Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Thursday, July 9, 2026, 3:00 AM EDT
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Note: Note: The new fishing regulations for cod and haddock in the Western Gulf of Maine for the 2026 appear below. These regulations were approved for the season starting on April 1, 2026 and will extend until May 1, 2027.
Gulf of Maine cod
Gulf of Maine haddock
At 2:30 AM EDT the air temperature was 61°F, the sky was a mix of clouds and stars, the wind was blowing out of the west northwest at five knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
We were greeted by excellent visibility and a partly cloudy sky after the gate, leaving Perkins Cove behind. The air temperature was 57°F as was the surface water temperature. The air temperature stayed, pretty much, the same the whole ride out. The wind blew out of the northwest or north northwest the whole way. Wind speeds increased from six or eight knots within ten miles of shore to about twelve knots as we approached our destination. Seas were a couple feet in chops with an underlying long swell of three to four feet in height.
On the fishing grounds, the wind started out at ten to twelve knots out of the northwest with seas of a couple feet with that same long underlying swell of three to four feet from the east. This wind kept dropping slowly throughout the day. By noon, we had very light northwest wind. We had no wind at all by 2:00 PM. Later, we had light westerly wind with only enough wind to show the wind direction by the ripples on the water. [The wind was out of the southwest at ten knots with fifteen miles to go to get to Perkins Cove.] The air temperature reached a high of 67°F. The sky was clear and nearly cloudless from sunrise until the end of the fishing. The tide (current) was moderate, into the wind in the morning and with the wind in the afternoon. The visibility ranged to thirty miles. The surface water temperature reached a high of 58.8°F.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 78°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 79°F (with a low of 60°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 78°F (with a low of 52°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of 55°F).
The fishing was good, no better than that. The tide into the wind was a bit too much and there were so many mackerel, most anglers couldn't get down to the bottom without getting two. This inhibited landings to a large degree, at first until we adapted to it. And we really never fully adapted. Anything artificial or feathered attracted them, including flies and jigs. The catching was excellent, particularly if you included the mackerel. Landings were good. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. We didn't have so many that we were afraid to go over the boat's bag limit. We did have a few anglers who went over their personal bag limit, two for sure. Legal landings also included twenty-two cusk, two whiting, twenty-three pollock, six redfish and just shy of a hundred mackerel. Released fish included one 7 pound cod, eighteen small cod, four legal haddock, three sub-legal haddock, eighty-eight sub-legal pollock and well over a hundred mackerel; too many to count, really. We drift fished and anchored. Anchoring caught the most fish. The jig and fly combination was the most popular setup but bait caught the most legal fish.
Fred Kunz (NH) was high hook with the most legal fish, a count of thirty-two, mostly haddock. He lost a trophy haddock right next to the boat on the surface. He doesn't like to gaff haddock or have them gaffed. He lost another big one too far down to gaff. Some of the good haddock Fred did land weighed 5.5 pounds, 5 pounds, 6.5 pounds and 5.5 pounds. Paul Smith (NY) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 9 pound Maine state trophy haddock. This haddock ties for the second largest haddock of the Bunny Clark fishing season to date. The fish was 29" caliper fork length. I took a picture of Paul holding his big haddock. This digital image appears on the left. He also caught the second largest fish of the trip, a 7.75 pound Maine state trophy haddock. This other fish was short at 26" but very fat, big in girth. These are the only trophy haddock Paul has ever caught. I also took a picture of him holding his other trophy haddock. This digital image appears on the right. The third largest fish was a 7 pound cod caught by Rich Mallott (NY). Of course, he couldn't keep it. Rich's largest haddock weighed 6 pounds.
Other Angler Highlights: Tom "Ollie" Bruyere (NY), my freshman year college roommate, landed a 5.75 pound haddock, his largest haddock. He did lose a big one on the surface but I didn't really see it. Joe Briggs (NY) caught the third largest haddock of the trip, one that weighed 6.75 pounds. He caught a haddock of 5.75 pounds earlier in the trip. Bob Tebo (NY) caught sixteen legal haddock today. His largest weighed 6 pounds but there was another I didn't weigh that could have equaled that one or been slightly larger? He also caught a cod that might have been 5 or 6 pounds.
I received some outstanding donations sponsoring me on my ride with the Pan-Mass Challenge today, an event to fund cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Those donors and their donations included Rich Mallott for a generous $100.00 donation in Memory of Captain Ian Keniston [Ian catered to these guys exclusively on two extreme day trips a year for many years. He loved this crew and was so disappointed when he couldn't provide them with a lot of fish. ], Tom Bruyere for a very generous $200.00, Paul Smith for a very generous $140.00, Kirk Hollis (NY) for $60.00 and John Gardner (NY) for $50.00. Thank you all so very much for your consistency in donating every year, your thoughtfulness in so doing, your generosity and your positive support in my efforts with words, feeling and, of course, donations. It means a great when it comes from people who are so sincere about this and who mean so much to me and the business of fishing.
We had zero wind almost all morning. When we did see the wind it was about 10:30 AM, out of the southeast. Five knots? Maybe? The wind continued out of the southeast at a velocity under ten knots throughout the morning, afternoon and into the night. The visibility remained excellent. The sky remained clear with some high cloudiness into the later afternoon. The air temperature was cooler today but it was actually perfect to me. Mostly it hung around 70°F, plus or minus, with a high that I saw of 75°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 77°F (with a low of 60°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 82°F (with a low of 48°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of 52°F).
After I made the decision to cancel tomorrow's trip, I didn't have to spend time getting the Bunny Clark ready to sail. This saved me a couple hours of prep work and another two hours of getting myself ready and getting to bed early. I used the extra time to take care of office items that I needed to finish. And I was able to spend more time with customers today. I didn't feel so rushed to finish conversations and move on.
Normally on Wednesday, I get out at 5:00 PM. This gives me enough time to go home with the scooter, get Gill, walk him to the Cove to get the Bunny Clark truck, drive home, work on this report, eat dinner and get to bed as early as I can. Bed time seems to always happen at 8:00 PM, despite trying to get to bed earlier. Today, I stopped my work at the restaurants just before 4:00 PM so I could catch the World Cup game featuring England against Croatia. I was not disappointed. The second half really showed what England can do when they put their mind to it. The dog and I went down to get the truck after the game.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 62°F, the sky was overcast, the wind was blowing out of the south at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent. At 6:08 AM, the first rain drops fell. That lasted about a minute and, then, stopped. It never rained again until 8:00 AM.
