Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 6:45 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 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 57°F, the sky was clear and full of stars, the wind was blowing out of the west at ten knots or less and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
There was very little wind when we sailed down the channel to the gate and entrance to Perkin Cove. The air temperature 52°F, the sky was clear, the visibility was excellent and the wind was light from the west.
The ride to the fishing grounds was uneventful. With excellent visibility, light westerly wind and a stable platform, it was a very comfortable ride. At one point, somewhere around 5:30 AM, I saw what I thought was a flag buoy (high flyer). It was red or dark orange. When I saw it again, it looked like a sailboat with a bowed spinnaker. Then I realized it was a sliver of a moon coming up out of the horizon in the east southeast. Of course, the higher it got in the sky, the more yellow it got. This isn't the first time I have been fooled by the moon rising. We had a three foot swell out of the south under a one foot chop out of the west. It never blew more than ten knots.
On the grounds, the wind blew out of the west at eight knots or less to start, died out to nothing and stayed calm all day. The three foot long swell remained with us all day. But the surface water was glassy. When we started for home, the wind was just starting to blow out of the southwest. The southwest wind blew as much as eight to ten knots on the ride back to Perkins Cove. The sky was very clear to start with a bright sun and few clouds all morning. After noon, the sky started to get milky, the lighting soft. Clouds could be seen in the west extending out toward us. The air temperature reached a high of 60°F. The visibility dropped to five to eight miles in haze. The tide (current) was light. The surface water temperature reached a high of 45°F. This probably seems warm but a flat calm ocean all day does warm the shallow surface water to a higher degree. It was an excellent weather day.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 76°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 78°F (with a low of 57°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of 47°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 68°F (with a low of 47°F).
[Incidentally, the sky was overcast when we sailed back into Perkins Cove from out fishing day. The wind had backed out of the southeast at fifteen knots and the visibility was fair. It started to rain within an hour and a half. At times, it was a drenching rain. But these were short bursts with drizzle and light rain between. Further inland, they experienced thunder and lightning. We had drizzle and rain with the occasional burst until at least 9:00 PM.]
The fishing was excellent. We had no problem tending bottom. The drift was very light with a current strong enough to move us along the bottom but not strong enough to promote tangles. Lines were, pretty much, straight up and down all day. We made one anchor stop. The fishing was the same either way. It was steady catching all day except for one period when I wanted to look at another spot and try it out. That spot did not work out. So we went back to where we were. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. We caught the haddock boat limit for every person aboard about forty-five minutes before it was time to go home. Legal landings also included ninety-one cusk. Released fish included seventy-nine, mostly haddock (half legal/half sub-legal in size), two tiny pollock, two wolffish and seven small cod. Bait and cod flies caught the most fish but we did catch a few haddock and cusk on jigs.
Ben Ayer (ME) lost a halibut within the first half hour of fishing. He wasn't ready for it and had his drag too tight. On it's first run to bottom only probably fifty feet up, it broke Ben's jig off. Ben's largest fish was a 5 pound cusk. But he most probably caught the second most haddock.
Fred Kunz (NH) was high hook with fifty legal fish. He fished until he caught his fifty legal and then hung it up for the day. He won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 10.5 pound wolffish. Matt Luce (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, an 11.5 pound wolffish. His largest cusk weighed 5.75 pounds. He also tied for the second largest haddock at 5.5 pounds. Nino Pierdipino (NY) caught the third largest fish, a 7 pound cusk.
Other Angler Highlights: Steve Clark (VT) caught the largest haddock of the trip at 6 pounds. He also tied with Matt for the second largest haddock at 5.5 pounds. Steve was quite vocal about losing three nice sized haddock on the surface right next to the boat. How big were they? Judging by the pitch and strength of his voice, I would say, huge! Nick Varnum (ME) caught the largest cod at 5.5 pounds. We caught several double keeper haddock catches. I took a picture of Jasper Downs (ME) holding one of the better doubles of the day. This digital image appears on the left. I also took several pictures of Danny with a table full of haddock to fillet. The best shot can be seen on the lower right.
I received two donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. Steve & Robbin Clark donated a very generous $300.00 while Fred Kunz gave $20.00 to the cause. All these people have been very generous over the years. Thank you so very much for your thoughtful contributions to, what I feel, is a great cause. I so very much appreciate this.
The fog hung around all morning and part of the afternoon. However, right around 7:00 AM, the fog moved about a half mile offshore to reveal a clear sky. Then the fog moved in again. Around noon, the fog had moved offshore a bit. The sky was again clear. But clouds started to move in from the west. By 5:00 PM, the sky was overcast. A light rain started to fall. That lasted for two minutes total. Rain drops fell on the windshield but before I went from the Cove to my house, half of the drops had dried off before I got there. An hour and a half later, the sky cleared. The visibility never got any better than good over the ocean. There was not enough wind to write about all day. I assume that the wind that there was, was southeast with so much fog. Southeast wind in Ogunquit brings fog. I did see the flags barely moving showing a southerly direction in the afternoon. The air temperature was in the 50s all day. The highest air temperature that I saw was 58°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 73°F (with a low of 46°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 53°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 61°F (with a low of 48°F).
