Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 6:30 AM EST
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Proposed cod & haddock regulations for the 2025 fishing season (May 1, 2025 thru April 30, 2026):
Note: These regulations still haven't been implimented for this season yet (as of September 7, 2025). So last years regulations are still in force, including an 18" haddock minimum size. But this also means that we will be able to keep a cod a person per trip for the months of September and October or until November.
Gulf of Maine cod
Gulf of Maine haddock
The rain was all done for the day and the sun was out a half hour after sunrise. We had a clear patch of sky for most of the morning. In the afternoon, the sky became mostly cloudy. The clouds were devoid of rain. The salient feature of today's weather was the wind. It was almost as if departing Hurrincane Melissa, sucked the wind out of the mainland to match it's power and speed offshore. It was windy. Ashore, the wind was out of the west southwest all morning at twenty to thirty knots. By the afternoon, the wind had backed out of the west. Later afternoon saw wind velocity increases to thirty knots sustained with higher gusts, some over thirty-five knots. The visibility improved to excellent over the ocean. But the air temperature, probably due to Melissa's influence, stayed high for this time of year. I saw a high of 63°F at the house today. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 60°F (with a low of 49°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 60°F (with a low of 45°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 65°F (with a low of 47°F).
I was glad I didn't sail on Thursday. Many of the local lobstermen fished in the morning that day but were back right after noon. These guys fish close to shore, within five miles or so. My worry would have been the unlikely potential of breaking down when it came time to come home. It's not like it would ever have been dangerously rough. That wouldn't be my concern. I certainly would have gone had I been commercial jig fishing. On this day, I would have been the only recreational jig boat out there with customers of varying deep sea fishing backgrounds, who had deadlines after fishing all day. The ride home would have been very uncomfortable with the wind and seas at closing time. Plus, it was misty and rainy. I was just as happy being ashore watching the seas from the parking lot.
I spent a lot of time polishing up this website today. I left the house early, after that, to start working at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. It was Halloween. All the employees, except me, were dressed as something or someone else. It was fun seeing all them. My favorite was our general manager of Etc., Sarah Cannon, who was dressed as a cop in all black. I worked there until 1:00 PM.
I left for something I needed to do.
I was back at the restaurant at 5:00 PM until, almost, closing time. I felt more tired than I have felt in a long time.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 44°F, the sky was mostly cloudy with stars peeking through the cracks, the wind was blowing out of the west at thirty-five to forty knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The salient feature of today's weather was the wind. It blew out of the west at twenty to thirty knots all morning and, damn near, the same for the afternoon. By sunset, it was finally starting to lose it's steam. It hauled out of the northwest at that time and was blowing at fifteen to twenty knots. Around my bedtime, the wind was back out of the west at twenty to twenty-five knots. Tomorrow will be better, as far as wind goes. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was the clearest it has been in weeks. The highest air temperature that I saw was 55°F. But it felt cold all day today. 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 53°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 35°F).
I worked on the engine a little bit today, warming her up and checking the vitals. All seemed better than normal.
I went into Barnacle Billy's, Etc. for the last Saturday of the year today. I worked most of the day, mostly talking to patrons and working in the office. There was little to do in the office. But it was a very busy lunch. Knowing that there is only one day left that we will be open is distressing. I'm not looking forward to closing.
I'm also not looking forward to stopping with the fishing. The weather has been horrible and I feel that I have been robbed, for trips.
We had wind today but there was very little of it. Predominantly out of the west, I believe that I saw ten knots at most, maybe. The wind backed out of the south during the afternoon. Again, the most wind I saw was ten knots, maybe less. These observations were visual only. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was clear, cloudless most of the morning. The highest air temperature that I saw was 53°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 53°F (with a low of 40°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 52°F (with a low of 27°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 52°F (with a low of 28°F).
I worked at the restaurant, earlier in the morning, posted this report afterward and then exercised until a shower and an my first appearance at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. at 11:00 AM. On a six mile, or the start of a six mile run, I pulled a hamstring muscle and had to walk for the last four miles to get home. After that I was limping all day. So it will be back on the stationary bike until I can get my right leg back.
The restaurant was busy. Of course, it was closing day. I saw many regular patrons today. It is always fun on closing. Or, it has been, over the years. Today was no exception. We even had some tables on the garden patio at, barely, 53°F. I went home at 5:30 PM so I could grab Deb and come back for our last supper at the restaurant for the season. I was sorry to see the season end.