It rained after 8:00 AM for a while. The roads got wet but, an hour later, it started to drizzle and then stopped. Most of the day was dry after that with overcast skies and rain in places seen from a distance, like south over the ocean and to the north, the same. It must have been around 2:00 PM when band of showers came through with torrential rain. It rained so hard that you couldn't see the other side of Perkins Cove. This might have lasted a half hour. With the water coming down the road, our street drains had a hard time keeping up with it. There were hardly any showers after that. The wind was another significant feature of the day. Light at first, and out of the southeast, by midmorning we were seeing fifteen to twenty knots of wind. The wind started to air on at noon. Gusts to thirty knots were felt at that time. We had gusts to forty knots a couple hours later with the wind sustained at thirty knots. This kept up all afternoon until about 5:00 PM, when the wind seemed to back off dramatically. By 6:00 PM, we had fifteen knots of wind, a lightning of the sky in places and a settled feeling in the air. The wind had also backed out of the southwest. The visibility was fair during the stronger wind. The air temperature hung around the high 60s during most of the day. When the wind dropped, I noticed an air temperature of 73°F, our highest air temperature of the day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 81°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 59°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 64°F (with a low of 60°F).
I had much domestic stuff to do today. Including the help of a plumber installing new toilets at my parents house. I took advantage of a business day at a time that I'm normally offshore. It was a very helpful day for me on a day that I felt comfortable in my decision to leave the Bunny Clark in Perkins Cove for the day.
It wasn't the busiest day at the restaurant. Last year this day was Juneteenth. The weather was very good. We posted numbers we couldn't even come close to today.
The wind started out of the southwest but changed over out of the west by mid morning. Ashore, the westerly wind blew about ten to fifteen knots. It didn't reach offshore, as the velocity was much less. The sky was clear all morning with a mix of sun and clouds in the afternoon. The visibility was excellent. The highest air temperature that I saw was 79°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 82°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 78°F (with a low of 60°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 76°F (with a low of 60°F).
I was on the phone most of the morning. I set myself up for this yesterday. Scheduling, supply issues at the restaurant, trash removal issues, a gas problem with one of the fryolators at Etc., setting up dates for medical procedures and ordering engine supplies were some of the things I had to complete before noon.
As is normal, I took the truck to the Cove with Gill, our border collie. We walked home after parking. It took us three milk bones to arrive back. It's getting harder for him to walk. Thankfully, he still likes a milk bone.
As is normal, I was at the restaurants at 4:30 AM. I stayed, pretty much, until a bit after 9:00 AM. Then back and forth between the restaurant and the house. From noon, I stayed at the restaurant until 4:00 PM when I went home for a break to watch the US/Australia futbol game. Afterward, I stayed at the restaurants until 7:00 PM.
We only had two times when the wind was light, the early morning and around sunset. The rest of the day was noted for its wind. By 7:00 AM, the wind was blowing out of the west at fifteen knots. This increased to twenty-five knots by 9:00 AM and continued through the day. We had a couple of big gusts, one that pulled an umbrella out of a table at the restaurant and scared a patron. After noon, the wind was more west northwest. Later, the wind was directly out of the northwest. By sunset, the wind was out of the northwest at eight knots. The sky stayed mostly clear all day. we did have some cloudiness with a brief shower around 2:00 PM. But that only lasted long enough to get the road slightly wet before stopping. It never rained again. The clouds cleared out and left clear skies for sunset. The visibility over the ocean was excellent all day. The highest air temperature that I saw was 76°F. The air temperature stayed in the high 70s for the first five hours of the afternoon. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 80°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 77°F (with a low of 56°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 75°F (with a low of 60°F).
I had a few things I needed to straighten out at the restaurant this morning after Gill and I dropped the Bunny Clark truck off in her preferred parking space. So this update was posted later than I wanted.
At 2:00 PM, I hosted Captain Ian Keniston's family; father, wife, son, daughter, brother, best friend, etc. to spread the last of Ian's ashes at sea. The first half was spread at sea on a fishing area that he enjoyed taking his patrons. His request. That was on June 11th, his birthday, with his son, Ryan, doing the honors. Today it was his daughter, Deanna's, turn to speak and spread the last of my good friend and the Bunny Clark's best captain. It was a somber affair, of course. But it was also nice to see the unity and the people I have come to respect and enjoy from Ian's life with us. I will see some of the others again. I may never see some of them. The whole procedure took an hour. I was more than happy to do this. But I was really sad that a life of such importance in my life had to be taken at such an early age.
I spent the rest of the day at the restaurants. I left to go back home after 8:00 PM.
We had no wind all day today except in showers between 2:00 and 3:30 PM. The sky was clear all morning and until 1:45 PM. The clouds moved in quickly. We had thunder and lightning. But nothing was close. We got fifteen or twenty knots of wind that came just before and during the early part of the rain. After 4:00 PM, the sky became clear again and stayed clear through the night. The wind died to nothing for the rest of the day. The ocean along the shore was flat calm until nearly 2:00 PM and flat calm again from 4:00 PM through the night. The visibility was excellent, except in the rain. The highest air temperature that I saw today was 77°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 83°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 53°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 75°F (with a low of 56°F).
Today was an excellent day to get a few things done including replacing a toilet in our house. I didn't do it. We had a plumber come to do this on a Sunday. Great guy and wonderful service. So I was mostly consumed with getting that done.
The restaurants were busy for lunch. It was fun talking all our patrons. Marty McLaughlin's family were eating there today. Marty's son, Tyler, owns and runs the Pinwheel, a tuna boat that was featured many times on Wicked Tuna. He was not there today. He was harpoon tuna fishing. However, Marty's daughter, Marissa, who has been Tyler's deck hand for long spells, was at the restaurant. At one point she face-timed her brother, Tyler, and brought the phone out to the deck to find me so that I could talk to him. So, in fact, I did see the whole family. By the way, Tyler was the best tuna fisherman on that show. Ah, the fun things I get into while working!
Danny DellaMonica worked on the Bunny Clark installing a new fire extinguisher bracket.
At 6:00 PM, I enjoyed a father's day dinner with my daughter, Halley's, family and my son, Micah's, family. We ate at Etc., of course. It was a wonderful evening only marred by my calling our server, Margaret, by the name Martha, twice! Was my mind drifting toward fishing and thinking of Martha at Surfland? Maybe. It's hard to know the direction my brain is taking from time to time.
