Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Thursday, July 17, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT
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Proposed cod & haddock regulations for the 2025 fishing season (May 1, 2025 thru April 30, 2026):
Note: These regulations still haven't been implimented for this season yet (as of July 14, 2025). So last years regulations are still in force, including an 18" haddock minimum size.
Gulf of Maine cod
Gulf of Maine haddock
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 69°F outside the home office and 65°F where the Bunny Clark is docked, the sky was clear, there was no wind, the ocean along the shore was flat calm and the visibility over it seemed excellent.
The ride to the fishing grounds gave us a setting that was completely devoid of wind. The ocean was glassy calm with a bit of old left over little rolling chops. The sky was nearly cloudless or cloudless. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature ranged to 70°F.
On the grounds, we had no wind until around 1:00 PM, when we saw a south southeast wind pipe up. It increased to about eight knots before we left to head back to Perkins Cove. The sky was clear all day with some high thin clouds here and there. The air temperature reached a high of 77°F. The tide was on the strong side of moderate. The visibility ranged to over twenty miles in haze. The surface water temperature reached a high of 63°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 88°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 90°F (with a low of 76°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 97°F (with a low of 65°F). The high of 97°F breaks the previous record high for this date of 94°F set in 1888, 1975 and 2020. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 84°F (with a low of 66°F).
The fishing was nearly excellent. Had there been less tide, it would have been excellent. The catching was excellent. Landings were good. no better. Legal landings included eighty-seven cusk, sixty-seven redfish of really good size, six pollock, eighteen haddock and a couple of whiting. Released fish included well over a hundred mackerel, fifty-eight sub-legal pollock, forty-eight sub-legal haddock, three cod over 6 pounds, eleven small cod, nine dogfish, seven sculpins, a sea raven, a wolffish and a handful of herring. We alternated between drifting and anchoring. Anchoring helped with the current. Bait worked best.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook. It could have been Dick Lyle (NY), Phil Hibbard (ME) or someone else. I just don't know. Andy Morris (NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 10.5 pound cusk. He also caught a 2.25 pound Maine state trophy redfish, the largest redfish that he has ever seen. I took a picture of Andy holding his big redfish. This digital image appears on the left. David Moore (ME) should have won the boat pool with a wolffish that weighed (plus or minus) 18 pounds. Because we can't gaff them (kill them), Danny tried to lift it in the boat by the snelled hook leader. And, yes, the line broke and the fish swam to bottom. That fish could have eaten the fish that won the boat pool. The third largest fish was a 9.5 pound cusk caught by Roy Monty (NY). Both Andy and Ernie (see paragraph below) have fished with me for twenty years.
Other Angler Highlights: Mark Walsh (MA) started off the boat pool off with a 7 pound cod. His son, Shane Walsh (MA), caught the largest pollock at 9.25 pounds. Jenell Swimline (NY) caught a 7 pound cusk, her best fish. Ernie Searles (NH) boated his first ever Maine state trophy redfish. It weighed slightly over 2 pounds. I took a picture of Ernie with holding his prize redfish. This digital image appears on the right. Amy Finocchiaro (MA) caught an 8.5 pound cusk after catching the lion's share of mackerel today! If she never sees another mackerel it will be too soon!
We had Ethan Taulbee (ME) with us today from the Maine Department of Marine Resources measuring fish and completing angler surveys. He also helped us with the fish as well - and some of the cleaning afterward!. It was great to have him aboard. He seemed like just another of my crew members!
I received two donations sponsoring me in my cancer fund raising project with the Pan-Mass Challenge today. Dan Potyrala (MA) donated a generous $100.00 in Memory of Captain Ian Keniston and his, father, Chet, and Cory Swimline (NY) also donated a generous $100.00 in memory of John Swimline. Thank you all so very much for the support and your generosity. It means a great deal to me but it means more to those we help, both in research and those with the disease.
At 2:30 AM EDT the air temperature was 79°F outside the home office and 76°F where the Bunny Clark is docked, the sky was hazy clear, the wind was light out of the southwest and the visibility over the ocean was very good in haze.
The ride to the fishing grounds was uneventful; just the way I like it. The wind was light out of the southwest. The wind might have blown up to eight knots. Mostly, it was less than that. The visibility was very good in some haze. The sky remained hazy clear with Venus clear enough ahead of us. The air temperature seemed to maintain 72°F for an air temperature the whole way to our destination.
On the fishing grounds, the wind kept dropping, not that it was blowing very hard anyway. By 10:00 AM, the only way you could tell that we had any wind was by looking at the wind streakes on the ocean's calm surface. After that time, the wind dropped out of the day. When I called the day, the wind was just starting to come up out of the west. The wind blew about ten knots out of the west with a one foot chop about two miles inside of the last stop. The visibility ranged to over twenty miles in haze. The air temperature reached it's highest value, 80°F, on the last stop, four degrees warmer than it had been all day. This should have given me a clue that the wind was going to come westerly. The tide (current) wasn't strong but it wasn't moderate either. The sky stayed clear and very sunny all day. The surface water temperature reached a high of 65°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was reported as being 100°F. I didn't see it. At 5:30 PM, up at the house, it was 90°F. Hot enough for sure. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 102°F (with a low of 78°F). The high of 102°F, in Boston, breaks the previous record high for this date of 95°F set in 1976 and 2013. The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 100°F (with a low of 70°F). The high of 100°F, in Concord, breaks the previous record high for this date of 96°F set in 1870. The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 99°F (with a low of 65°F). The high of 99°F, in Portland, breaks the previous record high for this date of 93°F set in 1976.
The fishing was very good. It could have been excellent if we didn't see so many dogfish and the tide was lighter than it was. The catching was excellent. Landings were good to very good. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. Legal landings also included thirty-five cusk, sixty-eight pollock, seven mackerel and four redfish. As near as I could figure, we released ninety dogfish and nearly two hundred small pollock. I really couldn't keep track of those two species. Also released were four cod over 6 pounds, eight small cod, three cusk, twenty-two sub-legal haddock and a mackerel or two. We alternated between drifting and anchoring. Drifting was the most productive. Anchoring seemed to bring more dogfish. All terminal gear worked well.
Dick "Fish a Cast" Lyle (NY) was high hook with the most legal fish. His best fish was a 6 pound haddock but he caught a bigger cusk I didn't weigh. He was also responsible for three of the eight small cod that were caught and released. Fred Kunz (NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 14 pound cod. This cod ties for the Bunny Clark's third largest cod of the fishing season so far. I took a picture of Fred holding his cod before releasing it back to the ocean alive. This digital image appears on the left. Fred also won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, an 11.75 pound pollock. His largest haddock was probably 6 pounds. I never did weigh any of his haddock. The third largest fish was an 11 pound pollock caught by Brandon Stevens (VT). He also caught the largest haddock of the day at 6.75 pounds, a 9 pound cod and another haddock that weighed 6 pounds. He, Dave Burton (MA) and Fred Kunz were probably second hook.