Danny DellaMonica and I ran the extreme day trip today.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 33°F (31°F at the boat), the sky was mostly overcast with the, very occasional, star peeking through, there wasn't enough wind to write about and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
There wasn't a breath of wind for the part of the morning from the time I woke up until we left to head for the fishing grounds. Indeed, the ocean along the shore was mirror calm. As I passed through the gate to the open ocean, the wind was just starting to blow out of the south. I wondered how long it would take before the wind came up enough to spoil my attack plans for the day. As it was, just before reaching the fishing grounds, we had about eight knots of southerly wind and the wind had kicked up a chop that was about a foot. The wind was a steady, slow increase until we got to that point. The sky was partly cloudy the whole way. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature, like the wind, gradually rose in value the further offshore we went. The air temperature was 47°F just before we got to the fishing grounds. The surface water temperature remained at 52°F for the whole ride.
On the fishing grounds, the wind was out of the south to start at eight to ten knots. The wind steadily increased. At some point in the morning, the wind shifted slightly out of the south southwest and blew up harder. By mid-day, we had fifteen to twenty knots of south southwest wind with seas about four feet, more or less. The wind and seas might have been stronger and bigger on the way back to Perkins Cove. But it's hard to judge when you are cruising along. The air temperature reached a high of 53°F. The visibility was excellent to begin but deteriorated as the day progressed. The visibility ranged to twenty or more miles in haze. The tide (current) was moderate. The sky was mostly cloudy but it never rained until we got back to the dock. And, then, it was only a light sprinkle that stopped. The surface water temperature never got any higher than 52°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine the high air temperature was 54°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 57°F (with a low of 39°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 54°F (with a low of 26°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 52°F (with a low of 26°F).
The fishing was, actually, pretty good. The tide wasn't bad a all and it was easy to anchor when we needed to. The seas were the limiting factor along with the fall-like air temperature with the wind. So the fishing was just good. The catching was good as well. The catching was better than good if you included the mackerel and small pollock in the shallow water. Landings were good for numbers, very good for size. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. Legal landings included five haddock, ten white hake, five redfish and six mackerel. Released fish included a cod that could have been legal had we been able to keep them, four sub-legal haddock, eight small pollock, eleven small redfish and a few mackerel. We took advantage of the early morning weather and made five drifts. This was followed by anchoring. We drift fished the last spot for very few legal fish. The drift was perfect. All terminal gear worked well but cod flies caught the most fish.
Fred Kunz (NH) was, far and away, high hook with the most legal fish, mostly pollock. His biggest pollock was probably 10 pounds. I didn't weigh it as we had many other pollock on the deck that were bigger. And, by that time, the boat pool was already sewed up or so it seemed at the time.
Tom Miller (NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 32.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake. He also won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 30 pound Maine state trophy white hake. These two fish were caught as a double, both fish caught on the same line at the same time. This is the Bunny Clark's largest double of the 2025 fishing season and the largest double that has been caught on the Bunny Clark since Lewis Hazelwood (MA) landed a double that included a 40 pound Maine state trophy white hake and a 30.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake on July 9, 2019! Lewis' double might be the largest double that the Bunny Clark has ever seen. I took a picture of Tom and Danny D. holding Tom's two hake. This digital image appears on the left. Tom caught other fish today but nothing of note. He stopped fishing when it became too difficult to continue fishing on the bow. It's funny that I had my two best fishermen aboard today where I can say that I had an influence on their fishing abilities. But it was a guy under the tutelage of Phil Easteman (Eastman's Docks Fishing Fleet, Seabrook, NH) who got all the accolades.
The third largest fish was a 16 pound pollock caught by Hank Small (NH).
Other Angler highlights: Travis Lowell (ME) landed a 15 pound pollock, his biggest fish. He also caught a 6.25 pound white hake. Darlene Chin (NH/FL) caught the only cod on the trip. I didn't weigh it but it was 5 or 6 pounds and, probably, a keeper if it were still cod season. [I was talking to Tom Miller on the trip back to the dock about how the cod population has dropped to an unsustainable level in the last ten years. Fifteen years ago and before, if you were fishing in the same area that we fished today we would have also had totes of cod as well as the pollock. If someone had told me in the 90s that in 2025 you would only catch one cod on a ten hour trip in the Jeffrey's Ledge area, I would have laughed them off the boat. It is amazing that we have managed the cod population so poorly.] Darlene also caught a 10 pound white hake, an 8 pound white hake and her largest pollock weighed 11.5 pounds.
