald (VT) caught a 6.75 pound haddock. This is a tie for the Bunny Clark's fourth largest haddock of the season to date. I also weighed a 6 pound haddock that he caught early in the trip. But I believe there were a few more 6 pounders of his that I didn't weigh. Jeff Corey (MA) caught fish after fish. Had they all been legal, he would have been high hook. Dave Burton (MA) caught a 6.5 pound haddock early in the day. Abe Saaman (VT) also caught a 6.5 pound haddock. Jeff Corey (MA) caught a lot of fish today. He could have been high hook. The largest fish of his that I weighed was a 6 pound haddock. Mike Cheney (VT) caught a 6 pound haddock.
I received several donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. The donors and their donations were as follows: Steve Clark & Family for a generous $350.00, Richard Howard for a generous $250.00 [Richard's donation was made in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC], Jeff Corey for $40.00, Dave Burton for another $50.00 [He has been soooo generous this year and over the years!] and Nino Pierdipino for $20.00. Thank you all so very much for your support but also your thoughtfulness and generosity. It means so much to so many. But it also give hope when new procedures are invented by the very people whom you support who are behind me!
The fog left us by 7:00 AM. To my knowledge, it stayed clear, visibility wise, all day. The sky was clear with few clouds. There was very little wind today. The ocean was calm along the shore. I guess the wind blew from the west, as near as I could tell, in the morning. But there wasn't much of it. There was no wind by mid morning. After noon, the wind became established out of the south. It might have blown up to five or six knots. But, by sunset, there was, again, very little wind, if any. The air temperature was the salient feature of the day. With the light wind and bright sun, it felt like a summer day. I saw 70°F but it felt warmer than that. It was beautiful. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 72°F (with a low of 44°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 69°F (with a low of 39°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 60°F (with a low of 40°F).
I did a little work on the boat but, mostly, I worked in the restaurants today. It was busy. And we were short of help. But the help we had were fantastic and worked like two people each. I was very happy to have my son, Micah, there who was most in control. Matt Pedersen came in to take over for Micah, later in the afternoon and was fantastic as well. I am blessed with these two wonderful people. And we have others. They were my main focus today. The deck was full all day. I left a little after 5:00 PM to get ready to sail tomorrow.
I was on a bit of a high after yesterday's trip. I couldn't stop thinking about all the great anglers who we had aboard yesterday. It reminded me so much of other fishing times, when you can just feel that something is going to break open. When I looked at the sounding machine yesterday on the first stop my heart sang. It was so exciting. Then to have immediate action. And to have it last all day. I was just on top of the world today. I know tomorrow won't be as good of a biting day. But I am still encouraged as we caught new fish yesterday that we haven't been seeing yet. I expect the haddock fishing to light up in the next week. I'm just hoping we have some inclement weather to make them bite better. Like it was yesterday.
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