Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Friday, September 25, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT
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Note: Note: The new fishing regulations for cod and haddock in the Western Gulf of Maine for the 2026 appear below. These regulations were approved for the season starting on April 1, 2026 and will extend until May 1, 2027.
Gulf of Maine cod
Gulf of Maine haddock
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 63°F, the sky was clear with stars and a waxing gibbous moon just behind the trees in the west, the wind was blowing out of the northwest at eight knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
There was a little left over rolling chop, apparently, from yesterday. But it was more noticeable when we first cleared the gate than it was further out. We had lost the moon completely by the time we entered the open ocean. The wind was very light from the west the whole ride to the fishing grounds. The ocean was calm. At the eight mile mark, we had an air temperature 63°F and a surface water temperature of 66°F. The visibility was excellent. The sky was clear with stars and few clouds.
On the fishing grounds, the wind was light from the west. The ocean was calm with ripples. We had a long rolling sea swell of three feet all day. After noon, the wind backed out of the southwest. We had ten knots of southwest wind on the last drift of the day. Seas were a foot in chops over the swell I already mentioned. The highest air temperature was 72°F. The visibility ranged to over twenty-five miles in some haze. The tide (current) was light. The sky was clear with scattered clouds. The surface water temperature reached a high of 66°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 80°F. 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 79°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 57°F).
The fishing was excellent, the catching was excellent and landings were very good to excellent. We did have some dogfish in the morning and a few blue sharks but never saw another shark species of any kind after 11:00 AM. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. In fact, starting later morning, most of the legal pollock were returned back to the ocean alive except for some of the pollock over 8 pounds. Legal landings also included twenty-three haddock, seven squid, twenty-three cusk, seven redfish and twenty-nine mackerel. Released fish included four cod from 6 to 8 pounds, twenty-one small cod, five blue sharks with jewelry, twenty-five dogfish, one sub-legal haddock, seventeen sub-legal pollock, close to forty legal pollock, six sub-legal redfish and eleven mackerel. We drift fished and anchored. We caught our biggest fish on anchor, our most fish drifting. Jigs and cod flies caught the most fish.
On one drift we had an ocean sunfish hang around the boat. We had the same thing happen on a trip last week. Today's fish was in such a perfect location with respect to the sun that I couldn't resist taking a picture of it with my iPhone 16 camera. This digital image appears on the right.
Neil Feldman (NJ) was high hook with the most legal fish by far. He's never going to have enough cooler space for all the fillets with the coolers he brought with him. He caught three legal haddock that I know of. His largest fish was a 9 pound pollock. Steve Laflam (VT), who is usually in the running for high hook, got off to a slow start. He slammed them late morning and in the afternoon. But, by then, it was too late to best Neil.
Bob Nason (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 15 pound pollock. At forty-one inches caliper fork length, it's our longest pollock of the fishing season so far. I took a picture of gorgeous Bob holding this long pollock. This digital image appears on the left. Bob also caught the largest cusk at 8.5 pounds. I weighed an 8 pound pollock for him earlier in the day. Gerald "Jr" Drochu (ME) would have boated a bigger pollock had he not lost the fish to a blue shark earlier in the day! Jr won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the third largest fish, a 10 pound pollock. The second largest fish was a 12.5 pound pollock caught by Todd Martin (ME). Todd did not enter the boat pool, either one.
Other Angler Hightlights: Cliff Gilman (ME) caught an 8 pound pollock early that I weighed when I was trying to find a pool fish. Joe Snide (NY) also caught an 8 pound pollock early. He also caught an 8 pound cusk. Alan Marden (ME) started by catching the bottom of the ocean. On the third snag, I could not get his jig back. A miracle happened after I gave him another jig: he caught fish! And lots of them. His largest was a 9 pound pollock. Samuel Martin (ME) caught an 8.5 pound pollock. Larry Lawrence (NY) didn't keep a legal pollock, although he caught quite a few. He wanted a haddock. He finally caught one with an hour to go in the trip. One! Larry last fished with me sixteen years ago. He used to charter the boat for many years with his crew from the Old Forge area. I loved that crew. Many many good memories and a lot of big fish!
I received three donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drve with the Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event to raise money to support a team of scientists who specialize in genetic profiling. These donors and their donations included Larry Lawrence for $50.00, Steve Laflam for $40.00 and Todd Martin for $20.00. Thank you all so very very much for the support and your generosity. It means so much to so many. And I certainly appreciate it.
It was a wonderful weather day today, all day. By 8:00 AM through until after 10:00 AM, there wasn't a breath of wind. The ocean along the shore was glassy calm. There was no wave action along the beach either. Wind spots appeared on the ocean after that. But it wasn't until after noon that we started to see any wind to write about. The wind direction was south when it finally showed up. But it never blew more than ten knots a mile or more offshore. Along the shore, and in Perkins Cove, the wind was out of the southwest at ten knots with higher gusts. This is typical with a southerly wind just offshore. We never saw more wind than that. The sky stayed clear all day. The visibility remained excellent. The highest air temperature that I saw was 76°F at home at 12:15 PM. In Portsmouth, usually a mirror of Ogunquit air temperatures in the early morning, the air temperature reached a high of 77°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 78°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 84°F (with a low of 52°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 81°F (with a low of 59°F).
Writing up the fishing report takes longer now that I don't have my old computer up and running. I will have to work on this over the winter. Right now I'm happy to have my old laptop. At least I can do it. It just takes longer. So I spent a fair amount of time doing that until 8:00 AM.
The rest of the day was restaurant stuff and getting me and the Bunny Clark ready to sail tomorrow. Nothing very exciting to write about.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 66°F, the sky was clear with some clouds and a nearly full moon high over the trees in the southeast sky, there wasn't enough wind to write about in Perkins Cove and the visibility over the ocean was very good in some haze.
We had very little wind on the ride to the fishing grounds. The wind was from the south but it wasn't much. The moon set behind us on the way out but left the stars until we couldn't see them anymore. The air temperature and the surface water temperature at the gate were both 65.8°F as we passed through to the open ocean. The visibility was very good. At the sixteen mile mark, the air temperature was 69°F and the surface water temperature was 67°F. It wasn't flat calm but there was a short roll, making it seem like there was a chop.
On the fishing grounds, the wind was out of the south at six knots to start. There was really no sea except for a long three foot swell. The wind kept moving clockwise until it settled in out of the south southwest. The wind was about ten knots around noon with a one foot chop. This wind increased to twelve knots or more on the last drift of the day. Seas were chops of about two feet. The air temperature reached a high of 72°F. The tide (current) was light to moderate. The sky was mostly sunny with cloud patches. The visibility ranged to twenty-five miles, more or less. The surface water temperature reached a high of 67°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 83°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 85°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of 58°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 78°F (with a low of 61°F).
The fishing was really excellent, the catching was excellent and landings were very good to excellent. We did have more dogfish than normal. But when we started to get more dogs, the bite was off and it was time to move anyway. There were just about no dogfish during the last half of the day. We only saw a couple of blue sharks and only in the early part of the morning. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. We really couldn't get away from them. Legal landings also included four cusk, forty-one haddock to 4.75 pounds, three redfish, a cunner and thirty or so mackerel. Released fish included thirty-eight small cod, three cod over 6 pounds, four sub-legal haddock, fifteen sub-legal pollock, fifty-nine dogfish and two blue sharks with jewelry. We drift fished the whole day. Jigs and cod flies caught the most fish.
Liam Jenks (MA) and Ryan Schwartz (FL) were both high hook today. If everyone had the frequency of catch that those two did, we would have had too many fish or we would have been back at the dock by noon. For them, it was a fish a drop/cast all day long. It was actually pretty fun to watch. Liam's two biggest fish included a 10.5 pound pollock and an 11 pound pollock. I weighed a 9 pound pollock for Ryan.
Nick Longo (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 17 pound barndoor skate. He caught a lot of fish but this was, by far, his biggest fish. He and Jeff Corey (MA) were fishing side by side up in the bow pulpit. They both released a lot of legal pollock back to the ocean alive. I took a picture of Nick holding his big skate before releasing it back to the ocean alive. This digital image appears on the left. Jeff's biggest fish was an 11.25 pound pollock. Mark Majewsky (MN) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 13.5 pound pollock. There was a tie for the third largest fish at 12 pounds. There were two, both pollock. Mark caught one and Klajdi Isaku (Albania) caught the other. I took a picture of Klajdi holding an earlier catch of pollock (he was fishing in the bow), a double, that included a 10 pound pollock and a 7 pound pollock, both fish caught on the same line at the same time. This digital image appears on the right.
Other Angler Highlights: Bob Kent (ME) caught a 10 pound pollock right off the bat this morning. Joe Jenks (MA) caught an 11.75 pound pollock. Dana Decormier (NH) boated a 10.5 pound pollock, his biggest fish. His son, Jack Decormier (NH) was high hook for the first two hours of the day. This gave him a huge jump on fish count with a lot of doubles. Bruce Fuller (ME) caught a 10 pound pollock.
I received four donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising project with the Pan-Mass Challenge today. Those donors and their donations included: Cliff Gilman (NH) for a generous $100.00, Nick Longo for $50.00, Jeff Corey for $40.00 (along with a few other $40.00 donations this season already!) and the Dana Decormier Family for $25.00. Thank you all so very much for the support and your kindness. It always feels like it's a personal thing. It is for me, only because I am close to a few with the disease and who are still alive because of Dana-Farber. And, of course, there are a top notch group of scientists with proven results who you are supporting. So thanks again!
By mid morning we still had clouds but it never threatened rain. They were talking about a line of showers showing up around 3 or 4 PM. But the sky, at that time, had the least cloud cover of any time before it this day. After 4:00 PM, the sky was mostly clear with few clouds. Essentially, the sky was overcast until 3:00 PM, when it started to clear. The visibility became excellent after noon. There was very little wind all morning. The ocean along the shore was flat calm. The wind became established out of the south after noon. By 1:00 PM, we had six knots of southerly wind coming across the parking lot. The most wind that I saw was nine knots in the afternoon. The highest air temperature that I saw was 83°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 83°F (with a low of 70°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 87°F (with a low of 64°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 80°F (with a low of 66°F).
As I tell you every Friday, Friday is the day I open the restaurants. I usually get down there at 4:30 AM, put the dog in the Bunny Clark truck, drive down, spent a half hour getting lights on and things ready. When done, I walk the dog home. That wasn't the case this morning. Try as I might, I could not get Gill interested in going down in the truck with me. I tempted him with milk bones, I used different voice levels (all of them), I tried to pick him up. He just wouldn't budge. So I went down on my own. And it's probably a good thing.
At 5:15 AM, I had just got done pouring clam broth into the clam cooker tank. I checked the level of the broth. Then I checked the lobster cooker tank. It was half full of sea water. My first thought; "Ah, Matt forgot to fill the tank to level." Then I realized; "Wait, Matt doesn't do that!" So I checked the valve at the drain and noticed water on the floor. The copper fitting had let go. I texted Matt, as I didn't want to wake him up with a phone call that early. I called our plumber who was with his daughter getting her ready for college in North Carolina. At any rate, I never went home. Matt showed up. I showed him where the leak was. Our plumber called one of our old plumbers who, being so generous with his time, showed up and, in short, fixed the problem.