I spent the day running around working on Bunny Clark things and going back and forth to the restaurant. It was a slower day than yesterday today. But the weather prediction wasn't great.
Fidium finally fixed the webcam at the restaurant. When they worked on the phone system almost a week ago, they took out the webcam in the process. After almost three days they realized that it was them that created the problem. In the sixty-six years of working at Barnacle Billy's, Fidium had created more problems than any vendor we have ever been involved with. And we haven't even completed a half year with them yet. I don't know if it's because they are growing so fast, they can't find the help or they aren't good at what the do. I hope it's not the later.
At 1:00 PM, I drove to my doctor's office for my annual physical. I was okay but as I am an older white male, my doctor would like to have my heart viewed and tested. All my blood work came out fine. I got my marching orders and left. I got home after 3:30 PM and worked at the restaurant until about 5:00 PM, when I went home to get ready to go fishing.
Danny DellaMonica messaged me later in the day to say that he read my report from yesterday and thought that Jared Lavers (ME) was high hook with the most fish. That could have been true. Certainly, it could have been true; he was catching fish, mostly haddock, hand over fist, the whole day. I gave high hook status to Fred Kunz because his frequency of catch was greater while he was fishing at the same time that Jared was fishing. Plus, Fred is one of those mathematically gifted individuals who can count and keep track of everything he catches. [I have tested this time and time again] I know of only one other Bunny Clark angler who could do that, and he passed away a couple of years ago, Tim Rozan (ME). Neither Danny nor Jared had an accurate fish count while Fred did. Danny didn't count either Fred's fish or Jared's fish; he looks at the bags of fish fillets afterward. But a bigger fish size will make an individual look like he has more individual fish than he caught. Like I mentioned, Jared caught a lot of fish. And he could have been high hook. But there was no proof. So, really, this is a value judgement on my part and, obviously, from my perspective.
At 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 47°F, the sky was overcast, it had been drizzling rain fifteen minutes earlier, there wasn't enough wind to write about and the visibility over the ocean was fair in fog and haze.
It had stopped raining altogether by the time we left the dock to head to the fishing grounds. The fog was completely gone. So we had an unobstructed view all the way to the gate.
The ride out, again, was uneventful as it was on Tuesday. The visibility was good, at least, for the whole ride. The sky was overcast. The wind was light from the east. Seas were about a foot or more over a swell of about two feet. The air temperature remained in the high 40s the whole way.
On the grounds, the wind blew out of the east or southeast when we first arrived. We might have had three knots of wind. Later in the morning, the wind became established out of the east. It blew up to five or six knots. Seas were less than a foot in chops all day. There were no white caps. We did have an underlying sea swell of a couple feet; nothing of significance. The highest air temperature that I saw was 50°F. The visibility ranged to about fifteen miles or more. The tide (current) was moderate. I have the feeling it will be strong tomorrow with the new moon coming right up. The sky was overcast all day with a thinner overcast sky later in the afternoon. We saw the lume of the sun shinning through on the way home. The surface water temperature reached a high of 42°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire the high air temperature was 55°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 54°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 74°F (with a low of 51°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 54°F (with a low of 43°F).
The fishing was just shy of excellent. There was just enough tide as to keep the fishing from being perfect. The catching was excellent as were the landings. Most legal fish caught were haddock, by far. We were catching so many by 10:00 AM, that I wouldn't let anyone keep a haddock less than nineteen inches overall length. As it was we reached the bag limit by 11:30 AM. All but three fishermen stopped fishing for the day. Those who remained went to jig fishing while I let the boat drift. Legal landings also included twenty-nine cusk, two pollock and two redfish. Released fish included ninety-three haddock (mostly of legal size), seven small cod, three small cusk and thirteen small pollock. We tried drifting but it wasn't nearly as productive as anchoring was. We stayed on one anchor stop for over two and a half hours. And it just kept getting better the longer we stayed. The only reason I left was that we had caught the bag limit of haddock. All terminal gear worked well but bait worked the best by far.
Jim Feeney (MA) was high hook with the most legal fish. Some of the fish that Jim caught included a 5 pound haddock, the largest pollock of the season at 4.5 pounds, a 5.3 pound haddock (the third largest fish of the trip) and a 4.75 pound haddock. Fred Kunz (NH) was second hook with sixty-two legal fish. Most of the haddock he caught were released. His largest fish was a 4.75 pound haddock. However, he lost a fish that could have been a real big haddock or, what I suspect was, a small halibut. Stanley Johnson (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 5.5 pound haddock. He also won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, another 5.5 pound haddock. These fish are tied with the second largest haddock of the season to date.
Other Angler Highlights: Jim Thurston (NH) caught a 4.75 pound haddock, his biggest fish. Two years ago, in early April, he caught an 150 pound halibut with me. Bryan Lewer (ME) caught a 4 pound haddock, his best fish. Neil Chamberlin (NH) landed a 5.25 pound haddock, his biggest fish. Darlene Chin (MA) probably caught the most haddock over 3 pounds today. She did exceptionally well. Her largest haddock weighed 4.75 pounds. Steve LaPlante (CT) caught a 5 pound haddock, his biggest fish. Dan Wescom (VT) landed a 4.5 pound haddock and a 5.25 pound haddock, his two best. Nino Pierdipino (NY) boated a 4.5 pound haddock, his biggest fish. Drew Mastrorillo (ME) caught two haddock of 4 pounds each.