The sky stayed clear for most of the morning. Near the later stages, an even cloudiness started to creep in. It was so subtle, that I didn't even know the sun was gone. The cloud cover go more dense, the day got darker. The rain showed up just after 3:00 PM. It started as a very light rain. It was light enough so that I could get on the scooter and get home before I got wet. [I always take a nap around 3:00 PM, if I am working in the restaurant - and it's a normal day without meetings or the like.] The visibility deteriorated gradually as well. By 4:00 PM, the visibility was good with a range of no more than five miles over the ocean. There was no wind until noon. Before noon, the ocean was flat calm. A light southeast wind was established after noon. But it was barely out of the southeast. We never had a wind speed over eight knots until at least 5:00 PM. The air temperature looked like it was going to rise. And it did. But when the little bit of wind did show up, the air temperature dropped. I saw a value of 76°F at 11:30 AM. By 1:00 PM, the air temperature had dropped to 71°. It continued to drop from there. The rain didn't help. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 73°F (with a low of 60°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 53°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 73°F (with a low of 55°F).
I spent the whole morning working on Bunny Clark stuff. I had ordered engine lube oil and lube oil filters from Power Products in Portland on Friday. So after I posted this report, I headed to Portland with the truck to pick it all up. I took Gill, our border collie, with me. He really enjoys going for a ride. And its easy on his legs. I always let him roam when we get to our destination.
Whe we got back, I had to stow everything. From there I went to the Cove to work on the engine. I had a couple sacrificial anodes I had to replace. I also had an oil leak that I have had for a while that's getting worse and needs to be pinpointed. I acknowledged that as well. I also had some cleaning to do in the engine room. I was done by 11:00 AM and had just time enough to take a shower and get dressed for the restaurant.
We had a very good lunch, despite the fact that it was a Monday in June. Rick Dolliver, owner and President of That Place, a popular restaurant just up the street, and my sister, Cathy's, second favorite restaurant, was renewing his vows with wife, Boriana, in our flower garden between our two restaurants. Rick has just ended his term with the Select Board of the Town of Ogunquit. He and I worked closely as he was the liaison between the Harbor Committee, which I chair, and the Board. He had asked me if he could use the garden for this purpose but wanted to keep it a secret from his beautiful wife. I think he pulled it off. But I did wonder if she felt this might be the opportunity to say "no" this time. Ahhhh, not a chance. Rick is doing well. And I'm very happy for him. He has a wonderful establishment and is loving life. But he has worked hard for it.
After the service, Rick and some of his guests stopped at Barnacle Billy's for a light bite and drinks. It was nice to see everyone.
When I came back to the restaurant, it was to have the last meal with my daughter's family before they leave to go back to New Jersey tomorrow morning. I'll be headed offshore before they get up.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 58°F, the sky was overcast, it was raining but had been raining harder since before midnight, the wind wasn't strong enough in Perkins Cove to lift a wet flag and the visibility over the ocean was barely good in precipitation, mist, haze and some fog.
It rained, mostly hard, from the time I got up in the morning, all through boat preparations and on our way down the channel to the gate. I was surprised to see the ocean as rough as it was, after being in Perkins Cove for the couple hours it took to get ready. And it wasn't very windy. But it must have been windy during the night and early morning as we had a four foot short swell under at two foot chop. I started out at a cruising speed of twelve knots, only to back it off to ten knots at the eight mile mark. We went through, mostly, heavy rain all the way to our destination. The air temperature stayed at 62°F the whole way. The surface water temperature hung around 55°F the whole ride as well The visibility ranged from good to fair to poor, depending on the rainfall amounts in each small system. We never saw clear sky.
On the fishing grounds, the wind was light from the southeast. Seas were sharp swells of four feet, more or less, with a left over two foot chop mixed in. The sea conditions were sloppy at best. The highest air temperature that I saw was 63°F just before we packed it in to head home. The tide (current) was very strong, too strong. Our third stop was a drift stop where I clocked our drifting speed from between 1.5 to 1.7 knots. It's the most tide I have seen out here in two years. The visibility ranged from a mile in rain to over twenty-five miles on our last fishing stop of the day. It rained all morning, sometimes hard. We did have some light rain in the early afternoon. But no rain after 1:00 PM. The highest surface water temperature that I saw was 56°F. The seas died down all day until the last stop where we didn't have a breath of wind and the ocean was glassy slick calm. At the same time there was a one to two foot small roll (left over chops) over a three foot long swell.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 72°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 71°F (with a low of 62°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 59°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 57°F).
The fishing was fair at best. The current was way too strong to tend the bottom appropriately, the rain was a pain in the ass most of the day and the sea conditions took too many anglers out of the fishing with the dreaded mal de mer! The catching was fair to good but with mostly sub-legal cod, pollock and haddock. Legal landings were fair at best. Legal landings included sixteen cusk, thirty-one haddock, six pollock, two redfish and about seventy mackerel. Released fish included three cod over 5.5 pounds, thirty-seven small cod, twenty sub-legal haddock, fifty-three small pollock, our first dogfish of the season, a small wolffish, a couple sculpins and forty-five mackerel. We anchored for most of the day, drifting for the last two stops. Bait worked best.
I was disappointed in what I found with the choices of fishing areas we visited. I expected more. But we did see a lot of fish, particularly where we first started. It was so difficult to fish with the tide as strong as it was. But, on top of that, there was no bite. What I expected for weather today was not nearly what we got. And it wasn't conducive to fishing where we did fish. With the weather of my choice I would go back there again.
Fred Kunz (NH) was high hook with the most legal fish, a count of thirteen fish. His haddock count was eleven, including the sub-legal haddock. His largest fish was a 5.25 pound cod, the third largest fish of the trip. He also caught the largest haddock weighing exactly 5 pounds. Troy Boyd (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 7.5 pound wolffish. Levi Laflamme (ME) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 6.5 pound cod. Levi was hurling in a little white bucket the whole ride out, was horizontal all morning but recovered in the afternoon. I don't think he was fishing for five minutes when he hooked into that 6.5 pound cod.
Other Angler Highlights: Steve "the [Lake] Sunapee Assasin" McGrath (NH) caught the first dogfish of the Bunny Clark fishing season today. Even Captain McGrath was under the weather for the ride out. But he recovered nicely once we got to the fishing grounds, even taking a trick at the helm while I took a nature break. Steve Zimmer, excellent fisherman that he is, had the most tangles today. So you can see that it was a strange day. Steve usually does pretty well staying away from tangles. Even Darlene Chin (MA) had the worst trip she has had with me in two years! Ouch! She might have caught the most small cod.