Ben Ayers (ME) caught a 15.75 pound white hake, his largest hake ever. Shawn Rosenberger (PA) caught a 12 pound white hake, his biggest fish. He had some other, probably bigger, hake on but dropped them. It was about the worst hake bite I have seen this season. Sam Rothwell (ME) caught one of the first pollock that I could weigh. It was 7.5 pounds. His largest pollock weighed 14 pounds. Todd Farnsworth (MD) landed a 10.5 pound pollock and a 13 pound pollock, his two biggest fish. Matt Trimble (ME) caught an 8.5 pound pollock and a 12.25 pound pollock. Marty Buskey (NY) caught an 11 pound pollock.
I received many donations today sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event that takes place the first Saturday of August every year. It's a fundraiser for cancer research. But I support a specific group of researchers who do genetic profiling. One hundred percent of your donation goes to these researchers. The whole PMC event is underwritten by businesses around the Boston area so there is no percentage taken out of your donation going to administrative costs. So all the money goes to these researchers for research! Today's donors and their donation amounts were as follows: Fred Kunz donated a generous $210.00 (after making other donations throughout the year), Jay O'Connor (ME) for a generous $200.00, in memory of Frank Noble (ME) and Captain Ian Keniston, Bob Kent (ME) for $20.00, Dave Burton (MA) for a very generous $400.00, Marty & Elise Buskey for $50.00 and Shawn Rosenberger for a generous $100.00. Thank you all so very very much for your support, kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity. I was reminded by Bob Kent today, that Ian used to say that everyone knows someone who has fought, is fighting or has passed from cancer. It's imperative that the fight to stop this disease, in all it's forms, continues. You all are helping this cause and I'm so glad you are all standing behind me to do so. I so appreciate this!
This was a strange year for me as I ran all the trips as captain this season, as Captain Ian Keniston was not with us. I was very sorry for that. He was the best. As for next season, I can't give you an answer on that yet. I will come up with a decision on the future of Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing. And I will post it here when I do.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 41°F, the sky was cloudless, the wind was out of the west at fifteen knots (twenty to twenty-five knots at the Portland Lightship buoy) and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The salient feature of today's weather was the wind. It blew. And I was so glad to be ashore today. By mid morning, the wind was blowing out of the west at twenty-five to thirty-five knots. I figured that this would be the extent of the wind today. I was wrong. Before noon, the wind was more out of the northwest than west. Wind speeds were thirty to forty knots. Early afternoon saw wind speeds of thirty-five to forty knots or more. By 3:00 PM, we had northwest winds of twenty-five to thirty-five knots again. It didn't seem like much of a relief. Finally, by 5:00 PM, the wind had backed off to twenty to twenty-five knots. An hour later, we had fifteen knots. There was no wind in the Cove when I went down to take Gill, our border collie, for a walk. Offshore, it was still blowing out of the west at fifteen to twenty knots. The sky was clear with cumulus clouds. The visibility was excellent. The ocean was a froth of white as waves were marching offshore. The highest air temperature that I saw today was 54°F. 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 54°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 53°F (with a low of 39°F).
It was too rough to write the fishing report on the way in yesterday, so I spent the early part of the day writing here in the office. Once I got free of the desk work, I went down to the Cove to start working on restaurant stuff. My focus was on the winter projects. This took up most of the rest of the day. I did take a break in the afternoon to watch Champions League football. I couldn't watch all day, although I wanted to.
It must have been around 1:30 PM when my son, Micah, heard the high water alarm go off on one of the Finestkind tour boats at the dock. He called me. I called Grant, the owner, who was in Portland at a doctor's appointment. I went down to the Cove again to find that Micah had taken the hand pump out of the Bunny Clark and had bailed the boat out. The boat in question, trims to the head where the high water alarm is located. So there wasn't a lot of water that had to be pumped. But the water level did come up on the engine a bit, also located forward. I'm not sure if it was a battery issue or a switch was in the neutral position. Our harbormaster, Erin Gott, brought down a 110 volt pump and placed it in the boat until Grant could free himself from Portland to get back. The problem was easily sorted out later in the day.
In the meantime, the wind had parted a dock line. So Micah and I doubled up the port dock line to one of the other tour boats. We also ran a storm line ashore to the bow of that same boat. I doubled up lines on the stern of the Bunny Clark. It was the strongest fair weather wind that we have seen this year.
There is a storm warning out for Thursday with thirty-five to fifty knots of northwest wind that day. Fifty knots is a lot of wind.
