The 2020 Bunny Clark Guestletter

Annual Review of the 2019 Bunny Clark Fishing Season & the Plans & Outlook for the 2020 Season.

January 15, 2020

Dear Guests:

Welcome to my annual Guestletter, a summary of the events of the previous season, an overview of the highlights, a comparison of the great fish caught and angler accomplishments and a look at the upcoming season. In general, 2019 was my most challenging year yet. Part of it was just the way things played out on the boat during the season, part of it was my involvement with all the other outside jobs/activities I involve myself in every season but, also, part of the increased challenges involved the, seemingly, interminable bad luck I had on a personal level with life in general. When I look back at it now, some of the situations I got myself into seem risible now. Not so funny when they were actually happening.

[I took the picture on the left of Fred Kunz (NH) holding his 4 pound haddock that he caught in May last season. Fred might have caught the most haddock on that trip, a marathon. Fred has been one of the best anglers I have ever had the pleasure to sail with on the Bunny Clark .]

The year started off colder than the previous four seasons. March was much colder than normal after a colder than normal winter. Much of the winter weather was responsible for our fifth year of decreasing surface water temperatures. I can't speak for any changing currents that might have also had a impact. April, May and June played along the lines of what I would call a normal spring, albeit, rainier than usual. Our two summer months, July & August, were two of the calmest you will ever get. Normally, one month or the other is very calm. Sometimes both months are fairly windy, like the weather during the 2018 fishing season. Last year, however, the nice weather during our two summer months allowed our half day fishing trips to flourish. These afternoon trips were also our most productive, landings wise, than many years previously. September was an extension of August with warmer than normal air temperatures, light winds and sunny skies. The boom dropped in October, giving us weather more typical of later November. We had to cancel many days in October because it just wasn't safe to sail.

Largely because the water was colder, we were able to catch redfish in the shallower water much further into the season than is normal. This was great because many of these fish were of the larger sizes. Some of these fish were the equivalent of our biggest redfish of all time. But the colder water kept us from catching the larger haddock and larger pollock that we normally see after a warmer winter season and warmer water in general. We saw more haddock than is normal, regardless of the water temperature. But these haddock were smaller. Legal, but smaller in average size. Legal pollock showed up later. Overall, the haddock season was the best we have ever seen on the Bunny Clark with a few hundred more legal fish landed than our previous best season in 2018. Pollock landings were down slightly from the year before. Pollock were also slightly smaller, on average, than they were the previous year. This may also have been more of a timing issue and not a relationship in stock decline. The winter of December 2019 through January 2020, saw bigger haddock than we have seen in years and bigger pollock. Had we seen those fish during our season, our success ratio might have been higher than many previous years. The year in review on the other species goes as follows:

Our barndoor skate catch was down from last year and some previous years with only six caught. Still, the first one that was ever caught on one of my boats was 2008. I never saw a single one caught on rod & reel between 1975 until that year. During the 2015 season we caught fifteen barndoor skates, the most we have ever seen in a season. The next most successful year was 2018 with a count of ten. Since 2008 we have had years where we caught none (2010) or as many as nine in 2016. The barndoor skate is the largest of New England's skate species, still listed as an endangered species (since 2003) by the IUCN, the international body that helps control fish stocks. I go into great lengths on the barndoor skate in the 2016 Guestletter.

[The picture on the right is a shot of Jason Ridolfi (NY) holding an 18.75 pound pollock that he caught on an offshore trip in mid-May. It was the largest fish caught that day, the pool winning fish on that trip and the largest pollock caught on the Bunny Clark for weeks afterward. It was also the largest of the three largest fish caught on that trip, all caught by Jason, giving him one of only the three aces caught on the Bunny Clark in 2019!]

Our cod catch was the lowest we have ever seen in the thirty-seven years that I have been operating the Bunny Clark. There are definitely less cod out there, less than I have ever seen in my lifetime. But most of the reason our cod catch is down is that we do not target them. This since we haven't been allowed to keep them. There are definitely places where we could catch more cod if we so desired. We had an open season for cod from September 15, 2019 to October 1, 2019 where we could keep one fish per angler. During that time our cod catch increased dramatically. Many of the larger cod were caught during that period with only two of those cod making it to the top ten, in size, for the season. We certainly couldn't have sustained that catch rate for the whole season. Our top ten cod were bigger last year than the previous year. And this has been the trend for last several years since we haven't been able to target them. For a more detailed view of the cod catch on the Bunny Clark, you can visit my previous Guestletters.

It was a big year for larger than normal cusk, doubling the number of trophy cusk we caught the previous year. Some of our best cusk areas are also in some of our best cod areas. So we tend to stay away from them. We did have a very successful trip where we were targeting cusk. On this trip we caught most of our trophy cusk for the season. With haddock so prevalent last season, we spent little time chasing cusk. Even the half day trips, where in previous years we targeted cusk, the focus was on the haddock stocks. We caught more haddock on the afternoon half day trips than any previous year on these same trips.

Hake landings were down compared to the big hake years on the Bunny Clark. But, again, most anglers don't know hake was well as haddock. And most have never eaten hake. So, like the last four years, we stayed away from the hake. Trophy hake landings were about the same as they were the year before. The average size was bigger last year.

Our halibut landings gave us our second best year for halibut caught but our best year ever for legal halibut. Our best year for numbers, 2018, we saw a total of twenty-three halibut caught. Nine of those were legal. The top five were the five largest halibut that have ever been landed on the Bunny Clark, the year before last. Last year we caught eighteen halibut in total. Thirteen of those were of legal size. We also recorded the best single day of halibut fishing that I have ever seen or, indeed, heard about when fishing coastal New England. We hooked eleven halibut, caught nine of those and, out of the nine, five were of legal size. We could only keep the one as those are the rules; one halibut per boat per trip.

Captain Ian Keniston gave us one of the best monkfish years we have seen on the Bunny Clark, last season. He caught many more on his trips than I did mine. Together, we caught many monkfish. Most of these monkfish were small, only two over 12 pounds, the two largest being 15 pounds and 22 pounds. The top five monkfish were all caught during Ian's trips.

[The picture on the left is a shot of Caleb Zellers (PA) holding two redfish that he caught during an early June marathon trip when we were still able to catch redfish. Both of these fish were caught on the same line at the same, probably the largest double of redfish that I have ever seen. One of the redfish weighed 3 pounds while the other weighed 2.75 pounds, the third largest and sixth largest redfish caught on the Bunny Clark last season.]

We didn't catch as many whiting as we did the year before. Very few of these whiting or silver hake were over 2 pounds. There was only one trophy whiting caught last year. That fish weighed 3 pounds, the minimum acceptance weight for a trophy in the state of Maine.

We caught the most wolffish we have caught since the 2005 fishing season. I started counting them in 1996 as, at that time, there was talk of regulations coming down the pike eliminating the take of wolffish. Our catch had been diminishing anyway. Soon enough, we were not allowed to keep them anymore. Since that time, they seem to have been coming back a few at a time. Only in the last three seasons have they been caught with greater frequency. Our count last year was one hundred and sixty-seven fish. The count in 2005 was one hundred and seventy-two. Our best year for count since '96 was 1998 when we landed three hundred and ten wolffish. Since we haven't been targeting them for a few years you could say that it's an unfair comparison. But, only rarely, did we target them in the past.

We had another great mackerel year last year. Like the three seasons before, this was particularly evident on the half day trips inshore where there were times when you could not get to bottom without catching one or more. The first big showing of mackerel came during the 2015 fishing season. We caught less in 2016 but more during the 2017 season. Last year was pretty much the same as it was the season before. The spring mackerel helped in bringing the mackerel sharks (porbeagle sharks) around where we fish on a regular basis.

Since 2015 we have seen a larger number of porbeagle sharks. As mentioned above, they show up with the mackerel. Last year was no exception. There were so many in the spring and early summer, particularly on the offshore trips, we had to move to get away from them. An incidental species, we do allow anglers to fight/land them and they do count in the boat pool. But we do not target them because it takes time away from fishing for groundfish. And we do put a time limit on the fight.We had only three chances where we could have landed one. Only one of those times did it actually happen. They disappeared in the summer, as they normally do, but came back in the fall, diminished in numbers from what we saw in the spring.

The dogfish were very manageable again last season. These are the annoying spiny dogfish that tangle lines and disrupt fishing for everyone. Some people call them sand sharks. We had just a few trips where dogfish limited our groundfishing success. Truthfully, we might have had five trips where the dogfish were so plentiful in an area that we had to move. And most days where we did catch dogfish, they weren't a bother enough to move. However, when you are catching dogfish you are diminishing your chances of catching the desired species.Unlike most years there were very few dogfish caught during the fall. And unlike the early years of the Bunny Clark, you could move and get away from them if you wanted to. This was something we were unable to do all through the '80s and most of the '90s.

[The digital image on the right is a shot of Rich Kiblin (NY) holding two cod caught he caught in early June, as a double, both fish caught on the same line at the same time. One fish weighed 11 pounds while the other weighed 13 pounds. When he caught this double it was the Bunny Clark's second largest double of the season. Since we couldn't keep cod at that time of year, both fish were released alive just after this digital image was taken.]

It was not a big year for blue sharks. We did have a handful of trips where they drove us off a spot like the dogfish do. But last year was a tame year for blue sharks. It could have been the lightest year ever. We did have one day when twenty-four jigs were lost to them in the process of catching groundfish. The boat record for jigs lost to blue sharks is sixty-seven! That happened in the early '90s.

We had several bluefin tuna hookups last season, most were way too big to handle. Some were smaller but we never got close enough to get a visual before the fish were broken off.

Of the improvements that were made to the Bunny Clark during the winter of 2018/2019, all were either cosmetic or in the engine room where our patrons would never know. This years projects during January, February and March of 2020 will again center around the engine, mostly. And, of the improvements, most will be repairs. They include a couple of new windows, replacing the complete fuel filtration system, repairing a leaky hatch, chasing down a simple oil leak and all the minor repairs we have to fix after every season. I have seventy-seven items that need to be addressed. Most of these items are cosmetic items or checks that appear in the work order every winter. Ian Keniston is the one responsible for getting all this completed. David Pease is the mastermind behind all the technical aspects of the upkeep and repairs. Last year, Ian had my son, Micah, to help him. This year Micah is attending diesel mechanic school.

