Bunny Clark Fishing Update
Written & Edited by Tim Tower
Thursday, July 23, 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 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.
Going through the gate I recorded an air temperature of 66°F and a surface water temperature of 63°F. We had light westerly winds all the way to the fishing grounds. Seas were a foot or less in chops. There was a time, about ten miles from our destination, where the wind was blowing about twelve knots and seas were a couple of feet. This disappeared at the end of the next five miles. This was probably an issue that had a lot to do with the tide. This was one trip offshore where we did see many tide rips in places. It was also a trip where we saw more weed lines than any trip before it this season. The sky was clear and the visibility was excellent.
On the fishing grounds, we had an air temperature of 70°F and a surface water temperature of 65°F to start. Both temperatures increased during the trip. The wind was out of the west at four or five knots or no wind at all. Seas were small waves over a long rolling sea swell of three feet. We carried these conditions all day long. The highest air temperature that I saw was 80°F, the warmest day that I have seen this year so far. The tide (current) was moderate. The visibility ranged to twenty miles. The sky remained mostly clear and sunny. The surface water temperature reached a high of 67.3°F.
We carried the westerly wind almost all the ride back to Perkins Cove. About ten miles from shore, the wind backed out of the southwest. Before we got back, we had southwest wind of ten to fifteen knots and seas approaching two feet in chops.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 92°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 93°F (with a low of 72°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 91°F (with a low of 61°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 90°F (with a low of 61°F).
The fishing was nearly excellent. I write this because the tide was a bit too strong to drift. Anchoring was perfect, however. The catching was excellent and landings were very good or, maybe, better than that. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. The average size was small, averaging about four to five pounds. Legal landings also included forty-nine haddock, thirty cusk, a redfish, a mackerel and a whiting. Released fish included thirteen small cod, a 7 pound cod, four sub-legal haddock, ninety-two small pollock, five dogfish and a wolffish. We saw no big sharks of any kind - which was odd since we saw so many sharks last time. We started by drifting but it was too quick for most to handle. So we anchored for the rest of the day. The catching was best on anchor. Cod flies and bait caught the most fish.
Jonah Rogers (ME) was high hook with the most legal fish. He was fishing in the Kunz/Kemler/Luce spot. It has that reputation. He had several pollock that weighed 7 pounds. Rodd Froebel, Sr. (NY) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 9.25 pound pollock. The second largest fish was an 8.75 pound pollock caught by Ateon Whitney (ME). He did not get in the boat pool. Roger Richards (ME) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the third largest fish, an 8.5 pound wolffish.
Other Angler Highlights: Jasper Downs (ME) caught a 7.25 pound pollock early in the trip. Aaron Swimline (NY) caught one of the bigger haddock weighing 5 pounds. Bill Estabrook (ME) caught the largest cod at 7 pounds.
I had to laugh when we got to the float and Danny was passing out of the bags of fillets. Some anglers had already told me that they had never caught so many fish in their lives. But, what they didn't realize was that Danny is as fast or nearly as fast as some of best deck hands I've had in the past. Danny starts filleting fish as soon as the first fish has been boated and bled out. He never stops. I tell people not to bother Danny as I work the deck. Sometimes, of course, he has to break away from the fillet table to help. But, usually, I can keep up with it unless there is some major tangle. So back to when Danny was passing the bags of fillets out at the dock, we had a few anglers who were stunned with the number of fillets that they were responsible for. That's what made me laugh. It's also another reason why I love a successful day.
It was another day of very little wind and a calm ocean out in front of Perkins Cove. The wind was variable in direction. The sky remained a mix of sun and clouds, almost overcast at one point. It even looked like it was going to rain. It never did. The later afternoon saw most of the clouds disappear. I did hear that it rained south of us in places. The visibility was very good. It seemed a bit humid. The highest air temperature, that I saw, was 85°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 89°F (with a low of 73°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 87°F (with a low of 61°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 86°F (with a low of 63°F).