Other Angler Highlights: Dave Burton caught a 9 pound cod, his largest fish. He had a couple of nice sized pollock that I didn't weigh. Steve Zimmer (NY) didn't have the day I expected him to have. Nor did he shine like he did on the last trip. But it wasn't a very good biting day anyway. And he really didn't do that badly; just not up to his standards. His two biggest fish that I weighed included a 7 pound cod and a 9 pound pollock. He did catch a haddock that looked to be about 6 pounds. I didn't weigh that fish. Johnny Mattson (VT) caught a 9.5 pound pollock and a pollock that weighed 10.25 pounds, his two biggest. Robert Riendeau (VT) landed two haddock that both looked big enough to be trophy fish. They weighed 6 pounds each. In fact, a lot of the haddock we caught today had the frames of 7 to 8 pound fish but weighed less. Luis Feliberty (NH) landed a 6.25 pound haddock. Tony Atchinson's (NH) best fish was a 6.5 pound haddock.
I received several donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. The persons and their donations included Peter Voorheis (NY) for a very generous $300.00, Dick & Kathy Lyle (NY) donated a generous $100.00, Dave Burton donated another $50.00 (this after another, another, another....), Fred Kunz (NH) donated again, this time for $45.00, Tony Atchinson donated $55.00 and Bob Reindeau (VT) donated $20.00. Wow, that is a lot of donations for a day. I'm truly humbled with your contributions! Thank you so very much.
Also, right out of the blue, I received an insanely generous $1,000.00 for my cancer project with the Pan-Mass Challenge from Elinor Payeur & Cathy Harrison. The donation was made in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site with the message: "In support of Tim and the PMC and in Loving Memory of Richard Payeur and Arnold (Harry) Harrison." I grew up in Ogunquit with Richard Payeur, so this is very special to me on top of the generousness of the donation. Thank you both so very much for your thoughtfulness, your continued support and, of course, your generosity. It really means a lot to me but so much to many others.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 77°F, it was humid, the sky was hazy clear, there wasn't enough wind to write about, the ocean along the shore was flat calm and the visibility over it was very good in haze.
Today was another,. what my father would have called, "111" day. The weather was perfect. The wind was light and variable in direction all day. Whatever direction the wind did blow today, there was hardly enough of it to blow a candle out. The sky was clear all day. The visibility was very good in some haze. The highest air temperature that I saw was 90°F. It was humid in the morning but the humidity waned in the afternoon. It was just a comfortable day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 93°F (with a low of 73°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 93°F (with a low of 70°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 90°F (with a low of 69°F).
I spent the day in the restaurant, early for less than an hour and, then, after noon. It wasn't that busy. Or, at least, it wasn't as busy as I expected it to be. It didn't bother me as I was able to catch up on two days away from the financial part of my involvement there.
At 2:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 71F, it was still a bit humid, the sky was mostly overcast, there was a hint of wind from the east (the bell buoy could be heard clearly) and the visibility over the ocean was very good to excellent, it seemed.
We had a choppy ride to the fishing grounds. The wind blew out of the northeast after we got out to the eight or ten mile mark. There wasn't really much wind until after that. I don't think it ever blew any harder than fifteen knots. But it was all of that. Seas were two to three feet in chops with the occasional queer one. The sky was mostly cloudy with some clear patches that never seemed to be overhead. We did see a beautiful sunrise. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature, although around 70°F at the dock, kept dropping the further we got out.
On the fishing grounds, the wind continued to blow out of the northeast at about fifteen knots or less. As the day progressed the wind speed kept dropping. Seas were two feet or more to start but diminished to barely a foot by noon and nearly calm before we headed back home. The air temperature started at 60°F but rose to a value of 65°F. The sky was mostly cloudy but we did manage to have the sun overhead a couple times. I'm probably going to wish I had sun screen on today. The visibility ranged to over twenty-five miles. The tide (current) was fairly strong for most of the day. The surface water temperature reached a high of 61°F
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was about the same as it was when I left in the morning. The air temperature dropped in Perkins Cove when the northeast wind came up. I believe it was about 65°F most of the day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 78°F (with a low of 61°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 58°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 70°F (with a low of 54°F).
Today's theme was to take three anglers offshore to catch a halibut. I had never tried fishing for them during a new moon in northeast wind. But I was willing to try. After completing the trip, I wouldn't suggest doing it. They were there; I could see them on the machine. But getting them to bite was out of my realm of expertise. Maybe dead sticking might have worked. But there were enough dogfish to make me lose the desire to try. Everybody fished, including Danny and I. And it was a lot of fun.
The fishing was very good despite the tide and the few dogfish. The catching was fair. Landings were poor. But that wasn't the point of the trip. Legal landings included three cusk, eleven haddock and seven whiting. Released fish included four haddock, one halibut, nineteen dogfish and two wolffish. We drift fished, anchored and used the sea anchor. We saw our best chances on anchor. All terminal gear worked about the same but bait caught the most fish.
Danny DellaMonica was high hook with the most legal fish. His best fish was, what looked to be, a 5 pound haddock. David Cote (FL) had the two officially weighed biggest fish of the trip. Both were 9 pounds. One was a wolffish. The other was a halibut. I took a picture of Dave with the Bunny Clark's second halibut of the season. This digital image appears on the left. Karl Day (ME) caught a wolffish about the same size as Dave's. I didn't weigh it as he released the fish before I had a chance to put a scale to it.
Other Angler Highlights: Becca Day (OR) caught a handful of haddock and a good sized whiting. I might have hooked a halibut. It was a great strike but it lasted all of three seconds. I was caught unprepared. I used a single jig without a fly all day. I spent a good part of my day watching for and seeing some halibut on the sounding machine!
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 56F, the sky was clear, there wasn't enough wind to write about, the ocean along the shore was flat calm and the visibility over it was excellent.
Today was a beautiful day ashore, a day I would have loved to have gone harpoon tuna fishing. The air temperature rose to a very comfortable 73°F. The was very little wind all day. What wind there was, in the morning, was out of the northeast. It blew, at most, four knots? The died to nothing and almost immediately started blowing lightly out of the south. I noticed the wind was out of the south at eight knots at about the time I went to bed. The visibility was excellent. The sky was clear all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 71°F (with a low of 61°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 77°F (with a low of 55°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 73°F (with a low of 50°F).
I opened the restaurants this morning. Friday is my day to do so. I left at 9:00 AM to go back home. A good friend of mine, Andy Arimitage had told me he wanted to walk with me. I have been walking/running as much as I have time for lately. That isn't a lot of time with everything I have to do. Andy has been riding his bike to the tune of about four hundred miles a week, give or take. I used to ride almost every day with Andy and friends in the mornings. That stopped abruptly when I broke my spine in an accident early June of 2023. This is why Andy suggested the walk. Or so I was led to believe. In fact, six of my cycling friends showed up to do the walk instead of, what I was told, would just be Andy. My walks are six to eight miles. I took them on the six mile version that starts on the Marginal Way, goes 1.5 miles on the beach, to Route 1 through town and Shore Road to home. It was a very thoughtful thing for Andy to surprise me with. All these guys are top athletes and have become good friends over the years. I keep up with them all through Strava, text and email. But I have rarely seen them since the accident. So today was a great bonus. It was very fun. I was back at work by noon.
I spent the whole day in the restaurants. Business was steady for lunch, quiet in the later afternoon and steady again for dinner.