At 5:00 AM EST the air temperature was 37°F, the sky was clear with a full moon in the trees headed to the western horizon, the wind was out of the west southwest at fifteen knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.The wind started out great guns from the west southwest with wind speeds up to almost twenty knots. By 10:00 AM, there was almost no wind at all. By 11:00 AM, there was no wind. The ocean along the shore was calm. The wind started blowing out of the south by mid afternoon. We might have had fifteen knots of southerly wind by sunset. The sky, although clear in the morning, was mostly cloudy for the rest of the day. By 4:00 PM, it was completely overcast. We had a few drops of rain but that was about it. We never saw another drop of rain until later in the night. The visibility was excellent. The highest air temperature that I saw today was 53°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 58°F (with a low of 45°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 51°F (with a low of 24°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 50°F (with a low of 31°F).
My day spent organizing and setting up work orders the restaurants; plumbing, carpentry, electrical, etc. etc. Most of my work today was on a installing a new carpet in Barnacle Billy's, Etc. But I was running around all over the place on other project issues for the winter. Some of the items that I need to address can only happen during the warmer weather, like brick work. But every year we have these challenges. There is nothing new here. I had several meetings today with a number of people.
I spent some time on the Bunny Clark today as well. Planning, again, so I can come to a decision on what I will be doing with the boat next season. I had a couple of meetings on this with Deb and others.
In the meantime, Shawn Rosenberger (PA), one of my best ever Bunny Clark anglers, was enjoying himself down with Captain Phil Eastman on the Lady Merrilee Ann (III?). By all standards, mine included, they had an excellent day. The fishing was excellent as was the catching and landings. And it sounded like the same thing that we have been doing offshore. I can't say that I wasn't a little envious. Being ashore is not my favorite place on a good weather day in November. Fall is the time of year when I love to go fishing most. It's discouraging that the month of October had so many cancellations. Man's best laid plans, right? But Shawn was very pleased to be with Phil today. And I would encourge anyone who likes to catch fish to sail with Phil and company this fall. He's on to something. And when a deep sea fishing vessel is doing well, I like to promote it. Shawn had a picture taken of him holding up a couple of 10 pound pollock that he caught today. This digital image appears on the left. Shawn will leave to go back to PA tomorrow. It's unfortunate that I didn't get to fish with him as much as I had planned to. But, as they say in St. Barth; C'est la vie!
The salient feature of today's weather, like it has been since the first part of October, was the wind. However, wind predictions were overstated before today. Today's prediction noted fifty knot gusts. In fact we had, maybe, thirty-five knot gusts and not for very much of the day. A couple hours? The wind was out of the west northwest at twenty-five knots (more or less) for most of the day. It blew up a little bit more during the early part of the afternoon. It started dropping after that. By sunset, we had wind speeds of fifteen to twenty knots offshore and less than that ashore. The visibility was spectacular all day. The sky was clear with some clouds. The air temperature reached a high of 51°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 55°F (with a low of 40°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 49°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 49°F (with a low of 34°F).
I spent the day running around, on the phone, working on the Barnacle Billy's website, loading another ton of pellet stove pellets in the garage for the winter and meeting with various Barnacle Billy's employees/managers. I worked straight through until 5:00 PM.
Nothing really exciting happened today.
For almost the whole morning the sky was clear with limited clouds. As morning melted into the afternoon, the sky saw clouds creeping in. By sunset, the sky was overcast. It started to rain lightly around 9:00 PM. I didn't check after that. The visibility remained excellent to very good, at least. The westerly wind turned into southwest wind that blew about ten knots around noon time. Southwest wind morphed into southerly wind that blew up to twenty knots by 2:00 PM. By sunset, the southerly wind was blowing at twenty-five to thirty knots with some higher gusts in the night. The southerly wind increased the air temperature to 52°F at 9:30 PM. That was the highest air temperature that I saw all day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 55°F (with a low of 33°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 51°F (with a low of 23°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 51°F (with a low of 27°F).
I ran around today working on the Bunny Clark, running around the restaurant and working at home. It was a full day of just running around, sorting things out.
My daughter's family is staying with us over the weekend. I had a bit of family time today which was much appreciated.
Later in the evening I got together with some cycling males and went bowling. Yes, I know, that's pretty random. I strained by wrist. That and my lack of practice made me the worst bowler of the group.
The day started with overcast skies but ended with clear skies and a beautiful, nearly full, moon appearing out of the ocean to the east after 7:00 PM. The afternoon saw clear skies. The visibility remained excellent. The wind blew out of the southwest at ten to fifteen knots in the morning and then petered out. By 2:00 PM, we had light northerly wind. The wind remained light out of the north into the night. The air temperature was mild all day with a high of 62°F that I saw in Perkins Cove. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 62°F (with a low of 47°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 62°F (with a low of 31°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 62°F (with a low of 32°F).