I received two donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge. Captain Steve McGrath donated $60.00 while Troy Boyd donated $20.00. Thank you both so very much for the support. I very much appreciate it. Steve has supported me in this endeavor since I started doing it in 2007. This is a special thing, like Steve himself!
It was a peach of a day today, what my father would have called a "111". The ocean along the shore was flat calm with a west northwest wind of about five knots to start, westerly wind of about eight knots and, then, a northwest wind of ten to fifteen knots from about noon until 4:00 PM. The wind reached off about a mile or two. I didn't look to see what the wind and it's direction was from the weather buoys. The visibility was excellent all day. The sky was clear with few clouds. The air temperature reached a high of 81°F, that I saw. It was a dry heat. So it felt wonderful, particularly with the breeze. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 83°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 81°F (with a low of 54°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 81°F (with a low of 60°F).
Since we didn't do as well in the fishing department as I had hoped yesterday, I had less to write about this morning. Actually, it was so nice on the way home from the fishing grounds yesterday, I did ninety percent of the work on my laptop before we got to Perkins Cove. This saved me a pile of time this morning.
I went in to work early as well. I had a few issues I needed to solve before we got too busy with customers. I was able to resolve those easily. The rest of the day I spent talking to restaurant patrons and working in the office. With a day on the boat, I get behind.
I was done at 5:00 PM with restaurant chores. I spent the rest of the time working on the Bunny Clark to prepare her for sailing and organizing myself at home for the trip.
I prepared myself some fluke that Fred Kunz had brought me on Tuesday. I had it with capers, lemon, butter and pieces of lobster tail. It was delicious. Deb actually did all the work the night before. I just added the lobster tail to it and heated it up.
At 1:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 64°F, the sky was clear, the wind was light out of the southwest and the visibility over the ocean was very good in some haze.
I can't tell you how nice it felt sailing down the channel out of Perkins Cove, knowing that it was going to be a very calm ride to the fishing grounds. And it was! The whole way. We had light westerly winds, turning to west southwest winds the whole way. We might have had a half foot to a foot of waves, not sharp enough to be called a chop. The sky was clear with few clouds. The air temperature was 61°F at the gate. We carried 64°F almost all the way to our destination. We saw a water temperature of 59°F at the gate but carried, mostly, a 55°F water temperature for most of the ride. The visibility was excellent. The Bunny remained as stable as a van on land.
On the fishing grounds, the wind was light out of the southwest for the whole time while fishing. Seas were small waves over a long rolling sea swell of about three or four feet. The swells were so far apart you could hardly tell that there was a swell. The wind backed out of the south just as we hauled the anchor on the last spot to leave. We carried light southerly winds all the way home. The air temperature got as high as 74°F. The visibility ranged to over thirty miles. The sky was mostly clear with some ragged thin clouds here and there. The tide (current) was strong but not nearly as strong as it was on Tuesday. The surface water temperature reached a high of 61.6°F, the highest surface water temperature we have seen on the fishing grounds this year to date.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 82°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 80°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of 53°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 80°F (with a low of 59°F).
The fishing was excellent on the first stop but only good to very good for the rest of the trip. The tide was just too strong after that. The anglers could handle it, no problem. But the bite dropped off dramatically after the tide picked up. The catching was very good, bordering on excellent. Landings were good, much better than Tuesday but not as good as Fred or I wanted it to be. It looked like it was going to be excellent during the first hour of fishing. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far. Legal landings also included thirty-three cusk, forty-seven pollock, nine redfish and two whiting. Released fish included forty-four small cod, three cod over 6 pounds, fourteen cusk, three sub-legal haddock, nine small pollock and eighteen dogfish. We alternated between drifting and anchoring. Each method had it's time. All terminal gear had it's time but bait worked best overall.
I believe that Mark Girard (NH) was high hook with the most legal fish. This is value judgement on my part with consultation with Danny and input from customers, Jim Feeney for one. Jim Feeney (MA) and Fred Kunz (NH) were close or, could have been, high hook. Fred has a dead accurate count of his legal fish. But no one else does. Steve LaPlante (CT) and Steve Selmer (NH), both fishing in the bow, were close as well. Mark won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 13.5 pound Maine state trophy cusk. This is the Bunny Clark's largest cusk of the fishing season to date and might be Mark's largest cusk ever. I took a picture of Mark holding his prize cusk. This digital image appears on the left. Mark caught the first haddock big enough to weigh. It was 5.5 pounds. He also caught the first weighable pollock at 5 pounds.
Dick Lyle (NY) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 28 pound cod, the last fish caught today. This is the Bunny Clark's largest cod of the fishing season so far. It's also the largest cod we have seen caught since Lewis Hazelwood (MA) caught a 30.5 pound cod on October 14, 2021! A bigger description of Dick and cod in general appears on the index page right now along with the picture I took of him before he released the fish alive. Dick has been one of my best anglers in the history of the Bunny Clark and one of our best cod fishermen of all time. It didn't surprise me that he was the one to catch the big cod. I was just glad I was here today to see it!
The third largest fish was a 13 pound Maine state trophy cusk caught by Steve LaPlante. This cusk is the Bunny Clark's second largest cusk of the fishing season to date. He also caught the largest haddock of the day, a Maine state trophy of 7.5 pounds. I took a picture of Steve holding up his prize haddock. This digital image appears on the right. Steve always catches something special that I can write about.
Other Angler Highlights: Fred Kunz (NH) caught an 8.75 pound cusk. At the time, it was the third largest fish. His total legal fish count was twenty-seven. Steve Selmer caught the second largest cod at 12.75 pounds. This is also the second largest cod caught on the Bunny Clark this season so far. He had the most haddock today with a count of twelve legal. Jim Feeney caught the most cusk doubles. I believe that he had four.
I received several donations today sponsoring me in my cancer fundraising drive with the Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event to raise money to support a team of scientists who specialize in genetic profiling. These donors and their donations included Dave Burton (MA) for $75.00, Jim & Angela Feeney for a very generous $200.00, Augie Nigro (MA) for $50.00, Mark Girard for a generous $100.00, Ledgy Mitchell (NH) for a very generous $250.00 and Dick Lyle for a generous $100.00. Thank you all so very very much for the support and your generosity. It means so much to so many. And I certainly appreciate it.
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 62°F, the sky was overcast, it had been raining lightly since 4:15 AM, there wasn't a breath of wind, the ocean along the shore was calm and the visibility over it was very good at least.