It rained periodically all day. There was much less rain in the afternoon. And there were periods in the late afternoon where the roads were wet with no precipitation. The visibility over the ocean dropped as the morning got underway. An offshore fog had developed by mid morning. The wind blew out of the southeast or south southeast for all of the morning and into the afternoon. Wind speeds over ten knots were seen all morning. After noon, the wind kept up for about an hour. Then it started to drop. By 4:00 PM, there was no wind at all. The sky was overcast all day. The air temperature reached a high of 63°F in Perkins Cove, after the wind dropped out of the day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 69°F (with a low of 58°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 64°F (with a low of 56°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 62°F (with a low of 54°F).
It wasn't a great business day. But it was busy enough to enjoy many regular patrons at the restaurants. It was also a time where I could catch up on quite a few emails that we have gathered on the Barnacle Billy's account. Emails are supposed to be answered regularly by the staff. But sometimes they leave them for me. That's not always a good thing.
I worked until 8:30 PM mostly because I wanted to clear up a valet parking issue.
The day started off cloudy and foggy just outside the coast. There was no wind all morning. After noon, the wind came up out of the south southeast. Wind speeds were about eight knots. It was foggy along the shore until about 9:00 AM, when it cleared out. It was still hazy. The overcast skies turned to mostly cloudy skies with a peek at the sun every now and then. By 3:00 PM, the clouds had moved away and the sun shone down. The visibility was very good until around 4:00 PM, when the fog moved in again. It didn't seem to stay long. The air temperature was on the cool side with the wind, what little there was, blowing in off the water. Temperatures were in the low to mid 70s for most of the day, in the 60s for most of the morning. The highest air temperature that I saw was 78°F. That was in the shade in a wind protected area. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 77°F (with a low of 62°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 81°F (with a low of 62°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 58°F).
I was down at the restaurants at 5:30 AM, working on a few things. By 10:00 AM, I was back down at the Cove after running ten kilometers that included Ogunquit beach. I had meetings that lasted until 11:15 AM. I got back to my normal restaurant work before noon. I also had about forty-five minutes getting the Bunny Clark ready to sail tomorrow. There isn't really much to write about. Business was slow in the morning, better in the afternoon. And it was all outside. There very few patrons in the dining room at either restaurant. People seemed particularly nice today, for some reason. They are always nice. Today was exceptional.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 61°F, the sky was clear, the wind was very light out of the west, the ocean along the shore was flat calm and the visibility over it was excellent.
The ride to the fishing grounds was so easy. We had excellent visibility the whole way. The ocean was as smooth as a baby's bottom over a three foot rolling long swell from the southeast. The sky was clear. The sun was bright. We carried an air temperature of 66°F the whole way out.
On the grounds, we had no wind until the last hour and a half of the day. When we did get wind, it was light from the south southeast. It was just ruffling the surface when we left to head back to Perkins Cove. The air temperature reached a high of 79°F. The tide (current) was moderate to light. The visibility ranged to over thirty miles. The sky was clear and sunny with few clouds. Seas stayed as long three foot swells all day. The surface water temperature reached a high of 67°F, the highest surface water temperature we have seen this season so far but right about normal for this time of year. Maybe it was a little low for these conditions.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 80°F. In Boston, MassachuThsetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 83°F (with a low of 67°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 87°F (with a low of 55°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 78°F (with a low of 58°F).
If the dogfish didn't ruin your day, the fishing was nearly excellent. The drift was fine, the weather was perfect and there were few tangles - even with the dogfish. Usually the tangles are much worse with the number of dogfish that we saw today. The catching was good, excellent if you included the dogfish. Landings were fair. Legal landings included thirty-one cusk, eleven haddock, ten pollock, five redfish and four mackerel. Released fish included four sculpins, two porbeagle sharks, three small cod, one good sized cod, twelve sub-legal haddock, one mackerel, one sub-legal redfish and over one hundred and fifty dogfish. We drift fished all day. I would say that a well fished jig won the day today.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook. It could have been anyone. The legal fish were spread out around the boat fairly evenly. However, collectively, the team of John Andreychak (NJ), Brad Roche (NJ) and George Bright (NJ) walked off the boat with the most bags of fillets. George Bright won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, an 18.5 pound Maine state trophy cusk. This is the Bunny Clark's largest cusk of the fishing season to date. Its also the largest cusk that George has ever caught. George also caught the second largest fish of the trip, a 17.5 pound cod. This is the Bunny Clark's second largest cod of the season so far and his largest cod. I took a picture of George holding his cod before he released it back to the ocean, very much alive. This digital image appears on the left. The third largest fish was an 11 pound cusk caught by Dave Walker (VT). This is the Bunny Clark's fourth largest cusk of the fishing season to date. It's also the largest cusk that Dave has ever caught.
Other Angler Highlights: Keith Wells (TN) caught the first fish that I could weigh for the boat pool, a 4.75 pound cusk. His largest fish was a 7 pound cusk. Delaney Gray (ME) caught the next largest fish I could weigh for the pool, a 5.5 pound cusk. Brad Roche (NJ) caught the fourth largest fish of the trip, a 7.5 pound cusk. Fourteen year old Sam Martin (ME) caught a 7 pound cusk along with a surprising number of other legal fish. I believe that it was his first trip on the Bunny Clark. Its certainly his first trip with me. His mother told me that he fishes fresh water a lot. It showed.
I received three donations sponsoring me in my cancer fund raising project with the Pan-Mass Challenge today. John Andreychak (NY) donated a generous $100.00, Rebecca Dore (ME) also donated the same with the message: "In Memory of Glen Dore" and Marty & Elise Buskey (NY) gave $50.00, one of many $50.00 donations this year and years previously. Thank you all so very much for the support and your generosity. I feel so very lucky to know so many giving individuals who support this cancer project. It is so appreciated by so many! Cancer touches all of us, either directly or indirectly.
About two miles from shore, the engine made a loud noise that sounded like another boat was coming right up behind us to buzz us or something. I looked in back of us to find no boats there, just as the engine alarm system was going off, telling me I had reduced raw water pressure. I ended up calling my son, Micah, at work at Barnacle Billy's, to ask if he could grab our other boat, the Petrel, to come out and two me in. I wasn't sure of the problem but I certainly wasn't going to take the chance of overheating the engine or the exhaust system. So Micah came out, we threw him and tow line and Danny took the wheel behind the Petrel while I tried to make arrangements for getting the engine up and running. I also made a call to my wife, Deb, to cancel tomorrow's trip. I didn't know what the problem was but I knew I couldn't fix it until tomorrow. As it turned out, including me donning a survival suit to look under the boat at the raw water intake, the splined shaft that holds (and turns) the impeller had sheared off at the base inside the bronze pump casting. Grant Hubbard, from Finestkind Scenic Tours, helped me figure all this out and, alone, took the pump off the back of the engine. Phase two will start tomorrow.
After I wrote all this I noticed that I had received another $100.00 donation from Don Stedman (TN) supporting me in my quest for better cancer treatments with the Pan-Mass Challenge. Don & Rebecca Stedman have supported me for years and always dedicate the donation to their brother, Jim Stedman, in memory of. Thank you so very much for thinking of me again and this project to help fight cancer through sound genetic research. I believe in this team of researchers and I appreciate your help.