It was another Friday where I had to be at the restaurants at 4:30 AM. I took Gill down in the truck with me, parked it in it's place at 5:00 AM after I opened the restaurants and got settled in and walked the dog home. His back legs are still giving him trouble but not so much that he can't walk home.
I did a little work when I went home but had to go back to the restaurants to work until 7:30 AM.
I was called for a random drug test during the late morning on Wednesday. I could not get an appointment then. But I could get one for 8:30 AM today. As the principle in this business, when I get notified, I have to get the test completed before the forty-eight hour mark. So I drove to Portsmouth to get the job done. I have to supply a urine sample. I was just barely able to do so. The person giving me the test was the daughter in law of one of my favorite fishermen in the early '70s, Bobby Littlefield out of Seabrook, New Hampshire. We fished along side of each other many times, mostly handline tuna fishing. He had a Cape Islander, a Canadian designed wooden fishing boat called the First Lady. He was a very good fisherman and lobstered mostly. I was running the Mary E. at the time, also a wooden boat but built by Arno Day. Bobby died suddenly of a heart attack in 2002. Anyway, it was nice to hear about Bobby again and to talk with her about the good old days.
The rest of the day I worked at the restaurants. It was a beautiful day to be eating on either patio.
I received two donations today funding my cancer project with the Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event fundraiser with the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. One was a $50.00 gift from Scott & Nancey Simpson (ME). The other was a very generous $250.00 donation from Jon & Fran Leavitt (NH), two wonderful people I have come to know and love from Barnacle Billy's restaurant. Thank you all so very much for the support you give me every year - and it has been since 2007 that they have sponsored me in this project. I so very much appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.
Today was, again, what my father would have called a "111", a perfect day in Ogunquit. The high air temperature was 78°F. Or, at least, this was what I saw. The humidity was very low. I was comfortable in my clothes. The wind was very light all day, the ocean along the shore was calm with wind ripples. First the wind blew lightly out of the north, this wind dropped out completely around noon and picked up again out of the south in the early afternoon. There was no wind speed over six knots that I could tell. The visibility seemed excellent. The sky was clear with some high whispy clouds all day. It was very tranquil. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 77°F (with a low of 69°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 83°F (with a low of 59°F).
I headed off for a six mile run at 10:00 AM thinking that I would probably be back in a mile with the heat. I started the run in an air temperature of 76°F and ended it with the same air temperature. It was perfect. I don't work very hard at running anymore. Long gone are the times when I come up behind a fellow runner and try to kick his ass. Now I look at the person ahead of me, judge his gate and imagine how I look in comparison. I just maintain my pace. I'm not sure if I will ever recover from puncturing both lungs in the cycling crash I took in early June of 2023. My breathing has never been as good as it was before the crash. But, then, I think; maybe I'm just dealing with the age card. Who knows. I'm just lucky I'm not doing the distance in a wheelchair.
The town was busy today with people. And when I included my 1.3 mile run on the beach, it was hard to run uninterrupted with so many people there. The restaurants were busy.
Danny DellaMonica stopped by to have a haddock chowder at Barnacle Billy's, Etc. He was sitting at the bar. I think he expected me to notice him right away. But, as I explained to him, the windows skirt the background when you are looking at the bar from the entrance to it. Everyone there is a silhouette. I can never tell who they are until I change me angle. It was the same with Danny. It was good to see him. He loves the haddock chowder. And he expects it to be the same every time. So do I. But I have to ask.
The wind blew out of the north or northeast at very light speeds, died out and, then, started blowing out of the south. The ocean seemed to have ruffled surface on it all day but it was flat. Indeed, there were no waves crashing on the beach, either on the sand of Ogunquit beach or on the rocky pebble beach of Oarweed Cove. The visibility over the ocean was excellent. The air temperature was as good as it gets. It stayed at 76°F for the longest time. I saw it rise to 78°F and become a bit more humid. But the southerly wind kicked in just enough to make it so much more enjoyable on the deck at Barnacle Billy's. The combination definitely made the day a "111", yet again. The wind off the water wouldn't let the air temperature go any higher than what I saw. This won't be the case in the next few days with the wind and air temperature rise expected. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 77°F (with a low of 66°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 85°F (with a low of 53°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 82°F (with a low of 57°F).