Except for editing this site today, I did no work. I thought about work all day and what I should be doing. But I just didn't have the heart to get into it. I always feel guilty at this time of year when I'm not working. But I had my daughter's family as a pleasant distraction. And I also had English football that was very exciting today.
What I did so when I wasn't lying around the house was go for a six miles walk/run that I had to reduce to three miles due to re aggravating a hamstring injury. I gave Gill, our border collie, a long walk. And I managed to jump on the fluid trainer for three quarters of an hour. I did this to warm my legs up so I could stretch out the hamstring area when I got off the bike. So no more running or fast walking for a while. It's not like this hasn't happened multiple times before.
The sky stayed overcast all day. It rained lightly between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM. By 8:00 AM, the roads were dry. It started spitting rain before sunset. It wasn't much rain that kept stopping. It started to rain going into the night. It did rain hard before midnight at some point. I never did look at my watch to see when that happened. The wind blew out of the northeast at the first part of the morning. Wind speeds ranged from ten to fifteen knots. The wind hauled out of the east at mid morning. Wind speeds had increased to fifteen and twenty knots by noon. I was surprised to see twenty to twenty-five knots during the mid afternoon. I was surprised enough that I thought it prudent to tie storm lines off the bow of the Bunny Clark. After all, the National Weather Service had predicted fifteen knots max a couple of days ago. It was certainly an under hailing, looking at the weather now. By sunset, easterly wind speeds were gusting to almost thirty knots. By 8:00 PM, I saw a gust to thirty-five knots. The Portlight Lightship weather buoy was showing eight foot seas at 9:00 PM. The air temperature was mild all day, for this time of year with air temperatures in the 50s from noon all the way into and, seemingly, through the night. The highest air temperature that I saw was 53°F. 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 45°F (with a low of 34°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 50°F (with a low of 32°F).
I took another day off today. It was easy to do this, physically, as my daughter's family were still here with us. Mentally, it's tough for me to take a day off, knowing I have so much to do and important decisions to make based on the knowledge I don't have yet. Not being able to attain that knowledge on a weekend is very frustrating. The only bit of work I did today was to tie storm lines off in the Cove.
By 8:00 AM, the visibility had changed for the better and was very good over the ocean. The sky remained overcast all day. It rained periodically but not as much during the day as it did after sunset. When it did rain during the day it was light. Not so much at night where we had one period, of a few minutes, where it cam pouring down rain. Again, it was periodic. The wind blew out of the north or northeast most of the day. Wind speeds were fifteen to twenty knots until after sunset. By 8:00 PM, the wind had hauled out of the west. The air temperature was mild all day. The highest air temperature that I saw all day was 60°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 56°F (with a low of 41°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 50°F (with a low of 36°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 51°F (with a low of 44°F).
I spent the day working at Barnacle Billy's. Most of the work involved meetings, particularly in the morning. After lunch I had a meeting with a cardiac surgeon who did my ablation last year at about this time. She wanted to make sure everything was still okay, which it was. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Deb and our daughter's family.
The salient feature of the weather was two fold. First, we have had the lowest ambient air temperature we have seen since early spring or later winter. Second, the wind blew hard yet again today. Wind speeds ranged from twenty to twenty-five knots out of the west in the morning and twenty-five to thirty knots with higher gusts out of the west northwest all afternoon and into the night. The sky was clear all day. The visibility was excellent all day. The highest air temperature that I saw, and I checked it many times today, was 37°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 41°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 37°F (with a low of 30°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 45°F - at 12:01 AM - (with a low of 31°F).
I started the day in meetings, again, at Barnacle Billy's. They lasted most of the morning. I didn't get working on this report until I got home after the meetings as I was using that early time of the day to polish up what I was going to say in the meetings. I posted this "Update" before noon today. The later part of the day was spent was spent working at the restaurant and on the Bunny Clark, getting her ready for cleanup tomorrow.
It looks like a windy colder week and weekend ahead.