It stayed hazy all day. There was never any fog to write about. The visibility was very good over the ocean. The air temperature reached a high of 90°F. But it didn't seem that humid to me, despite the heat index warnings. The sky remained mostly cloudy, about as near as you can get to being overcast without being so. We did see a peek at the sun every now and again. The wind blew out of the south all day. Wind speeds seemed to always be just about ten knots or more. It did not over-blow as predicted. I don't believe the wind ever got close to fifteen knots. In Boston, MassachuThsetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 93°F (with a low of 70°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 92°F (with a low of 67°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 84°F (with a low of 63°F).
I spent all morning working on getting the engine back up and running. I have an old raw water pump that I took off four years after the engine was new. In Perkins Cove, raw water pumps don't last on the Bunny Clark. But I didn't want to put in the old pump just to get by when I could have a new one installed. And I couldn't rely on getting one through the internet as there was no way I would get the pump and have it installed before the Thursday trip. So it was a matter of working with one of two companies coming down. I finally went with Power Products. Initially, they said they couldn't come down until July 14th. That, of course, was not going to work. But then they called to say that the job that was planned had been moved forward. Since they have done all the work on the engine, I decided to go with them. Hopefully, they will come through with securing the pump. Of course, I paid extra to have the process expedited.
I had all this wrapped up by 1:00 PM. There were a lot of calls and return calls to wait for. In the meantime, I worked on office stuff at the house. Updating the index page was first on the list. But I had lots of other things to do. By 1:30 PM, I was back in the restaurant for a few hours. I took the night off to take Deb to Greenleaves for Chinese instead of working at the restaurants until closing.
It was a warm and humid day today with air temperatures in the 80s for most of the day. The highest air temperature that I observed (at home) was 87°F. It didn't feel any different at the Cove where I worked for most of the day. The wind blew out of the south all day offshore and south southwest along the shore. Wind speeds were less than ten knots but close to ten knots. The sky was cloudy to start but sunny by mid morning onward. The visibility was very good in some haze. In Boston, MassachuThsetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 88°F (with a low of 73°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 89°F (with a low of 67°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 87°F (with a low of 69°F).
I had an eye appointment after a meeting with our accountant for Barnacle Billy's, Inc. The financial meeting only lasted a half hour. The eye appointment lasted for over two hours. I need new prescription lenses for my glasses. I had to make two stops to pick up equipment on the way home.
Cody, from Power Products, called me at 10:30 AM to tell me that the new raw water pump had been delivered but with only two of the three fuel check valves that I also wanted to replace. I figured two was better than none. I met Cody at the boat after noon. He worked for over two hours replacing the pump and replacing two check valves. By 3:00 PM, we were ready for sea trials. Everything went smoothly. For a half hour before that time, I went through both restaurants talking to patrons. That was the only time I got to work at the restaurants. After Cody left, it took me an hour or more to clean up the engine room and get the boat ready in order to sail tomorrow. As usual, I'm excited to fish. So is Danny!
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 67°F, the hazy sky was mottled with clouds (almost like a mackerel sky), there wasn't enough wind to write about, the ocean was flat ass calm and the visibility over it was very good in some haze.
We had another flat calm ride to the fishing grounds. The sky was mostly sunny. The visibility was very good in some haze. The air temperature ranged from 69°F to 71°F.
On the fishing grounds, the ocean stayed flat calm until some time after noon. It might have been 1:00 PM. When the wind did come it was out of the south southwest. Wind speeds got up to five knots or so. We had a squall area move by us to the north, never seeing a drop of rain on us. At the same time I realized that we missed a dousing. The wind switched out of the west northwest at that time, blew up to fifteen knots and then died out to about five knots about the time we started for home. The air temperature reached a high of 84°F. The visibility ranged to twenty miles. The tide (current) was light to start, moderate to end. The sky was hazy sunny for most of the trip, excluding the time the squall rolled to the north of us - at that time, the sky was overcast. The surface water temperature reached a high of 68°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 85°F as observed by a person I am very close to. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 90°F (with a low of 69°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 86°F (with a low of 56°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 82°F (with a low of 64°F).
The fishing was excellent. The air temperature warm but not too warm, the sea state was perfect, there wasn't much tide to speak of and the anglers knew what they were doing or learned very quickly. The catching was excellent if you included the dogfish. Landings were fair to good. Everyone caught legal fish but the fish, on average, were small. Legal landings included twenty cusk, twenty-six haddock, thirty-eight pollock, seventeen redfish, over fifty-eight mackerel and a whiting. Released fish included about one hundred and thirty-one dogfish to my count (I'm sure I missed a few), seven small cod, one 5 pound cod, twenty sub-legal haddock, over one hundred and fifty small pollock and five redfish. We drift fished and anchored. All terminal gear worked about the same.
Art Kemler, Jr. (PA) was high hook with the most legal fish. He had the largest pollock at 5 pounds. His biggest fish was a 7 pound cusk, the second largest fish of the trip. Caileb Stanley (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 10.5 pound cusk. The third largest fish was a 6.25 pound cusk caught by Tess Sapone (DC).
Other Angler Highlights: Randy Clark (VT) caught the biggest haddock at, about, 4.5 pounds. I didn't weigh it. He also caught the biggest cod. It weighed 5 pounds. Ali Laflamme (ME) caught the second largest pollock at 4.5 pounds and the only whiting, just shy of 2 pounds .
I received a few donations today sponsoring me on my ride with the Pan-Mass Challenge, a ride across the state of Massachusetts for cancer research. . Those donors and their donations included Art Kemler, Jr. for $50.00, Randy Clark for a generous $100.00, this "In Memory of Captain Ian Keniston.", Mark Coleman (NY) for $40.00, Andrew Mastrorillo (MA) for $50.00 and Karen Atwood (VT) for $25.00. Thank you all so very much for your support and generosity. This has been a harder year than normal for generating the funding I want. And a harder season in general for me. So I appreciate this very much.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 62°F, the sky was cloudless, the wind was blowing out of the west northwest at ten knots or more and the visibility over the ocean was excellent, the clearest it has been for over a week.
It was an excellent day today, weather wise, a "111", as my father would have said. The sky was nearly cloudless all day. There was no humidity. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature rose to a most comfortable 77°F. It was a perfect day for Ogunquit, on Independence Day and for the fireworks at Ogunquit Beach. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 81°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 77°F (with a low of 52°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of 57°F).
I spent all my time and attention to the restaurants today, aside from writing and posting this report. I always open the restaurant on Friday's. So I was down there before 5:00 AM, getting things started and working on deliveries, hosing the street, etc. etc. The lobster order came late, so I stayed later for that. I ended up getting home at 9:30 AM.
When I was done at the Cove, I had just enough time to run 6.3 miles; I have to get some aerobic exercise every day. Since I punctured both lungs in June two years ago, my breathing has suffered. It has never come back the way it was. In a way, that's good. Before that time my breathing was so good, I tended to get leg injuries from keeping too high a pace while running. These paces were just above a seven minute mile. Now an eight minute mile is struggle distance running so my leg (calf, quad & hamstrings) injuries are less. I don't think my breathing will ever come back to the way it was. Plus, I'm at a fairly advanced age.