I worked at Barnacle Billy's restaurants all day. I worked in the morning for a while, mostly talking to the kitchen at Barnacle Billy's to come up with a management plan of sorts. Then I went in early for a meeting on the same subject. This after I showered, shaved and suited up at home.
Barnacle Billy's patrons seemed to really enjoy themselves today. It was just one of those great days to be outside - and inside with light air conditioning. I talked to more customers today than on any other day this year. I had, virtually, no office work to take care of. And any meeting I had was before opening. And it was a Sunday. So there was no option to contact our vendors or repair people - there is always something breaking down in one of the two restaurants, or both.
For the first time in a long time we didn't have an exceptionally calm ocean along the shore. There were no big seas rolling in as surfing waves along the shore. The ocean's surface showed chops. At first, the wind blew out of south or southwest at ten knots. By noon, it was blowing out of the south upwards of fifteen knots. By 4:00 PM, we had sustained southerly winds of nearly twenty knots. This stayed the same until I went to bed. The sky was clear all morning, cloudless for most of it. Clouds started developing out of the northwest starting in the early afternoon. Around 3:00 PM, it looked like we were going to get showers. That never happened. By 5:00 PM, the clouds were gone and the sky was as clear as it was at noon. The air temperature rose to a value of 86°F during the mid afternoon. It wasn't humid. And the wind that sprang up did much to cool things down in Perkins Cove. The visibility was very good in some haze. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 86°F (with a low of 65°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 90°F (with a low of 56°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 81°F (with a low of 61°F).
After getting the Bunny Clark ready to sail and completing a few tasks at the restaurants, I was back in the office at Bunny Clark Central. I worked there on the phone for the rest of the morning before work. I was back at Barnacle Billy's at noon.
I spent the next two hours working on trying to figure out the weather so I could decide whether the Bunny Clark was going to sail or not. It just never looked good to me. Before 2:00 PM, I had canceled the trip. I was not happy about staying ashore. But traveling out there in the sea conditions expected and getting to the fishing grounds on time was problematic. Plus, the predictions were for twenty to thirty knots of wind out of the south with five to eight foot seas, increasing in the afternoon and night. I never got a feel that the weather was going to be any different. It was an odd thing. I wanted to go but I felt immense relief when I decided that the boat wasn't going to sail. Odd that.
I received a generous $100.00 donation from Sean Hunt (ME) sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge, a cycling event fundraiser with the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the first time that Sean has given to my cause. He's a captain for the Finestkind Scenic Tours, a sight seeing operation that involves taking passengers along the coast of Ogunquit and York on the four boats that operate off the Barnacle Billy's dock. Thank you, Sean. I very much appreciate your thoughts and your support!
At 5:00 AM EDT the air temperature was 71°F, the sky was a mix of clear sky and clouds, the wind in Perkins Cove was blowing out of the west at fifteen knots and the visibility over the ocean seemed excellent.
Well, the wind wasn't nearly as strong as was predicted. I didn't have a handle on it as much as I normally do. So I relied on Army's UGRIB, the NWS and some links I reference. How could they all be so wrong? At any rate, the highest wind speed that I saw today across the Gulf of Maine was seventeen knots. And that was in gusts. Along the shore the wind blew out of the southwest at about fifteen knots, more or less. The strongest wind took place from noon until around 3:00 PM. So even the ride out this morning wouldn't have been any slower than normal. The sky was overcast but it was a light overcast mixed with the smoke from wild fires in Canada. We saw the sun but it was orange because of the residual smoke dropping down into Maine. The air temperature rose to a value of 87°F. But we really didn't feel it until the wind off the water died at 6:00 PM. It felt more like temperatures in the high 70s than anything in the 80s. The visibility was good to very good in haze. The clouds cleared to a point were you could see the sun regularly. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 90°F (with a low of 72°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 88°F (with a low of 66°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 85°F (with a low of 71°F).