The sky became mostly overcast after sunrise, overcast by mid-morning, partly overcast again and, then, clear in the afternoon. The sky stayed mostly clear into the night. It wasn't a crystal clear night but you could see almost all the stars in the sky at 6:00 PM, when I took our border collie, Gill, for a walk along the Marginal Way. It rained periodically in a two hour span through noon. But it never rained enough to get the ground wet. It was enough to take a few swipes with the wiper blades when driving. The wind blew out of the southwest at twenty to twenty-five knots in the morning. After noon, the wind dropped to ten knots or more out of the southwest. The wind hauled light westerly around sunset. The wind blew out of the west into the night. The visibility was excellent all day. The southwest wind brought the air temperature up over the freezing mark fairly quickly. The air was freezing at the time I went down to check on the boat around 5:00 AM. The highest air temperature that I saw was 42°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 45°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 42°F (with a low of 29°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 42°F (with a low of 31°F).
We had the hood cleaners come down to both restaurants today. This takes place every year, in every restaurant, I assume. All that grease that is sucked up and out of a restaurant over grills and fryalators collects on the hoods and shafts leading up to the fan on the roof of every restaurant. And it's a lot. It would be a fire hazard if not cleaned periodically. This continued from 9:30 AM until 6:30 PM.
Danny DellaMonica showed up at 8:00 AM to help me start taking the Bunny Clark apart. I went between working at the restaurant and helping Danny with the boat (when two people were needed) for the rest of the day. At 2:30 PM, we met again to distribute all that Danny had taken off the boat and cleaned.
Danny has agreed to work another season on the Bunny Clark after I floated the notion of only running the marathon trips (two days a week) next season. I can't be away from the restaurant for three days like I was last season. And I prefer the longer trips that give me more range. I haven't decided that I will be running the boat next year. But this goes a long way in helping me decide. There comes a time when it all must end. And there are many factors to take into consideration when considering this. The new fishing regulations for next year being one. The Recreational Advisory Panel to the New England Fishery Management Council meeting on next year's regulations will be taking place on the 17th. I hold a seat on the RAP. This will give me an idea what we can expect for cod and haddock regs in 2026. But this is just one factor. Stay tuned.
I have two meetings tomorrow to start the working day. Danny will be there at 8:00 AM to continue on with taking the Bunny Clark apart. I will help when I am free.
The visibility remained excellent throughout the day. The sky allowed the sun to shine through the eastern horizon where, to the west, the sky was mostly cloudy. The sky became mostly cloudy after that. The sky was overcast in the afternoon. All afternoon, I watched showers march offshore from the Kennebunkport area. I could see this from the parking lot. The whole time the showers were moving out to sea over the water, we had just a brief spat of light rain for about two minutes. That was all the rain that we saw all day. The wind blew out of the northwest at ten knots to start but petered out to nothing by noon, leaving the ocean in front of Perkins Cove flat calm with wind streaks. During the afternoon, the northwest wind piped up again to about ten knots. The wind backed out of the west after sunset. Wind speeds were about ten knots. The highest air temperature that I saw was 48°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 50°F (with a low of 38°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 45°F (with a low of 32°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 45°F (with a low of 33°F).
Danny DellaMonica started working on the Bunny Clark at 8:00 AM. I was down there earlier, mostly addressing the restaurants. At 8:00 AM, I was addressing an insurance meeting via Zoom. That took about an hour. From there I went to confer with Danny on the Bunny Clark. It's so nice to have someone who knows the Bunny Clark as well as Danny does. And the fact that he has been with us for four years means a lot as far as trust goes. I have a lot on my old mind right now. Danny makes it easier.
I had a doctor's appointment after being at the Cove for the second time. This took me until noon, which also included lunch alone at Greenleaves, on the way back from the Doc's. We went over carpet samples for Barnacle Billy's, Etc. From there I spent the rest of the afternoon with the Bunny Clark, loading all the cleaned materials that Danny was finished with and loading up the truck to bring these items to storage. That was how my day finished at 5:00 PM.
My day ended with a walk on the Marginal Way with Gill before dinner. We eat late. At that time of day walking around the house Gill's eyes follow my every move with anticipation hoping that I will say; "C'mon, Gill, you want to go for a walk?" This walk was less than a mile. It was a bit shorter than the night before. He knew this and stopped at the beginning of the last leg, looking at me as if to say; "Is that all there is? Are you seriously thinking of going right back home from here? Couldn't we go a bit further?" The dog even went so far as to start limping, an old trick to get sympathy out of me. Sometimes it works. I can't carry him when he's limping. He knows this. So I walk slower. Gill starts walking right behind me. And, eventually, his limp disappears. Only when he walks through the door anticipating seeing Deb, does he seem to brighten up. Deb always greets him with; "Gill, where have you been!" The tail definitely starts going with that question.