After noon, I was back at the restaurant. I stayed there until after closing time. It was a very busy day, our busiest ever.
It was a beautiful summer day today with very little humidity and perfect air temperatures. The highest air temperature that I saw was 81°F. The visibility was very good to excellent is some haze. The sky was very clear in the morning but became nearly overcast in the afternoon, almost to point of looking like rain. Late afternoon saw those clouds disappear and the sun coming out. The wind blew out of the south all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 84°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of 49°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 78°F (with a low of 54°F).
I spent part of the morning with Danny DellaMonica doing repairs on the Bunny Clark and getting Danny set up to continue on with it. I met him down at the Cove at 9:00 AM. He continued on into the afternoon.
I spent the day at the restaurant, all day, after opening. It was the busiest day we have ever seen down at the Cove. The restaurant went very smoothly. I was tired by the time I got home.
The day was a very warm one after all. But it didn't start out that way. By 11:00 AM, the air temperature was still in the 80s. It was mid afternoon, when we saw our highest air temperature. The highest that I saw was 94°F. The wind stayed out of the west southwest along the shore. So we never got the benefit of a cooling on shore breeze. Wind speeds of ten knots reigned all day. The visibility stayed at very good to excellent in less haze than I would have expected with the higher than normal air temperatures. There was also less humidity than I expected. Although it did feel nice working in an air conditioned office at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. The sky was clear all day with few clouds. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 94°F (with a low of 69°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 95°F (with a low of 60°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 92°F (with a low of 67°F).
It was another fairly busy day at the restaurant but not nearly as busy as the two days before it. I did some work with the Bunny Clark for most of the morning. Danny DellaMonica and Ali Laflamme showed up, Ali to go over an article she is writing and Danny to install a steel fire extinguisher bracket that had been rusting. He had taken the bracket off the day before, wire brushed it, barrier coated it and painted it before reinstalling it today.
By noon, I was ready for my restaurant duties.
The weather was great today. The sky stayed cloudless almost the whole morning but started clouding up. The afternoon saw mostly cloudy skies with the sun peeking through occasionally. The wind blew out of the south or south southwest for most of the day. The wind was a bit stronger in the afternoon. The visibility stayed very good all day with some haze. The air temperature reached a high of 88°F that I saw. We had moderate humidity. It wasn't oppressive. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 90°F (with a low of 73°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 89°F (with a low of 69°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 84°F (with a low of 70°F).
My day was a mixture of working at the restaurants and getting ready for the Ultra Marathon that was slated to leave the dock at 10:00 PM. This also meant that I tried to take naps here and there to no avail whatsoever. I think the fact that I was horizontal certainly helped.
By 9:00 PM both Danny DellaMonica, my number one, and Tyler Carpenter, who had agreed to be my second, showed up at the house to get the Bunny Clark truck. I always follow on the scooter. Everyone was aboard and ready to go before 10:00 PM. Bryan Lewer, my alternate captain (and excellent fisherman), showed up last.
As is the normal routine for these trips, I steered out of the Cove, working with Danny on collecting the boat pool money and taking care of all the angling needs (selling cod flies, etc.). Most anglers have their own equipment so Danny didn't have to do to much. Bryan took the helm after a few miles outside of the Cove. The wind was out of the south southwest at ten knots or so with seas of a couple feet in chops. I went down below to sleep as did Danny. Tyler stayed on watch with Bryan at the helm.
Bryan said it was a choppy ride out with south southwest to southerly wind of fifteen knots or more and three or four foot chops all the way out. The visibility was clear until Bryan was outside of Jeffrey's Ledge. We had fog for the rest of the trip out and for most of the day. The fog only left us during the last couple hours of the fishing but not completely. I left the running lights on all day, something I have never done before. The wind only really blew for the trip out. By daylight, we have very little wind and very little current. The light tide stayed with us all day. We saw about ten minutes of very light rain. Otherwise, we had mostly clear skies or times of fog deep enough to not be able to see the sky. During the late afternoon, when the fog did clear, we had blue skies, zero wind, a flat calm ocean and good visibility. The last hour of fishing saw a northeast wind arise. Wind speeds started at about ten knots and ramped up to fifteen knots with wind streaks before we left to head back to Perkins Cove. It looked for all the world that the northeast wind was going to be a significant part of our weather on the ride back in. It wasn't. After about ten miles, it started to peter out. We had very light easterly wind and one light rain shower with ten miles to go.
The highest air temperature that I saw was 79°F. Mostly the air temperature was 72°F to 74°F. The surface water temperature was the coldest at the furthest point of fishing. The highest it got out there was 57°F. This is way too cold for blue sharks. And it was one of the only times we haven't seen blue sharks on this trip. Further inside, in the area where we last fished, the surface water temperature got up to 65°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 88°F. In Boston, MassachuThsetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 94°F (with a low of 68°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 90°F (with a low of 70°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 85°F (with a low of 64°F).
The fishing was excellent. We had a few dogfish here and there but they were very spotty. Some places we fished had no dogfish only a mile from places where I thought there were a bit too many for my liking. The weather was great and certainly not what was predicted by any online service. The tide was light. The catching was excellent in most places. Landings were very good to excellent overall. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. Legal landings also forty-four cusk, thirty-four white hake, one monkfish, forty-two pollock and six redfish. Released fish included only six small cod (amazing that we find so few cod in places where they were the most prevalent species when fishing these same areas in the past), eight cusk, fourteen sub-legal haddock, fifty-eight small pollock (near as I could figure) and fifty-three dogfish. There could have been more dogfish but not many more. We alternated between drifting and anchoring. We were far more successful with the haddock on anchor. All terminal gear worked well.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook. Contenders included Dick Lyle (NY), Steve Selmer (NH), Bryan Lewer, Steve LaPlante (CT) and Jonathan "Griff" Griffin (MA). Roger Gavin (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 50 pound Maine state trophy white hake. This is his largest hake ever and the Bunny Clark's largest white hake of the fishing season to date. We haven't seen any white hake this season yet. Going way offshore certainly helped in that department. Roger also won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 42 pound Maine state trophy white hake. This becomes the Bunny Clark's second largest hake of the fishing season so far. Roger also caught the largest pollock of the trip at 14.5 pounds. Ray Westermann (MA) won the boat pool for the third largest fish with the third largest fish, a 38 pound Maine state trophy white hake. This becomes the Bunny Clark's third largest white hake of the fishing season to date. I took a picture of Ray holding his big hake. This digital image appears on the left. Some of his other special fish included a 15 pound Maine state trophy cusk, the Bunny Clark's fourth largest cusk of the season so far, a 20 pound white hake and a 17.5 pound white hake. As I consider the "Ultra" our best trip (and my most favorite trip) of the season, I decided to take Captain Ian Keniston's Bunny Clark hoodie on the trip with us for good luck. He left it at the house at some point last fall. I only discovered that it was his when I looked it over this spring! And I have no idea under what circumstances it was left with us! At one point during today's trip, Ray donned this sweatshirt while he fished, on a sentimental basis. We both agreed that Ian was our most favorite captain, present company included!