I received three donations sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge today. The anglers and their donations included Drew Mastrorillo for $40.00, Captain Bryan Lewer for $60.00 and Jim Thurston for a generous $100.00. Thank you all so very much for your thoughtfulness and for helping me help Dana-Farber in Boston, Massachusetts, to find a cure and to keep some of the best research scientists in the world on the job. I do so appreciate this and believe in their excellent research very much!
It rained and drizzled for a bit longer and then stopped. The sky stayed overcast for the rest of the morning but there was no rain. After noon, the clouds became thinner with blue sky showing up around 4:00 PM. The sky cleared completely by 6:00 PM and was almost cloudless. I think I only saw one small cloud to the south. The air temperature was 64°F at 4:00 PM. It was the best weather we have had at the restaurant this season so far, a perfect afternoon to be on the deck. The wind blew out of the northeast until about mid morning. Not much. About eight knots. But it was enough, with an air temperature of 53°F to make it feel uncomfortable. The wind dropped to nothing by noon. The ocean along the shore was flat calm for the rest of the day. The visibility became clear by the afternoon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 57°F (with a low of 47°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 72°F (with a low of 47°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 66°F (with a low of 44°F).
I opened Barnacle Billy's at 5:00 AM. I stayed there until just before 9:00 AM. I went back in at noon, went home for a nap and then worked until about 7:00 PM. Deb had a haddock dinner prepared from a fish that Fred Kunz gave me from Tuesday's trip. It was excellent. Nothing like fresh haddock before the spawning period. The haddock on Tuesday were mostly resident fish, which was nice.
It wasn't a very busy day at the restaurant. In the afternoon, the deck filled. It was a beautiful time to be out there.
When I went outside at 7:00 AM, I was surprised to see the sky overcast, a light rain falling and black thick fog along the shore; such a contrast is such a short period of time. Later in the morning, the fog was gone and the sky was clear again. The sky stayed clear and nearly cloudless for the later part of the morning and most of the afternoon. By 4:00 PM, the sky was overcast again. By 6:00 PM, it was drizzling rain. The visibility ranged from poor to good and very good to poor in fog and drizzle. The wind was light to begin the day but started to blow out of the northeast, enough to be noticed, around noon. By 5:00 PM, the wind was blowing out of the east northeast or northeast at fifteen knots. This wind backed off a bit after sunset. The highest air temperature that I saw was 53°F around noon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 51°F (with a low of 44°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 65°F (with a low of 41°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 54°F (with a low of 39°F).
It was a roller coaster of a weather day, as stated above. This had customers filling the deck overhanging Perkins Cove at Barnacle Billy's to begin and for the early part of the afternoon to back inside the dinning room with the fires roaring for the rest of the night. The northeast wind was raw, dropping the air temperature to 45°F from about 3:00 PM onward. At 6:00 PM I noticed a dog tethered to the railing attached to the Billy's dock on the patio. There was no one there in the patio. Just the dog. It was a short haired thin good looking dog. And it was whimpering. I went out and petted the dog. It was really happy to see me. But it was wet and shivering. I tried to find the owner; maybe I could have the dog in the enclosed part of the deck near the heated registers. I never did find who owned the dog. On another check, the dog was gone.
There were a lot of good people in the restaurant tonight. The day went by way too fast. There were only a couple of tables left at closing time. So I went home.
We are having a hard time with Gill, our border collie. He has been diagnosed with bladder cancer at a stage that's too late to cure. His hind legs are also giving out. So the nightly procedure is to come home, get the dog to stand up on shaky legs and put a diaper on him. It's a two person job to do it right. He loves to sleep on the floor with us in the bedroom. But Gill has to be coerced up the stairs with a dog bone and me behind him, two hands planted on his rear end, helping him up the steep stairway. Believe it or not, it gets me out of breath. I swam 1.7 miles in the Portsmouth Pool this morning. Yet I was more out of breath moving the dog up to our bedroom. Gill seems to still be loving life. But the writing is on the wall. This is the hardest part of owning a pet.
The salient weather feature was the rain. It rained all day. There were some periods without rain, short periods. There were times when the rain came down like you might see in a tropical rain forest. And there was drizzle all day. The sky never cleared during the day, remaining overcast from dawn to dusk. The visibility was fair to good along the coast with times of fog and hazy conditions. The wind blew out of the south in the morning at very light speeds. After noon, oddly enough, the wind blew out of the northwest, light at first but up to almost twenty knots by sunset. The air temperature reached a high of 48°F, that I saw. The air temperature hung around 45°F for most of the day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 36°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 46°F (with a low of 32°F).
The business at the restaurant was, as expected, not the best. But it was better than I expected it would be. But it also gave me time to work on the spreadsheets in the office.