We had no engine problems with the Bunny Clark during the 2019 fishing season. This was a wonderful thing. I love my Volvo. However, we did have a problem starting the engine on the fishing grounds on a trip where Ally Fuehrer and I were running the boat. We also had white smoke coming out the exhaust. Come to find out, after the boat was fueled in the morning, the fuel cap, which is flush mounted on the deck, popped off allowing water to get into the fuel tank. Since water is heavier than oil, it didn't take long for the suction tube to pick up the water and bring it through the lines, the filters and into the engine. At the time, the wind was blowing out of the northeast at fifteen to twenty knots. No other fishing boats were out except for us. I do keep extra fuel filters aboard and we have two separate fuel tanks with their own fuel filters. So I was able to switch tanks, remove the primary engine filter, clear the fuel lines of water, replace the primary filter and get going again. It took over an hour. During that time, some of the anglers became uncomfortable about continuing. Some were seasick. But everyone missed fishing time. Since the weather wasn't very good to begin with and I was going to have to spend all day replacing the fuel in the contaminated tank, I called the trip. I brought the Bunny Clark back to Perkins Cove and gave everyone's money back. It was 8:00 PM in the evening before I could fill the fuel tank up again. If it were not for the help of Estes Oil, the project would have taken us into the next day.

[We had to rove seventy-five miles offshore to find this big wolffish caught by the angler holding it, Jim Wescom (VT), shown left. At 20.5 pounds, it was the largest wolffish caught on the Bunny Clark last season. ]

Our web site at http://www.bunnyclark.com continues to be the location where you can get information about the Bunny Clark operation on a daily basis during the season and off-season. We have a schedule and rates section, a photo section, a world records section and more. Our fishing update section provides anglers with up to date information on the daily catch, fish sizes, daily weather, angler deeds and fishery management information. This Guestletter resides on our web site along with some of my previous Guestletters. Although I can�t personally answer all the email that comes in associated with the site, our staff does a great job with this while also answering reservation questions and scheduling fishing dates. We also have a service on line where you can book a reservation for a fishing trip on the Bunny Clark. This on line service will be available on February 2, 2020, after the first day we take reservations. You can access this service clicking on the boat icon from my home page, my "Update Page" and various other pages on my site. Reservations for the 2020 Bunny Clark fishing season will start at 6:00 AM, February 1, 2020, phone reservations only for that first day of bookings..

We maintain a healthy Maine state trophy program in order to recognize larger than normal fish. Maine is very good in honoring those who catch great fish. We didn't have as good a year for big fish landings as we did during the 2018 Bunny Clark fishing season. This was directly related to a decrease in the number of large pollock and large whiting available to us. All the other species came in about the same or better, in numbers, than the previous season.

On July 17, 2018, Steve Selmer (NH) caught a big hake on an offshore trip. On the scale, moments after boating this fish, it weighed 54 pounds even, the largest hake that had been caught on the Bunny Clark since Tom Giorgio (NY) landed a 55 pound white hake with me in the summer of 1985 and well above the existing world record! White hake lose a lot of weight over time after caught. So I have never wanted to go through the motions of registering a big hake like that without the fish being significantly larger than the existing world record. Such was the case with Jim Mailia's (MA) 49 pound hake caught with me on November 3, 2003. The world record at that time (and when Steve caught his hake in 2018) was 46 pounds 4 ounces caught by John Audet (ME) aboard the Bunny Clark on October 26, 1986. That fish had weighed 51 pounds when first boated. Ashore, the official weight of Steve's hake was 48 pounds 4 ounces, exactly 2 pounds larger than the existing IGFA all tackle world record! On January 18, 2019, we were informed that Steve's fish had become the official new white hake all tackle world record! This was the Bunny Clark's forty-first world record. On July 9, 2019, Steve LaPlante (CT) boated another hake of 54 pounds, tying the initial weight of Steve Selmer's world record! You may enjoy checking out all of our current and past world and state records by accessing the records link at http://www.bunnyclark.com or by going directly to http://www.bunnyclark.com/records.htm.

[The digital image on the right is a shot of Donna Moran (NYC) holding her 49 pound halibut. She hooked another halibut a couple hours earlier that day. Whether it was too big to handle, she couldn't keep up with the fish or it was hooked in a bad place, she lost it. When she hooked this one, I stood beside her "coaching her" until she brought this one to the surface. This was her first halibut, the Bunny Clark's third largest halibut of the 2019 fishing season and the largest halibut that has ever been caught by a female angler on the Bunny Clark. ]

At the time of this writing there are no regulation specifics available to inform you about for the 2020 fishing season. I can tell you that we did not catch the recreational fishing sector's quota of cod or haddock in 2019, so far. And projections show that we are a long way from it. So, at the very least, for the 2020 season we will have the same regulations as we did last year. In other words, the haddock season will open April 15th and go through until February 28th, 2021. Haddock limits will be a bag of fifteen haddock per person with a minimum overall length of seventeen inches. The cod season will start on September 15th and run until the end of September with a one cod a person bag limit and a twenty-one inch minimum size. The Recreational Advisory Panel, of which I hold a seat, met on January 21, 2020. We made a proposal in the form of a motion to the Groundfish Committee of the NE Fishery Management Council to add to the current regulations in fiscal fishing year 2020. This addition starts the haddock season on April 1, 2021 instead of April 15, 2021 and adds another cod season starting on April 1, 2021 to April 15, 2021. This extra cod season would mirror the September season with a bag limit of one fish per person and a minimum size of twenty-one inches. This extra part (underlined in this paragraph) may or may not go through. But I'm sixty percent sure that it will. I will post the new regulations on the Fishing Update section of my web site when I know for sure.

As far as the other species go, there will be a 12 inch minimum size on winter (blackback) flounder, a 19 inch limit on pollock (with no bag limit), a 9 inch limit on redfish (with no bag limit) and a 41 inch limit on halibut. Halibut landings are limited to one halibut per vessel per trip on the Federal level There is no size limit or bag limit on hake (both white, red & silver hake), mackerel and cusk. There is a minimum size of 54 inches (caliper fork length) for possessing mako sharks, porbeagle (mackerel) sharks & thresher sharks. You will be able to land a bluefin or two or three or four (per vessel) of an undetermined size (to be established at the beginning of the season on June 1, 2020). It is illegal to keep barndoor skates, eel pouts and wolffish.

As a suggestion, you might want to check out the previous Guestletters if you are interested in the history of the regulations within our fishery. I have not delved into my opinions of the regulatory process as much I have in other Guestletters in hopes that this will be a more interesting read. I tend to get bogged down in the minutiae of the subject.

As I feel that the greatest achievement in angling is the ability of a person to hook and land a trophy fish on their own, I have listed the guests who caught the top five largest of each significant species during the 2019 fishing season. Keep in mind that all the represented weights of these fish were taken aboard the Bunny Clark using a registered scale shortly after capture (the same way it has been done since our first fishing trip on the Bunny Clark in May 1983). I feel that this is the fairest comparison between the angler�s fish since weight loss is proportional to the amount of time the fish is out of water. The weight loss differential varies between species. Getting a weight on a fish just after it comes over the rail makes the weight of every fish caught on the Bunny Clark directly comparable through all of the past fishing seasons.

NAME (STATE)

FISH - lbs.

LENGTH X GIRTH (inches)

DATE CAUGHT

[The picture on the right is a shot of Bob Mayer with the only porbeagle shark we landed last year, Bob's first porbeagle, after many chances in years past. My son, Captain Micah Tower, was the deck hand that day and helped us land this fish. We hooked other porbeagle sharks last year but most were too big to handle. We didn't have the luck on the others last season. ]

Bob Mayer (ME)

Porbeagle Shark 101

61

5-30-19

Lewis Hazelwood (MA)

Monkfish 22

33 X 31

9-20-19

John Tanguay (ME)

Monkfish 15

8-10-19

Peter Varhony (VT)

Monkfish 12

8-23-19

Justin Grenier (RI)

Monkfish 12

9-1-19

McKenzie Albert (ME)

Monkfish 10

6-2-19

Dennis Pine (PA)

Monkfish 10

10-1-19

Jim Wescom (VT)

Wolffish 20.5

Released***

7-16-19

Ty Kashmiry (ME)

Wolffish 17.5

Released***

4-25-19

Tim Rozan (ME)

Wolffish 17.25

Released***

7-16-19

Rich Cochran (NH)

Wolffish 16.5

Released***

5-17-19

Jim Swope (MA)

Wolffish 16.5

Released***

5-26-19

Marie Harding (ME)

Wolffish 16.5

Released***

7-16-19

Mark LaRocca (NY)

Pollock 24.25

8-29-19

David Arsenault (ME)

Pollock 22

7-26-19

Kyle Naaktgeboren (VT)

Pollock 22

8-20-19

Olivia Maxam (NY)

Pollock 22

9-13-19

Gene Casey (MA)

Pollock 20.5

9-19-19

[The picture on the right is a shot of Jim Nason (NH) holding his 23.5 pound cod, our third largest cod caught on the Bunny Clark last year. This shot was taken by Peter Morrill (ME) during the haibut hunting trip organized by Sean Devich in June. The cod was released shortly after Pete took this picture.]

Steve LaPlante (CT)

White Hake 54

51.5 X 32

7-9-19

Jonathan Griffin (MA)

White Hake 46.5

7-9-19

Ray Westermann (MA)

White Hake 46

7-9-19

Bryan Lewer (ME/FL)

White Hake 44.5

48

7-9-19

Mark LaRocca (NY)

White Hake 43

7-9-19

John Russell (ME)

Haddock 8

28 X 16

6-7-19

Ryan Appold (CT)

Haddock 7.25

28 X 14

5-21-19

Brian Walsh (NJ)

Haddock 6.9

5-21-19

Marie Harding (ME)

Haddock 6.5

7-16-19

Brandon Webster (CT)

Haddock 6.25

5-23-19

Jeff Reisdorf (NY)

Haddock 6.25

5-23-19

Adam Towle (NH)

Cusk 29

42 X 23

7-9-16

Fred Kunz (NH)

Cusk 20.5

37.5 X 20

7-9-16

Bryan Lewer (FL/ME)

Cusk 20

38 X 21

7-9-16

Dave Miller (MA)

Cusk 19.25

35.75 X 23

7-9-16

Tim Rozan (ME)

Cusk 18.25

37 X 19.5

7-9-16

Fred Kunz (NH)

Cusk 18.25

7-9-16

[Tim Williams (CT) ran a charter in the first week of July after he had a very successful charter the year before at the same time. One of the really nice fish caught on last year's charter was a Maine state trophy hake of 26 pounds. Gloria Gennari, shown right with her big hake, was one of two anglers who caught a trophy that day. ]

Dick Lyle (NY)

Cod 31.5

Released***

7-16-19

Dave "Duke" Symes (ME)

Cod 31.5

41 X 25

9-30-19

Jim Nason (NH)

Cod 23.5

Released***

6-25-19

John Russell (ME)

Cod 22

Released***

5-19-19

Bill Bolotin (MA)

Cod 22

Released***

6-5-19

Dick Lyle (NY)

Cod 22

Released***

7-16-19

Kevin Viel (NH)

Cod 22

Released***

10-1-19

Tim Rozan (ME)

Halibut 89

58

7-16-19

Ed Robichaud (ME)

Halibut 79

****

6-18-19

Donna Moran (NY)

Halibut 49

****

7-16-19

Chuck Lennon (MA)

Halibut 41

46

5-4-19

Mark Laroche (VT)

Halibut 38

****

7-16-19

Steve Selmer (NH)

Barndoor Skate 23

Released*

8-29-19

Steve Selmer (NH)

Barndoor Skate 22

Released*

8-29-19

Marty Nephew (NY)

Barndoor Skate 20

Released*

8-9-19

Adam Cloutier (ME)

Barndoor Skate 20

Released*

8-12-19

Arthur Blaisted (ME)

Barndoor Skate 20+

Lost at Boat

8-27-19

[This digital image on the right was taken by Captain Ian Keniston of McKenzie Albert holding her ten pound monkfish caught in early June on one of Ian's extreme day trips. This fish tied for our fifth largest Bunny Clark monkfish last season.]