The sky was cloudless for a good part of the morning. Later morning saw clouds. The afternoon sky had mostly cloudy skies but not a drop of rain, unlike the two days before. The visibility remained excellent. The wind blew out of the northwest at ten knots for most of the rest of the morning. By noon, there wasn't much wind at all. Northwest wind continued at ten knots or less for the rest of the afternoon. The wind was westerly after sunset. The air temperature felt cool all day. The highest air temperature that I saw was 46°F. It was 43°F at 4:00 PM in Perkins Cove. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 46°F (with a low of 37°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 45°F (with a low of 28°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 45°F (with a low of 31°F).
I went between the Bunny Clark and the restaurants today. The only project I had for the boat was changing the oil. So warming the engine up enough so that the oil was warm enough to pump out was the first priority. After I pumped the oil out of the engine and took an oil sample, I got involved in the restaurant and went right from there to another Zoom meeting with accountants.
When the meeting was over, I took a broken valet parking sign to Ocean Graphics, where we have all our signs made and repaired. After I got out of the truck, I went to the tail gate to get the sign and found that it was locked. Never having seen that before, I went to open the truck door. It too was locked! With the keys in it. I called Onstar and found that my account had been terminated in 2024. So no automatic unlocking of the truck for me. After arriving two hours earlier, Deb drove up with the spare key, allowing me to drive around getting the other chores done that I had planned. I completed the oil change by 4:30 PM. It was just about dark then. I have to ask, why is it a good idea to turn the clocks back in the fall?
The sky remained clear for the whole day, that I was awake. It was cloudless for most of the morning. The afternoon saw a hazy clear sky. The early part of the evening was the same. The wind blew out of the northwest at eight to ten knots in the morning, barely any northwest wind around noon and westerly wind at 2:00 PM. The westerly wind was blowing around ten knots. Westerly wind continued on into the night. The wind had backed out of the southwest at 8:00 PM. Wind speeds at that time were just a little over ten knots. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature reached a high of 44°F, that I saw. At 6:00 PM, the air temperature had dropped to 37°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 45°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 45°F (with a low of 29°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 44°F (with a low of 26°F).
I didn't do much of anything today except play with my grandson, Billy, who spent the day yesterday with us and stayed overnight. His parents and newborn were all sick at home. I checked the restaurants and Bunny Clark in the morning. I also went down to the dock to turn on the water in case the air temperature got to the freezing mark. Other than that, I went grocery shopping with my wife, Deb, and I did some reading. I did no exercise today except walk the dog down to the restaurants and back at 6:00 PM. This was also an attempt to give my right arm a rest. I hurt the wrist area on the next to last fishing trip near the end of October. It's getting better but only very slowly.
Clouds cleared away in the morning giving us lots of sun. Later morning and the afternoon saw more clouds closing in as they have done for quite a few days in a row. We had just the slightest sprinkle of rain at mid afternoon, only noticeable as a handful of drops on the truck's windshield. The sky remained overcast for most of the afternoon, clearing around 4:00 PM or a bit earlier. I thought I heard rain outside during the night with renewed cloud cover but didn't check it out. I'm assuming that it was rain. The southerly wind velocity dropped and was replaced by west northwest winds that persisted all day and all night. Wind speeds were about ten knots with higher gusts in the afternoon. The visibility was excellent by mid morning. There was very little swell action along the shore. In fact, I saw surfers off the beach. At the time I thought; "What are they doing out there with one foot or less waves to ride." The air temperature dropped in the morning to 37°F and then started to rise again. By noon, the air temperature in the Cove was 43°F, the highest air temperature that I saw. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 55°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 46°F (with a low of 33°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 43°F (with a low of 34°F).
I was down at the restaurant at 7:30 AM, to open it up and to also get the Bunny Clark ready for Danny DellaMonica's assault on the dirt and grime that was residing there. I started the engine to warm up the engine room and charge the batteries. Danny showed up at 8:00 AM. Together, we set up the cleaning game plan the for the day, the last thing I need to have done before I go to take the Bunny Clark to haul out. With the game plan settled, I went back home where I had a lot of desk work planned. Danny, in the meantime, went to work cleaning the Bunny Clark.
Before noon, I had completed what I needed to do. Danny was done with the boat before 1:00 PM. We met a half hour later to complete cleaning the hull. We needed two of us and the skiff in order to do that. I was mostly in the skiff cleaning the hull while Danny stayed aboard the Bunny Clark and chased behind me with soap and water. When it got to the bow. I held the skiff while he was in the skiff with the long handled brush. I believe we finished around 4:00 PM.