Other Angler Highlights: Both Dick Lyle and Steve Selmer caught over their bag limit of haddock. There might have been a couple other anglers who caught the limit as well. I know that Karen Atwood (VT) caught a few but I didn't get an actual count. And Dave Miller (MA) caught a lot of haddock as well. Dick and Steve have always traditionally counted theirs as they know that I would like to know. I measure a successful trip by their results. If they don't catch fish, I am definitely doing something wrong; they are just too good at this game. Dick's largest fish was a 24.5 pound white hake. Some of his other fish included a 19 pound cusk, the Bunny Clark's second largest cusk of the fishing season to date, an 18.5 pound white hake, a 5.5 pound haddock and the largest haddock of the trip, weighing in at 6.5 pounds. Steve Selmer had the most trophy fish of the trip. His largest was a 36 pound Maine state trophy white hake, the Bunny Clark's fourth largest hake of the fishing season to date. He also landed a 28.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake, a 25 pound Maine state trophy white hake, a 28 pound Maine state trophy white hake, a 33.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake, a 33 pound Maine state trophy white hake and a 15 pound white hake. Dave Miller landed a 12.5 pound Maine state trophy cusk, a tie for the Bunny Clark's fifth largest cusk of the fishing season so far. Dave also caught the second largest haddock of the trip at 5.75 pounds. It was only a couple weeks ago that he caught an 8 pound Maine state trophy haddock with me.
Griff started off the fishing by boating a 27 pound Maine state trophy cusk, the first fish in the boat! This is, by far, the largest cusk of the Bunny Clark fishing season to date. But it's also one of our biggest cusk all time, at least in the top twenty. Not only that, I believe he has caught two other cusk with me that were bigger than that! He's an excellent fisherman. His largest hake weighed 22.5 pounds. He caught a lot of fish.
Bryan Lewer tied with himself for the Bunny Clark's sixth largest white hake of the season so far. Today he caught two 34 pound Maine state trophy white hake. Some of his other fish included a 32 pound Maine state trophy white hake, an 18 pound white hake and a 20.5 pound white hake. Steve LaPlante caught the Bunny Clark's fifth largest hake (so far) of the fishing season by boating a 34.5 pounder today. Some of his other fish included a 25.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake, a 28.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake and a 32 pound Maine state trophy white hake. Steve also caught eight or nine cusk in a row, in short order, a lot of haddock and his share of the pollock.
Scott Leavitt (NH) caught our second largest monkfish of the season today. It weighed only 7 pounds, certainly large enough to make a meal for two with the fish. I took a picture of Scott holding his goosefish. This digital image appears on the upper right. Scott's largest fish was a 33 pound Maine state trophy white hake. This is the largest hake that he has ever caught. I kick myself for not taking a picture of the fish. Pete Atwood (VT) caught a 26 pound Maine state trophy hake, his biggest fish. But, he too, caught a lot of fish today, as experts do. Bill Harding (ME), Jonny Bravo (ME/RI) and Chris Albert (ME) managed to avoid any massive hake that were underneath them today. They all caught fish, of course. And the present is no reflection of their past performances - which is why they were invited in the first place. both Bill and Chris caught a 5.5 pound haddock each.
It's tradition that Dave Miller gives me a $30.00 donation after every Ultra he attends to sponsor me in the Pan-Mass Challenge. Today was no different, making sure that he had a word with me on the way back in. Dave (and his wife JoAnn) has supported me, sponsored me, built me up, cheered me on and promoted me since I started this cancer project in 2007. The $30.00 is a represented token of all the effort that goes into making the world a better place. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and support, Dave. It means a lot to me, as you know.
We never saw another drop of rain again today. The sky was mostly cloudy all day. Later, the sky was clear in patches with clouds. The wind blew up to about eight knots out of the northeast in the early part of the morning but petered out after 9:00 AM. I guess the wind was somewhere out of the east all day. But you could hardly tell, the wind was so light. The ocean along the shore was calm all day. I never did see any wave action on the surface from the shoreline. The air temperature reached a high of 76°F. It was a very comfortable day today with perfect air temperatures (mostly around 70°F) and light wind. In Boston, MassachuThsetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 71°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 78°F (with a low of 67°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of 64°F).
I did a lot of work on the computer today, went to the restaurant a couple of times but only stayed at the restaurant for an extended period of only two hours. I was tired all day. I decided to go home and watch the PSG/Real Madrid, Club World Soccer Cup game only to fall asleep and wake up at 6:30 PM. I never did see the score of the game. I had to look online to see who actually won it. There was no surprise, for me, with the winner.
The only other thing I did today was to prepare for tomorrow's extreme day trip.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 64°F, the sky was overcast, it was drizzling rain, there had been a steady rain earlier in the morning, there was barely enough wind out of the east to blow out a candle and the visibility over the ocean was very good, at least.
The sky was overcast when we poked our nose out through the gate to head to the fishing grounds. It remained overcast. It started to rain about a half hour from our destination. It continued to rain until we got there. Seas were a foot or two in chops pushed by an eight knot easterly breeze. The air temperature stayed at 68°F the whole ride out, until we pulled the side curtains. The visibility was excellent. The surface water temperature maintained a value of 65°F.
On the fishing grounds, the wind stayed out of the east or northeast at five to eight knots all day. Seas remained at a foot or two in chops. It rained for the first three hours of fishing. We had light sprinkles after that. Then, no rain. Despite the rain, the visibility ranged to over twenty-five miles. The air temperature stayed at 65°F for the whole time. Surprisingly, the tide was light all day. The surface water temperature hung out at 65°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 70°F. In Boston, MassachuThsetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 67°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 74°F (with a low of 63°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 67°F (with a low of 60°F).
The fishing was excellent if you didn't include the dogfish. The weather was perfect, the tide was light, the tangles were few and the sea state was great. The catching was excellent if you included the dogfish. Landings were good, no better, no worse. Most legal fish landed were cusk, by far. Legal landings also included twenty-two haddock, four pollock, seventeen redfish and four whiting. Released fish included about one hundred and fifty dogfish (more or less), eight sub-legal redfish, four small cod, twenty-four sub-legal haddock and ten small pollock. We tried drifting a couple of times. It wasn't feasible. We were most successful anchoring. All terminal gear caught fish. Bait worked best.
I honestly could not tell you who was high hook with the most legal fish today. It was probably Hal Flanagan (MA); he caught the most cusk! Juan Lopez (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 9 pound cusk. The second largest fish was a 7.25 pound cusk caught by Charlie Hamilton (NH). There was a tie for the third largest fish at 7 pounds, both cusk. Hal Flanagan caught one, while Bruce Fletcher (NH) caught the other. Hal also caught a 6 pound cusk that I weighed earlier. Bruce did the same, a 6 pound cusk caught earlier.
Other Angler Highlights: Joey Marks (VT) caught some of the largest redfish we have seen, just shy of trophy size. He fished on the bow. Junior Ebank (JA) caught the first fish that I could weigh, a 5 pound cusk. Bruce Andersen (FL) caught a 6.25 pound cusk.
I received a generous $100.00 donation from Bruce Andersen sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge after the trip today. It's actually more of a donation than that as he put another $100.00 into my Venmo account that I didn't know I started a few years ago! I still have to figure out how to get the money out and to Dana-Farber! All in due time. Thank you, Bruce, for your patience, generosity and support. I do really appreciate this!