John Russell (ME)

Whiting 3

28 X 11.5

7-19-19

Frank O'Leary (MA)

Whiting 2.75

8-3-19

Steve Hearne (CT)

Whiting 2.5

8-10-19

Justin Giedra (NY)

Whiting 2.25

8-1-19

Steve LaPlante (CT)

Redfish 3.5

18 X 14

6-4-19

David Paya (VT)

Redfish 3.25

17 X 14

6-13-19

DeVaughn Tyndall (PA)

Redfish 3

16.5 X 13

6-4-19

Caleb Zellers (PA)

Redfish 3

18 X 14

6-4-19

Bill Suelke (PA)

Redfish 3

17.5 X 14

6-4-19

Where there is a tie in fish size, anglers are arranged in order of the date caught.

* Barndoor skates are presently on the endangered species list. All the skates listed were released back to the ocean alive after a quick picture of the angler with his fish.

** These fish were sub-legal or illegal to keep and released back to the ocean alive.

*** Federal regulation has prohibited the retention of wolffish for a few years now. Federal regulations for the whole 2018 season also prohibited the retention of cod. All wolffish and cod were released back to the ocean alive.

**** Federal regulation prohibits the retention of more than one halibut per trip.

John Russell and Tim Rozan were the only anglers to appear three times in the top five trophy list for the 2019 Bunny Clark fishing season. Bryan Lewer, Dick Lyle, Steve Selmer, Steve LaPlante, Fred Kunz, Marie Harding and Mark LaRocca all appeared twice in the top five last year.

[The digital image on the left is shot of Lewis Hazelwood holding up the largest double of the year, a 40 pound Maine state trophy white hake (in his right hand) and a 30.5 pound white hake, both fish caught on the same line at the same time. As I mentioned, below, it's one thing to boat this catch. It's a whole other thing to hold both these fish up for a picture! ]

Only two haddock in the top five were Maine state trophies as the minimum acceptance weight for a trophy haddock is 7 pounds. John Russell's 8 pound haddock was only a quarter of a pound smaller than our largest haddock in the previous season. Before the 2018 fishing season, last time we saw a haddock that big was on July 7, 2015 when Bryan Lewer (FL/ME) caught one that weighed 8.25 pounds. The only other time we saw one as big or bigger was on April 29, 2013 when a 9 pounder and an 8.25 pounder were both caught on the same trip. Before 2013 we used to expect to see haddock of 10 pounds or more.

The 2013 season was the first Bunny Clark season ever where we didn't see a cod over 20 pounds. In fact, it was the first season that we didn't see a cod over 30 pounds! And, because of that, I didn't take the time to list the top five cod in that Guestletter. After the 2014 fishing season I decided to list the top five, in keeping with every other Guestletter I have ever written. During the 2014 fishing season we did catch two cod of 20 pounds or better. During the 2015 season, Larry Kabat's 25.5 pound cod was the largest cod the Bunny Clark had seen since Liam Kennedy (NJ) caught a 32 pound Maine state trophy cod on May 15, 2012! Bryan Lewer's 45.5 pounder, caught in 2016, is the largest cod we have seen since Liam Kennedy caught his 47.5 pounder in May of 2011. The 2017 Bunny Clark fishing season was the first season since the 2012 fishing season that the top five cod were all over 20 pounds. There were thirteen cod over 20 pounds caught during the 2017 season. In comparison, there were ten cod caught that were over 20 pounds during the 2012 Bunny Clark fishing season. Last year we saw eleven cod of 20 pounds or better. I'm not sure what this really means except that the resident cod seem to be growing.

We had an up-tick in the number of monkfish in 2017, the 2018 season brought us even more and, last season, slightly more than the previous one. Most of these monkfish were small. Lewis Hazelwood's 22 pounder was closer to what we like to see in size. And Dave Smith's (ME) 23.5 pound monkfish caught in 2018 was better still. The 24 pound monkfish that Kevin Gilpatric (ME) caught in 2017 was the largest monkfish that had been caught on the Bunny Clark since May 17, 2012 when Bob Foster (NY) caught a monkfish that weighed 34.5 pounds. The largest monkfish that has ever been caught on the Bunny Clark was one that weighed 55 pounds, by Nancy Lee Regimbald (VT) on a full day trip on July 9, 1991. The official on-shore registered weight was 49 lbs 12 oz. It remained the IGFA's all tackle world record until it was beaten on April 12, 2008 by a monkfish caught off Gloucester, Massachusetts that officially weighed 51 lbs 4 oz.

As mentioned above, if anything, our average pollock sizes have gone down. We had less pollock of twenty pounds or better last year than any year previously on the Bunny Clark. Technology is to blame, somewhat, as fishermen can find them much easier than they used to. But their behavior and schooling patterns also give their position away more readily than other groundfish while using the new high powered CHIRP sounding machines. And since the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC or Council) made draggers fish with larger mesh sizes in their nets, fishermen are able to tow these nets much faster and can catch the larger faster swimming fish now where they weren't able to do so in the past.

Last season there were only seven pollock of 20 pounds or greater with no trophies (pollock of 25 pounds or more) boated. The Bunny Clark "slammer" list included forty-seven in 2018 with four trophies and thirty fish in 2017 with three trophies. Twenty-five slammers were landed in 2016 with one trophy. Forty-six pollock of 20 pounds or better were caught in 2015 with three trophies. Only sixteen slammers were landed in 2014 with two trophy pollock recorded, both 27 pounds. Thirteen slammers were landed in 2013 with two trophy pollock caught, both just over 25 pounds. Fifteen 20 pounders plus were caught in 2012 with one trophy, a 26 pounder caught by my son, Micah, forty-three in 2011 with one trophy and forty-one with one trophy in 2010. So under the present fishery management plan, the pollock population has not really been allowed to grow. And I can't believe that, in my lifetime, we will see a year where 996 anglers receive trophy awards for pollock over 30 pounds as it was during the 1986 Bunny Clark fishing season. In those years, I only recorded the pollock over 30 pounds. In 1986 only one trophy award was awarded per species per year by the state regardless of how many you caught and, that year, Al Robinson (ME) landed over 100 pollock over 30 pounds himself! And he wasn't the only angler to catch many pollock over 30 pounds that year, our best big pollock year ever. Eight world record pollock were caught from the Bunny Clark in 1990, most being line class world records. The largest pollock we have ever seen was a 51.25 pound pollock caught by Linda Paul (ME) in 1990. Weighed officially seven hours later, it was just under 47 pounds and remained the all tackle pollock world record until it was defeated eight years later!

We had a slow whiting year last year. But, in our defense, we do not target them. Below is the Bunny Clark's "whiting table" for our biggest since 1983.

Angler (State)	Species - Weight	Season Caught
1. Jayde Meader (ME)	Whiting - 5.5 lbs.	2018
2. Erik Callahan (RI)	Whiting - 5 lbs.	1995
2. Jason Collier (VT)	Whiting - 5 lbs.	2015
2. Rick Schwartz (NH)	Whiting - 5 lbs.	2018
5. Jeff Gallatly (ME)	Whiting - 4.5 lbs.	2015
5. Dave Walden (CT)	Whiting - 4.5 lbs.	2018
7. Dave Bingell (CT)	Whiting - 4.25 lbs.	2018
7. Chad Johnston (ME)	Whiting - 4.25 lbs.	2018
9. Jonathan Griffin (MA)	Whiting - 4.1 lbs.	2016
10. Nick Gatz (ME)	Whiting - 4 lbs.	2000
10. Justin Hopkins (RI)	Whiting - 4 lbs.	2013
10. Chris Porter (MA)	Whiting - 4 lbs.	2014

Our hake last season, for size, was even better than the 2018 season, although nowhere near the sizes of hake we caught in the early 1980s. I mentioned Steve Selmer's 2018 season world record hake a few paragraph's earlier and Steve LaPlante's duplicate caught this year. The top five hake last season were 43 pounds to 54 pounds, something we haven't seen for years. And when you consider we only targeted big hake on five occasions, this is pretty special. Incidentally, the largest white that has ever been caught on the Bunny Clark was caught by Bob Jorgensen (ME) in 1983. It weighed 63 pounds. Also, that year, Marie Gronczniak (NY) caught a 58.5 pound white hake. In 1984, on the Bunny Clark, John Pomainville (VT) landed a 58 pound white hake, Kevin Macia (VT) also landed a 58 pound hake and Duke Dam (VT) caught a 57.5 pound white hake. Those are the top five Bunny Clark white hake. We landed forty-seven white hake over 50 pounds in 1984, none of them ever attaining world record status because every one of them was involved in a tangle, disqualifying them from IGFA recognition. This was why Bob Jorgensen's fish never became a world record, as it should have become.

[Adam Towle is holding his 29 pound Maine state trophy cusk in the digital image on the right. This fish is tied for the Bunny Clark's tenth largest cusk ever. And it's amazing to me that fish like Adam's can still be found in this day and age with so many technological advances. ]

Dick Slocum's 304 pound porbeagle shark, caught on May 17, 2015, is the largest porbeagle shark that has ever been caught on the Bunny Clark. That's impressive when you consider that he was only using one of our "cod rods". The second largest porbeagle shark was landed on May 25, 2017. Caught by Phil Brown, this shark weighed 282 pounds. The third largest porbeagle ever caught on the Bunny Clark was Andrew Claehsen's 233.75 pound shark caught on May 10, 2016. The fourth largest porbeagle shark caught aboard the Bunny Clark weighed 217.5 pounds, caught by Jon Tesnakis (NY) on October 21, 2005. The fifth largest porbeagle shark ever caught on the Bunny Clark was Dave Miller's 200 pounder caught on June 7, 2018. Bob Mayer's 101 pound porbeagle was the only porbeagle boated on the Bunny Clark last season. The largest porbeagle shark that we had on the line last year was one hooked by Jim Feeney (MA) on May 7, 2019. He fought this fish for fifty-one minutes with his own rod getting it close to gaffing range twice. About five minutes before the end of the fight, he broke the butt of his rod off at the reel seat. In the end, the leader line parted from chaffing. That fish would have been one of our top five porbeagle sharks had he landed it. We have had many bigger porbeagle sharks on the line over the years. Any time you can boat a porbeagle shark greater than 150 pounds with a cod rod, it's a feat.