My morning was spent working at the restaurants and editing this report. I went into the restaurants early as I wanted to take time off to visit the Hurricane Restaurant where the proprietor was going to open early for a few of us to watch the Spain/France World Cup game on TV. The game started at 3:00 PM. I'm glad I went. It was the best game of the World Cup games, in my opinion and it was an eye opener for me. I knew that Spain had only allowed one goal for all the games in the series and that the team had six shut-outs (clean sheets), a record set for any World Cup. And they had won their last thirty-six games in a row. But I didn't realize that they would be so organized and such a defensive unit against France, the best attacking team in the WC. At the beginning of the World Cup I wondered if any team could beat France; they had so many super stars. Now I wonder if any team can beat Spain!
I went back to the restaurants after the game. There was an issue that had been resolved before I got back. I just wanted the details. It wasn't as bad as first I had feared.
I am looking forward to the trip on Thursday.
I received a generous $100.00 donation from Sam Theodosopoulos (NH) sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge. Sam made this donation in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site. Sam has been a regular donor to my cancer project. Thank you so much, Sam. I appreciate this very much indeed!
The rain was short lived. By 6:00 AM, it was well over for the day. It never rained again. The sky remained overcast, in a way. We could see the sun most of the day but it was orange from the wild fire smoke coming down from Canada. It wasn't really overcast but there was a lot of soft lighting to make one think so. The visibility was good to very good in haze. There was no fog today. The wind blew out of the west to northwest at fifteen knots or more ashore. At the end of the afternoon, the Portland weather buoy was showing gusts to over twenty knots out of the west northwest. I saw the high air temperature in Ogunquit as 84°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 84°F (with a low of 72°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 84°F (with a low of 74°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 90°F - I don't believe it - (with a low of 69°F).
I spent some time getting the Bunny Clark ready for sailing tomorrow. I also spent time in the restaurants as well, of course. I went back and forth between patrons and the World Cup game between England and Argentina. I was disappointed that England lost. But they certainly deserved to lose.
At 2:45 AM EDT the air temperature was 67°F, the sky was clear, the wind was blowing out of the west northwest at ten knots and the visibility over the ocean was very good at least.
As I headed out the gate through the can buoys, I thought; what a beautiful morning to be going fishing. Weather wise, it was going to be a challenging day. But I didn't know that at the time. The air temperature then was 66°F and the water temperature, at the head of the Cove, was 55°F. As we progressed to the fishing grounds, the water started to warm up but the air temperature stayed, pretty much, the same. Ten miles out, the water temperature had increased to 65°F. The wind was out of the west northwest. It was about ten knots ashore but we had more wind on the ride out. I would say fifteen knots. Seas were chops that, gradually got larger the further we got offshore. Almost there, chops were about two feet under a mix of old swell and tide created slop. The visibility was excellent. The sky was crystal clear with no evidence of the smoke from the Canadian wild fires that we lived through for the last couple of days.
On the fishing grounds, the wind blew out of the west northwest, at first. Wind speeds were fifteen to eighteen knots. By noon, it had backed out of the west and blew up to a sustained twenty knots. We even had a gust to twenty-five knots, which really surprised me. Seas were mostly chops of three to four feet. It was just rough enough to know you were fishing in the bow and just calm enough to remain there. It was a struggle for those fishing up there - and one reason we lost, what might have been, our biggest haddock of the season. We only had three anglers who were sea sick. This didn't surprise me as, most of the anglers, I knew from previous trips, some, many previous trips. It was, actually, a wonderful crew to a man/woman. The air temperature reached a high of 75°F. The visibility ranged to twenty-five miles, at least. The sky was cloudless and very clear. The tide (current) was light. This surprised me as we went through huge tide rips in the Jeffrey's Ledge area. The surface water temperature reached a high of 68°F.