Tomorrow we get ready for another fishing trip on Tuesday. I am really looking forward to it.
Today was a somewhat cool clear day. The wind started out of the west southwest as much as fifteen knots. By noon, it was blowing out of the west northwest with gusts in Perkins Cove up to twenty knots. By 6:00 PM, it was blowing the same direction but only about ten knots. The sky clear all day, dotted with clouds. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature reached a high of 50°F. But, with the wind, it felt much colder. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 53°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 25°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 50°F (with a low of 29°F).
I spent the day exercising (early morning), getting the boat ready to take the trip tomorrow and working at Barnacle Billy's. There isn't really that much to report except that scallops right now are sky high.
Ray Washburn (VT) donated a very generous $250.00 to sponsor me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge today. Ray has always donated to my cancer fundraising project since I got involved in 2007. Thank you for being so thoughtful and generous, Ray. You know it means a lot to me. But I know it's more than that with you. And I really appreciate the whole of it!
At 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 30°F, the sky was clear and full of stars, there was zero wind in Perkins Cove and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
When we left the dock the air temperature on the Bunny Clark was 27°F, the coldest departure after mid April in quite a few years. In fact, for many years we have only had a couple of days in early April where we saw ice on the dock. It was crisp at the dock but there was also no wind. So it really didn't feel as cold as it was. Skies were clear and the visibility was, indeed, excellent.
The ride out, again, was uneventful as it has been since we started on April 14th. We did have some wind. But it was so light as to not have any. I do believe the wind was from the northeast. The visibility ranged to over ten miles. Seas were old left over chops of a foot or two. The sky was clear. The visibility was at least twenty-five miles.By the time we arrived at the fishing grounds, the air temperature had risen to 33°F. At that time, the surface water temperature was 39.9°F.
On the grounds, we started with a very light east northeast wind. Seas were wavelets over a left over one to two foot rolling chop. An hour later, the ocean glassy over a left over hubble. The ocean stayed glassy until the last stop when we saw a light south southeast wind crop up. Even half way home this same wind was only five knots with a half a foot chop. The air temperature reached a high of 45°F. The visibility was over twenty-five miles. The tide (current) was non-existant to light. The sky was clear with some clouds. The surface water temperature reached a high of 42.2°F.
The wind hauled more southerly on the way back to Perkins Cove. With three miles to go we fifteen or more knots with two foot chops that were increasing as we moved. After sunset, there were wind gusts to twenty knots.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 45°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 45°F (with a low of 33°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 51°F (with a low of 21°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 44°F (with a low of 22°F). The low air temperature recorded in Portland today breaks the previous record low of 23°F last set in 1962.
The fishing was excellent. The drift was perfect, the tangles were few and there were no dogfish seen or sharks hooked. The catching was good to very good. Landings were the same. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. But not nearly as many haddock as the first two trips this season. We didn't release any legal haddock today. The average legal haddock per person was a little over eleven each. Legal landings also included ninety-three cusk, sixteen good sized redfish and a pollock. Released fish included six small cod, five cusk and seventeen sub-legal haddock. We drift fished at all spots but one. Anchoring gave us poor results. Bait and cod flies worked best. Jigs did catch a few fish.
Either Randy Rivette (VT) or Fred Kunz (NH) was high hook with the most legal fish. Fred caught thirty-seven legal fish including seventeen haddock. I couldn't get a count off Randy. Fred's two biggest fish included a 5.5 pound haddock and a 6 pound cusk. Ray Washburn (VT) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 7.25 pound cusk. Jeff Larson (NH) won the boat pool for the second fish with the second largest fish, a 6.75 pound haddock. This is the Bunny Clark's largest haddock of the fishing season to date. I took a picture of Jeff holding his long (28" fork length) haddock. This digital image appears on the left. There was a tie for the third largest fish at 6 pounds. Fred had one, his cusk. Mike Cheney (VT) had the other, a 6 pound haddock. This is tied for the Bunny Clark's second largest haddock of the 2026 fishing season so far.
Steve & Robbin Clark (VT) donated another $250.00 to sponsor me in the Pan-Mass Challenge today after already donating $300.00 earlier this month. That is so kind of you both to do this. It means so much to so many people. Thank you! Very much appreciated!
It was another raw and cold day today. But it was not nearly as cold as yesterday. At least, today, it wasn't below freezing this morning. Most of the day was spent in the 46°F range, although it took most of the morning to get there. The highest air temperature a saw was only a degree better at 47°F. The visibility over the ocean seemed very good to excellent. The sky was mostly clear in the morning. By 11:00 AM, the sky was almost completely overcast. It was overcast before noon and for the rest of the day. The wind was blowing out of the south by 8:00 AM. It continued to blow out of the south all day. Wind speeds were mostly twenty or more knots with four foot seas. Ashore, we had ten to fifteen knots of southerly wind. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 47°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 29°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 46°F (with a low of 32°F).
I spent part of the day with Bunny Clark stuff, cleaning up from yesterday and getting ready for tomorrow's trip. The rest of the day I worked at Barnacle Billy's restaurants. Most of my time in the restaurants was spent on pricing, emails and our POS system.