After having one of our weakest years for large redfish landings during the 2018 fishing season, we bounced back with one of our best years for big redfish last year. During the 2018 season, we never boated a single trophy redfish, the first Bunny Clark season ever! Last year we registered sixteen trophies, most of which were caught in shallow water. We don't usually target redfish specifically except for the early spring when you can't keep haddock (before April 15) or cod and the pollock aren't available. The amount of time spent targeting redfish last year was not much, like most years. But we capitalized on the time we did spend fishing for them. They are a wonderful eating fish with a fillet that has a delicate texture and flavor when cooked. Steve LaPlante's 3.5 pound redfish is the largest redfish we have seen caught on the Bunny Clark since Tom Ruggles (FL) landed a 4 pounder on August 4, 2015. This 4 pound redfish is the largest redfish I have weighed that we have caught. I'm sure we caught bigger redfish in the mid '80s but I never weighed them in those days. My loss!

We did not land a bluefin tuna last season, our second season in a row, despite hooking twelve. Most were just too big to handle. We landed one during the 2017 Bunny Clark fishing season. Before that we hadn't landed one since Jim Phelon (NH) caught one that weighed 176.5 pounds on June 8, 2010. The closest we came to landing one last year was on October 5, 2019. Duane King (MA) was the angler. Duane had the fish on for forty-five minutes, getting it close to the boat a couple of times. At the end of the fight as they were about to get the fish in gaffing range, the Jinkai leader broke out of the water about three inches below the uni-knot joining it to the Spectra main line! The largest bluefin tuna that has ever been landed, by "cod rod", on the Bunny Clark was a 365 pounder caught on July 17, 2009 by Paul McCullough (NH). I harpooned one that weighed approximately 775 pounds off the Bunny Clark on the way to the fishing grounds in July of 1984 and two others that year in the 600 pound range. At least one bluefin was landed, via cod rod, every year on the Bunny Clark from 2004 through 2010. We even had a trip during those years when three bluefins were brought to gaff all at the same time!

There have been fifty-two barndoor skates caught on the Bunny Clark since we caught our first one during the 2008 fishing season. Included in the count is a fairly large one that Arthur Blaisted (ME) lost beside the boat on anchor in a strong tidal current on August 22, 2019. Our largest ever was the one caught by Sheri Fister (ME) on August 18, 2018 at 37 pounds. However, five of the top ten barndoor skates ever caught on the Bunny Clark, including Sheri's, were caught during that same season! Last season, Steve Selmer became the first angler in Bunny Clark history to catch two barndoor skates on the same trip. Both those fish were caught in the same spot while on anchor. One was a male and the other was a female. Steve holds the record on the Bunny Clark for the most barndoor skates caught by a single angler with a count of five! That's almost ten percent of all the barndoor skates that have ever been caught on the Bunny Clark. The top ten largest barndoor skates in Bunny Clark history can be seen in the table below.

Angler (State)	Species - Weight	Season Caught
1. Sheri Fister (ME)	Barndoor Skate 37 lbs.	2018
2. Wayne Statham (QC)	Barndoor Skate 33 lbs.	2015
3. Josh Cabral (RI)	Barndoor Skate 31 lbs.	2015
4. Bill Weller (NY)	Barndoor Skate 28 lbs.	2018
5. Steve Selmer (NH)	Barndoor Skate 27 lbs.	2017
5. Steve Balevre (NH)	Barndoor Skate 27 lbs.	2018
5. Anthony Arria (MA)	Barndoor Skate 27 lbs.	2018
5. Chris Tankred (OH)	Barndoor Skate 27 lbs.	2018
9. Rodney Lensing (IA)	Barndoor Skate 26.5 lbs.	2016
10. Mike Mokrzycki (MA)	Barndoor Skate 26 lbs.	2009
10. Kate Cote (ME)	Barndoor Skate 26 lbs.	2015
10. Jim Walls (MD)	Barndoor Skate 26 lbs.	2015
10. Larry Lawrence (NY)	Barndoor Skate 26 lbs.	2015

Of the eighteen halibut that were caught on the Bunny Clark last season, only two made it into the top ten all time list. As you can see, the top five biggest of all time were caught during the 2018 fishing season. Last year, Tim Rozan's 89 pounder put him in sixth place all time. Incidently, this gives Tim two halibut in the top ten list all time. Tim has now caught five halibut on the Bunny Clark with me in the last three seasons. Ed Robichaud also broke into the top ten of all time list last season. On the trip where Ed caught his fish, I had told everyone to reel up as we were going to head back home. Ed was one of the last to reel in. About half way up, this halibut hit his green fly above the bait rig and dragged his line all the way back to the bottom! The rest is history!

Last year, we lost ten halibut of note, three of which would have made it into the top ten, two of which might have been our biggest ever. On all three occasions we weren't prepared to land a fish as large. The two most notable loses were one that involved Elizabeth Colley (ON) and another that involved Dave Harris (MA). Elizabeth's fish was huge. She was on a regular day trip with quite a few anglers aboard, fishing in the stern with a bait rod, the reel loaded with fifty pound test monofilament. And probably chaffs on the line from dogfish! The sounding machine told me it was a halibut and the fight was right straight up and down. She didn't have a chance, breaking it off after the third run. Dave had a massive fish on that he broke off on the second run straight down to bottom. Last year was also the first year that I have seen a blue shark bite into a halibut. This happened to Dennis Reissig (NY) on the September 19, 2019 marathon trip. The shark grabbed the halibut just under the surface by the tail, almost half way up the body of the fish. The shark took off breaking the line and taking the halibut and the jig used to catch it! The halibut wasn't big enough to be legal. But it was shame to see a halibut killed in that manner.

Angler (State)	Species - Weight	Season Caught
1. Joe Balas (OH)	Halibut - 103.5 lbs.	2018
2. Steve LaPlante (CT)	Halibut - 102 lbs.	2018
3. Bryan Johansmeyer (ME)	Halibut - 100.5 lbs.	2018
4. John Baker (ME)	Halibut - 98 lbs.	2018
5. Jay Rowe (NH)	Halibut - 95 lbs.	2018
6. Tim Rozan (ME)	Halibut - 89 lbs.	2019
7. Lewis Hazelwood (MA)	Halibut - 86 lbs.	2017
8. Ron Worley (PA)	Halibut - 83.5 lbs.	2007
9. Ed Robichaud (ME)	Halibut - 79 lbs.	2019
10. Tim Rozan (ME)	Halibut - 68 lbs.	2017

Jim Wescom caught the largest wolffish of the season last year. As you can see, there wasn't another fish close. During the same month the year before, he caught a 52.5 pound halibut near the same area where he caught this big wolffish. During the first ten years of the Bunny Clark, it was not uncommon to see a wolffish over 20 pounds. In those days I was always hoping for one over 30. In fact, we lost one near 50 pounds right next to the boat only a mile away from where Jim caught his big wolffish last year. That 40 to 50 pounder was hooked by Fred Kunz in the early '90s. Fred's fish was hooked lightly in the dorsal fin. It dropped off the jig too far away from the boat for me to gaff it while anchored in a strong tide. At the time, I was wondering how I was going to get it aboard without it biting someone.

Adam Towle's cusk is tied for the tenth largest cusk ever caught on the Bunny Clark at 29 pounds. The Bunny Clark's first world record cusk was a 29 pounder caught by Ross French (NY) in 1987 that broke the existing world record of 24 pounds 9 ounces caught by a guy off the coast of Norway in 1983. Ross' cusk's registered weight was 26.66 pounds. It was beaten only seven days later by a cusk caught off Massachusetts that officially weighed 28 pounds 15 ounces! We captured the world record again in 1988 when Neil Morrill (VT) caught a 31 pounder. We were drifting off a deep peak on the way back from fishing Tantas west of the Portland Lightship. It was the last fish in the boat. So I steamed home, got the fish weighed immediately and came up with the official registered weight of 30 pounds 1 ounce, the new official IGFA all tackle world record. Eight days later, it was beaten again, by a cusk caught off the coast of Norway that officially weighed 32 pounds 13 ounces! It wasn't until October 11, 2002 that we had the chance to beat it again with a 36 pound cusk caught by Kenton Geer (NH/HI). At the time, the all tackle world record was just over 34 pounds. Kenton's fish was disqualified because he caught it with a jig with a cod fly above the jig and a tube hook on the jig itself. It came under the title of "gang hooking", a no no as it concerns the IGFA. Today's existing all tackle world record cusk was caught in July of 2008, again, off the coast of Norway. The present world record weight is 37 pounds 14 ounces, a hell of a cusk. The table below shows the top ten cusk caught on the Bunny Clark over the years:

Angler (State)	Species - Weight	Season Caught
1. Kenton Geer (NH)	Cusk 36 lbs.	2002
2. John Madden, Jr. (MA)	Cusk 32 lbs.	2002
3. John Spinardo (NY)	Cusk 32 lbs.	2018
4. Neil Morrill (VT)	Cusk 31 lbs.	1988
5. Tim Williams (CT)	Cusk 31 lbs.	2002
6. Alan Coviello (NH)	Cusk 30.6 lbs.	1989
7. Ray Johnson (NH)	Cusk 30.5 lbs.	2004
8. Sean Grogan (NY)	Cusk 30.25 lbs.	2002
9. Annette Curry (NY)	Cusk 30 lbs.	2017
10. Ross French (NY)	Cusk 29 lbs.	1987
10. Donald F. X. Angerman (MA)	Cusk 29 lbs.	1991
10. Dan Kelley (ME)	Cusk 29 lbs..	2008
10. Adam Towle (NH)	Cusk 29 lbs..	2019

Incidently, Dan Kelley's 29 pound cusk at 43 inches caliper fork length is tied for the longest cusk that has ever been caught on the Bunny Clark. Kenton Geer's (HI) 36 pounder also had a caliper fork length of 43 inches. In fact, Kenton's cusk spit out six big herring on the surface before the fish was boated. Had that not happened, that cusk would have been over 37 pounds. Adam's cusk of last season, in comparison, was 42 inches caliper fork length.