It rained for a good part of the morning but it was intermittent and light. The roads stayed wet for all of the morning until around 10:00 AM. The sky was overcast all morning and into the afternoon with a peek at the sun late in the day. The visibility was good to very good. The wind was light all day with every variation from the east including northeast, east northeast, southeast, east southeast, etc. The wind speed never got as high as ten knots. Maybe not even eight knots. The air temperature never got any higher than 73°F, that I saw. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 77°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 76°F (with a low of 61°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 71°F (with a low of 60°F).
Again, Friday is my day to open the restaurants. I was there at 4:30 AM with our dog, Gill. Gill is maintaining but not doing great overall. He spent the morning down there with me. I was on the second floor of Billy's, Original, putting frozen lemonade away when I felt a presence behind me. It was Gill. Gill's back legs do not support him going up wooden stairs like the ones we have at Billy's. But I didn't even hear him com up the stairs. And, thankfully, he didn't get half way up and fall down them. But getting down stairs is impossible for him. To get him back down stairs I use the wheel barrel procedure, straddling him from behind, holding his back legs up (and the weight of his body) as he uses his front legs to maintain a balance of sorts.
When I got home, I finished this report and posted it.
I was scheduled for an MRI in the afternoon at Portsmouth Hospital. They suggested I take something for claustrophobia so I got a prescription for Xanax. That did the trick. But Deb had to drive me there and drive me back home. Once I got home, I was completely out of it tired. I was still tired from yesterday's trip. But the drug took me by surprise. I laid down on the bed and fell fast asleep until 6:00 PM. I barely had enough time to get in two hours at the restaurant.
My son, Micah, got his first bluefin tuna of the year yesterday. I didn't want to write about it yesterday as I had too much of our own fishing to write about. He spotted a bunch of jumpers (bluefins busting on the surface) and went over to investigate. His deck hand, Gus, saw the fish in the water swimming along and put Micah right up on the fish to harpoon it. He doesn't have an electric harpoon so he put a flag buoy out on it and stayed consumed with getting that fish. It was 107" long. A new, very thin, fish. Gus took a picture of him just after they got the fish in the boat. This digital image appears on the left. Micah can be seen on the far left, his second deck hand, Greyson Gaines, can be seen on the right. Greyson works as a deck hand for one of Ogunquit's best lobstermen in Perkins Cove. I was very happy for them all, particularly Micah. He only gets one day off a week. If that day isn't conducive to harpooning tuna, he doesn't get to go. There was a time, growing up, where that was all I lived for, harpooning tuna.
The air temperature was perfect today. A little on the cool side at times for those sitting on the garden patio at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. But perfect on the deck at Billy's. We had fog all day. But it left the shoreline by later morning. It could be seen a mile or two offshore, as a bank, all day. We had clear sky when the fog bank moved off. We also had some clouds in the afternoon. The wind blew out of the south or southeast all day. I never did see any wind over six knots. The visibility over the ocean remained fair to poor, depending on where the fog bank settled in. The highest air temperature that I saw was 73°F. These lower air temperatures were a result of the wind direction on shore and the fog bank so close to the shore. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 72°F (with a low of 61°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 82°F (with a low of 60°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 74°F (with a low of 60°F).
The day centered around the restaurants. It was a good day.
Several tuna boats left today. Only one got a fish.
The fog stayed offshore all day and into the night according to the local tuna fishermen I talked to. By 12:30 PM, the fog had moved off far enough to give boaters within a mile of shore good visibility. The sky was cloudless all day and probably all morning as the fog was preventing us from seeing it, when the fog was ashore. There was no wind to speak of today. The wind twenty miles and further was out of the south at almost ten knots. Along the shore in front of Perkins Cove, the ocean was calm all day. The air temperature today was perfect, the high that I saw was 77°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 75°F (with a low of 61°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 86°F (with a low of 59°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 79°F (with a low of 58°F).
With the fog rolling in and out in the morning and, then, releasing us from it's grip, we had a coolish morning and a warm, but not too warm, afternoon. It was beautiful in Perkins Cove today. I don't believe that anyone captured a bluefin tuna today. But I will find out more tomorrow. It was also and uneventful business day, with things running smoothly throughout. It was also a day where Canada made their way into the group of sixteen in the World Cup, a feat never attained by the Canadians. And it was done in spectacular fashion with a goal attained in the first minute of extra time at the very end of the game after the score of 0 - 0 over ninety minutes of playing time. Although I didn't have time to watch the game, I did see parts of it in the lounge at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. I missed the game winning goal.
It was an absolutely beautiful day today. There was no wind to speak of and the air temperature was perfect. The wind was light north northwest in the morning and early afternoon, southerly later in the afternoon. The ocean along the shore was calm all day. The visibility was very good to excellent with no sign of fog. The air temperature must have reached 80°F today but the highest air temperature that I saw was 78°F around noon. I never looked at the thermometer again. The air temperature in Portsmouth, New Hampshire reached 79°F. There was no humidity today. At 5:30 PM, at the house, it was 74°F. The sky was clear with few clouds. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 78°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 86°F (with a low of 57°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 80°F (with a low of 59°F).
I didn't get any prep work on the boat done until today. So about two hours was spent on that. Most of the time was spent at the restaurants. It was such a beautiful day. Both the deck at Barnacle Billy's and the garden patio at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. was full. Everyone was delighted to be here today.
I was able to get a run on the beach today early. I'm slower than death right now. Where did that come from? You would think, at 75 years old, I could at least do a 7 minute mile. But, no, 8:30 pace was the best I could do. Then I come back and find out that two of my favorite take-out girls ran seven miles this morning at a 7:45 minute pace. And they thought that was slow! Ouch!
We are going to be tearing up our driveway at home and running a new sewer and water line. So I was on the phone for quite a while with that. I also worked on this website, adding new digital images and cleaning it up a bit. All that I did for the boat and the business and the running was all done before I went to work at the restaurant at noon.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 63°F, the sky was clear with a full moon hanging above the southeastern horizon, there was no wind ashore but the Portland Lightship buoy was reporting southwest winds of five to eight knots and the visibility over the ocean was excellent.
The ocean was calm as we went through the gate on the way to the fishing grounds. The visibility was excellent and the sky was clear with a full moon over my right shoulder. The air temperature was 61°F. The air temperature rose to 64°F once we got a little ways out. We carried this air temperature all the way to the fishing grounds. The wind remained light from the west southwest. The ocean remained calm. The surface water temperature stayed at 63°F until our destination.