It wasn't very busy today. Nor did I expect it to be with the weather forecast. With all this cold weather, no one wants to sit on the deck and freeze to death. Better days are coming. In the meantime we are trading an old dollar for a new one.
Gill continues to have a hard time with his back legs. It's impossible for him to go up more than one set of stairs. So, getting to the second floor, I have to lift him from behind. He's still happy, which is the main thing.
At 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 42°F, the sky was a mix of clouds with a handful of stars, there was ten knots of southerly wind in the Cove and the visibility over the ocean was very good in some haze.
This morning we had a reading of 44°F for an air temperature going out the gate after making it out of Perkins Cove. Much better than the 27°F we had on Tuesday. The ride out was a bit choppy with fifteen knots of southerly wind and a chop/swell of about three feet, more or less. It was, basically, a beam sea so there was no challenge to it. The sky became overcast an hour offshore. It stayed overcast for the ride out. The visibility was about eight miles at most. The air temperature remained in the 40s.
On the grounds, we had southerly wind of ten to fifteen knots to start. Seas were a chop/swell of three feet, not really a full on wind driven chop. We had white caps but they were just a part of the swell. At the same time we had fog that diminished the visibility to less than a quarter mile. We weren't there a half hour when it started to rain. The sky was overcast. But it was the low level clouds that created the rain. The southerly wind dropped off to about eight knots, backed out of the southwest, dropped down to nothing, the ocean went glassy with a one to two foot left over roll and then backed out of the northwest. We had very light northwest wind for the last hour of the day. [We had ten to fifteen knots of northerly to northeast wind on the ride back to Perkins Cove.] The fog was gone by 10:00 AM. The sky remained overcast until noon and then cleared. We had a cloudless sky after 1:00 PM. The visibility ranged to twenty-five miles after that. The air temperature reached a high of 48°F. The tide, current, was moderate. The surface water temperature reached a high of 41.7°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire the high air temperature was 64°F today. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 66°F (with a low of 42°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 63°F (with a low of 32°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 57°F (with a low of 38°F).
The fishing was excellent. The drift was perfect, the tangles were few and there were no dogfish seen or sharks hooked. The catching was good overall. My target species was haddock And there were haddock everywhere but no big schools of them anywhere that I could find. On the last stop we saw the biggest haddock of the trip. But it wasn't a big haddock day. We did have a couple of anglers who captured their own bag limit. Legal landings included one hundred and thirty-two haddock, sixty-one cusk, three pollock and twenty-one redfish. Released fish included one legal haddock, fifteen sub-legal haddock, thirty-nine small cod to 4.5 pounds, three small cusk, three small pollock three sub-legal redfish and a small wolffish. We drift fished most of the day, anchored twice. It didn't much matter. Bait and cod flies caught the most fish.
I truly believe that Chris Cichon (NJ) was high hook with the most legal fish. This is just a guess based on my perception of performance during the day. He was certainly the most consistent. Two fish of Chris' that I weighed included a 5.75 pound haddock and a 5 pound cusk. He also caught the small cat. Dana Decormier (NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 7.1 pound Maine state trophy haddock. This is the Bunny Clark's first state trophy of the season to date and the largest haddock of the Bunny Clark fishing season so far. I took a picture of Dana holding his prize fish. This digital image appears on the right. Lewis Hazelwood (MA) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 7 pound cusk. Some of Lewis' other fish that I weighed included a 4.75 pound haddock and a 5.5 pound haddock. The third largest fish was a 6.1 pound haddock caught by Kevin Aucoin (VT).
Other Angler Highlights: Steve LaFlam (NH - an awesome guy and one hell of a fisherman.) caught one of the first fish I could weigh, a 4 pound haddock. Dave Haberl (VT) caught a 5.25 pound haddock. Hannah Smith (VT) landed a 6 pound haddock, her best fish. Between Dave and Hannah, they released at least thirty cod. Hannah caught the largest cod of the day at 4.5 pounds. Brett Aucoin (VT) caught a 6 pound haddock, his biggest fish. Chris Silver (NH) landed a 5.5 pound cusk, his biggest fish.
I received two donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. The amazing Steve LaFlam gave $20.00 while the fishing team of Dave Haberl & Hannah Smith donated $40.00. Thank you so very much for your support, as you have always done - as long as I can remember. I appreciate it so much. And just know that all of this is helping.
The wind and the colder than normal morning air temperatures were the salient features of today's weather. We haven't had as many mornings below freezing during the month of April in many years, particularly in the later part of April. I don't mind it at all. But it is different. The air temperature rose into the mid 40s after 9:00 AM. We saw the highest air temperature of the day around noon when I saw 50°F. The wind kicked up from the northeast around that time and took the air temperature down with it as it came across the parking lot in Perkins Cove. The afternoon saw air temperatures in the mid 40s. The afternoon saw east southeast winds of about ten knots for a while and, then, out of the south for the rest of the daylight hours. Wind speeds were less than ten knots, just enough to raise a flag. The sky was a mix of sun and clouds, the sun more prevalent in the morning and the clouds more so in the afternoon. The visibility was excellent all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 50°F (with a low of 40°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 47°F (with a low of 29°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 51°F (with a low of 33°F).