I didn't get all that I needed to get done at the restaurant before I left. Those things, except for washing down the street in front of Barnacle Billy's, were done by others. I went home, showered and shaved and got back at 12:15 PM. I left the restaurant at 6:15 PM. Early in, early out. I've got a wonderful staff behind me.
Meanwhile, on the Bunny Clark, Danny DellaMonica worked on cleaning the windows, the fishing equipment and other odd jobs, turning her into a super ship or super ship shape, so that we will be ready to go for Tuesday. When you fillet more than six hundred fish in two days, some things don't get taken care of as well as they should be, in Danny's estimation. Of course, that's my estimation too. But I would never tell him to take time off to get everything perfect. He does this on his own. It's what makes him so special and me so lucky!
It was a beautiful day. And it was Saturday, which made it even better. The visibility stayed excellent all day. The sky was mostly clear with clouds here and there. The wind, light out of the north at first, died out, leaving us with no wind and a calm ocean along the shore. After noon, the wind started up out of the south. Wind speeds picked up to over ten knots by mid-afternoon. By sunset, southerly wind speeds were fifteen knots, more or less. The air temperature rose to 77°F. This was brief. Mostly, the high was around 75°F. It was cooler with the southerly wind coming across the parking lot. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 74°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 79°F (with a low of 51°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 56°F).
I spent the morning working at home, catching up on my exercising and walking around with me favorite "climber" (No, not Danny - but it could be!) about what trees to take down, within the next two weeks, around my parent's house. We have a few big pines that are on their way out and tilting toward the house. I hate to take down the trees but I don't want to lose them in a storm, landing on the house or garage.
Gill was excited to come with me in the Bunny Clark truck to visit the Cove. After Thursday and Friday, I thought it might be the end. But, no, it was, apparently, a short break. He didn't do very well walking back to the house with me. But he was the happy sniffing dog that I have come to know and love and will miss when his time is over. I hate to think about it.
The sky was partly sunny/partly cloudy all day. Sometimes it looked like it was going to rain and, other times, it was sunny. It never did rain. The wind blew out of the southwest or west southwest in the morning starting at ten knots and maintaining eight to ten knots until noon and a bit after. By mid afternoon, the wind had hauled out of the west but dropping. By 4:00 PM, there was no wind. The ocean along the shore was calm and glassy. The offshore buoys showed more wind after that but I didn't see it; it remained the same looking from the shore. The wind was very good in some haze. The air temperature reached a high of 81°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 86°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 81°F (with a low of 51°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 79°F (with a low of 56°F).
The main focus of this morning was to meet a crew from Patton's Landscaping and direct them to move about four hundred of my lobster traps from behind my parent's house to the end of the property so I could get some heavy machinery in there to take down eight trees. I also had bait barrels and the like to move with the traps. It took two guys over four hours to do this, maybe five. I kept going up and checking on the progress. They got up there a little after 9:00 AM.
Before that, earlier, I moved the Bunny Clark truck to Perkins Cove with Gill. He was excited to go, unlike a couple days previously. And he did okay. His walking is about the same but he seemed to enjoy himself, sniffing around as he followed me on the walk home. I never need a leash on him anymore, not that "I" ever did. Deb has always used a leash.
The rest of the day was spent at the restaurants. It was a good day, a beautiful day in Perkins Cove. I got home after 6:00 PM.
It really felt like a warm fall day to me. There was zero humidity, the visibility was excellent all day and the highest air temperature that I saw was 74°F. The wind blew out of the northwest at about eight knots during the daylight morning. Then it blew out of the east for a short period of time in the later part of the morning. After noon, it was blowing out of the south offshore but blowing out of the northwest in Perkins Cove. The wind speed was ten knots in the Cove. By 4:00 PM, the wind in the Cove was out of the southwest, enough to lift a flag and then some or ten knots. The sky was nearly cloudless all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 73°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of ?°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of ?°F).
I was dreaming of getting the boat ready when I woke up at 1:45 this morning. I flew out of bed, thinking I was late to get to the boat. I grabbed my phone and thought about all the things I didn't get ready the night before! I have a special pair of shorts where I have my belt and accessories in place that wasn't in place, my coffee not ready, etc., etc. Then I realized that it was Monday. I was so wound up that I decided to get back into bed and read, hopefully, to get back to sleep. That lasted about twenty minutes and I decided to get up for the day. I usually get up at 3:00 AM anyway so it really wasn't that much earlier. It's funny; I had the hardest time trying to figure out why my alarm didn't go off. I don't usually need it but have it as a backup. I guess it really doesn't go off if you set it up for a day later!
I did get a lot more done with the early start this morning. I had the normal boat stuff to get ready; some of the items I just mentioned and more. Also, Gill was ready to go to the Cove with me this morning. And, I have to say, he did really well. We took our time getting home. He accomplished two different types of nature breaks, which was important and appeared in the typed up report to my wife. She needs the details. Of course, she is concerned about the dog's health.
I had a meeting at 8:30 AM with a former employee who wanted to work at the restaurant starting in the next day or so. I had some items of interest that I needed to go over with him. That went well and was no more than twenty minutes.
I worked on the fishing report after that and got to the restaurant ready to work before noon. It was an expected slower day. But it was so nice on the deck at Barnacle Billy's (Original) that the table were full all day. It was the warmest place in Town. I get done at 5:00 PM so I can warm the boat engine up, move the Bunny Clark to the other side of the float and start writing part of this report so I don't have as much to do before sailing. It was a good day.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 60°F, the sky was mostly clear with a diminishing fullish moon almost to the apex of it's diurnal journey, the wind was light out of the northwest and the visibility over the ocean excellent.
Another calm departure through the gate into the open ocean and on the way to the fishing grounds. I know this calm weather is not going to last. Fall is coming. But it sure is nice while it lasts. We carried light northwest wind half way to the fishing grounds. The last half was flat glassy calm with no wind at all. The ocean was calm the whole way. A mile offshore, the air temperature was 60°F and the surface water temperature was 62°F. The air temperature improved as we got further offshore. But the water temperature only rose a degree. The sky was clear with some clouds and a partial full moon settling in the west. The visibility was nearly excellent.
On the fishing grounds, the ocean's surface was calm in the morning with, about, a one foot chop in the afternoon. The wind was light northwest to start, calm with no wind a half hour later and then light northerly for most of the rest of the morning. Around 11:00 AM, the wind hauled out of the north northeast and blew up to eight knots. This wind started to back off at 1:00 PM. By 1:30 PM, the wind had let go and the fog moved in. The visibility ranged from a tenth of a mile to a mile. The air temperature reached a high of 68°F. The tide (current) was light to moderate. The visibility ranged from over twenty miles to what we had in the fog. The sky was overcast the whole time fishing. The surface water temperature reached a high of 63°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 68°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 69°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 70°F (with a low of 58°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 72°F (with a low of 53°F).
The fishing was nearly excellent all day. We did have a few tangles, a few dogfish and a couple of blue shark attacks. The catching was excellent. Landings were good to very good. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. However, the average size was smaller than it has been. We never did get a pollock of 10 pounds or larger. We did have quite a few 8 pound pollock. Legal landings also included three cusk, fourteen haddock, fifteen white hake, fifteen redfish and ten squid. Released fish included thirteen small cod, three sub-legal haddock, twenty-eight sub-legal pollock, fifteen sub-legal redfish, a couple squid, two blue sharks with jewelry and twenty-one dogfish. We anchored once, drift fished the rest of the time. All terminal gear worked well.
I suspect that Dave Burton (MA) was high hook with the most legal fish. I don't know this for certain but he was the only angler who never got tangled and who caught a fish a cast all day long. He also won the boat pool by default. He won the boat pool for the largest fish with the second largest fish, a 26.25 pound Maine state trophy white hake. He caught a pile of pollock, most of which he released back to the ocean alive. He caught three legal haddock, two of which he gave to my wife, Deb.
Dave Struzik (VT) caught the largest fish of the trip, a 30.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake. His is the largest hake he has ever seen and, certainly, the largest white hake of his life. I took a picture of Dave holding his big hake. This digital image appears on the left. Dave did not enter the boat pool. Jim Watson (NY) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the third largest fish, a 26 pound Maine state trophy white hake.
Other Angler Hightlights: Josh DeBerardinis (TX) caught the largest redfish of the trip,a 2.5 pound Maine state trophy. This is the Bunny Clark's fifth largest redfish of the season to date. I took a picture of Josh holding said ocean perch. This digital image appears on the right. Bruce Sowards (NC) landed an 8.5 pound white hake and a 20 pound white hake, his two biggest fish. Stan Johnson (MA), who usually catches the biggest fish of the trip, didn't do so today. This was probably the most unusual and unexpected part of the day for me. He was close; he lost a big fish and landed a 19 pound white hake and a 24 pound white hake. Chris Deschambault (ME) caught the largest white hake of his life today, a 25.5 pound Maine state trophy. This was the fourth largest fish of the trip. He also caught a 10 pound white hake. Dennis Pine (NC) boated a 24 pound white hake, his biggest fish. Smoky Dorsey (NC) caught the largest cusk at 8 pounds.
I received three donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising efforts with the Pan-Mass Challenge. These donors and their donations included Dave Burton for a very generous $200.00, Lorian Lachance for $10.00 and Smoky Dorsey for $50.00. Thank you all so very very much for the support and your generosity. It means so much to so many. And I certainly appreciate it.
The wind stayed at ten knots all morning. The wind direction was northeast. After noon, the wind started to drop. There was no wind by 4:00 PM, the ocean along the shore was calm. At 4:15 PM, we saw the sun break out. A little over an hour later, the overcast sky came back. The sky was overcast all day until that break at 4:15 PM. It never rained, even though, at times, it looked like it was going to. The fog cleared away by mid morning. The visibility was very good to excellent after that. The high air temperature that I saw was 68°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 72°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 73°F (with a low of 62°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 66°F (with a low of 60°F).
I spent most of the morning working on my computer. My son, Micah, had fixed my desktop computer. But I had a lot of rearranging to do. I did get finished before noon. I still have some tinkering to do but it's good enough so that I'm back up to getting this report completed quicker and more effectively. It's like coming home. And I so appreciate what he did for me. That was so nice of him. I didn't even ask him. I also didn't realize how savvy he is around computers. Who knew?
The rest of the day I worked at the restaurants. I had quite a bit of office work today as well as writing and mailing a letter of recommendation. The second one in three days.
I received a very generous $1,000.00 donation sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge today. This huge contribution was received from Elinor Payeur and Cathy Harrison, as an "eGift" through the PMC site with the message;"In loving memory of Richard Payeur and Arnold "Harry" Harrison. Thank you, Tim!". Thank you so so much. This is so very much appreciated in so many ways. You both are the best!