Danny DellaMonica and I ran the extreme day trip today.At 4:30 AM EDT the air temperature was 61°F, the sky was overcast, it wasn't raining, there was zero wind and the visibility over the ocean was poor in dense fog.
It was another easy ride to the fishing grounds. I thought we would be socked in with fog on the ride out. It was foggy enough along the shore to make me feel that way. However, soon after we cleared the cans, the fog disappeared. The visibility was excellent for the rest of the day. The sky was overcast.The air temperature stayed at the 65°F value the whole way, once we got a couple miles offshore. The wind was light out of the east with, maybe, a one foot chop. We carried a surface water temperature of 64°F.
On the grounds, the wind remained light out of the east or northeast. Seas were chops of a foot to fairly calm. We did have a bit of a hubble under the calm surface, probably left over two foot chops from a wind offshore or earlier that I wasn't aware of. An hour before departure, the wind hauled out of the southeast. Wind speeds were about five knots or more with a one foot chop. The air temperature reached a high of 69°F. The tide (current) was light. The sky was overcast with the occasional peek at the sun through the clouds. The visibility ranged to about twenty miles in some haze. The surface water temperature reached a high of 66°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was reported to be 75°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 75°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 85°F (with a low of 63°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 72°F (with a low of 60°F).
The fishing was very good. The weather and sea state were excellent. We did have dogfish but not as many as we had yesterday. There were some spots where we only saw one or two. The catching was very good, excellent if you included the dogfish. Landings were good, better than yesterday. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. We managed to stay away from the cusk today. The pollock were a new feature in the places we fished today; new recruits! I was happily surprised. Legal landings also included twelve cusk, twenty haddock, six white hake, a mud hake, seven redfish, seven mackerel and seven whiting. Released fish included one 7.5 pound cod, twenty-seven small cod, forty-two sub-legal haddock, thirty-eight sub-legal pollock, eleven sub-legal redfish, eighty-five or so dogfish, a couple mackerel, three sculpins and a sea raven. The anchor stayed aboard today; we drift fished every spot. All terminal gear worked well today.
I really believe that Brian Murphy (NH) was high hook with the most legal fish, a count of eleven. His largest fish was the 7.5 pound cod. One of his pollock weighed 5.5 pounds. I don't think that that pollock was his biggest pollock. Marion "Merv" Murphy (NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 13 pound white hake. This is only the second trip that we have seen any white hake and the first time we have seen white hake so close to shore. They weren't everywhere, just the one spot where we drifted off a little deeper. Merv was probably second hook with nine legal fish. There was a tie for the second largest fish at 10.5 pounds. There were two. Ali LeFlamme (ME) caught a 10.5 pound pollock, the last fish of the trip. Ben Buesser (NH) caught a 10.5 pound cusk. Ali's pollock is the largest pollock that she has caught so far. I took a picture of her holding her best pollock. This digital picture appears on the right.
Other Angler Highlights: Greg Kidd (ME) was right up there with numbers of legal fish and could also have been high hook. I didn't get a count from him. Nor did he care. His best fish was a 3.75 pound Maine state trophy whiting. This is the Bunny Clark's largest whiting of the fishing season to date. I took a picture of Greg holding his prize silver hake. This digital image appears on the left. Dan Kirby (VT) caught a 6.5 pound white hake. His largest pollock weighed 9.5 pounds. James Fowler (ME) caught a white hake that weighed 8.5 pounds. Laura Parker (NH) landed a 7.5 pound pollock. Dan Nguyen (MA) didn't start off the day very well. He used bait and caught dogfish, after dogfish. I expected better out of him after being absent for six years. It wasn't until he switched to a jig stick and went up in the bow that he caught fish, and did very well for the limited time that he fished there. Jim Mailea (MA) would have been proud!
I spent the day at the restaurant. I had several employee meetings today along with talking to our patrons and working with the managers. All was good. And it was busier than I had anticipated with the weather we had today.
After coming back from the fishing trip on Friday night, I popped the engine hatch, as I always do after a trip, to go over the engine. In the engine pan, at the front of the engine, there was some greenish water. A coolant leak? I tasted the water to see if it was coolant. There was a hint of a coolant (sweet) taste but didn't seem like it. With Danny at the controls, I climbed around the engine room looking for leaks. I found a raw water line that had popped a hose clamp. There was a steady drip of sea water going under the engine. That was certainly the problem. We have clamps on the boat, which Danny found and passed to me while I was in the engine room. I suspected that the green color was from coolant that was contained in the oil soak pads that I keep under the engine to collect the oil. Some coolant got under the engine the last time Cody, from Power Products, was here. But I wanted to check the engine today to make sure that the coolant level was still where I left it when I checked it yesterday morning. It was. And there was no more water under the front of the engine. It's always something.
The fog hung around for most of the morning. But there was less fog close to shore than yesterday. We did see a fog bank offshore all day. So it was probably foggy outside. The wind became light out of the south by 7:00 AM. After noon, the southerly wind picked up to about ten knots, backed out of the southeast and increased to about fifteen knots and then came back out of a south southeast direction. Wind speeds seemed to stay at fifteen knots through the afternoon. The sky was mostly overcast all day with the very occasional peek at the sun. The visibility, as I said, was good along the shore in the afternoon but only fair or poor offshore. The highest air temperature that I saw was 75°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 78°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 87°F (with a low of 65°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 74°F (with a low of 63°F).
I worked exclusively with the restaurants today. I had a lot of book work to complete. I had a few meetings. And I had a lot of patrons to talk to. Everything went very well today. We have lost a couple of kitchen people at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. Restaurant business is always a challenge.
The salient feature of the day was the wind. It blew out of the south all day at fifteen knots, more or less. It irked me as all I could think about was the rough ride we were going to have tonight on the ride to the fishing grounds. It only stopped blowing when a range of thunder showers came through around 8:00 PM. The sky was mostly sunny in the beginning of the day but mostly overcast after noon. It was a hazy day with visibility enough that I would call "good". The high air temperature for the day was 80°F in the Cove. The humidity wasn't bad. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 83°F (with a low of 67°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 90°F (with a low of 69°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 64°F).
I spent limited time in the restaurant today as I wanted to some rest before the overnighter that was coming up on the Bunny Clark. I completed some desk work I wanted to finish. I talked to as many patrons as I had time for. And I worked with the managers on a couple of items that caught my attention. But I made it home by 2:30 PM, so I could get a nap and have something to eat at 5:00 PM. After that I had to work on my game plan.
At 9:30 PM, I met Danny DellaMonica and Tyler Carpenter at the our house to start the process of getting ready to sail. By 10:30 PM, all the anglers were aboard, Danny and Tyler were getting everything ship shape and I was going home to complete the process.
We left the dock at 11:00 PM. I wanted to start everyone fishing before sunrise. As normal, I took the wheel until all the pool money was collected and everyone knew what they wanted to fish with. Danny is the key to that part of the operation. Once I was satisfied, Bryan "Salty" Lewer, my second captain, took the wheel. I crashed in my bunk under the companionway.