[The shot on the right is a digital image of FY '19 Tim Rozan holding his 89 pound trophy halibut, the Bunny Clark's largest halibut last season, his fifth halibut caught off the Bunny Clark and the sixth largest Bunny Clark halibut of all time. Boating that halibut was one of the most exciting situations that happened on the boat last season. ]

Before I end this Guestletter, I want to cite those anglers and experiences of note that deserve an honorable mention for their uniqueness and/or fishing prowess during the 2019 Bunny Clark fishing season. I realize that this is a value judgment on my part but I believe that my conclusions are recognized as a popular opinion and/or statistical fact among my crew and fishing guests and are based on many fishing trips and many seasons in the business. These special anglers and incidents are as follows:

Fisherman of the Year (FY-�19): Tim Rozan wins this award for the first time, beating out one angler who has won it six times and another who won it the previous four seasons in a row. Tim has always been in the list that I look at to determine who, on the list, has the most points. I don't think Tim ever goes into the season wondering about this award. He's so humble, he would give it to someone else if he thought he could. But this just makes it all the more fun for me. A great guy, a wonderful fisherman and a person I always love to have on the boat.

As most of you know by now, the FY award is based on a point system that relates to specific achievements during each trip for a season on the Bunny Clark. Each achievement is worth a point or a set of points. The individual with the most points at the end of the season wins. In order to compete in this category, you have to have paid for and completed at least 10 different trips on the Bunny Clark. [The last two years I have considered waiving this 10 trip rule and just work on the most points in a season for any angler.] I have had many excellent anglers who fish with us on a regular basis every season, any one of whom has the potential to become the Fisherman of the Year. Tim was the man last season.

Tim excelled in three areas that put him on top. He tied for the second most trophy fish with his dory mate, Lewis Hazelwood, and only one behind Jonathan Griffin, who had the most trophies last year. He won the most boat pools for the largest fish of the trip last year with a count of three (Tim actually had four wins but I count the biggest fish of the trip regardless of whether the angler put money in to get into the pool.). There were eight other anglers with two boat pools each. No one else had more than one. He tied with John Russell for the most trophy fish in the top five with a count of three fish. And, certainly, his penchant for catching halibut, big halibut, held him in good stead on this last item.

Like most of the anglers who have ever won this award, Tim is an unassuming angler who is excellent at what he does. He never ever appears to get rattled about anything. I'm sure if you asked him about this he would tell you; "It's just fishing." And of course it is just fishing. But when the big moment comes, like landing an 89 pound halibut, he is as cool as a cucumber. I have a video of that moment taken by Joe Columbus. In the video, you would think that Tim was reeling in a 10 pound cod. Most of the time Tim fishes up on the bow away from everyone else. He never signs up for a spot. So he might also be fishing in the cockpit with everyone else. But he takes a spot where someone isn't fishing. And he moves around the boat as well. He never cares to have his name in print. So I will be interested in seeing how he responds to this! He may not care for this award. But I love doing it. It's my way of rewarding an angler for an exceptional year. And I will probably be the one most excited about him attaining this position. Regardless, I consider him the best of the best and certainly the best in the 2019 Bunny Clark fishing season. Congratulations, Tim! Well deserved.

Tim's total point count was 92. Fred Kunz came in second place with a point total of 80. Because they were within thirty points of each other, I had to add in the comparative value points (CVPs) when they both fished together. The way it works is that the angler gets double the points that they earned on that day that they each fished together. Assuming each one gets points on those days, which they both did, these final points are subtracted from each other to get the differential value between the two. The point differential is added up in the end. Tim and Fred fished together on four trips. Fred won the point differential on April 11th, October 14th and November 5th by one point, two points and one point respectively. Tim won the point differential on July 9th by six points leaving a value of 2 points overall to Tim. Had it been the other way around and Fred had surpassed the thirteen points he needed to go over the 92 points Tim had attained, Fred would have won. Actually, Fred was the Fisherman of the Year one season, winning in that manner - by a single point!

[In the digital image, left, Dick Lyle can be seen holding our largest Bunny Clark cod from last year. Dave Symes caught one the same size later in the year but Dick's would have weighed more had he caught it two months later when Dave caught his. Seriously, in at tie, the first is the biggest. Dick released this fish alive as soon as this picture was taken.]

Steve LaPlante was third with 76 points (Which, technically, doesn't count because he only sailed on two trips with us last season. They were two really good trips. But they were only two trips.), Jonathn "Griff" Griffin came in fourth with 75 points and Lewis Hazelwood came in at fifth with a point total of 58.

Female Angler of the Year: We didn't have enough female angler participation to fill this category. But I would have to give a nod to Olivia Maxam (NY) who only fished with us twice last season, two days in a row. On those two trips she was high hook on one and was, or nearly so, on the other with the most legal fish, caught the second largest pollock of the season and caught the third largest fish on both trips. She has always been a wonderful fisherman on many past trips aboard the Bunny Clark. And I have to give a shout out to Ally Fuehrer, our sometimes deck hand (thank you very much!), who, if she decided to fish, would be right up there with the best.

Best Bait Fisherman: Shameless Ray �The Pole Tossing Master Baiter� Westermann won again last season, his eleventh season (out of the last twelve) taking this award. Ray is just the best at it. And part of being the preeminent angler in this category is knowing when to fish with bait and when not to, which he is a master at. When he does fish with bait, he knows exactly what bait to use, how to "flavor it" and where to place it. Many could learn a lesson by watching Ray fish. And it certainly doesn't hurt that his dory mate, Jonathan "Griff" Griffin, fishes right beside him when they are both on the boat together. I can tell you that I have learned a lot from Ray. Ray is usually high hook or shares high hook with Griff on almost every trip. And he is so upbeat, it's just a pleasure to have him aboard. Always! Congratulations, Ray. Great again!

Most Aces: For those who don�t know, an angler scores an Ace when he or she lands the three (or more) largest fish during a single trip. There can be no ties in fish size with other anglers in order to achieve true �Ace� status. There was only one Ace landed during the 2014 fishing season, six Aces in 2013 and not a single Ace in 2012. The 2012 season was the first season that the Bunny Clark didn't see a single Ace. The 2015 season was the second! During the 2016 fishing season there was only one Ace. The 2017 season saw five Aces caught, three of which were "Double Aces" (the four largest fish caught on a trip). In 2018 there were two. There were three last season. Marty Buskey (NY) scored the first one on the extreme day trip of April 29, 2019. That early in the season we don't expect to catch big fish with the water as cold as it has been. So it was a bit surprising that his three fish were as big as they were. The fish were all cod including an 11.5 pounder, a 10 pounder and a 7.5 pounder. The best Ace was one caught by Jason Ridolfi (NY) on May 21, 2019 during an offshore marathon trip. His three big fish included an 18.75 pound pollock, a 17.5 pound pollock and a 16 pound pollock. The 18.75 pound pollock was our biggest pollock of the season and remained so until July. Butch Gaudet (PA) caught our third and last Ace of the season during an evening half day trip on August 22, 2019. His fish included a 3 pound haddock, a 2.5 pound haddock and another 2.5 pound haddock. It's important to remember on these trips that it's not so much the size of the fish as it is that no one on that trip caught anything as large as the third largest fish. There is a lot of luck involved. But usually an Ace is caught by someone who makes his own luck. That was certainly the case with Marty's and Jason's Ace!

Most Trophy Fish (including hake over 15 pounds, cod & pollock over 20 pounds, redfish 2 pounds or more, haddock of 7 pounds or more and the fish seldom caught with rod & reel including monkfish, barndoor skates, whiting, torpedo rays, porbeagle sharks, bluefin tuna, wolffish & halibut) of the Season: Griff caught the most with a count of nine. Lewis Hazelwood, Steve LaPlante and Tim Rozan tied for the second most trophy fish with a count of eight each. Steve Selmer came in third with a count of seven trophy fish.

[ Brad Smart (NY), shown right, is holding the largest haddock that he has ever caught in his life. The fish weighed 6 pounds and tied for the seventh largest haddock caught on the Bunny Clark last season. ]

Top Five Largest Fish of the Bunny Clark Season: Bob Mayer caught the largest with his 101 pound porbeagle shark. Tim Rozan came in second with his 89 pound halibut. Ed Robichaud was third with his 79 pound halibut. Steve LaPlante was fourth with his 54 pound white hake. Donna Moran was fifth with her 49 pound halibut.

Most Trophy Fish during a Trip: Griff caught the most trophy fish on a single trip during the Ultra with a total count of eight. Lewis Hazelwood and Tim Rozan tied for second with a count of six trophy fish each. Steve LaPlante, Steve Selmer and Adam Towle tied for fourth place with five trophy fish each.

Most Pools (largest fish of the trip): As mentioned above, Tim Rozan caught the largest fish on three different trips during the 2019 Bunny Clark fishing season. Serghei Rojco (NH), Marty Busky, Kevin Viel (NH), John Russell, George Hartman, Fred Kunz, Chuck Lennon and Barry Ano (NY) all tied for second place with two boat pools each.

High Hook: Joe Columbus was high hook (the most legal fish on a trip) on eight different trips, the most for an angler during the 2019 Bunny Clark fishing season. Fred Kunz came in at second place with a count of seven. Shawn Rosenberger (PA) came in third, taking high hook on five different trips. Griff came in fourth with four counts. Barry Ano & Joe Saracina tied for fifth with by attaining high hook status on three occasions each.

Largest Double: (The most combined weight of two fish caught on the same line at the same time.) The largest double of the year was caught on the Ultra marathon again, the same as it was in 2017 and the 2018 fishing seasons. Last year, the largest double was the largest double that has been landed on the Bunny Clark for over twenty years. Before that time, I never recorded the doubles. I do remember two big cod of equal size that Richard Atherton brought to the boat, losing one as I was in the process of securing one. The one I gaffed was 54 pounds. And there must have been some double hake that were monstrous in the early '80s. Last year's double that I am referencing here included a 40 pound white hake and a 30.5 pound white hake, caught by Lewis Hazelwood. I don't know what was more impressive, the double or the fact that Lewis held both fish for five minutes while I took pictures! The second largest double was one caught by Shawn Rosenberger on a marathon trip. Shawn's double included a 26 pound white hake and a 13 pound white hake. The third largest was a 22 pound pollock and a 10 pound pollock caught on a day trip by Kyle Naaktgeboren (VT). Bill Harding (ME) caught the fourth largest double on the SOFT. His double included a 20 pound pollock and a 10 pound pollock. The fifth largest double was also caught on the SOFT. The angler was Mark Laroche (VT) with a 13 pound pollock and a 16 pound pollock.