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 64°F, the sky was overcast, the wind was out of the northwest at six knots in the Cove (six knots out of the southeast at the Portland Lightship buoy) and the visibility over the ocean was very good at least.
When we left the gate, headed to the fishing grounds, we had overcast skies but no rain. The rain found us half way to our destination. It rained from that point all the way until I cut the engines back. The wind was blowing out of the south southwest at fifteen knots. Just before the rain, the wind let go. There was very little wind until we arrived at the grounds. The air temperature stayed at 66°F for the whole ride out. The visibility was very good, until the rain. Good with the rain. We had a two foot chop, either active or left over. The surface water temperature stayed at 63°F almost the whole way, dropping two degrees before we arrived.
On the fishing grounds, the wind was light out of the south southeast. We had a left over old chop of about two feet. The wind increased to ten knots as the day progressed but blew no more than that. It rained almost all morning. It wasn't a hard rain. And when it wasn't actually raining, it was misting enough to make you remain in full oil gear. The rain stopped before noon. The wind started to back off. There was no wind for the last hour of fishing. We saw the sun for about a half hour. The sky was overcast all day except for that moment. The air temperature never got above 62°F while it was raining and blowing. The air temperature reached a value of 71°F before we left to go home. The tide (current) was moderate to strong. There was a time where we were barely drifting with the tide opposing the wind. The visibility ranged from a mile to fifteen miles in fog, haze and rain. The surface water temperature never got as high as 62°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 72°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 73°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 77°F (with a low of 61°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 66°F (with a low of 61°F).
The fishing was very good, barely. The stronger than normal tide made it challenging until you got the hang of it. Some didn't. We had dogfish all day but really didn't bother those without bait. And we were bothered by a few blue sharks. The catching was excellent, a fish a cast all day (if you were casting). Landings overall were very good. Some anglers had excellent landings. There were one or two anglers who only did good. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. Legal landings also included two cod, four cusk, twelve haddock, one whiting, a few squid and eighty-six mackerel. Released fish included forty-eight sub-legal cod, six sub-legal haddock, twenty-seven sub-legal pollock, forty-five dogfish and a few mackerel and squid. We drift fished mostly but did anchor twice. All terminal gear worked well but bait caught the most dogfish (and haddock).
Stan Lewkowicz (CT) and Rafal Baltyn (CT) probably shared high hook status with the most legal fish. They caught a lot of doubles, two fish on the same line at the same time. Rafal caught an 8 pound pollock as his largest fish. He also lost a halibut because the drag on his reel was maxed out. I could see the fish on the sounding machine after Danny relayed the situation. I was up in the bow when it happened; the image was just going off the machine when I looked. To me, it did look like a halibut. It came off the bottom a bit but then screamed straight down. Stan boated a 12.5 pound pollock, the highlight of his day. Nate Balboni (VT) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 21 pound pollock. He caught this fish as part of a double with another pollock of 7 pounds. The 21 pound pollock is the largest pollock that has been caught on the Bunny Clark this season so far. I took a picture of Nate holding his big pollock. This digital image appears on the left. I also weighed a 10 pound pollock for Nate. Jim Watson (NY) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish,a 19 pound pollock. This is the Bunny Clark's second largest pollock of the fishing season to date. The third largest fish was a 17 pound pollock caught by Pete Atwood (VT). Pete's pollock ties for the Bunny Clark's fifth largest pollock of the season at this time. This is Pete's largest pollock this year so far. I also weighed a 9.5 pound pollock and a 10 pound pollock for Pete. I took a picture of Pete with his biggest pollock, this digital image appears on the right.
Other Angler Hightlights: Steve LaPlante (CT) may have had a halibut on his line. It was gone before he could really tell. It really was the perfect conditions for catching a halibut. the two places we thought we had halibut on the line were places where I have caught them before. Steve's largest fish was an 8.5 pound pollock. Steve Selmer (NH) caught five haddock and a 7 pound keeper cod. He caught a lot of pollock too. But his focus today was not on pollock. Karen Atwood (VT) caught a 10.5 pound pollock, her biggest fish. Scott Miller (VT) boated an 11.5 pound pollock, his best fish. Josh DeBerardinis (TX) landed a 10 pound pollock, his biggest fish.
I received collected two donations from anglers today sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event to raise money for cancer research with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. The cycling event took place on the first Saturday of August this season. But cancer never sleeps and the fundraising will continue until December 31, 2026. Both donations were of $30.00. One was from Scott Miller. The other was from Josh DeBerardinis. Thank you both so very much for your thoughtfulness. It means a lot to me. But it will mean more to everyone in the future. I certainly appreciate the support.
We had some fog and, what looked like, overcast skies at dawn. By 7:00 AM, we saw blue sky. The fog disappeared not long after with the advent of a light west northwest wind. In fact, the rest of the morning was cloud free, pretty much. After noon, we had clouds rolling in and out. Some produced rain. This happened at least three times in Perkins Cove, probably four time. Each time the rain was a brief event dropping just enough water to wet the road surface before stopping. These clouds were part of a low system to the north of us that was spinning rain clouds into our region. This should have moved away enough as to not be a factor in tomorrow's weather. The wind started blowing out of the east at noon. This morphed into a light southeast wind that, eventually hauled out of the south and, then, southwest. The wind was never more than eight knots, that I saw. The visibility was excellent after the fog. It was a bit humid with a high air temperature of 82°F in Ogunquit. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 85°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 84°F (with a low of 63°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 80°F (with a low of 63°F).
More trouble with the computer kept me at home in the office most of the morning. The trouble was more me than computer. I have done the same thing for so many years I forgot how I got there. So I made a couple of mistakes, deleting files, and had to build up some of my storage folders again. This without really knowing if I lost some files forever. So, yes, there was a bit of frustration involved.
It was, again, Friday. Fridays seem to arrive every other day in my life as time seems to be going at warp speed. So Gill and I opened the restaurants before 5:00 AM. I had done my damage on the computer between 3:00 and 4:30 AM. So I had that on my mind. After walking the dog home, albeit, slowly, I was able to start back on the computer for a half hour before spending most of the rest of the morning at Barnacle Billy's getting set up for the day. We had a few jumbo lobsters delivered, including a 4.75 pounder. A male. This is about as big a lobster as we can have in Maine. The carapace length can't go over five inches, which limits the weight. To get one that big, it usually has to be a male with huge claws, which this one was and had. By 9:30 AM, I was back on the computer. I did manage to get this update posted later. But I didn't have enough time to get everything done before going back into the restaurants.
I received a $20.00 donation this morning from Nate Balboni (VT) sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge. Thanks, Nate. It was good having you and Frankie aboard with me on Thursday. I appreciate the donation and your patronage. Thanks very much! By the way, the sea sickness cure that I recommend are the Scopolamine patches.
The sky was mostly clear and sunny until 8:30 AM, when clouds rolled in. The cloud cover remained through the morning. At 11:15 AM, it started to rain. It didn't pour. But it was steady for twenty minutes? Maybe. This was the theme for the rest of the day. The sky stayed overcast with the occasional rain cloud blowing through. Only twice did it rain significantly enough to clear patrons from the outside dining areas. For Barnacle Billy's, Etc., that was the last straw. We never sat another patron outside there again. Plus, it was getting cold. Finestkind Scenic Cruises gave up early as well. Later in the afternoon, the clouds cleared up, there was no more rain for the day and the wind dropped to nothing, leaving the ocean along the shore flat calm. Before that the wind had been, primarily, out of the northeast up to fifteen knots at times. It stayed northeast, albeit with less velocity, until 2:30 PM, when the wind started to die. The visibility was excellent, a little less so in the rain. The air temperature rose to a value of 71°F by 11:00 AM, dropping to an average value of 66°F through noon and most of the afternoon. At 9:00 PM, the air temperature was 62°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 73°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 77°F (with a low of 56°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 75°F (with a low of 58°F).
Today was a day of good business in Perkins Cove and traffic. It didn't turn out to be the best beach day. So people were in their cars. It took me while to get to the Cove from my house with the scooter. We also had more French Canadians in our restaurants than any other time this season. It was refreshing to see. The rain made it interesting; a case of musical chairs with patrons putting up with six people at a four top and standing with drinks in their hands under cover, any cover. It was a crazy day. In the end it was all good. We never ran out of food. Ordering wasn't crazy; it went very smooth indeed, at both restaurants. And people were happy, very happy. Every table I went to it was fun. Of course, sometimes I think people will tell me they are happy and the food is good because of my position. But you really can't hide happy.
It wasn't a good day for Gill. There were quite a few accidents in the house. After noon, things seemed to settle out. When I came home for dinner, he seemed okay. He was better when I came home at 9:00 PM after work. I spent some time with him after that. He seemed to really have fun.
I received a $100.00 donation from Westy Lord (ME) sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge. Westy was the person who helped David Pease and I build the Bunny Clark and was my first and number one deck hand. He implemented some of things we still use and do on the boat today. He rents cabins on a pristine lake in Maine. A wonderful person, he was a great help in building my fishing business. Thanks, Westy, you have been helping me in my cancer cause from the beginning, twenty years ago. With every year I have appreciated it more. This whole process has given me a greater appreciation for life as well and more knowledge of how precious it really is.
The day started out with a few clouds moving in, looking a lot like yesterday. But that was where it ended. The clouds moved out as quickly as they moved in. The sky stayed clear for the rest of the day. The visibility remained excellent. The wind blew out of the north northeast over fifteen knots, approaching twenty knots until around 9:00 AM. It backed off from there. By noon, we had a light northerly wind. The wind continued to drop until there was no wind around 2:00 PM. The wind blew out of the south for the rest of the day. Wind speeds were highest around 6:00 PM. Or probably about ten knots. The air temperature reached a high of 74°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 68°F (with a low of 59°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 74°F (with a low of 49°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 74°F (with a low of 53°F).
I didn't do much this morning but concentrate on cleaning up things in the office, bending my mind to the restaurants and working at them. It was a wonderful business day with perfect weather for it. Also, unlike yesterday, we were able to do a consistent stable business with no rushing in and out because of the rain. Both restaurants ran like a well oiled machine. It allowed me to talk to as many patrons as I could get around to without thinking about things like running out of some items or employee problems. The employees were on top of everything. It was a wonderful day and, possibly, the best weekend that Barnacle Billy's and Barnacle Billy's, Etc., together, have ever experienced. It is going to be the best Labor Day weekend, for weather that we have had for many seasons.
I stayed until almost 9:00 PM. The French Canadians were in full force in the last hour of business as they were last evening. We have missed the Canadians. So it was fun to see and great to talk to them.
The day's weather was a classic bluefin tuna harpooners day. The wind was light out of the northwest to start, flat calm and then southerly. Wind speeds got up to about twelve knots at 4:00 PM. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was nearly cloudless after 8:00 AM. The air temperature reached a high of 80°F but there was zero humidity. It was a beautiful day to be sitting on the deck of Barnacle Billy's, sipping a rum punch and watching the boats go in and out of the harbor. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 82°F (with a low of 59°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 82°F (with a low of 44°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 82°F (with a low of 50°F).