It was a fairly choppy ride out to the fishing grounds. There was a lot of left over slop from the wind blowing all day out of the south. I gave us enough time, leaving when I did, to go easier in order to make it more comfortable. Coming out of the channel last night required all the electronics. There was enough ground fog to make it impossible to run through it visually. It was the same on the way to the fishing grounds at times. When Bryan gave me the wheel with five miles to go, the visibility was good. The sky was overcast. The air temperature 73°F. Seas were two feet in, mostly, left over chops. The wind was light out of the southwest.
On the fishing grounds, the wind stayed out southwest for the first part of the morning. Seas dropped to about a foot without the stronger wind of yesterday. We might have had five knots of southwest wind in the morning. Eventually, the wind hauled out of the south southwest and remained so until we got home. The wind got up as high as eight knots but not until we left the grounds. The sky was overcast for most of the morning with sun breaking out for part of the morning and for the middle afternoon. Betweent times it was foggy. The air temperature rose to a high of 79°F. The tide was strong to start, counter to the wind and light in the afternoon. The visibility ranged from poor to fifteen miles or more, depending on the time of day. The surface water temperature reached a high of 69.3°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 87°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 89°F (with a low of 74°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 92°F (with a low of 67°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 85°F (with a low of 67°F).
The object of the trip was to find and catch halibut. The finding has been easy this season. The catching has been something else altogether. But, today, we were much luckier. By 5:00 AM, Mark Girard (NH) had already hooked into a halibut. Before sunrise, he already had it in the boat! mission accomplished!
Because I stayed with the plan, the catching, overall, was no better than good. I sacrificed quantity for the hopes of catching quality fish. The fishing was excellent; there were few dogfish, the weather was perfect and the sea state was great. Abeit, the drift was too slow for over an hour. It's amazing to think that it could have been a more productive halibut day. But to what end? Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. Legal landings also included a halibut, thirty-three cusk, a monkfish, twelve pollock and a redfish. Released fish included twelve cusk, thirty-two sub-legal haddock, four halibut, seventeen pollock, sixty three dogfish and three wolffish. We drift fished and anchored. All terminal gear worked well today but bait caught the most dogfish.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook with the most legal fish. I really couldn't. Mark Girard won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 56.5 pound halibut, the first fish in the boat. Luckily, it was the largest halibut of the trip. This is Mark's first Atlantic halibut and the Bunny Clark's second largest halibut of the fishing season so far. I took a picture of Mark holding this special fish. This digital image showing the underside of the fish appears on the left. Bill Harding (ME) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 52.5 pound halibut. A quick pic and a weigh and over she went. At least I think it was a she. This is the largest halibut Bill had caught out of the six he has caught with me. His second largest halibut was a 32 pounder that he boated and released with me last season. Anthony Palumbo (MA), one of the best deck hands I have ever had (he worked for me for a couple of seasons) the pleasure to work with, caught the third largest fish, a 45 pound halibut. This is the Bunny Clark's fourth largest halibut of the season so far. As a curtesy, he did not enter any of the boat pools today, although I had encouraged him to do so. This is the first halibut he has ever caught. I invited him aboard yesterday specifically for this reason. One of my other patrons, who was supposed to be on this trip today, Donna Moran, texted me to tell me that she had Covid and wasn't going to make the trip. Anthony had been trying to get on a trip with me all season but the boat was always booked, the result of too few trips a week. I was so happy Anthony got his halibut and was able to get a picture with it before it was gone.
Steve LaPlante (CT) won the boat pool for the third largest fish with the fourth largest fish, a 23 pound barndoor skate. This is the only barndoor skate that Steve has ever caught, the Bunny Clark's largest barndoor skate of the season to date and the second barndoor caught today! I took a picture of him holding this skate before it was released alive. This digital image appears on the right. Steve lost the largest halibut of the day. It was a massive fish that we never got to see. It made several runs to bottom. Just when we thought we would see it, it made a run and gapped the hook! Because of his position on the boat, I never even got to see a signature on the sounding machine! He also caught the second largest wolffish of the trip, a 10 pounder. Steve Selmer (NH) caught the first barndoor skate of the day (season). His fish weighed 18 pounds. Steve caught the third largest wolffish at 8 pounds. His largest haddock weighed 5 pounds.
Other Angler Highlights: Dave Burton (MA) could have been high hook today (as could have Mark Girard and a few others). It would be impossible for me to say. His biggest fish was a 20.5 pound halibut which I took a quick picture of (and a weight) before he released the fish back to the ocean alive. This is the Bunny Clark's fifth largest halibut of the fishing season. He caught the largest wolffish of the trip, an 11.5 pounder, the largest wolffish that he has ever caught. His biggest haddock weighed 4.5 pounds. Bryan Lewer caught the largest pollock at 12 pounds. His biggest haddock weighed 4 pounds. Dick Lyle (NY) may also have been high hook. I couldn't tell. Lewis Hazelwood (MA) caught the largest haddock at 6 pounds. Don Johnson (MA) caught a lot of haddock today. His biggest weighed 5 pounds. Buzz Leonard's caught an 11 pound monkfish today, the Bunny Clark's largest goosefish of the season to date. His largest haddock weighed 4.5 pounds. Tom Lewis (ME) and Pete Atwood were here today. Although their big fish catch was not significant, they did catch plenty of fish and Mark shared halibut with everyone aboard - including me!
I received several donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. The anglers and their donations included: Mark Girard for a generous $100.00 with the quote: "[A donation] to keep Ian's [Captain Ian Keniston] memory alive." Dave Burton for another $50.00 donation "for the cause". Don Johnson gave another $50.00 donation. Kristin Bullwinkel (MA) came down to the boat to give me a generous $100.00 donation. She had told me that she missed her opportunity to help two years ago. It had been on her mind since and wanted to make up for it! Ed LaPlante (MA) also gave his annual $50.00 donation. Thank you all so very much for the support that you give me and the help that you give so many others. It's important to me. But it's very important to those who benefit from the research and the researchers themselves. And who knows, it may help one of us!
The fog left us early this morning. By 8:00 AM, we had no fog along the shore. The fog may have been offshore. But I wasn't there to see it. Indeed, if the fog was there it was a long way off. The wind blew out of the southeast or some version of that. The wind was light; never blowing over six knots. The visibility ranged from very good to excellent. The sky was cloudless nearly all morning. The sun was out all day. The air temperature stayed in the lower 80s today near the shore and around the restaurant. There was very little humidity. If there was, I certainly didn't feel it. The breeze was just enough around the deck at Barnacle Billy's and the garden patio to be absolutely lovely. Or maybe I just felt that way after the great fishing trip we had yesterday. Portsmouth, New Hampshire showed a temperature value of 91°F at 2:00 PM. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 95°F (with a low of 71°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 95°F (with a low of 62°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 89°F (with a low of 67°F).
I laid low for a bit today. I went into the restaurant but it wasn't crazy busy so it seemed to match how I felt. I spent some time in the office working on sales figures. But I spent a lot of time on the floor, talking to patrons. I received a lot of nice texts from yesterday's anglers.
Back at it again tomorrow.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 71°F at the house and 70°F at the boat, the sky was cloudless, there wasn't enough wind to write about, the ocean along the shore was flat calm and the visibility over over it seemed very good in some haze. More later.
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