The internet was down all morning in the house because of some work that Spectrum was doing on the streets in our neighborhood. So it threw me all off. I wasted more time this morning, missing some things I wanted to do. It was my own fault. I should have just moved on. The day after a fishing trip, I get, what I call, an adrenaline hangover. I feel just slightly depressed, I'm a bit sore, have a mild headache and I'm a bit tired. So this added to the morning confusion. I get so excited during the fishing trip and the hours awake are a bit longer than a regular day. I try to hold my excitement down in the morning, at the start of the trip, as the more excited I get, the worse we seem to do. It's not an easy thing to do, particularly in the spring. I'm most excited in the spring and the fall. It's just my makeup.
Once I got the morning behind me, I moved into the regular day. I open the restaurants on Fridays. So I was down there at 5:00 AM, just a little bit behind the bread man this morning. This means I have to move the racks inside myself. No big deal. But had I been there earlier, this would have been one less thing I had to do. One thing I must do, and this takes place around 7:30 AM, is light the lobster/clam cooker tanks. I knew I had forgotten something. But I only realized this at 9:00 AM. Lucky I remembered it at all, the way the morning was going! So I had to crank up the burners to get things boiling by the appropriate time. Our manager, Matt Pedersen, takes my place at 9:00 AM. But I was behind enough that I was still working after he arrived. And with the loss of the internet, I still had work to do at home. I had planned to drive to Portsmouth to swim a couple miles before going back in to the restaurants. That didn't happen.
The rest of the day I was at the restaurants. It was fairly busy but not as busy as the same day last year. I get out at 7:00 PM on Friday. I was ready for bed after I had something to eat with Deb.
Another cold morning for this time of year. The wind blew out of the north for the early part of the morning. Wind speeds were about ten knots or a little more. What little wind we did have let go around 10:00 AM, leaving the ocean calm. The ocean stayed calm until the early afternoon when a southerly wind component became part of the weather picture. The wind blew out of the south over ten knots until sunset. The wind had hauled more southwest when I looked at 8:00 PM. The sky was clear all day with some clouds. The visibility was excellent throughout the day. The air temperature reached a high of 52°F. This was only briefly. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 49°F (with a low of 37°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 58°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 54°F (with a low of 28°F).
It was a good day all around today. Business and weather were good. There were a lot of people in Perkins Cove today. And why not? We finally had a decent weekend weather forecast and the forecast matched the weather, which isn't always the case, as you all know. As you might imagine, I spent the day at Barnacle Billy's restaurant.
Looking at the weather during the week this week, it looked like rain throughout. The wind inshore doesn't look like much. The wind prediction for offshore looks stronger than normal. Again, what they predict is usually not what happens. And don't ever trust a weekend forecast for the coming week. They could be right; stranger things have happened.
There was very little, if any, wind in the morning. After noon, the wind came up out of the south. It blew up to eight knots or so and, then, backed off again at sunset. There was very little wind through the night. It stayed sunny all day but there were high clouds that gave most of the day a soft lighting. Near the end of the day there was more sun. The wind off the water, even the light southerly, cooled down the area of Perkins Cove. But not before the air temperature reached 60°F, the highest temperature that we have seen for a while. The visibility was excellent, or close to excellent, all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 55°F (with a low of 43°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 68°F (with a low of 32°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 60°F (with a low of 34°F).
I did a little prep work on the Bunny Clark today. But most of my day was spent at Barnacle Billy's restaurant. It was a mellow Sunday for business. Busy enough but not as busy as yesterday. It was nice to have such nice weather. It wasn't an excellent day to be enjoying a rum punch on the deck. But it was a good enough day to do so at most tables out there.
Over the weekend, the weather forecast for Tuesday looked passable. But the weather forecast for Thursday looks like it will be hit or miss. I never trust a weekend forecast. Plus, it's too far in advance to know what the weather will be like on Thursday. We will wait a couple days to make a determination for Thursday's trip. In the meantime, I am looking forward to Tuesday.
The salient weather feature today was the beauty of it. The ocean was calm all day. Along the shore in the afternoon, we had a ten knot southwest breeze. But, outside a mile, it remained calm. The ocean was flat calm from dawn to dusk. The sky was cloudless all day. Visibility was excellent. The air temperature high, that I saw today, was 65°F. Days like this are better than summer days to me. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 58°F (with a low of 44°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 73°F (with a low of 32°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 65°F (with a low of 34°F).
The deck of Barnacle Billy's was full all day today. That's not quite correct. The people who were dining at Barnacle Billy's today were all on the deck. It was such a beautiful day.
I spent the morning getting myself and the Bunny Clark ready to sail tomorrow. There is a lot of stuff I have to do at home as well as on the boat. But I have more stuff to do at home.
I spent some time at the restaurant early in the morning. Then I went to Portsmouth to swim a mile and a half in the pool. I was back at the restaurant before noon. I worked until 5:00 PM. That is the time I usually stay to before an offshore trip.