This was my typical Monday. Part of my day was getting the Bunny Clark ready to said. Most of it was working at the two restaurants. It was a great day; not as busy as the last two but that made it easier to pay attention to the patrons.
At 1:30 PM, I was interviewed by Nick Johnson from YouTube.com with Interviews Across America. He asked me questions about the Bunny Clark, the fishing business, the fishery in general, the boat, how the Bunny Clark came about and various fishing questions. He also asked about the restaurant. I brought him up to the lobster tanks at Barnacle Billy's and showed him lobsters and talked a bit about the restaurant business. It might have lasted twenty minutes? I lost track of time.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 63°F (at the house, 61°F at the dock), the sky was mostly clear with some clouds, the wind was out of the northwest at six knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
As we walked our way out through the gate, the air temperature had risen to 63°F and the water temperature was the same. The wind was blowing out of the west northwest at thirteen to fifteen knots. The visibility was excellent, seas were chops of a foot or two and the sky was mostly overcast with the occasional peek at the crescent moon low in the east. The further we went out, the less wind we saw. The wind remained out of the west northwest all the way to the fishing grounds. The wind was reduced to five knots upon arrival; seas were chops of a foot. The air temperature rose to 65°F but the surface water temperature dropped to 62°F.
On the fishing grounds, the wind dropped to almost nothing before hauling out of the northwest and blowing ten knots or more. That wind was replaced by a northerly wind that blew up to fifteen knots. Not an hour latter, the northerly wind had dropped to five knots. We had no wind in the afternoon. The ocean went calm. Just as we were about to call it a day, the wind came up lightly out of the south. The air temperature reached a high of 73°F. The tide, current, was strong all day. The visibility ranged to over thirty miles. The sky was mostly overcast to begin the fishing but cleared to the point that there was hardly a cloud in the sky by 1:00 PM. The surface water temperature reached a high of 64°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 78°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 81°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 79°F (with a low of 51°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 79°F (with a low of 57°F).
The fishing was very good to very good overall. It could have been very good had the tide not been so strong. The catching was excellent but a lot of the fish were sub-legal pollock and cod. Landings were very good. Most legal landings were pollock, by far. Legal landings also included ten cod, fourteen cusk, thirty haddock, seven squid and seven mackerel. 'Released fish included six blue sharks with jewelry, two halibut, three dogfish, thirty-one sub-legal cod, eight sub-legal haddock and too many sub-legal pollock to count. We anchored and drift fished. We drift fished mostly. Jigs and cod flies caught the most fish.
Chris Cichon (NJ) was high hook with the most legal fish. He caught the first fish I could weigh for the boat pool, an 8 pound pollock. I lost track of his biggest fish as we were catching too many over 10 pounds to weigh them all. Boo Whitten (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, an 18.5 pound pollock. She caught this as a double with another pollock that weighed 8 pounds, both fish on the same line at the same time. I took a picture of her holding her two fish in the bow, where she was fishing. This digital image appears on the left. This is the Bunny Clark's third largest pollock of the fishing season so far. Unfortunately, she lost a big halibut earlier in the day. I didn't realize that she had it on. I was running around like an idiot, marking fish and dealing with tangles. Boo had brought the fish straight up from bottom almost to the top and probably would have seen the fish had it come up another ten feet. Then it went straight to bottom. This was when she called me for help. Unfortunately, we were drifting with a lot of lines out. Even though the fish went right straight down to bottom, I never got the opportunity to tell everyone to reel up and get out of her way. So the fish got wrapped up in another line and broke off. That was our twentieth halibut hookup of the season. We have only boated five of the twenty we have hooked. A couple other fish of Boo's that I weighed included an 8 pound cod and a 10.5 pound pollock.
Don Withee (NH) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 17 pound pollock. This is tied for the Bunny Clark's sixth largest pollock of the fishing season to date. I also weighed a 7 pound cod, a 7.5 pound cod and a 7 pound pollock for him. He caught three or four legal cod today: at least three. Don is the son of Bob Withee, one of the two best anglers who have ever fished on this boat. He and Danny Angerman introduced me to the jig stick and jigging, the way it was supposed to be done. I can't tell you how many big cod and pollock he caught with me over the years. Some of the good times that all my anglers had on this boat can be credited back to Bob Withee. It was nice that Don could be part of the winnings today. What was even nicer was that he caught the big pollock and the legal cod on Bob's jig stick, and Bob's own special jig that Danny Angerman had made for Bob and that Bob dressed up to fish with. This is the first time anyone but Bob has ever used his pole or jig. Fitting.
The third largest fish was a 16 pound pollock caught by Jake Johnson (ME). I also weighed an 8.5 pound pollock for him.
Other Angler Hightlights: Larry Reed (ME) caught the largest cod of the day at 10.5 pounds. Rand Richards (ME) caught a 6 pound sub-legal halibut. I just weighed it and released it. I didn't take a picture of it as I figured that we would probably get one to keep and I didn't want to compromise the life of a fish that, maybe, we could catch later. Those fish are too precious to only catch once! I could tell, also, that Rand did not want to have that fish released! Nor would I! Rocky Kurucz (ME) landed a 9 pound cod and an 11.5 pound pollock, his two best fish. Matt Richards (ME) caught a 9.5 pound cod. Jeff Pillsbury (ME) landed a 9.75 pound pollock, his biggest fish. Karilyn Bonney (ME) boated a 10 pound pollock. Bob Jones (ME) was caught eating a banana between stops (he had been fishing on the bow). Depite repeated attempts to make him release the banana overboard, he continued to eat. Someone did tell me that he didn't finish it before tossing it. But in the eyes of Lady Luck, that certainly does not wash. I was told that he had another banana in his lunch pail. But when Bob went to open this lunch pail later, the banana was gone. I would have loved to have caught the bastard who would do such a thing to poor Bob! [I would have shaken his hand!]
I received donations from everyone who was on the boat today, sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge. Before the Bunny Clark even left the dock today, I received an $190.00 donation from all fifteen of Larry Reed's (all Maine) crew. On top of that, Boo Whitten, from the "famed" Larry Reed's crew, added $150.00! After that, Don Withee donated a generous $100.00 and Chris & Pat Savarie (NY) donated $50.00. Also, today, I received a generous $100.00 donation from Lynn Welsch (NM). This donation was sent as an "eGift" through the PMC site with the message;"In memory of Jo Diggs.". This is so very kind and thoughtful of all of you all. I can't express in words how much I appreciate this generosity. And I'm not even the ones who appreciate it the most! Thank you so very much!
The sky became solidly overcast by 8:00 AM. I decided to go for a run at 10:00 AM. At that time, the air temperature was 61°F. It stayed that air temperature for the hour that I ran. By noon, the air temperature was 65°F. I lost track after that. In Portsmouth, which has very similar air temperatures, the value was 69°F. The sky stayed overcast all day. It didn't rain during the daylight hours except for a tiny bit around sunset. The visibility deteriorated as the day progressed. The humidity also increased. An hour before sunset, the visibility was good in a thicker than normal haze. The wind blew out of the northeast just enough to raise a flag in the early part of the morning, maybe ten knots at most. By mid morning there was very little wind. By noon, there was no wind. I did notice some southerly wind after coming back from a quick nap just before 4:00 PM. We had five knots of southeast wind by 6:00 PM. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 76°F (with a low of 61°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 72°F (with a low of 49°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 67°F (with a low of 51°F).
The report took me a bit longer to edit and post this morning. I wrote the initial draft on the way in from the fishing grounds yesterday. But there were parts I needed to add, values I had to punch in and statements I had to confirm. I also had to get ready for tomorrow's trip. I always get some of it done the night before, the stuff I don't have to think about.
I got to the restaurants slightly after noon. It was a mellow day. I had office work. I had to avoid checking the Champions League football games in the office. I had some catching up to do there. I also combined getting the Bunny Clark ready with the work at the restaurants.
I received a very generous $250.00 donation sponsoring me in my cancer project with the Pan-Mass Challenge today from Steve Clark (VT). Steve has been supporting my ride for many years. And he has always been very generous to the cause as he is very generous in his boating relationship with me. He's a very good fisherman. And he appreciates everything I do for him, even when it seems (in my mind) I'm not doing enough for him on my side. Thanks, Steve. I very much appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was a balmy 66°F, the sky was overcast, it had been raining earlier but had stopped, the wind was blowing out of the south at fifteen knots (more offshore) and the visibility over the ocean was very good, at least.
The ride to the fishing grounds was uneventful but much easier than I thought it would be. I didn't let anglers sleep on the top bunks on the way out for fear I would hit a queer one I didn't see and have them fall out. There are no lee boards on my bunks. We cruised out at a little over eleven knots. My compass course kept us primarily in a beam sea that was big enough to give us an easy roll with a limited amount of spray. Still, I was only able to have that one small thermos cup of coffee on the way as I couldn't set the cup on the console without spilling it. Just as well; I certainly don't need as much coffee as I want. And it does wind me up. I'm wound up enough about being able to have a day on the ocean without the added caffeine.
Once we were out of the lee of Bald Head Cliff, the seas were four to five feet with the occasional queer one. The wind direction was south southwest or southwest. The air temperature at the gate was a warm 69°F while the surface water temperature was 63°F. The air temperature was the warmest it would be on the ocean until 1:00 PM. We had overcast skies on the way out. The visibility was very good, at least.
On the fishing grounds, the surface water temperature started out at 61°F but warmed up to 62°F before we finished for the day. The wind was blowing out of the southwest at fifteen to twenty knots with short seas of four to five feet with bigger sets between. It never looked like the wind had any teeth. And it was sloppy. The wind was southwest but the seas were coming more from the south than southwest. The wind hauled more west southwest about an hour or two into the fishing. By later morning, seas were three to five feet. By noon, the wind seemed more out of the west. The last two hours of the fishing gave us west northwest wind of ten to fifteen knots. This turned to northwest wind of fifteen to twenty knots half way home on the ride back to Perkins Cove. The tide (current) was very strong and southeast, which surprised me. So we were laying in the trough on anchor. The clouds cleared away by 8 or 9:00 AM, leaving us with, nearly, a cloudless sky for most of the day. After noon, we had cumulus clouds marching out towards us from the west. The visibility was excellent all day. Seas dropped to two and three feet for the ride home. These were chops. The air temperature reached a high of 71°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 87°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 87°F (with a low of 71°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 86°F (with a low of 60°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 85°F (with a low of 65°F).