On the fishing grounds, the wind stayed out of the west southwest for most of the day. Wind speeds were about three knots until about noon. The wind was southwest at that time and increased to about ten knots or more in the next two hours. The last of it saw fifteen or more knots of south southwest wind which we carried home. Seas got up to three feet in chops. The air temperature reached a high of 74°F. The tide (current) was strong all day but stronger at the end of the trip. The visibility ranged to fifteen miles in some haze. The sky was milky clear. The surface water temperature rose to a value of 64°F.
. Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 83°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 89°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 88°F (with a low of 57°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 80°F (with a low of 59°F).
The fishing was tough. We had a very strong current that made it so difficult to drift that we had to anchor. On anchor we were held captive by dogfish. It wasn't horrible with dogs but it was enough that you couldn't stay anchored too long or that was all you caught. The catching was very good if you included the dogfish, the short fish and the legal fish. Landings were good at best. Most legal fish landed were pollock. Legal fish landed also included forty-one cusk, forty-one haddock, three mackerel, one redfish and three whiting. Released fish included thirty-two small cod, three cod over 6 pounds, three sub-legal haddock, probably more than eighty-two small pollock, over fifty-eight dogfish (I might be a little light on that total) and a huge wolffish. We drift fished and anchored. Cod flies caught the most fish.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook with the most legal fish. It could have been any number of anglers including Fred Kunz (NH), Chris Albert (ME) and Matt Luce (ME). Matt should have won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a wolffish that looked to be over 20 pounds. He brought it up to the side of the boat. But it was barely hooked and came off the hook after everyone got a good look at the fish. It would have been the Bunny Clark's largest wolffish of the season and it was Matt's largest wolffish ever. He had taken three trips with me this season and has caught a wolffish on every one! Had he won the boat pool today it would have been his third in a row, all with wolffish! His two biggest fish included a 6 pound cusk and a 7 pound cusk.
Rick Gurney (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest weighed fish, a 12 pound cod. This is the Bunny Clark's third largest cod of the fishing season to date. Rick also caught today's third largest cod at 6.75 pounds. Don Cheney (NY) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest weighed fish, an 8.25 pound cod.
Other Angler Highlights:Brian Robinson (NH) caught the first fish I could weigh to start off the boat pool, a 6 pound cusk. Fred Kunz caught a 6.5 pound cusk right after that. Evan Vidas (ME) caught one of the bigger pollock at 6 pounds. Art Kemler, Jr. (PA), the self-professed king of the dogfish, caught a 7 pound cusk. He also claims to have caught over eighteen dogfish. McKenzie Vidas (ME) landed a 6 pound cusk, her largest fish.
I received a $30.00 donation from Ron Covey (VT) sponsoring in the cancer cycling event for cancer research called the Pan-Mass Challenge. I plan to ride in this event on August 1st this year with my long time riding buddy, Hez Haseltine. Thank you, Ron, for your support and thoughtfulness. It means more to me than support. It's also a kindness I have found in so many people over the twenty years that I have been involved. Thanks again!
The wind never did get very strong today, not nearly as strong as we had it. There wasn't a breath of wind at 9:00 AM. The ocean at that time was flat calm along the shore. Even after noon there was only a very light southerly breeze with a calm ocean in front of Perkins Cove. By 5:00 PM, the southerly breeze was approaching ten knots. It never got there. The wind was very light from the south going into sunset. The visibility was poor going into the morning with the fog but that cleared by 10:00 AM. The visibility over the ocean remained good in haze. The sky was clear with high thin clouds giving the day a softer lighting than normal but typical of warmer weather. The air temperature did get warm. At about 3:00 PM it was as hot as it was going to get or 90°F. But that only lasted for about an hour. Before and after that it was 85 to 87°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 92°F (with a low of 71°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 95°F (with a low of 69°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 87°F (with a low of 67°F).
I went down to the Cove early today as I had planned to go to Kennebunkport to meet friends to watch England play D. R. Congo in the World Cup. I started out on my scooter but, before I got to three miles out, the speed started to waver and blue smoke was coming out the exhaust pipe. So I flipped it and headed back to Perkins Cove. I don't have time enough to break down fifteen miles from home. So I ended up working at the restaurant and taking my lunch break watching the game in the lounge at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. That's all the time off I took today.
The rest of the day was spent getting me ready for the fishing trip tomorrow, working at the restaurant with the patrons and catching up in the office.
I also had to run off to pick up some signs and bumper stickers that were ready.
It was also a hard day for Gill. I took him down in the truck at 5:00 AM this morning. But it was a bit harder for him to get home. It was a four bone morning. That's how many milk bones it took to get him back up the hill to the house. He seemed very intent and happy to be with me. But his back legs struggled. So far so good. It was much too hot to walk him down to the Cove to get the truck in the end. He wanted to go but he would not have liked the hot tar on the way down.
At 2:30 AM EDT the air temperature was 78°F (80°F on the Bunny Clark), the sky was overcast, it was raining, thunder and lightning was happening to the south of us in the town of York, the wind was blowing out of the south southwest at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was very good even in the precipitation.
When we popped our nose through the gate, the showers, thunder and lightning had long since passed. The ocean was calm with very little wind. A little further out, you could see the sky was clearing but it was still overcast overhead. The sky was clear by the time we reached our destination. The air temperature just outside the Cove was 76°F. The water temperature at the same time was 54°F. That was the lowest water temperature we would see today. Like Tuesday,the surface water temperature stayed at 64°F for almost the whole ride. The visibility was very good. Seas were a foot or two in chops under a wind out of the west at eight to ten knots. There was also a two or three foot long southeast swell.
On the fishing grounds, the wind stayed out of the west almost all day. Wind speeds started at ten knots but dropped to just about nothing before mid-day, hauling out of the west southwest. Seas were chops of about two feet to less than a foot. We carried westerly winds almost all the ride home. Seas were a couple feet in chops. The air temperature reached a high of 72°F. The tide (current) was light to moderate. The sky was hazy clear. The visibility ranged to twenty miles in some haze. The surface water temperature reached a high of 64.5°F.
. Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 96°F. Fishermen in the Cove called the heat oppressive. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 101°F (with a low of 78°F). The high air temperature of 101°F recorded in Boston today breaks the previous record high temperature for this date of 98°F, last set in 1963. The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 97°F (with a low of 71°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 96°F (with a low of 73°F).