The boat is as clean as it has ever been. Cleaner. Maybe this is because Danny has had free reign to clean the boat the way he wants to. Danny is nothing if not meticulous to a fault. I have never had someone who maintains that boat better. My only problem with his cleaning is that maybe he takes too much time after a trip when he could having more time for himself. But, on the other hand, after he has left the boat, I'm very proud to own it and to have Danny maintaining it that way.
The wind was certainly the salient feature of today's weather. And blow it did. Ashore, wind speeds were twenty-five to thirty knots with higher gusts (with one gust to forty knots) out of the west northwest all day. The ocean was feather white, as viewed from shore. Whatever trees still had leaves were bald by the end of the day. The wind shook the truck when traveling places on the road. The visibility was excellent throughout. The sky was mostly clear with cloudiness in the afternoon. It did not become overcast like the previous days. The air temperature still remained on the cool side. The highest air temperature that I saw was 40°F with the air temperature mostly around 37°F. At 4:30 PM, the air temperature in Perkins Cove was 35°F. With the wind, it was cold. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 43°F (with a low of 34°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 39°F (with a low of 31°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 42°F (with a low of 30°F).
I had a lot of running around to do today combined with desk work, all completed in the morning. I had to bring another Barnacle Billy's sign, our main sign, to Ocean Graphics, for upkeep and repairs. I had to take off the new radar head unit from the Bunny Clark and bring it to Navtronics to get some warranty work completed. From day one, you never knew if the radar would stay on for the duration of use or shut off automatically. I have two radars but you never want to be without one so I kept it aboard until the end of the season. It worked most of the time. And I had it set up to give a different view than my other radar. This was handy. But sometimes I couldn't turn it on for up to an hour. Other times it would stay on for as long as I needed. Still other times it would turn off several times during the day.
I spent some time at the restaurants. The rest of the morning was spent at the desk at home. One thing I had to settle was getting my engine oil samples checked. I had always had my oil samples sent out to Detroit Diesel. They had always been good about sampling the oil, albeit, slower than I wanted to see the results. Then, they wouldn't do it anymore. For no rhyme or reason, the results stopped being sent. So I went with Volvo oil sampling. No returned results. Today I called them in North Carolina. They found the last oil sample that I sent in 2018 but couldn't find the other. Turns out I had to set up a company ID, something I never needed to do with DD and that I assumed I didn't have to do with Volvo. So now , hopefully, I will get results in a timely manner. We shall see.
At 1:00 PM, the Recreational Advisory Panel met through Webinar. I was late to the meeting. I was in York, Maine having trouble filling a prescription for my eyes and thought I could make it back home in time. I didn't. And I missed the first presentation, which I regretted. Also, without me, there wasn't a quorum. This confused the moderator who believed a consensus couldn't be reached and moved forward to the New England Fishery Managment Council. We did have a consensus that was moved for Council review. This meeting was a preliminary meeting to set up the next meeting for regulation review and, potential, changes based on new fishery data. We were also shown a new improved model tool that we could use to see what regulatory changes could be accepted with the new data. We had this tool last year. Some of us could use it online others, like me, with a Mac, couldn't use it directly and had to punch in the data by phone to someone else who could actually use the tool. I'm hoping this year that I can do as many runs as I want on my own, making me more prepared to make a motion that, I feel, would be fair to all the recreational fishing public. Last year my motion was the one that was carried forward but never got implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service. It included a provision that allowed keeping one cod per person in May. I have no idea why it wasn't implemented. It passed the muster of the Groundfish Committee and the full Council review before being passed on to the NMFS, where it sat. As a result we had to use the year before's regulations which allowed us to only keep a haddock an inch longer than my motion and to disallow us to keep cod in May. For my business, it didn't matter that much. For six pack charter boats, it was a big deal. Personally, I feel, there aren't enough cod for any commercial entity or recreational boat to keep even if it was allowed under the regulation parameters.
The meeting was over before 4:00 PM.
Afterward, I took our border collie, Gill, for a walk to the Cove to let the water run at the dock to prevent freezing overnight and to start the Bunny Clark's engine. I extended the walk for another mile. I did the same the night before. This allows Gill to enjoy himself off leash, do his thing, the main thing, and allows both of us some exercise. I also jump on the stat bike for an hour or so after any walk before dinner. Last night had me picking up after Gill but not getting all of it. Actually, I did; one part in a plastic bag and the other which I carried home on the bottom of my running shoe. I only realized how the other got transported when I got to the house and sat down. I couldn't imagine where that smell was coming from, only to realize it was me. If dogs could laugh...
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