The fishing was not good. The sea conditions were not the best and the tide ran a river all day long. The deeper we fished, the worse it got. But this could have been a time of day thing too. The catching was very good, despite. Landings were good to very good. We caught very few sub-legal fish today. Almost everything we caught was legal. The exception was the large number of dogfish we caught earlier in the trip. As the day progressed and location changed, the dogfish diminished to the point where, even seeing one was rare. Even Bill Harding, the dogfish king, had a hard time catching them in the last two hours of fishing. Most legal fish landed were pollock. In fact, almost every fish we boated was a pollock. The average size was much greater than, almost, every trip we have taken this year so far. But there were no really big pollock. There were very few sub-legal pollock. Legal landings also included two cod, three cusk, five haddock, twenty-five mackerel, eleven redfish and three squid. Released fish included a long horned sculpin, six blue sharks with jewelry, eight sub-legal cod, one sub-legal haddock, five sub-legal pollock and seventy-six (or more - it was hard to keep track) dogfish. We drift fished, anchored and used the sea anchor to no avail; there was no real way to make the fishing more comfortable. Anchoring was, by far, the most successful fishing method. Bare jigs and cod flies without bait caught the most fish by far.
Either Roger Hopkins (RI) or his son, Justin Hopkins (RI), was high hook with the most legal fish. Collectively, they brought home the most fish, by far, of any two other anglers. When I asked both Justin and Roger, they both agreed that Justin caught the most legal fish. So Justin, by majority vote, was high hook. Roger started right off the bat by boating a 15 pound pollock. I honestly thought he would win the boat pool with that fish or I thought he would catch a bigger one. Such is the power of a Hopkins. His second largest fish was a 12 pound pollock. He also caught the largest cod of the day at 6.5 pounds. Justin boated an 11 pound pollock, his largest fish.
Karl Joslin (NY) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 16.25 pound pollock. He also caught a 14 pound pollock. Steve Laflam (NH) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 16 pound pollock. I also weighed a 9.5 pound pollock for him. The third largest fish was a 15.5 pound pollock, caught by Chris Cichon (NJ).
Other Angler Highlights: Seth Daniels (CT) had a harder time than most. He got into tangles more than most. It wasn't his fault so much as it was the conditions, his particular rig and where he was on the boat. There is always one bad place to fish on the Bunny Clark. The conditions make it vary from day to day. On top of that, Seth got spined by a dogfish. The fish got him in the forearm. His arm was sore for the rest of the day, making it uncomfortable to fish. There was a time when he backed off from fishing. But this didn't last long. His largest fish was a 10.5 pound pollock. He lost a bigger fish. I weighed an 11.5 pound pollock and a 10 pound pollock for Chris Silver (NH). Chris fought a blue shark for quite a while on the last stop. We weren't exactly sure what kind of pelagic fish it was and he was away from all the other anglers. So he kept fighting it until we realized what it was. Tom Miller (NH) boated a 10 pound pollock. After a while, Tom was giving his pollock away. Bill Harding (ME) caught a 13 pound pollock. Mike Martin (MA) was sea sick for the first half of the trip but came into it in the later half, almost making up for not fishing earlier. He caught quite a few doubles. His biggest fish was a 10.5 pound pollock. Stephane Cloutier (MA) caught the largest haddock of the trip. It weighed 5.25 pounds. It was such a perfect looking fish, I took a picture of the fish with Stephane holding it. This digital image appears on the left.
Stephane Cloutier donated $40.00, sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge in the fight against cancer. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and support, Stephane. I really appreciate your help and generosity. It means so much to so many!
The wind blew out of the northwest or west northwest all day in Perkins Cove. Wind speeds were between fifteen and twenty knots at times in the morning. Mostly, it was ten to fifteen knots during the day. The sky was clear with few clouds. The visibility was excellent all day. The ocean along the shore stayed calm as it was an offshore breeze. The high air temperature that I saw today was 76°F, a far cry from yesterday's high. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 79°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 47°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of 50°F).
I got way behind this morning. I didn't have the opportunity to type up the initial draft of this report on the way in yesterday. So I had to start from scratch, writing about yesterday's trip. A lot went on. So there was a lot to write about. It was certainly a challenging trip. I can say that we probably caught the most pollock in New Hampshire and Maine. This only because we were probably the only boat who left the dock to go fishing.
So I had a lot of catching up to do with limited time to do it. I opened Barnacle Billy's restaurants at 4:30 AM and stayed there until a bit after 9:00 AM. I continued with this report once back home. But I had little time to complete it. I was back in the restaurants at noon. At 6:30 PM, I sat down with my cousin, Boo Pickering, Pat Pickering, my cousin, Ben Pickering's, former wife. Ben passed three years ago from Pancreatic cancer. Boo's former wife, Kim, was also there and Betty, who I just met. Boo (Christopher) has had a colorful life and many great experiences. Unfortunately, I haven't followed his life as much as I should have. So there was a lot of catching up to do. We hit just a small handful of some of the highlights. I had the best time I have had in a long time.
It was a gorgeous day today. The sky stayed clear all day. The wind blew out of the northwest in the early part of the morning. By 9:00 AM, the ocean was so flat calm, the little boats off the beach looked like little smelt shakes. There were just the smallest waves along Ogunquit Beach. And the ocean was like glass as far as you could see, completely devoid of wind ripples. The visibility remained excellent all day . By noon, a very light southerly wind was established. By 3:00 PM, the southerly wind was about ten knots. The wind at sunset was out of the south at fifteen knots. The wind stayed the same direction with a velocity of fifteen knots (more or less) for the rest of my time awake. The air temperature stayed in the sixties for most of the day, reaching 71°F early afternoon until the wind got up enough to knock it down again. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 71°F (with a low of 56°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 78°F (with a low of 41°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 70°F (with a low of 43°F).
Today was the annual Plein Air Painting Event in Perkins Cove. Certain parts of Perkins Cove roads were inaccessible to vehicles at certain times. And the traffic, in general, was strong but not horrific. This is a wonderful event with artists from all over the country here painting scenes and boats in the Cove and selling their art. I missed buying one of our lobster/tuna boat, the Petrel last year. Deb did the same this year as well as three paintings of the Bunny Clark. They were very well done. There is much competition for some of the paintings that come out of this event. Today was no exception.
There were also two bands playing during this whole event. I supplied gratis parking spots for them. But I didn't work hard enough to secure them. So there was a bit of confusion that was straightened out later.
There were a lot of people walking around as early as 8:00 AM. It stayed that way until about 3:00 PM. The night was relatively quiet for a Saturday. But, then, the air temperature dropped and that always has a negative effect on our outside seating at the restaurants. My brother, Court, used to call it "the insect theory".
It was a very enjoyable day at the restaurant. It was just busy enough to be doing something yet slow enough so that the patrons were relaxed and enjoying their time there. I left the restaurants shortly after closing time.
I'm still taking Gill down in the Bunny Clark truck to walk back home up the entrance of the Marginal Way. He's not doing as good as he was a month ago. But it's only slightly different. He's still very interested in the occasional mild bone and checking out all the bushes. So it's still good. He is not in pain. It just takes him a bit to get places.
It rained almost all day. At least until 4:00 PM, maybe longer. The sky stayed overcast for all of the daylight hours. The visibility deteriorated to fair, looking over the ocean. We did have a fog bank that never made it ashore. It was close enough to block out Boon Island from view. The ocean along the shore was calm in the early part of the morning but stayed calm for, at least, half the daylight morning. The wind hauled out of the south with a sudden velocity. Wind speed was only ten knots. But it went from nothing to ten knots in just a few minutes. And it really didn't get any stronger than that until noon. After noon, the wind increased to almost twenty knots at times but decreased to ten knots again by 2:00 PM. By 4:30 PM, there was no wind at all. The air temperature never reached 70°F. I saw 67°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 70°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 68°F (with a low of 59°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 64°F (with a low of 59°F).
Bringing Gill, our border collie, to the Cove this morning was a little less inspiring for me. His back legs went out from underneath him twice. This is a first. He was excited to go to the Cove when the time came to do so. So I had no problem getting him to walk to the truck, having him stand by the open door and lifting him in. He made himself comfortable in the passenger seat as I made my way down there. After I parked and I lifted him out of the truck, Gill was also excited about sniffing around as we walked back home. So he seemed very happy. The first time he sat down, he looked up at me to say; "I'm alright, Tim. Just a momentary stumble. Not to worry." And a milk bone still makes him excited. So on we went, ending up at home again.
The business day was slow at the restaurant. A rainy day will do that. But the fires were going, which always reminds me of a quaint English pub. This gave me more time for the office work. And I probably spent more time at the tables of patrons than I normally do. In fact, that is what happened. But I'm also very conscious about spending too much time hanging around. It does give me insight into how the product is going out to the tables and how people like it. This is important. Consistentcy is so important.
Sunday is my early night out. I Ieft just before 6:00 PM. I thought Deb might want to go out to eat. We ended up eating at home.
Tomorrow is my annual engine check up. I will have Power Products in Portland come down and adjust the valves, etc. I also have a risor issue. It appears to be compromised. To replace it is expensive. We shall see. Anyway, I also got the boat all set up to have engine work done. They should be at the boat at 9:00 AM.
The sky became more overcast as the sun rose. At 6:15 AM, it started to rain. It kept raining, mostly lightly, until almost 7:00 AM and then stopped. It never rained again. The clouds disappeared, the sky cleared and was nearly cloudless for the rest of the day. The wind started to pipe up out of the west after the rain stopped. This wind hauled northwest and blew over twenty knots by 9:00 AM. The wind continued to blow out of the northwest in Perkins Cove for the rest of the day. The velocity stayed from fifteen to twenty knots with some higher gusts until 2:00 PM, when it started to drop off a bit. Around 9:00 PM, the wind hauled out of the north and blew up to and over fifteen knots. I'm sure it was more offshore. The visibility was excellent all day. The air temperature reached a high of 72°F, that I saw. It was very warm in the sun and out of the wind. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 74°F (with a low of 58°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 70°F (with a low of 47°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 71°F (with a low of 51°F).
The day started with bringing the Bunny Clark truck down to the Cove with Gill. He was very excited about going to the Cove this morning. And he did better. We sniffed around a little bit more than normal. This seemed better for him. The walk home was much easier.
I had a lot on my plate this morning. I had to go back to the Cove to get the boat set up for Power Products. The whole mixer housing on the exhaust riser had been showing signs of salt, meaning that I probably had a cracked weld there. Turns out that that was the case. The riser has an aluminum covering with some other material so that you can touch it when hot. So you couldn't really see the crack unless you took that apart, which I didn't want to do until we were ready to take it apart. The last thing I wanted to do was to expose a crack in the exhaust with the potential of spraying salt water around on a tier 3 fully electronic engine.
I also had a flat tire that I discovered this morning on my silver work truck. I had that to deal with.
Power Products showed up at 9:30 AM, Cody and Shye. In the meantime, I had to drive my other truck a short way to Browns Service Center to have the tire dealt with. Wonderful people. And excellent at what they do.
I made an attempt to drive to pick up my truck as the wheel (tire) was repaired. I had about a half hour. The repair work in the engine was completed. And the techs were testing and cleaning up. So I scootered home and had Deb drive me. After fifteen minutes we still hadn't reached town yet for the traffic. So I had Deb flip it and bring me back to the house to get the scooter so I could go back to the boat. I didn't want to have them waiting for me to do the sea trial. The plan was to get the truck after the sea trial.