The fishing was excellent, the catching was excellent and landings were nearly so, the best day we have had in two weeks. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. In fact, the pollock were so savage, we hardly caught the numbers of dogfish, haddock or cusk. The second most prevalent species was haddock. Legal landings also included eleven cusk, four redfish and nine mackerel. Released fish included forty-one small cod, three cod of 6 pounds or more, three sub-legal haddock, sixty-three small pollock, thirty-six dogfish, a wolffish and a couple mackerel. We also saw several and lost one blue shark. And we lost what seemed like a porbeagle shark that jumped like a great white? Weird. We drift fished all day. The drift was perfect. It's the first trip of the year where we didn't use the anchor. Jigs and cod flies caught the most fish.
Art Kemler, Jr. (PA) was high hook with the most legal fish, one of the highest counts of the year. Four of these fish were haddock, a few cusk (five) and mostly pollock, of course. His largest fish was a wolffish that weighed 10 pounds. Jeff Corey (MA) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 13 pound pollock. This is the Bunny Clark's second largest pollock of the fishing season so far. Marc Riendeau (VT) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 12 pound pollock. This is the Bunny Clark's fourth largest pollock of the fishing season so far. The third largest fish was an 11 pound cod caught by Ben Heath (VT). This is the Bunny Clark's sixth largest cod of the season so far.
Other Angler Highlights: Phil Devereaux (MA) caught the first fish I could weigh for the boat pool, a 5.5 pound pollock. He also caught a 6 pound pollock right afterward. His largest fish was an 8 pound pollock. He caught six legal haddock to 4 pounds. Nick Dulac (VT) caught the second fish I could weigh for a boat pool, a 5 pound pollock. After a while I didn't weigh any pollock unless they were over 8 pounds. Grant Reed (VT) caught a lot of fish, probably the second most visual angler behind Art fishing in the stern and Jeff Corey and Nick Longo, who were fishing from the bow. It seemed that Grant had a fish on every time I looked at him. He caught a nice sized haddock I didn't weigh. His largest fish was a 6.75 pound pollock. Fred Graves (VT) caught a 10 pound pollock, his best fish. Mike Perry (NH) landed a 10.15 pound pollock.
Jeff Corey did me a solid today by sponsoring me, for the third time (fourth?) this year, in my cancer research fundraising event called the Pan-Mass Challenge today. His donation was $50.00, significant if you consider all the other donations he has pushed my way this season. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it very much. And it's such a compliment to me that you fish with us so often.
The air temperature seemed slow to warm today. And, to me, it never really got hot. Or, at least, it didn't seem hot in Perkins Cove. There was a warm westerly breeze blowing most of the day that helped if you were in the shade outside. If you were in the sun, I'm sure it was hot. And I didn't stay there at all today. The highest air temperature that I saw was 94°F. Like I wrote, the wind blew out of the west at light speeds all day on the ocean but to ten knots on land, which helped. I did see that, at the Portland Lightship buoy, the wind blew out of the southwest to more than ten knots at times. We didn't see that here. In fact, the ocean along the shore was calm here. The visibility was very good, at least, all day. The was devoid of clouds. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 100°F (with a low of 82°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 95°F (with a low of 74F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 93°F (with a low of 72°F).
I look at my Fridays as my "picking up the pieces day". I'm a bit shattered after the two fishing trips, the constant exercise I do, my work at the restaurants and trying to find time to sleep. As always, I open up the restaurant on Friday mornings. So I am there at 4:30 AM before the night cleaning crew leaves. So I get to talk to them and make sure they are doing okay. It's important to me that they are enjoying what they are doing and feeling appreciated. I appreciate all who work for me. They all, to a person, make me look good to all my customers. That includes Danny on the Bunny Clark and everyone who works for me at the restaurants. When talking to customers at tables in the restaurants, I never take credit for most of what happens. There is always some employee who I can point out who was responsible for any certain thing we are talking about. It's nice. And it certainly allows me to more enjoy what I do.
So I was there until around 9:30 AM. We are bringing in soft shell lobsters today. So I had to wait to grade them. I had already asked the crew from Etc to transfer all the lobsters out of the halves tank to the tank there so that all the halves in the tank at Billy's were all new shell halves. I love new shell season. The meat is sweet like a nut and so much more tender. The problem with soft shells is that you end up paying for about twenty-five percent water as the meat is growing into the new shell. The harder the shell, the more lobster meat is available in the animal.
When I got home I had time enough to jump on the fluid trainer for forty-five minutes before I showered and changed to go down to the restaurant. From noon until 6:00 PM, I worked at the restaurant. Fridays are my early night out. And the timing was perfect, as I was able to eat dinner and watch the Cape Verde/Agentina World Cup game. I was sorry Cape Verde didn't win that game. I love Messi and all but it would have been a better story if a small island team ranked 67th in the world beat the reigning world champions at their own game. England could take a lesson from the way Cape Verde defended today. It was remarkable. But Cape Verde are now out of the World Cup for another four years, at least.
It was another hot one again today with a west northwest wind blowing lightly for most of the day. It seemed more humid to me today. But I never saw the air temperature reach the 90°F mark, just under it. I was busy so I could have easily missed it. Offshore a bit, the wind was out of the southwest to less than ten knots. We never saw this on the coast. The sky stayed clear, clouded up a bit and then cleared. It looked like it might rain after noon. But it never did. And the clouds cleared away before the threat became eminent. The visibility over the ocean seemed very good with some haze. In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 89°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 94°F (with a low of 80°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 90°F (with a low of 65°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 89°F (with a low of 67°F).
It was a very busy day for me. Business, itself, was a little off. But I had a million things to do, which, to my surprise, I completed. I finally got to have lunch around 2:00 PM, after never having talked to but a couple of patrons before it. Lots of fires to put out an situations to work out. Just one of those days. I did go home to lay on my back for an hour. But I was right back at it as soon as that was over. And, for the rest of afternoon and night, I concentrated on talking to customers.
At times, over the years, I have taken the Bunny Clark out, anchoring off the beach, with local friends, to watch the fireworks. Last year didn't pose an opportunity to do so. Today, we really couldn't because of Gill, our border collie. He is very afraid of the fireworks. We couldn't just leave him home while we treated our friends to the fireworks. So we planned to get to bed early, turn on the air conditioner, new only two days ago, turn on the ceiling fan and keep Gill with us in the bedroom. The meat of the plan was to let the noise of the air conditioner and the fan overpower the sound of the fireworks. And, by God, it worked! The dog laid down in peace and didn't even blink, even though I could hear them exploding in the background. It's funny that I was more nerved up about Gill's reaction to them so that I didn't sleep until it was all over. But Gill didn't flinch. It might have worked before had we tried it. But Gill is much more fragile now in is older age. So this was good. We didn't really miss the fireworks as we have seen them so many times. I did miss seeing the fireworks crowd who we have enjoyed taking in the past.