The most unusual double was caught on October 1, 2019 by Dennis Pine, a long time Bunny Clark angler. His double included a 10 pound monkfish (see the trophy table above) and a 7 pound pollock. An honorable mention has to go to Ed Brozo (MA) who brought a double cod to the boat that would have been the second or third largest double of the season. It was during the cod possession weeks on September 19, 2019. We had our limit of cod for the boat minus one. And that one was one of the fish caught in Ed's double very late in the trip. The fish that Ed wanted, the bigger one, weighed 21.25 pounds. The other dropped off the hook. I could have gaffed that fish but I didn't want to kill it just to see if it was one of our biggest doubles. The cod of Ed's that was lost weighed anywhere from 15 to 18 pounds. Ces't la vie!

[During last year's SOFT, we headed out a little earlier than anticipated with the expectation that the harder weather would slow us down some. True to National Weather Service form, they had the prediction on the good side of wrong. This became the advantage that Bob Mayer needed to boat the first halibut we have ever caught in the dark on the Bunny Clark, an hour before sunrise. Bob's line was not in the water long before he hooked up. The halibut weighed 31 pounds, pictured right, shortly after boating, with Bob holding it just before it was released. It was a legal sized fish but the aim of the trip was to land one over 50 pounds. So, that day, we waited until we did. And, as luck would have it, that actually happened!]

Hardest Luck: Heather Provoncha (NY) has to receive top honors in this category for the 2019 season. She was leaning against the rail backwards while fishing when she heard a slight splash. The item that caught her attention was her smart phone that had been squeezed out of it's place in her back pocket and had fallen overboard. She watched helplessly as it slowly drifted to bottom! I guess losing a phone isn't the worst thing in the world. But it was pretty bad for Heather as she had all her vacation pictures on it and the phone was not backed up to "the cloud". This unfortunate situation made it an expensive outing for Heather Provoncha! Ouch!

In a similar situation, on the July 20, 2019 full day trip, Bryan Pine (ME) did the "Donna Moran Shuffle" and lost his wedding ring over the side during a cast! Donna, my GP and I all resemble that situation!

I'm going to include myself in the next hard luck situation. During the October 1, 2019 marathon trip, I was waiting to gaff a pollock on the stern that Smokey Dorsey was bringing to the surface. The fish was just within gaffing range when a blue shark appeared from under the boat and bit into the pollock, taking almost half of the fish in it's mouth. The pollock was around 10 pounds. It was a big shark. Thinking that I would save at least some of Smokey's fish, I tried to gaff the part of the fish that was exposed in front of the mouth. As I went for it, the shark turned slightly so that the hook of the gaff went into the jaws of the blue shark. When I pulled back quickly in an instinctive motion, I hooked the shark perfectly in the corner of the mouth with the gaff. There was no way I could dislodge the gaff, although I tried. The reaction from the shark came about two seconds later. As it took off, I tried to hold on to the gaff but to no avail. I had to let go. The last look I had of the gaff was probably about seventeen feet down as it disappeared out of sight! No pollock, a lost jig and a lost gaff, my favorite!

During an afternoon trip, Nolan Christianson (MA) caught a haddock over 4 pounds, a big haddock for such an inshore trip. He wanted a picture before it was weighed and while it looked the best it was going to look. After a few shots were taken, in an instinctive move, he tossed the fish overboard! I would have expected a hint of asperity after a move like that. But I was told that Nolan was more rueful than anything else. After the fishing was completed, Captain Ian awarded him a well deserved hard luck t-shirt!

Rich Gargan (NY), an exceptional angler, friend and long time fisherman with us on the Bunny Clark, was on a marathon trip on May 16, 2019, fishing with the rod he had made for himself. The rod dated back forty years. We were drifting. Rich happened to get his jig caught on bottom, without really realizing it. The drift was strange that day. If you didn't have a GPS, you would have thought the drift was very slow as the lines were straight up and down. You would only have realized it if you got caught on bottom. However, it you didn't realize you were drifting that fast, as Rich was thinking, you might believe it was a fish. Particularly that day where we were fishing on halibut bottom. Maybe Rich's drag was tighter than expected. Maybe he had a loop over the tip of the rod. I never asked for the details. All I know is that he broke his favorite rod. That was enough. The evanesce of his good mood made it an infelicitous time to get into greater detail about the situation.

[The image on the right is a shot of Jonathan "Griff" Griffin holding up a 46.5 pound Maine state trophy white hake. This was the second largest white hake of the Bunny Clark fishing season and Griff's largest hake ever. And that's saying a lot as Griff has caught hundreds of big hake with me over the years.]

Most Improved Angler: Barry Ano is one of the most generous and sanguine individuals who I have ever met. Now you can add another accolade; most improved Bunny Clark angler. And, actually, he was one of our better fishermen last season. Only on a trip that I hosted last year did he faulter. That is to say he became an average fisherman with me. Under Captain Ian, he flourished. He was the fisherman of the day (high hook & pool winner) on one of his trips, he won two boat pools (as many as any angler last year except Tim Rozan), caught the second largest fish on three trips, was high hook on three trips and was the resident haddock expert on one trip, catching more haddock than anyone, by a mile. He would have become the most improved angler even if he didn't give us cases of pickles, bags of corn, bags of apples, bags of spicy out of this world deer jerky, etc. etc. I am looking for some great things coming out of the Barry Ano camp in 2020!

Best Team: The team of Ray Westermann & Jonathan "Griff" Griffin were one of the teams in 2019. They were the best team in 2018. Last year, they had to share the stage with Tim Rozan & Lewis Hazelwood. Both teams do exceptionally well. I would have to give the edge, though, to Ray & Griff. This only because they fish side by side so that they complement each other and help each other during the whole trip. Success wise, I would say they are just about equal. All four are excellent fishermen, enjoy just being there and know how to capitalize on a good fishing opportunity!

Exceptional Good Luck: I have to give the most credit to Bob Mayer in this category. He becomes the first person to catch and boat a legal halibut before sunrise. I had never heard of this happening before except by commercial tub trawl, never on rod and reel. This happened on July 16, 2019. Because it was so early in the trip, I convinced Bob to release the fish alive hoping we would have a chance of catching a bigger one later. Little did I know that we would hook ten more halibut that day, a boat record!

The other moment of exceptional good luck also includes a halibut. Mine! I was asked to host a special offshore charter specifically targeting halibut, something I had never done, although I had been asked about it several times in the past. When I was asked before, there wasn't a realistic opportunity to accomplish this goal. I can't say that about the last three seasons. On this trip, I was allowed to fish. I don't normally fish even when asked. But this trip was organized by Sean Devich (NH), an angler who has fished with me since the Bunny Clark was launched in 1983, has been a deck hand and captain on my boat for years and has become a trusted ally in all things fish. He has been very successful on his own boat. I have been invited to fish with him many times but, alas, I have never had the time. So, I fished on this trip, realizing that he really did want me to participate. No one had caught a halibut or even lost a halibut until we were about a half hour from leaving to go home. That's when I hooked up. I knew it was a halibut from the onset. The funny thing was that, knowing I was going to fish, I had brought a jig that Bob Mayer had been particularly successful with on halibut. That was the only jig that day to hook a halibut. When we got it along side the boat, I asked if anyone wanted it. I was going to release it. After half a minute it was decided that we would keep it. It weighed 36.25 pounds, the largest halibut I have ever caught. I caught it on my favorite rod that Sean built for me a few years ago. It's my fourth halibut caught by rod and reel, my first landed when I was twelve years old.

Quotes of the 2019 Season: "You dub!"; a quote from Fred Kunz after I missed a 7 pound pollock on a marathon trip in early May. Had the fish been boated, it would have been the largest fish of the trip and the pool winning fish! Unlike the Fred that most have come to know and love, there was only a hint of asperity in his comment!

"This will give him a taste of what married life is like." A quote from Jeff Goebel (ME) during a trip that he had organized as a bachelor party for his friend Dan Durham (ME) with a small group of friends. Dan had succumbed to the dreaded mal de mer early in the trip. Jeff's comment was made as Dan was hurling his guts out over the rail of the Bunny Clark!

[The angler in the picture on the left is Marty Nephew holding his 20 pound barndoor skate in a digital image taken by Captain Ian Keniston. Technically, this fish was tied for the Bunny Clark's third largest skate last season. An excellent fisherman, Marty has been one of the Bunny Clark's better anglers for many years. ]

"...the first and the worst.", a quote by Captain Ian Keniston describing John Kravec's (NY) sea sickness during a choppy fishing trip. As sick as John was, he still won the boat pool for the largest fish of the trip. It's one of only a couple times where the boat pool winner also won the "hardest luck of the trip" award t-shirt!

"You made me talk too much." A quote from the voluble Ernie DiStefano (NY) to me, an excuse for losing the halibut he had on the line. The fact is, he should have been paying more attention to fighting the fish than on everything else that was happening around him!

Most Unusual Catch: We had three in 2019.

For the second time in Bunny Clark history, an angler hooked a seal while jigging on the bottom. The same thing happened many years ago when I was running the boat. When I stood by with the gaff and saw it coming within sight in the water, the gray color made my mind think it was a big wolffish before I finally realized what it was. Last year it was Captain Ian's turn. I guess Ian wasn't aware that John McCurry (MA) had a seal on his jig until the seal reached the surface and started blinking at him! It was hooked in the flipper and was easy to release, thankfully. Interestingly, both the seals were caught right on the bottom with the other groundfish and almost exactly on the same piece of bottom twenty-two miles out!

For the third time in Bunny Clark history, Tim Rozan hooked a sunfish! He fought this fish for five minutes, the sunfish jumping out of the water at times like a sailfish. The fight ended when Tim's line broke after a jump!

For the second or third time in Bunny Clark history, three of our anglers hooked into a minke whale only five days after Tim Rozan lost his sunfish! One of the anglers was Tom Bruyere (NY), one of two roommates I had my freshman year in university in 1970. Tom has been chartering the Bunny Clark with his friends for many years now. The anglers all got hooked into the minke when the small whale swam under the boat when they were fishing. The whale obviously knew it was hooked. It jumped once and dislodged two jigs. On the second jump it dislodged the last jig, Tom's. Everyone got all their tackle back! It's very unusual to hook a sea mammal of any kind. It's even more unusual to not leave jewelry on the animal hooked!

Unexplained Phenomena: At the risk of repeating myself, I have to say that the single most impressive thing that happened on the Bunny Clark last season was hooking eleven halibut on one trip. I really don't know of another captain in New England who has ever been lucky enough to witness such an event. Here are some others:

This was the first year since 1977 that I didn't have the honor of fishing with Dave Gray (VT). Dave has caught some of our best fish over the years. Indeed, some of the greatest memories in my museum of recollection with the Bunny Clark have been with Dave. As Saul Bellow once said, Dave has been one of the top anglers who has kept "the wolf of insignificance from the door" for many years. My fervent hope is that he will be fishing with us in 2020! I'm cautiously optimistic.