It would have been that simple, had the sea trial gone according to plan. When I was leaving the float, I heard a clunk and a snap. This didn't sound right. I went back to the stern. As I suspected, I had picked up a line and got it in the wheel. It was a big piece of six thread. There was no way I could run the engine outside with rope in the wheel. So I put the Bunny Clark on the other side of the float. The road techs assured me that they didn't have to do a sea trial to know that the work they had finished was complete and, certainly, the problem fixed. So they did another fifteen minutes of running the engine and checking their work before packing up all their tools and leaving.
I bid them fair well and went to the house to get a wetsuit, mask, fins and a knife. I don't have a scuba tank. Nor do I dive alone. So it was all free diving, holding my breath, staying as long as I could stand it, surfacing, getting my breath back and repeating the process. During all this, Grant Hubbard, the owner of Finestkind Scenic Tours, spotted me and helped me through the process. It must have taken the better part of an hour. Some of the line was so tightly wound between the cutlass bearing and the wheel, that I couldn't get it out. So I trimmed it as flush as I could with the wheel hub and the cutlass before I left. I did leave with a wob of line I had cut out around the prop. But I was cold. If it had been a dry suit or a survival suit, I would have been fine. But I would have had less mobility so I went with just a wet suit. Of course, Brown's, where I had my truck, was closed by the time I was done with a hot shower. Plus, I was behind. And I stayed behind. But I was able to get ready for tomorrow's fishing trip.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 51°F (47°F at the Bunny Clark in Perkins Cove at 3:00 AM), the sky was crystal clear, the wind was out of the north at twelve knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The air temperature was 47°F at the float before we left to head for the fishing grounds. At the four mile mark, the air temperature had risen three degrees. The surface water temperature was 61°F at the same time. That would be the highest surface water temperature we would see all day. The wind was out of the north at fifteen knots, more or less. The visibility was excellent. The sky was crystal clear with plenty of stars and no moon. Seas were two to three feet in chops. It was a comfortable enough cruise with the direction we were headed. At the twenty mile mark, the air temperature had increased to 54°F with a surface water temperature of 57°F.
The engine ran as smooth as a smelt for the ride to the grounds. There was no vibration in the stern. In fact, it was smoother than before. I might take another under water peek. But that isn't going to happen tomorrow.
On the fishing grounds, the wind blew out of the north northeast at ten knots to start, fifteen or more knots later. Seas were chops of three feet through the first half of the fishing morning. Two feet for the rest of the morning and a foot or less after noon. After 9:00 AM, the wind diminished all day. We had a very light southeast wind with a calm ocean surface for the whole ride back to Perkins Cove. The surface water temperature was 59°F for most of the day until the very end when we saw a value of 60°F. The visibility ranged to thirty-five miles. The sky was clear all day with the occasional cirrus cloud. The tide (current) was strong to moderate. The air temperature reached a high of 63°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 67°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 66°F (with a low of 53°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 72°F (with a low of 39°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 67°F (with a low of 44°F).
The fishing was, pretty much, excellent all day. I guess if you considered the blue shark attacks, it was less so. But only half the day saw blue sharks and there were zero dogfish today. The weather was perfect with a, nearly, perfect drift. The catching was excellent. Except for one short lull, it was a fish a cast all day. Landings were very good. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. They were everywhere I went. Legal landings also included six cod, thirteen cusk and twelve haddock. Released fish included thirty-one small cod, forty-five sub-legal pollock, a sculpin and seven blue sharks with jewelry. We anchored once with variable success. Drifting was the way to go today. Cod flies caught the most fish. All but one angler used an unbaited jig and fly combination. Just for your knowledge, Bill Harding.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook. Everyone was pooling their fillets together so there was no real way to tell. Tim Powers won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 28.25 pound Maine state trophy pollock. This was only Tim's second deep sea fishing trip ever, a first on the Bunny Clark. This pollock is the largest fish he has ever caught. the Bunny Clark's largest pollock of the season to date and the largest pollock we have seen in nine years. Tim didn't fish a lot today. Much of the time he was observing. The second largest fish was a 13 pound pollock caught by Mike Kotash. He also caught a 10.5 pound pollock. There was a tie for the third largest fish at 12.5 pounds. There were two. One was a pollock, caught by Tom "Olllie" Bruyere. The other was a cod caught by John Gardiner. I took a picture of John holding his cod. This digital image appears on the left. This is the Bunny Clark's fifth largest cod of this year's fishing season to date. John's biggest pollock weighed 10 pounds.
Other Angler Hightlights: "Little" Joe Briggs caught the first fish I could weigh for the boat pool, a 7 pound pollock. An 11 pound pollock was his biggest fish today. Bill Vine, Jr. caught the next pollock I could weigh for the boat pool, an 8.5 pound pollock. As far as I know his biggest pollock was one that weighed 10.5 pounds. Rich Mallott boated an 11.5 pound pollock, his biggest fish. He caught a 9.5 pound pollock earlier in the trip. I weighed a 9 pound pollock for Kirk Hollis. Mickey Mitchell caught a 10 pound pollock, his biggest fish. Jeff Richards caught the second largest cod, an 11.5 pounder. Paul Smith was the only angler to fish with bait. He started fishing bait after he lost a jig half way into the fishing. While he was fishing bait, he boated six haddock, half of all the haddock caught on the Bunny Clark today.
I received three donations today sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge. Those anglers and their gifts included John Gardner for a generous $100.00, Bill Provost for $50.00 and Kirk Hollis for $50.00. Others had donated to my cause earlier in the year. Thank you so very much for your support in this endeavor. Many people's lives have been saved because of my involvement (and others like me). Plus, our supports has developed new drugs and procedures that, three years ago, were not available. This includes drug that has had a very positive affect against pancreatic cancer! I so very appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity!
There was a canopy of clouds over us at daylight with a clear sky to the east, just above the horizon. An hour or two later, those clouds were gone. The sky remained mostly clear for the day. The wind became established out of the south after 8:00 AM. Southerly winds increased to fifteen knots. This wind remained at that velocity or less through noon and the early afternoon. It slowly diminished after that. By 6:00 PM, we had five knots of southerly wind. The visibility was very good in some haze. The air temperature reached a high of 79°F, believe it or not. I couldn't believe that it got that warm. It was beautiful. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 80°F (with a low of 56°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 81°F (with a low of 50°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 71°F (with a low of 54°F).
Gill and I had a good time in the Cove this morning. After bringing him down in the truck, he was very interested in exploring. I had a lot to do today. But he was so energetic that I went with it. When he started to go away from home I had to reel him in. I don't bring a leash. And he is a stubborn dog. But he knows my tone of voice when he thinks I can see him. If he thinks he's hiding and he believes I can't see him, voice or no, he will go his way. Like this morning. As soon as he saw me, he changed direction in my favor. He seemed very happy today. We were a little late getting home. But, in the grand scheme of things, it won't make a difference.
Once home, Deb took me up to get the truck I had planned to drive home yesterday.
The rest of the day I spent updating this report, researching my statements to make sure they were correct and true. And building a new index page with a digital image of the big pollock we caught yesterday.
It was like old home week at the restaurants. I had so many people who I love to see all there at once. Some I haven't seen for a long time and others I was hoping to see before the year ends. And it was certainly a beautiful day to see and talk to them. The funny thing was that this was all at Barnacle Billy's (Original). I never did talk to a patron at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. When I got there I went right to the office so I could catch up with the bookwork.
At 4:00 PM, I checked out the Bunny Clark and got her ready for tomorrow's fishing trip. I'm trying to be less excited for tomorrow's trip. As I've said, when I get too excited it seems to be bad luck. I survive on luck and I believe I need lots of it.
Danny DellaMonica and I ran the marathon trip today.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 60°F, the sky was clear, the wind was very light out of the northeast but just strong enough that you could clearly hear the bell buoy and the visibility over the ocean was not quite excellent in some haze.
It was a mild morning, compared to the last two. And I was happy for it. We broached the gate with an air temperature of 62°F and a surface water temperature of 60°F. We carried a surface water temperature of 58°F the whole ride to the fishing grounds. The temperature made the drop about two miles out. The air temperature stayed about the same. We had no wind. The light northeast disappeared after couple miles. We did have a left over hubble made by the wind that was around yesterday. So it wasn't a flat calm smooth ride out. But there was no spray. The visibility was very good in haze. We had mixed cloud cover but mostly clear skies. We maintained a sixteen knot cruising speed the whole way.
On the fishing grounds, we had light and variable winds at first. The wind was so light that wind ripples were an anomaly. The wind disappeared altogether for the whole rest of the fishing day. We did have very light south southeast wind on the ride back to Perkins Cove that increased to about five knots before we got in. The ocean surface was smooth. The air temperature reached a high of 72°F. The sky was a mix of sun and clouds. The sky was overcast for the last two or three hours of fishing. The sky cleared an hour inside of the grounds but filled in afterward. We had no rain. The tide (current) was light all day, too light after noon. The visibility ranged to twenty miles or more in haze. The surface water temperature reached a high of 63°F.
On the ride back to Perkins Cove, about the half way mark, we had increased cloud cover and, then, completely overcast skies. We got completely fogged in with eight miles to go. It was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. In fact, Deb called to ask when we would hit the dock, worried about me getting in under the cover of darkness. There wasn't even a chance of us being in that late. I had enough of the evil eye from Danny on the last trip when I misjudged the time. I won't be doing that any time soon. As it was, the fog disappeared after we were in Perkins Cove about ten minutes. It would have cleared out before darkness fell anyway. It was replaced by rain. It rained from 5:30 PM all through the night.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 74°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 76°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 79°F (with a low of 58°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 74°F (with a low of 56°F).
The fishing was excellent all day. The weather was perfect, albeit, the drift too slow. There were few blue sharks. Almost no dogfish. We had tangles but they weren't bad. The catching was very good. Landings were good to very good, excellent for quality. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. I decided to change my approach today and not target pollock so much. This mainly because it was so calm; a good pollock bite needs the wind. The drift wasn't good enough for pollock. Legal landings also included two cod, twenty-four good sized cusk, thirty-seven pollock to 8 pounds, twelve white hake, eighteen redfish and seven squid. Released fish included five sub-legal cod, thirty-eight sub-legal pollock, one sub-legal haddock, two blue sharks with jewelry and one dogfish. Everyone fished with jigs and cod flies, despite the fact that I anchored on a huge school of haddock. Try as I might, I could not convince anyone to go with a bait rig. [Griff did switch and caught three doubles in a row. But he switched late. Where's Ray Westermann when you need him?] We anchored once for the haddock. We drift fished for the rest of the trip.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook for sure as we don't count fillets. However, Jason Rivera (CT) seemed the most consistent with few tangles and a fish a drop. Leslie Lauritsen (IA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 30.5 pound Maine state trophy cusk. I don't believe that there has been a bigger cusk caught in New England this year yet. It's certainly our largest cusk this season to date. And it's also the eleventh largest cusk that has ever been caught on one of my boats in the fifty-one years that I have been taking passengers out on the high seas. I took a picture of this fish with Leslie holding it. This digital image appears on the left. He also caught a cusk that weighed 10.75 pounds earlier. Jason Rivera won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 25.5 pound Maine state trophy cusk. This is Jason's largest cusk ever and it's also the Bunny Clark's second largest cusk of the fishing season to date. Jason also caught the third largest hake of the day at 22.5 pounds, a 6 pound haddock and a haddock double that included a 4 pound haddock and a 5 pound haddock, both fish caught on the same line at the same time. He caught a lot of haddock today. The third largest fish was a 24 pound Maine state trophy cusk caught by Darlene Chin (VT/FL). This is the largest cusk that Darlene has ever caught. It's also the Bunny Clark's third largest cusk of the fishing season to date. I took a picture of Darlene holding her big cusk. This digital image appears on the right. She also caught her biggest white hake of the season today. It weighed 19.5 pounds.