I received a $75.00 donation from Bill & Marie Pimley (ME) sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge, supporting cancer research, yesterday. They made this donation in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site with the note: "Good luck!!!" Thank you both so very much for your support and thoughtfulness. I do appreciate this very much!
Today was what my father would have called a "111" day. It will go down as the best weather day of the summer. I don't see how it could be any better. The ocean was flat calm all morning. After noon, a light southwest wind of, no more than, eight knots kicked in. This along with a high air temperature, that I saw, of 81°F, made sitting outside on the patio a very pleasant time indeed. The sky was clear all day. The visibility was very good. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 79°F (with a low of 69°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 85°F (with a low of 57°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 83°F (with a low of 61°F).
I spent the day working around the restaurant. There wasn't anything worth noting except how smooth everything went today.
I was also planning a big trip on Tuesday that I am going to have to cancel due to the weather report offshore. Conditions have to be right in order to fish where I fish on Tuesday. The weather for the next three days is not going to be the best.
The clouds hung around for most of the morning but it didn't rain, except for minor spitting rain that didn't even get the roads wet. After noon the clouds started to clear, did clear and became sunny. The wind, technically, blew out of the south today. But there was so little wind, the ocean along the shore stayed calm all day and through the night. The visibility was good to very good in some haze. The air temperature was perfect with a high, that I saw, of only 76°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 73°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 78°F (with a low of 61°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 74°F (with a low of 61°F).
The hardest thing for me to do today was calling anglers to cancel my favorite trip of the season, due to leave this evening. This is a long offshore trip invitational which is part discovery while also utilizing some of my best spots that I use so infrequently that they can by really productive. The problem today was that these spots, with the wind expected, would not be. The wind was going to be too strong, although not dangerously strong, with the worst direction for a bite. And I didn't want to try it if everyone was going to be uncomfortable while also knowing that the prospects for catching fish was slim. Plus, the wind was expected to be strong from the same direction for at least another full twenty-four hours. Twenty knots of easterly wind was expected, with higher gusts, by the National Weather Service and me. And it was supposed to rain. Uncomfortable conditions, rain, no calm periods expected at any time during the trip and a bad bite. This combination features made me cancel it.
The good news was that I was able to work with my favorite excavator, Tim Darling, who was rerouting our sewer system and water line. After which, we are going to have the driveway paved. So I was able to meet with Tim and our paver to go over the plan to get the job done. There were also several work items I wanted to finish before going into the restaurants at noon.
I made the mistake of watching the USA/Belgium World Cup game. This after President Trump called the President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, to tell him to rescind Folarin Balogun's red card which Balogun received in the last game. Balogun has been responsible for the US' goals in the World Cup. A red card, ordinarily, would have prevented Balogun from playing in this match. I think the US team was embarrassed with this. I think the Belgium team were energized by this. The result was a US team that played horribly and a Belgium team that took advantage of a lot of defensive mistakes and were energized by a political response from both our President and FIFA. I did watch the whole game which took me until 10:00 PM to finish. I wish I hadn't.
The sky remained overcast all day. We had a hint of rain every now and then but, really, just a hint. That was until 2:30 PM, when in started to rain and continued to rain until sunset. I never checked after that. It was a steady light rain. The wind blew out of the northeast at about fifteen knots, more or less, around Ogunquit along the shore. At the Portland Lightship buoy, wind speeds were twenty to thirty knots with seas to eight feet. Those wind and seas were the same or a big more from twenty miles offshore to Georges Bank. This was strictly and offshore event, except for the rain. Other places south of us got rain much earlier than we did. The highest air temperature that I saw was 69°F. Mostly, the air temperature was in the mid 60s. The visibility was good to very good over the ocean most of the day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 69°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 73°F (with a low of 61°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 72°F (with a low of 60°F).
I worked at the restaurants all day. It was remarkably busy for lunch, less so afterward.
Right around 1:00 PM, I had Matt, an excellent road tech from Atlantic Detroit Diesel, show up to chase down an oil leak that I could not find. I knew the general area of the leak and I suspected what it might be, I just didn't know the specific spot. He confirmed what I suspected and ordered the parts. The fix will happen in a couple of days. I'm finding that this company is very easy to work with.
The morning stayed fairly calm with the wind. There was a bit of a sea, showing up as larger waves rolling in on the beach. But they weren't big enough to be a surfer's dream. The ocean was calm along the shore all morning and almost all of the afternoon. The wind was light from the northwest to start, went calm and glassy around noon and, then, became light out of the south by mid afternoon. We never saw any wind as much as ten knots. We might have had eight knots at most. The visibility was very good to excellent. The sky was clear with few clouds. The air temperature was perfect, the highest that I saw was 78°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 77°F (with a low of 61°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 85°F (with a low of 60°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 77°F (with a low of 59°F).
I spent the morning working on Barnacle Billy's restaurant issues. I was lucky enough to get a seven mile run in early before all this happened. I was finished and settled when I had to have a doctor's visit to explain an MRI result. This and blood work took up all my time until 3:00 PM, when I was able to get to the restaurant while also getting the Bunny Clark ready to sail tomorrow. I met Danny DellaMonica down at the boat at 4:30 PM. He and I moved the boat, from the position on the dock it had been since the last trip, to it's regular position on the float for easier access tomorrow morning. I was back home by 5:30 PM.
I was also called for a random drug test. I got the notice at 11:00 AM this morning. So I have until 10:00 AM on Friday to get tested. I tried to get tested today but there were no options available after spending an hour working on it. I was able to get an appointment at 8:00 AM Friday.
Tomorrow's trip should be interesting. We are going to have another fairly windy day but it will be a fair wind. I would prefer fog and light southeast. But I will be happy just to get out there to look around. Six days away from the ocean is too much time away from the ocean.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 65°F, the sky was clear with a crescent moon hanging over the southeast horizon, the wind was blowing out of the west at six knots or more, just enough to raise a flag and the visibility over the ocean seemed excellent. More later.
As the Iran war continues, so does the increase in fuel prices. So I'm afraid we will have to ask for a fuel surcharge. If we go offshore, the price will start at $20.00, for the offshore trips. If we end up fishing closer to shore, I will refund $10.00 of it. I'm sorry I have to do this. And I hope you understand. Hopefully, these fuel prices will decrease so we can go
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