After work, I walked Gill down to the Cove to get the truck. I leave the Bunny Clark truck in a parking spot above the town dock. I take Gill with me and walk him back home. Then I take the scooter down to the Cove later. At the end of my work session, I take the scooter home and bring the dog down to get the truck. His back legs are not as reliable anymore. When he has to go he often falls over because his back legs won't support him in that position anymore. But tonight, he managed to stay upright while doing his business in the grass. He was proud of himself. And I rewarded him. He isn't in pain. And he still loves to walk down to the Cove, which I why I do it. But it's a bit sad because I know what's just around the corner.
At 3:00 AM EDT the air temperature at the Bunny Clark was 40°F, the sky was clear, a swelling three quarter moon could be seen well above the southern horizon headed west, there wasn't enough wind to write about and the visibility over the ocean excellent.
Going through the gate, headed to the fishing grounds, it was 43°F, a very light northeast wind, clear skies and excellent visibility. The further we went offshore, the windier it got. But it never really got windy. We had five knots of northeast wind a mile away from our first stop. Seas were chops of a foot at the most. There was a rout and a swell of about six feet. Other than that the conditions remained the same all the way to our destination.
On the grounds, the wind blew out of the northeast all day. Five knots at first, it increased to about eight knots by 10:00 AM, fifteen knots by noon and then it started to back off. By 2:00 PM, when we had light northeast wind. Seas were chops of a couple feet for most of the day with a long sea swell of six feet with more than the occasional queer one. We had eight to ten foot swells on the ride back to Perkins Cove. The air temperature reached a high of 52°F. The tide (current) was moderate. The visibility was twenty miles or more. The sky was mostly clear with high thin clouds here and there. The surface water temperature reached a high of 42.7°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire the high air temperature was 56°F. I had to be colder in Perkins Cove with the wind off the cooler water blowing across the parking lot. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 52°F (with a low of 43°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 52°F (with a low of 40°F).
The fishing was very good. It could have been excellent but the seas, wind and tide held us back from doing everything I wanted to do. The catching was very good to excellent. Landings were very good, bordering on excellent. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. I called the day at our normal departure time, thinking we had the bag limit for every person aboard. We were five haddock shy of the total boat bag limit. But I also raised the minimum size for a while thinking that we were catching them too fast. But this amounted to releasing only eleven legal haddock before I decided to go back to the regulations as they stand. Legal landings also included seventeen cusk, six pollock and fifteen redfish. Released fish, besides the legal haddock, included ten sub-legal haddock, nine small cod to 5 pounds, thirty sub-legal pollock, two sub-legal redfish and a wolffish. We anchored for every single spot. Bait worked best.
Jeff Corey (MA) was high hook with the most legal fish. The largest fish of his that I weighed was a 4.5 pound haddock.Fred Kunz (NH) or Phil Devereaux (MA) were second. I know how many fish that Fred caught; he was just behind Jeff Corey. But I didn't get the total count from Phil as he wasn't counting his fish. His frequency of catch was phenomenal; he had quite a few bags of fillets and it was the most haddock that he has ever caught. This he admitted to me afterward. He's an excellent fisherman but he has only been on the Bunny Clark one other time. I weighed a 5.25 pound haddock and a 4.75 pound haddock for Fred. Stanley Johnson (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, an 8 pound wolffish. I took a quick picture of Stan holding the scale with the wolffish held by the gill plate just before it was released. This digital image appears on the left. His largest haddock weighed 4.5 pounds. Dave Symes (ME) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 6.5 pound haddock. He also caught a 4.5 pound haddock and tied for the third largest fish with a 5.5 pound haddock. Captain Bryan Lewer (ME) also caught a 5.5 pound haddock as did Phil Devereaux. Bryan also caught two haddock of 4 pounds each.
Other Angler Highlights: Chris Spooner (NH), on his maiden voyage aboard the Bunny Clark, caught the largest cod at 5 pounds, two haddock of 4.5 pounds each and a 4 pound haddock. Rebekah Norton (ME) landed a 5 pound haddock, her largest fish. Matt Luce (ME) caught a 4.5 pound haddock.
I received several donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. The anglers and their donations included:Chris Spooner for $20.00, Dave & Rebecca Symes for $50.00, Jeff Corey for $40.00 and Joe Columbus (MA) for a very generous $400.00. Joe used to fish with us as a regular angler for many years in a row. He took the last two years off. But now he is back. He was a huge contributor to my cancer project when he sailed with me before. Joe's donation was made in fond memory of Captain Ian Keniston and Bruce Tower, his brother in law. Thank you all so very much for your support, thoughtfulness and generosity. I really do appreciate this. And this helps to bring the best scientists to work on solving the cancer riddle.