Donna Moran contacted me several times during the winter making sure she could be on the first trip of the 2019 Bunny Clark fishing season. Her trepidation stemmed from the fact that I didn't have many anglers on the books for that trip. She didn't want to drive up all the way from New York City to find that the boat wasn't going to leave the dock. Finally, I told her that we would sail anyway; even if it was just her. We would have had four anglers had she shown up. We had three. She drove the five hours from the City, got to the boat and found that the ambient air temperature was 27�F. Fearing she didn't have clothes enough but not calling me about it (I was home making coffee at the time), she left me a note, jumped back in her car and drove back to NYC! The day turned out to be a great weather day with a nearly flat calm ocean by 1:00 PM and a high temperature ashore of 55�F. Next time, Donna, call. Please?

How is it that Frank Noble (ME) can fish all day, sea sick the whole time, and still be one of the best anglers on the boat? Does he never give up? That's certainly my take!

[I had to put a picture of Barry Ano in this Guestletter before it ends. He is shown on the right holding two pollock, one of 11 pounds and the other weighing 7.5 pounds. There are a number of words that would describe Barry; affable, voluble, generous, kind and sanguine. But only last year did he become the angler best described as most improved.]

Phil Eastman comes to the rescue again by getting me some frozen bait to hold me over until my order came in. In the past, he bought dinner for my daughter, he's told me about hot spots, he's helped me out in the management area when I have asked him to help and he's offered unsolicited suggestions when he thought I might need them. Always helpful, I'm just worried I won't ever get the opportunity to pay him back. Now that he runs Eastman's Docks in Seabrook, New Hampshire (who have had a great winter season when they could get out), I'm sure the opportunity will arise where he helps me again? Oh, God, I fear I'm going to have to start making a list!

Dave Miller, the porbeagle king of the 2018 fishing season got the same opportunity again with the first hookup of the season last year. He wasn't so lucky this time.

Former angler, Greg Veprek. Need I say more?

During a mid May trip, Mark Girard (CA), the most capable angler I know to fight a pelagic fish, hooks into a porbeagle shark but is denied! It was a big one. And there is hardly anyone else I would have loved to see land this fish more than Mark.

How is it that Barry Ano does so much better with Ian as captain than he does with me. What, do I smell or something?

I would have loved to have seen that halibut, Dan Payne (ME)!

And what would this Guestletter be if I didn't mention Bill Wallace's name? Last year he earned the hard luck award for achieving the "Bunny Clark Hat Trick". He hurled most of the day, lost a jig during a cast and got tangled so badly by himself up in the bow that I had to go up there and help him get back to square one! I just want you to know, Bill, that I will always be there for you!

It's uncanny how Bob Mathews (NY) continues to attain high hook status even when he isn't on the Bunny Clark!

Well, Doug Jones (PA), it's official, you lost the most jigs to blue sharks last season with a count of six! That's not so bad when you consider that the late Irwin Libeskind (God rest his soul) lost eighteen with me one day!

Steven Potter (ME) breaks his jig stick while fighting a blue shark, even though he knew we wouldn't keep the fish even if we were lucky enough to bring it close to the boat? Really, Steven? Of all those years fishing with me since the Bunny Clark's inception in 1983?

Why is it that Larry Reed (ME) catches so many dogfish, as compared to anyone on the boat who he fishes with? And that wasn't just last season. It's every season! Would his replay be; "I'm just lucky, I guess."? I believe that would be exactly what he would say.

Dick "Le Pew" Carpenter (MA) got skunked on the Bunny Clark for the first time after a long illustrious career as a noted fisherman with us. This had to be a bad dream that I had. Or maybe Ian was talking about someone else?

[Our youngest angler, five year old Vera Rose Geer (HI), shown in the digital image, left, is holding her 2.5 pound haddock and her 2 pound cusk that she boated on our eight hour "Day Trip" as a double keeper catch and shown exactly how these fish were caught. I might add that she caught these fish completely by herself, without help. Her father, one of the best captain's I know, Kenton Geer (HI), wouldn't have it any other way. ]

We discovered Ron "I hope I can catch a fish today" D'Aprile (NY) last fall. If I hear that statement one more time after all the fish he caught on that trip......

Sorry, Erik Grove (ME); that was a blue shark!

Dave Kozlowski (NY) "couldn't catch his ass in a bath tub" all day long except for one spot where he caught nine good sized pollock in a row while everyone else watched! Very strange!

I should remind you, Jeff Gellatly (ME); a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work! Jeff just happened to win the hard luck award t-shirt on the Bunny Clark last season. A first!

Joe Tomaszewski (NJ) left a big haddock on the deck, close to trophy size without telling anyone. When it flipped it's way to a scupper hole and out to freedom, Joe blamed my deck hand, Anthony Palumbo, who had his back to Joe, busy filleting fish, unaware of what had happened. I bemoaned the fact, to Joe, that I was so sorry that he lost such a good fish, over and over and over again, just as a reminder. I'm sure he won't forgive me for it!

Paul Cooper (NH) the "tangler angler"?

I hate to have to mention Fred Kunz another time in this section but it has to be known that he probably would have taken FY-'19 had he not lost so many big fish on the last trip of the year!

Tim Biebel (VT) fought a blue shark on the August 23rd extreme day trip for one hour without Captain Ian having to move the boat, without disturbing the anglers while fishing or without really helping Tim. It was as if Tim wasn't even there. That has got to be a first!

Yes, we did see David & Tim MacDonald (MA).

I want to take some time here to thank the crew, both those who physically run the Bunny Clark and those who are shore based.

Captain Ian Keniston: Ian had a very challenging year last season. It started out good enough. We were training a new deck hand, Anthony Palumbo was still our number one guy behind the knife and Ian was doing the fantastic job that he always does on the marathon trips that I run, being the deck hand. I have always felt like I could do anything on these trips because Ian could handle anything. Ian had pulled a back muscle a few days earlier in May. A day later he slipped walking up the ramp at low tide, making it worse. During the marathon trip on May 23rd, it got so bad while standing at the fillet table that he couldn't continue. He couldn't even move. And it hurt so bad, the tears were rolling down his eyes. Fred Kunz stood up to the plate and filleted the last two fish totes of fish that remained. After Fred was done, we switched places and I went back to clean the boat while Fred steered home. It took Ian a couple of weeks to start to feel better, most of this time still remaining the captain on the extreme day trips, most of which wouldn't have sailed had he not been there. Later, the deck hand we were training quit while only giving me a half day's notice. This meant Ian had to work or the boat wouldn't sail. He chose to work. I did not make him. Ian was fine in a month's time.

Two weeks before the 2019 season ended, Ian's wife's son (and his son, really), who was living with them, passed away in a freak accident. A tremendous loss, not only was Ian devastated but his wife had to live through the unthinkable, making it doubly hard for Ian. Luckily, we didn't have many days the Bunny Clark could sail because of the weather. But the trips we did have where Ian was the captain, he took, save one that happened the day of the terrible incident.

I have always loved having Ian work for me on the Bunny Clark. I consider him the best captain that has ever run that boat for many reasons. I won't list them here. I don't really need to. Of all the captains who I have sailed with over the years, he would be the first I would choose if I wanted to go deep sea fishing. Over the years, he has proven to be the most dependable, fair, caring individual, the best I could ask for with a common sense factor built right in that is so uncommon in this world. On top of that he has been so respectful of me and my position that it's humbling indeed. I don't really think I could run this business without him. And if I did, it certainly wouldn't be the high quality operation that it is now. Ian means the world to me.

[Dave Miller is shown on the right holding his 19.25 pound Maine state trophy cusk and his 18 pound Maine state trophy cusk. The bigger cusk was the Bunny Clark's fourth largest cusk last season while the 18 pounder was our seventh largest cusk of the season last year. Dave remains one of the best anglers I have ever had the pleasure to meet. ]

Anthony Palumbo: Anthony gave me his resignation at the end of his last day. I was sad to lose such a good person and such a professional deck hand. He was the guy I didn't think I would ever find after Jared Kensiton left. Anthony was great. A surgeon when it comes to filleting fish, he had a system, that was developed with Ian's help, that became so efficient that it never let him get behind. His attitude was great even when "buried". And he had the work ethic that you don't find in employees today. Like Ian, he was very respectful of my position and always kept the love of fishing close to his heart. And, like Ian, he was great with our patrons. I totally understand that he needs something of his own that he can build on with the future family he is planning. And he lives far enough away that working on the Bunny Clark won't do that for him. He left me with plenty of notice. I wish him all the success in the world. Thank you, Anthony, for all the great years you put into the Bunny Clark. I will be looking forward to having you aboard again in any capacity you feel comfortable but, mostly, as a good friend and fisherman.

Captain Allyson Fuehrer: Like the season before last, Ally, worked for me when she came back from the left coast where she has been working as a second mate on a tanker. She gets seventy-five days on and seventy-five days off, with some exceptions. This was a year of challenges for me as well. Maybe not as heart rending as what Ian had to go through, but challenging enough so that it was changing my routine constantly and keeping me worried. Ally (and Sean Devich) were the glue that held me together mentally so I could run the two restaurants and keep the Bunny Clark afloat. Ally is a very special person and proved it over and over and over again. Great with the anglers, a wonderful help to Ian and I, always upbeat and with such a huge fishing background that it put anyone with her at ease. Very professional. Good with a knife. I so appreciated her helping us when she could. Thank you much, Ally. You will never know how much.

Sean Devich: Sean helped me out when I had no Ally or allies left. You read about him earlier in reference to the offshore trip he organized to chase halibut. So you know his qualifications. What you don't know or what I didn't tell you is that Sean helped me run some of the marathon trips as a deck hand when I had no one else. Sean lives two hours away. He needed to be at the boat by 4:00 AM. Where do I find these people. As unlucky as I was with securing a deck hand last year, I was lucky in that we still had quality people to get us through. Sean was all of that and extra. Making the sacrifices that I can't imagine many would make and doing such a phenomenal job, I was able to keep the quality there in the trip without any patron being the wiser or knowing what I was going through. I can't thank you enough, Sean. What a wonderful individual. What a wonderful time I had and always have with you aboard.