Other Angler Hightlights: Bryan Lewer (ME) caught a 20 pound white hake right off the bat. I believe that it was the first fish in the boat this morning. He mostly worked the deck with Danny and I. The first fish he caught when he went back to it was a 7.5 pound Maine state trophy haddock! This is his personal best haddock this season even though he has guided his passengers to haddock over 8.5 pounds on his own boat earlier this season. Mike Bragg (MA) caught an 11.5 pound white hake, his biggest fish. Mike Tirrito (VT) landed the largest pollock today weighing 8 pounds. He also caught a 6 pound haddock and a 17 pound white hake. Steve LaPlante (CT) caught his largest haddock of the season today, a 8 pound Maine state trophy. He has caught two other trophy haddock this season. One was caught with me. The other was caught with Bryan Lewer, Salty Lewer Charters, out of Ogunquit, Perkins Cove. His first 8 pounder was caught with Bryan. But I'm not sure on the exact weight. It could have been bigger. I took a picture of Steve holding the 8 pound haddock that he caught with me today. This digital image appears on the lower left. Steve also caught his largest ever cusk, a 22.5 Maine state trophy. This cusk is the Bunny Clark's fifth largest cusk of the season so far. And he caught a 20.5 pound white hake.
Hannah Smith (VT) caught the first Maine state trophy cusk of the day. It weighed 14 pounds, the largest cusk that she has ever caught. It's also the eighth largest cusk that has been caught on the Bunny Clark this season, so far. Victor Tirrito's (VT) fish of note included a 10 pound cusk and a 6 pound haddock. Emile Gallant (ME) boated his largest haddock of the last few years, an 8 pound Maine state trophy. He had a bad start when he found that his reel stopped working. Jonathan Griffin (MA) tied for the largest white hake of the trip with a 23 pounder. Dave Haberl had the other 23 pound white hake. Dave also caught a 19 pound white hake about a half hour before his bigger one. He did well all day long. Nick Kirychuk (CT) lost the biggest haddock of the season, unfortunately. He also caught the only dogfish. It wasn't his best day but his dory make, Jason, really did well. Both Danny and Bryan believed that Jason was high hook with the most legal fish today. Jason had a lot of bags of fillets. I think Nick was happier about that. Ed Brozo (MA) caught a 14.5 pound Maine state trophy cusk. Ed's cusk is tied for the sixth largest cusk the Bunny Clark has boated this season to date. Buzz Leonard (ME) boated the largest cod at 6.5 pounds, about half the size of the cod he catches at West Cod Ledge!
I received three donations from anglers who were fishing with me today, sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge. The cycling event was completed at the end of the day on Sunday, August 2, 2026. But cancer never sleeps and the fundraising for this year continues until the dying breath of the last day in December 2026. Then I will start again in 2027. Those wonderful people who help me out, some every year, included David Haberl and Hannah Smith for $60.00, Nick Kirychuk for $20.00 and Tom & Noreen Zido (NY) for $50.00. Thank you all so very much for supporting me in these efforts, your thoughtfulness in so doing and your generosity. As those who donate know, this is very important to me, the researchers who need the money and to those patients who may never know who contributed. This is so much appreciated!
There was very little wind all morning. What wind we did have seemed to be out of the northwest. This by judging the ripples on the water in Oarweed Cove. Flags were limp. The ocean along the shore was flat calm. We didn't see any wind at all until sometime in the early afternoon, when I realized that the wind was out of the south. At that time it could have been five knots? By later afternoon the wind was out of the south at almost ten knots. The wind was out of the northwest at twelve knots at sunset. I didn't pay attention after that. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was clear and sunny. The air temperature reached a high of 79°F! But there was no humidity. So it felt really nice. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 80°F (with a low of 62°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 78°F (with a low of 56°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 55°F).
It was, again, Friday. I worked at the restaurant starting at 4:30 AM and leaving after 9:00 AM. I had a lot to do with the fishing report. A lot of images and much to write about. It took some time. Too much time to complete.
I had to stop to get ready for working at the restaurant. I was there before noon. I had to leave after 1:00 PM because I had a cardiac stress test at 2:00 PM. I had an MRI earlier in the year to scan for calcium in my coronary arteries. My calcium score came back at 756. A reading of 100 is of concern. So my cardiologist set up the stress test to see if I was getting any blockage of the coronary arteries. My father had issues there, of which I was very concerned about myself with. He had to have two angioplasties. I thought I might be taking the same route. You can't fight genetics. Turns out a lot of endurance athletes have calcium buildup in their coronary arteries; even as young as twenty-five, if they are heavy cyclists. (this from a study done on athletes in the Tour de France). Turns out, I was in that league. There wasn't even a hint of a blockage after the stress test with the EKG and electrocardiogram videos. I was so relieved, I can't tell you. I've been worried since I got the calcium score. That's not to say something won't happen in the future. But, for now, I'm okay.
After the stress test, I went back to work at the restaurants. I left after 6:00 PM.
We had a north northeast wind today that was stronger offshore than it was near shore. Wind speeds were no more than ten knots. It was a bit hubbly for the Fineskind Scenic Tour boats but all the trips were taken today. I didn't ask for a hurling count. The sky stayed clear with some clouds.The visibility was excellent. The air temperature warmed to a high of 65°F. It was cool in the morning with a 57°F at 9:15 AM and an increase to 61°F over an hour later. In the sun on the garden patio at Etc, it was nice and on the leeward side of the deck at Billy's.The wind was light in the afternoon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 62°F (with a low of 54°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 65°F (with a low of 42°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 65°F (with a low of 45°F).
I spent a fair amount of time working on finishing up the Thursday fishing report and writing yesterday's entry. That was the thrust of today's morning. I didn't finish all the desk work at home, waiting to finish up tomorrow morning. This also gave me some time to go for a run before work.
Saturday is my long day at the restaurants. As is typical of the fall, business slacks off at night, particularly when the air temperature drops. Such was the state of business this night. Barnacle Billy's, Etc. hung on for a while longer and did better business. I saw many customers today. It was a particularly fun restaurant day.
We have been having incontinence issues with old Gill. Today was no exception. He has to be let out all the time now. Oddly, he seems to be okay between 8 PM and 3 AM, the next morning. We put a diaper on him. And he stands up for me to wrap it around his body. I also have a wrap with handles that I put around his torso in order to, basically, carry him upstairs. Some nights he goes up on his own with me just stabilizing him and using the wrap as a safety net. Other times, I carry the full weight of him upstairs. If we leave him downstairs, he will bark every half hour until I take him up.
He still loves going to the Cove with me in the morning. He lingered long this morning, on the walk home. But I indulge him. Deb goes outside with him during the day but does not walk him now. It's too much on the top of the dog's hind paws to take him on the road. Even in the morning, I try to keep him on the grass as much as I can. Not having one hundred percent on the back legs gives the dog some issues. I hate to see the dog disabled like this. But that's life.
Looking at our future weather, it looks like we are going to experience an easterly flow. The wind for Tuesday's trip has been upgraded with gusts out of the east to twenty-five knots for the inshore forecast (within 25 miles) and fifteen to twenty knots with no higher gusts on the offshore forecast. Keep in mind that this is a weekend forecast which, in most cases, is not as reliable as a forecast during the week. Also, with a forecast three days out, a lot can change to make the predictions better or worse. Keep informed.
The sky became completely overcast by 8:00 AM. The sky remained so all morning. At 11:45 AM, a light rain started to fall. It remained very light but kept up for about twenty minutes before stopping. We had very light periodic rain in the early afternoon and, then, no rain after 1:00 PM. The sky stayed overcast with no rain until 5:30 PM, when I light rain started to fall again. The rain became more steady as the evening progressed. By 7:00 PM, the rain became steady, almost heavy, thing. It rained on into the night. The visibility dropped to good or maybe better than that. But there was a fog or heavy haze element to it. This largely because the wind had a southeast edge to it. It was mostly out of the south. By noon, the wind was directly out of the southeast. Wind speeds started at daylight and ten knots. But it never really got any windier. Sometimes it was over ten knots, sometimes no quite. By sunset, the wind was out of the east and the visibility over the ocean improved. The air temperature rose slowly into the 50s by mid morning. The highest air temperature that I saw was 62°F. Fall is coming. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 62°F (with a low of 54°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 59°F (with a low of 40°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 60°F (with a low of 40°F).
My day, like every Sunday, was centered about lunch time activity at the restaurants. Usually, we are busy during lunch. Then it tapers off with dinner time not nearly as busy as a Saturday night. This was one of those days. But it was less busy than a normal Sunday with the weather forecast, long before this day, with the warning of rain. So business was even a bit less than expected. And it did rain. Albeit, not as much or as soon as predicted.
Normally, I do some preparing for the fishing trip on Tuesday. I did some. But not as much as I would do if I was confident of good weather for that trip. We are going to experience an easterly flow from a system that had formed in the lower part offshore of the mid Atlantic over a week to ten days ago. At that time there was a 30% chance that a hurricane would form. That didn't happen. Wind shear had something to do with this. At that time, also, I was thinking that this might be something we might need to look out for.The system kept migrating northwest. More because of it's position and direction of travel did I expect that it would impact us. The ocean water has been so clear for the last week, I expected something would happen. Clear water has always been a warning sign in the past. Now I'm not sure how much this storm will impact us because it seems to be moving more north than northwest. The prediction for Tuesday with the inshore forecast is ten to fifteen knots with gusts to twenty-five knots out of the northeast. Expected seas are three to four feet. Not horrible. But will that really be what we can expect? northeast wind is not the best wind as, wherever I want to go fishing, I have travel right into it, the most uncomfortable direction of travel. If seas are less than expected it's no problem. If they are larger than expected? Well, that's the quandary. At least the crew I'm taking on Tuesday are driving up in the morning. That will give me a bit more time to come up with a salient decision. This, hopefully, by noon tomorrow.