It was misty and foggy all day long. With the wind blowing across the parking lot, along with the mist, you would have gotten soaked standing looking out at the ocean if you stood there for any length of time. Plus, the air temperature never got out of the 40s today. So it was, indeed, chilly. The wind blew out of the northeast and, then, east northeast at about fifteen knots, more or less, all day long. The day's salient weather feature were the ground swells that stayed at between eight and nine feet in the morning and less than that in the afternoon. We had a big surge in the Cove moving the boats there back and forth. It never did rain today. But it day stay overcast for the whole of it. We did see a bit of rain after sunset. The visibility was fair to good all day in the mist, haze and fog. The highest air temperature that I saw was 49°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 50°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 63°F (with a low of 44°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 48°F (with a low of 42°F).
I spent a good amount of time tying storm lines off the Bunny Clark. I ran a breast line to dock on the port side and a bow line forward to the town floats ahead of us. This after adjusting the stern lines. I conferred with Grant Hubbard at the time. He owns/runs the Finestkind Scenic Tours boats. The rest of the morning was spent sorting out this update, working on databases and working on both businesses computers. I arrived at the restaurant in my whites at noon. I spent most of the day there, leaving for the evening at 7:00 PM. Normally, I leave earlier so I can finish getting the boat and myself ready for the fishing trip the next morning. Alas, I didn't have to do that today.
Not a lot went on in the restaurant today as far as business goes. At Barnacle Billy's, Etc., they were putting the last items together for the grand opening on Friday at 11:00 AM. I was over there today but Micah, my son, did all of the organizing and our kitchen crew with Travis Cutter organized all the food stuff.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 43°F, the sky was overcast, it was raining lightly, the wind was out of the northeast at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was good along the shore in haze and precipitation.
The was rainy and foggy for most of the daylight hours. It stopped raining at around 4:00 PM. The rain wasn't heavy to begin with. Although, there was more rain after midnight until about 3:00 AM than at any other time of the day today. From the weather reports, I expected to see more rain than we saw. The fog was in and out all morning but, mostly, in. After noon, the fog was mostly out. It moved offshore before the later afternoon. The wind was about eight to ten knots out of the northeast along the shore. At times, less. This kept the fog in. Seas were about eight feet. And there was still quite a surge in the Cove. It would have been hard to get out of Perkins Cove in the dark this morning. The wind around the Portland weather buoy was fifteen to twenty knots out of the east northeast. Seas were about seven feet every eleven seconds. Sustainable for fishing but not great. Plus, there would have been more wind than that where we would have fished. The visibility, of course, was fair to poor all day. The sky was overcast all day. The air temperature in Perkins Cove reached a high of 51°F. Mostly, the air temperature was in the mid to upper 40s. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 56°F (with a low of 46°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 53°F (with a low of 44°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 47°F (with a low of 43°F).
Being ashore today was not the greatest thing for me. I'm only running the Bunny Clark two days as week as it is. When you lose one it's as if I didn't sail for a week. And you lose track a bit, I believe.
Barnacle Billy's, Etc., our full service restaurant, is opening at 11:00 AM tomorrow. So there was a lot of running around done by the staff. And, as always, there was a lot of last minute stuff to finish up. No matter how well prepared you are, when you are relying on others to help you finish up, some of the "others" don't seem to be on your same page of notes. Almost all of it was completed. Some of it had to be completed by other professionals coming in to the restaurant. We still have a plumbing issue that needs to be resolved tomorrow. We don't need this issue fixed to open. But, if it was completed, it wouldn't make us look so unprepared.
I had some personal things I needed to address that I wouldn't have been able to address had I not had the day off. That put me back at work after noon. I had spent some of the morning at the restaurant before.
The weather and weather prediction had a negative affect on business today. But that is to be expected. I have to admit, though, it was nice in the dining room with both fire places ablaze.
It was a beautiful spring day today. The sky was sunny all day. The visibility was excellent. The wind blew out of the northwest at ten to fifteen knots. Offshore, the northwest wind didn't reach off. Winds were light and variable offshore. The wind died down and blew lightly out of the southwest at sunset. The air temperature rose to warm conditions. The highest air temperature that I saw was 60°F. But it could have been higher. In Portsmouth, New Hampshire they recorded a high of 63°F today. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 65°F (with a low of 47°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 62°F (with a low of 39°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 62°F (with a low of 38°F).
Barnacle Billy's, Etc. restaurant opened yesterday for the season. It was a great day to open as the weather was so nice. And it brought the people into the Cove. It wasn't terribly busy at Etc. It isn't like the opening at Original Billy's. But we had a good evening. And, because the weather was great, it was busier than it would have been otherwise.
Friday is my morning to open but I had help this day. I did spend just about the whole morning down there anyway. I had to update the auto attendant greeting right off the bat for the Etc opening. I had some paperwork I had to fill out for the Ogunquit Police Department. I had a meeting with the Town Manager about a parking issue.This was the last day, before the weekend, to work on our trash collection change. I worked in the office on some policy changes. I did take a break to lay down. It helps my back to do so. I worked until 7:00 PM.
As the Iran war continues, so does the increase in fuel prices. So I'm afraid we will have to ask for a fuel surcharge. If we go offshore, the price will start at $20.00, for the offshore trips. If we end up fishing closer to shore, I will refund $10.00 of it. I'm sorry I have to do this. And I hope you understand. Hopefully, these fuel prices will decrease so we can go back to normal business.
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