Micah Tower: My son helped Ian and I all winter working on the Bunny Clark, rebuilding reels and, later, helping me fix things on the Bunny Clark and work as a deck hand for a trip when Ian hurt his back. Micah is getting more and more involved in other things so the likelihood of him being as involved or involved at all is minimal, at best. But, despite being my son, he is a wonderful individual who works the deck as a professional. I love having him on the boat with me. And I had to laugh, I called him on the day that Ian had his back issue, the day I cleaned the boat on the way in. You can't finish cleaning the boat until everyone has left and the boat is at the dock. So I needed to have someone finish so I could do the other things, like restaurant orders, that I needed to do before going to bed. Micah met the boat when it came in and agreed to finish. He was abusing me about how I cleaned the boat. No one appreciates the abuse more than I. Although I felt that some of this was a bit unfounded, I can certainly recognize when someone is right. I was so happy to have Micah there. Just another good piece that fits in the puzzle called the Bunny Clark, at least last year's puzzle. Thank you, Micah. I am so appreciative of your good work. Obviously, my wife had the bigger part in bringing this boy up!

David Pease: I have to thank Dave Pease, the guy behind the building of the Bunny Clark and the man who continues to work on the boat in the winter. When I need to fix a problem, Dave is the guy. When I want to put in a new system of any kind, Dave is the guy. If I'm having a hard time trying best solve a situation where the boat's integrity is on stage, Dave is the guy. In fact, the Bunny Clark is Dave. If you like the way the Bunny Clark looks, you can thank him. I thank him as much as I can. And I will now as well; thank you, Dave. So much!

[Mike Atkins (VT), shown in the digital image, left, taken by Captain Ian Keniston, caught his first halibut on the Bunny Clark last year. The fish weighed 36 pounds and was our seventh largest halibut caught last season. Mike has been fishing with us for many years.]

Debbie and I were living together and had been for two years when I decided to have the Bunny Clark built. She helped me from the very beginning, standing by me, encouraging me, talking me out of it when I felt like giving up, showing me a picture of myself when it needed showing and being my partner just because it was me and not because it was something she never would have initiated on her own. Unselfishly, she took on the task of building the shore end of things while I was doing the rest. Between times she allowed me to marry her. She took over the book work, took over the reservations and made the shore side thing her own. Plus, she took care of me as the best example of a wife could be. She did a great job, does a great job and allowed me to be the man I am today. Unselfish, kind, insightful, truthful, supportive, there just aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe what she means to me. She continues to be my anchor to windward. But I know there will come a time when she needs to do things for herself. When grand kids arrive and when we can't do the things we could do when we were young. That's inevitable. Things have to change. And I will do the things I need to do to change with them. Until then, I have a wonderful asset in Deb. And I do so appreciate what she has done for me. Anybody should be so lucky. Thank you, Deb. For everything. It's a lot. And I appreciate it. You all should too!

Jane Staples: Jane has been with us for years now. I don't know how many. I don't dare look! Jane helps us year round with the reservations, although she has taken other jobs with us. Right now it's reservations only. She is the sole "man on deck" when we are away, helps Deb when we are here and works the back of the truck in the summer when the boat comes in or where she is needed. She only lives four houses away from us. She grew up in Ogunquit only seven houses away from where I grew up. Her brother was one of my father's best managers in Barnacle Billy's when I was a teenager. Suffice it to say, I am very happy to have Jane with us. Thank you so much. I really really appreciate it!

Emma Keniston: This was the second year for Emma, who worked with Debbie and on her own as a reservationist. Her time with us was from June until Septermber. She is Captain Jared Keniston's daughter. Typical of a Keniston, at least the Kenistons I know, she was wonderful. When talking with patrons you have to be nice, fair and firm. In order to come across like this, you have to know your subject matter. Emma was all of that and a little more. She was great during the 2018 fishing season. She was better last year, about as good as you can be. Very charming in person, Emma was great on the phone. We had many good comments. None bad. And she was such a great help to Deb, directly. A wonderful help to the business. Thanks so much, Emma. I really appreciate your professional help.

I ride in the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), an 192 mile, two day, cycling event that takes place the first Saturday of every August, to raise money for cancer research and care. Last year marked my thirteenth season participating. For a detailed description of my treatment of the event, the money I have raised and the logistics, you can click this link.

If you want to know more about how my PMC fund raising has evolved over the years, you can go to previous Guestletters where I spend extra time writing about it. I have written enough about it without doing more here. This is something I truly believe in. And it's working. People are being cured. Advances are being made. And all this information is being shared to make the world a better place. For those of you who donate and support me in this endeavor, I want to thank you so much. Joe Columbus, Marty Buskey (& Elise) and others give me a donation, it seems, every time they come aboard. Others, like my sister, Meg, Wayne Griffin and Paul Kostopoulos, give me large donations. I don't care about the donations as much as I care that you support me in this and believe as I do, that something will get done for cancer if you put money into the Dana-Farber Cancer Institue. Thank you for this support.

I end my thirty-seventh Guestletter today, my thirty-sixth season on the Bunny Clark and my forty-second season taking patrons on the ocean. I thrive in this business because I love it. I am able to continue in the business I love because of you. The many experiences, the enjoyment I have, indeed the truck I drive is all because of your patronage. I've come to know some wonderful professional fishermen because of you. I've seen things I would never have seen otherwise. I've built a history of memories I will treasure for as long as I have a mind to do so because of you. And I have come to have a profound appreciation for the world around me because of you. It's simplistic to say that I wouldn't have a business without you. You know it's much more than that. All I want to say is that I appreciate all that you have done for me, the things you have shown me and the wonderful situations I visit in my mind from time to time. I've also built great friendships because of you. And I've learned practical means. Winter well. And I hope to see you in the future.

The Bunny Clark back in Perkins Cove after an Extreme Day Trip

I took the digital image above in May 2019 from the deck of Barnacle Billy's (original) restaurant with my iPhone. It shows the Bunny Clark on the town dock where we end all the trips. After the Bunny Clark is clean, she goes back to it's nightly resting place at Barnacle Billy's dock. Anthony Palumbo is the one in white oil gear while Captain Ian Keniston is in the shadows under the canopy top. Anthony is talking to fishing customers who are standing on the dock. This is an iconic scene for me and for those anglers who are meeting the boat to sign up for a fishing position on the boat for the next day. In the background you can see the footbridge that spans the entrance to Perkins Cove.

If you want to send me e-mail, the current address is ttower@bunnyclark.com. My email address is sowhake@gmail.com.

With this web site in general, I hope to keep you current on all of the fishing particulars on the Bunny Clark and include updated information on fishery management decisions that could potentially affect us. For a current report go to the Fishing Update section from the link located on the index page of this web site. Thanks!

Back To Home Page, Deep Sea Fishing Maine

Lewis Hazelwood (MA)	Monkfish 22	33 X 31	9-20-19
John Tanguay (ME)	Monkfish 15		8-10-19
Peter Varhony (VT)	Monkfish 12		8-23-19
Justin Grenier (RI)	Monkfish 12		9-1-19
McKenzie Albert (ME)	Monkfish 10		6-2-19
Dennis Pine (PA)	Monkfish 10		10-1-19

Jim Wescom (VT)	Wolffish 20.5	Released***	7-16-19
Ty Kashmiry (ME)	Wolffish 17.5	Released***	4-25-19
Tim Rozan (ME)	Wolffish 17.25	Released***	7-16-19
Rich Cochran (NH)	Wolffish 16.5	Released***	5-17-19
Jim Swope (MA)	Wolffish 16.5	Released***	5-26-19
Marie Harding (ME)	Wolffish 16.5	Released***	7-16-19

Mark LaRocca (NY)	Pollock 24.25	8-29-19
David Arsenault (ME)	Pollock 22	7-26-19
Kyle Naaktgeboren (VT)	Pollock 22	8-20-19
Olivia Maxam (NY)	Pollock 22	9-13-19
Gene Casey (MA)	Pollock 20.5	9-19-19

Steve LaPlante (CT)	White Hake 54	51.5 X 32	7-9-19
Jonathan Griffin (MA)	White Hake 46.5		7-9-19
Ray Westermann (MA)	White Hake 46		7-9-19
Bryan Lewer (ME/FL)	White Hake 44.5	48	7-9-19
Mark LaRocca (NY)	White Hake 43		7-9-19

John Russell (ME)	Haddock 8	28 X 16	6-7-19
Ryan Appold (CT)	Haddock 7.25	28 X 14	5-21-19
Brian Walsh (NJ)	Haddock 6.9		5-21-19
Marie Harding (ME)	Haddock 6.5		7-16-19
Brandon Webster (CT)	Haddock 6.25		5-23-19
Jeff Reisdorf (NY)	Haddock 6.25		5-23-19

Adam Towle (NH)	Cusk 29	42 X 23	7-9-16
Fred Kunz (NH)	Cusk 20.5	37.5 X 20	7-9-16
Bryan Lewer (FL/ME)	Cusk 20	38 X 21	7-9-16
Dave Miller (MA)	Cusk 19.25	35.75 X 23	7-9-16
Tim Rozan (ME)	Cusk 18.25	37 X 19.5	7-9-16
Fred Kunz (NH)	Cusk 18.25		7-9-16

Dick Lyle (NY)	Cod 31.5	Released***	7-16-19
Dave "Duke" Symes (ME)	Cod 31.5	41 X 25	9-30-19
Jim Nason (NH)	Cod 23.5	Released***	6-25-19
John Russell (ME)	Cod 22	Released***	5-19-19
Bill Bolotin (MA)	Cod 22	Released***	6-5-19
Dick Lyle (NY)	Cod 22	Released***	7-16-19
Kevin Viel (NH)	Cod 22	Released***	10-1-19

Tim Rozan (ME)	Halibut 89	58	7-16-19
Ed Robichaud (ME)	Halibut 79	****	6-18-19
Donna Moran (NY)	Halibut 49	****	7-16-19
Chuck Lennon (MA)	Halibut 41	46	5-4-19
Mark Laroche (VT)	Halibut 38	****	7-16-19

Steve Selmer (NH)	Barndoor Skate 23	Released*	8-29-19
Steve Selmer (NH)	Barndoor Skate 22	Released*	8-29-19
Marty Nephew (NY)	Barndoor Skate 20	Released*	8-9-19
Adam Cloutier (ME)	Barndoor Skate 20	Released*	8-12-19
Arthur Blaisted (ME)	Barndoor Skate 20+	Lost at Boat	8-27-19

John Russell (ME)	Whiting 3	28 X 11.5	7-19-19
Frank O'Leary (MA)	Whiting 2.75		8-3-19
Steve Hearne (CT)	Whiting 2.5		8-10-19
Justin Giedra (NY)	Whiting 2.25		8-1-19

Steve LaPlante (CT)	Redfish 3.5	18 X 14	6-4-19
David Paya (VT)	Redfish 3.25	17 X 14	6-13-19
DeVaughn Tyndall (PA)	Redfish 3	16.5 X 13	6-4-19
Caleb Zellers (PA)	Redfish 3	18 X 14	6-4-19
Bill Suelke (PA)	Redfish 3	17.5 X 14	6-4-19