The sky stayed mostly clear for the rest of the day. This was not in the forecast. There were very few clouds. What clouds we did have were insignificant in size and rain quantity. In fact, I never thought, for one second, that we would see any rain at all. And, indeed, we didn't. The wind started out from the north northeast at ten knots and slowly, throughout the morning and afternoon, diminished to nothing. The ocean was flat glassy calm in the afternoon. There was so little wind, you could have sat on the beach and lit a candle, knowing it wasn't going to get blown out. The viability remained excellent all day. The air temperature rose to a value of 70°F. By the helm of the Bunny Clark, tied stern to, to the float, the air temperature was 74°F. With no wind and the bright sun it was warmer than normal. It was really like a perfect summer day today, the day before the first day of fall. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 65°F (with a low of 55°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 69°F (with a low of 47°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 69°F (with a low of 47°F).
I was befuddled today as I was unsure about how to handle tomorrow's fishing trip. In my heart, I knew we could get to the grounds. But I wasn't sure how the day would progress. It was a charter with anglers, most of whom had fished with me for over thirty years. We have had some amazing trips in the past. And I was concerned that they wouldn't have a good time because of the weather. I like rougher weather in general because the chances are better that I would be on the grounds alone. I do like to fish when I can go anywhere without disturbing another boat's privacy. But northeast is not a great wind. When I leave the Cove, wherever I want to go to go fishing, the direction is always into the wind. And, depending on how much wind, the ride can be uncomfortable. Also, the boat's speed plus the wind direction always makes it seem rougher than it is. I have had patrons break legs in these conditions going in that direction. Thankfully, this never happened while I was the captain. But it very well could have. It wasn't until later afternoon that I made the decision to pull the plug and cancel the trip. This put me in a better mood but the day was already over. The thoughts of making the decision had kept me from being all that I could be in the restaurant. But I wanted to give it every chance so I didn't make the wrong decision. Of course, having canceled, the weather will turn out better than expected. And it's another trip denied, a trip I was really looking forward to taking.
Maybe it was this quandary in the back of my mind or maybe it would have happened anyway but going down the driveway headed to the restaurants, I went off the edge of the driveway with my motor scooter. Trying to get back on the driving, hitting that same ridge, made me dump the scooter. I wasn't going that fast. But, the way I dropped the bike, got me more banged up than I would have expected. I got my right leg caught under the scooter and tore some skin on the back side of my achilles, wrenched my shoulder by landing on my hands and hit my chin on the tar, jerking my head back in the process. I thought; "For Christ's sake, Tim, you idiot!" It was surprising how I felt I had to hide my true feelings when I started talking to patrons on the deck of Barnacle Billy's. My chin was throbbing, my leg hurt and my upper body was sore. My hands got over the fall relatively quickly. I discovered later, at 5:00 PM, when I was sitting down that I actually tore some skin off above my heel. It had been hurting all day but there was no blood soaking through my pants so I figured that was the way it was going to be. There was blood but, apparently, it was too far away from my white pants cuffs. The blood had seeped into my socks. I dressed the wound once it was discovered. No big deal, really. Just another annoying thing I do to myself with more frequency than I would like and a waste of time during a day when I feel I haven't enough of it.
My day was filled with getting the boat ready in case I decided to sail. I was hoping for more positivity in the weather forecast. I was also working at the restaurants. At some point I realized that I had the wrong cap on my head. I insist to employees that a Barnacle Billy's cap be worn if you are wearing a cap. I certainly want to lead by example. Plus, I usually change me glasses, which I hadn't. When one of our J1 students asked if I had something to measure blood pressure (she has some minor health issues), I took advantage of the opportunity to go home, change hat and glasses and, at the same time, honor her request.
The rest of the afternoon and evening went well.
I received a very generous $500.00 donation from Betsy McLaughlin (NY) sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge. Of course, the cycling event it over but I ask at least one person a day for donations. The fundraising goes until the end of the season or December 31, 2026. Cancer doesn't sleep and I am too serious about fighting it to stop. Of course, I am encouraged by the more money I garner in a season. And with a genetic component to pancreatic cancer discovered at Dana-Farber through genetic profiling, the very place and research I support, I'm more encouraged than ever. When the drug was first experimented with three years ago, there is a women who had stage 4 pancreatic cancer who is still alive today because of this drug that, essentially, shuts off the gene that's largely responsible for her cancer. That this comes out of Boston boosted on by the very money I am funding through my wonderful donors makes all this so real to me. So I thank Betsy and people like her, who, every year, donate to what is more than ever shown as a very good thing to do to save people with cancer. I appreciate this so much. But think how appreciative the person is who is living thanks to you all!
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 52°F, the sky was overcast, the wind was blowing out of the northeast at fifteen knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The weather turned out to be better than expected. We had light northeast winds early that strengthened to twenty-three knots by 6:00 AM. The offshore buoys had the wind out of the north northeast at seventeen to twenty-three knots until the later morning. By noon, the wind had come fully northeast but only at ten knots. This hung on until 1:00 PM, when the wind dropped further still. By 3:00 PM, the wind was hardly even five knots. Along the shore, the ocean was calm by mid afternoon, glassy calm by 4:00 PM. When I went to bed there was no wind at all. The sky was clear all day. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature reached a high of 65°F according to the thermometer at home and the high in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Incidently, the air temperature under the canopy at low tide under the bright sun was 77°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 63°F (with a low of 53°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 67°F (with a low of 43°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 64°F (with a low of 45°F).
The day was, of course, centered around the restaurants. We had a good early afternoon lunch followed by, what I would call, a relaxing afternoon with just enough business to keep everyone busy. For patrons, it was really good on the deck. There were enough tables available and it was really warm out of the wind.
My sister, Meg, showed up to sit with some of our more regular patrons. It was nice to see her. She has retired but does come by every once and a while to visit. It was nice to see her.
The visibility stayed excellent all day. The sky was nearly cloudless all day. The wind blew out of the northeast and, then, east at as much as eighteen knots in gusts but was, generally, about fifteen knots for most of the day, dying out to about five knots out of the east at 6:00 PM. The wind did pick up again to about ten knots or less going into the night. The air temperature rose to the low high of 64°F. In the lee of the wind, on the deck of Barnacle Billy's, it was t-shirt weather or 75°F in the sun from opening to about 3:00 PM. It was lovely. I expect another day like this tomorrow. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 64°F (with a low of 51°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 67°F (with a low of 36°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 62°F (with a low of 44°F).
As this low pressure weather system churns in a nearly stationary position well south of Cape Cod, the isobars are getting closer together. Or, the winds are getting stronger. This storm is planted right between the Cape and Hatteras not two hundred miles or so offshore or about two hundred and fifty miles east of Cape Hatteras. The wind field of this system is enormous with threads of northeast wind affecting the Maine coast to the Delaware coast. My fear is that it will strengthen and move north, taking it right over Cape Cod, or worse, taking it outside Cape Cod and stalling again. The high pressure area above it is strong and holding it back for now. This has, pretty much, stymied the National Weather Service and prevented me from going fishing when it would have been fine to take the trip on Tuesday and, possibly, today. What worries me most is that this system could evolve into a sub-tropical storm similar to the "Perfect Storm" or even the blizzard of '78. Those two storms were a bit different as they became planted off our coast whereas this present one is south of us. I guess a lot depends on thunder storms becoming more prevalent in the middle of this whirling system, taping into the ocean heat energy, sending it aloft and creating more convection, increasing it's strength. The NWS, then, might be able to give it a name, which suggests that, if this happens, that they are agreeing with me. Wouldn't that be something? Right now the American model suggests a regular noreaster. The European model suggests my line of worst case scenario thinking. And, yes, I have put some time into working this whole weather scene out. Right now the water temperature in the area that the storm is located is about 78°F, which is plenty warm enough to create a heat rise into this thing. The fact that we have lighter wind than expected today makes me think that this system is becoming more tightly wound? And talk about tightly wound, take a look at super Hurricane Polo on the west coast of Mexico. Wow. Stay tuned.
I spent most of my time in the restaurant today, early in the morning, from noon until 3:00 PM and after 5:30 PM. Between times, I was working on Bunny Clark issues, visiting the eye doctor for my six month check, working out a plan for dealing with a noreaster or worse and visiting a high school cross country meet where my great nephew (and he is, certainly, a great nephew), Landon Mitchell, was competing. I rode up to the meet with Deb and my sister, Meg, Landon's grandmother. Landon's form is really good, in my opinion. He hasn't got that running maturity it takes to make him a winner yet. But, boy, the potential is there. He is a physical specimen. It will be interesting to see if he is interested in expanding his commitment to running or if he will just become an excellent well rounded athlete. I just know that it is very much fun watching him.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 46°F, the sky was crystal clear and full of stars, the wind was blowing out of the north at ten knots along the shore and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
As it has done every day since we had this easterly flow, the wind blew about fifteen knots out of the north to northeast and died in the afternoon. The wind gradually started dropping after noon. By 5:00 PM, we had three knots of wind in Perkins Cove. The sky stayed clear, almost cloudless, all day. The visibility remained excellent. The air temperature followed the same pattern it has been doing. Lows in the forties before daylight and a warming into the 60s by noon. The highest air temperature that I saw today was at home, a third of a mile from Perkins Cove. That reading value was 66°F. It was probably a bit cooler in the Cove. But you wouldn't know it sitting on the deck at Barnacle Billy's, in the sun and out of the wind. It was t-shirt weather there until about 4:00 PM, when it started to cool down. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 65°F (with a low of 49°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 70°F (with a low of 39°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 66°F (with a low of 41°F).
The focus on most mariner's minds today was on the impending coast low centered off Cape Hatteras. It's so strange, this lack of movement north. There was so much talk about it strengthening into a sub-tropical storm. Looking at it in detail without any facts to go on, I believed it was getting stronger too. It could have. But it doesn't seem to be now. And the direction the European model is giving shows it going more ashore than out to sea, hitting the Rhode Island/Cape Cod area first before going east and out to see. This will spare us the huge seas (if the storm actually follows this path) we were predicted to get. So I'm cautious but optimistic. Rainfall totals are an enigma to me now. We will have to see how that goes. How long it will linger in our coastal waters is also and unknown as well. It almost looks like it will be tough to get Tuesday's trip in. I would hate to miss another trip. We shall see.
As I wasn't on the marathon trip yesterday, I was in the restaurant all afternoon and into the night. I was also having a water shut off put in the house in the afternoon. So I had to keep going back and forth between the restaurant and the house. It was only a couple of times, really. But it was on my mind until it was completed.
Our border collie, Gill, seems to be maintaining the same level of health. Who knows what's going on internally. But he is still happy, still waiting for me in anticipation to take him to the Cove, still eating his food (although, he has to be coaxed at times) and still sniffing around every bush, hedge and fire hydrant whenever I take him walking anywhere. This is good.
And, yes, we could have sailed today.
As the Iran war continues, and our involvement deepens, so does the increase in fuel prices. Today, the price is approaching almost double the price I paid for fuel last year. I thought it was high last year. I will continue to request a fuel surcharge of $20.00 per person until that becomes untenable. Hopefully, that will be the most I have to charge. I'm sorry I have to do this. And I hope you understand. Hopefully, these fuel prices will decrease sooner than later. Whatever it is, it will not keep me from going where I need to go to catch you the number of fish you like to bring home including a few big ones here and there.
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