Preparing to head back to Perkins Cove was a process. I had to have everyone out of the forecastle as I didn't want anyone to get hurt. We were going to be traveling right into the wind for the ride home. And it was going to be a crashing/thrashing spell for a period of time. It was hard going for the first few miles; I could only make about ten knots. But I was gradually able to increase our speed after forty-five minutes. I was into full cruise after an hour and a half. I couldn't let anyone stay in the cabin until we were about an hour from getting back. I had to stop the boat so anglers could use the head after an hour and a half. Twenty miles from Perkins Cove, the wind let go for about fifteen minutes. Clouds had been forming for the last hour and it looked like rain. A squall with about thirty knots of northerly wind hit us with a hard rain. We carried this for about ten miles with four foot chops from the north. This was more a beam sea, which was much easier to handle than the strong westerly we had experienced earlier. For the last three or four miles we had a very calm sea and clearing skies, the only calm spot of the day except for Perkins Cove at the dock in the morning!
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 88°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 89°F (with a low of 69°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 89°F (with a low of 55°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 85°F (with a low of 60°F).
The fishing was very good despite the sea state. The catching was excellent as were the landings. There were a couple of anglers who caught the most fish for an angler this year to date. It was a fish a drop all day long. Many doubles were caught. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. We were in a totally different area than we have been all season. The pollock were all legal. We only had three sub-legal pollock, if indeed they were sub-legal. Other than the three smaller ones, every pollock was over 3 pounds. But there were very few pollock over 7 pounds. Five to 7 pounds seemed to be the flavor of pollock for the day. Legal landings also included thirty-two haddock on the last stop of the day, ninety-five redfish (no sub-legal redfish were seen) and fifteen cusk. Released fish included, probably, six blue sharks (mostly lost on bait rigs), one tiny cod, one sub-legal haddock, one huge haddock, the three small pollock and ten dogfish. We drift fished for the first stop and boated two totes of (mostly) pollock. We anchored for every stop afterward. All terminal gear worked very well.
Either Matt Luce (ME) or Chris Cote (ME) was high hook with the most legal fish any angler has caught with me this season so far. We don't count fillets. So I can't know for sure. Bruce Andersen (FL) was also in there somewhere. Third hook? Second hook? I don't know. Chris Cote won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 13 pound pollock. This pollock ties for the Bunny Clark's second largest pollock of the fishing season so far. I took a picture of Chris holding his pollock in the bow where he was fishing. This digital image appears on the left. Phil Milligan (ME) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the second largest fish, a 12 pound pollock. This fish is tied for the Bunny Clark's fifth largest pollock of the fishing season to date. Phil also caught the fourth largest fish of the trip, a 10 pound pollock. And he caught the only keeper haddock double of the trip. He was also hanging on and fishing in the bow. Matt Luce, fishing in the "ten spot" on the stern (the he now calls Luce Corner) caught the third largest fish of the trip, an 11 pound pollock. I weighed a 7.5 pound pollock that he caught early in the trip, thinking it might be a pool contending fish. Matt also caught the second largest cusk at 8.25 pounds.
Other Angler Highlights: Ali Laflamm (ME) caught the first fish I could weigh for the boat pool, a 9 pound pollock. Shortly afterward, she caught a 7.75 pound pollock, the two biggest fish of the trip at the time that she boated it. She also caught the largest cusk of the trip at 9 pounds. And Ali caught two haddock, a species that she was hoping to catch. Chris Patchem (NY) caught an 8 pound pollock. Silas Amlaw (NY) caught an 8 pound pollock and a 9.5 pound pollock. Mitch Cashman (ME) boated an 8 pound cusk, the third largest cusk of the trip. And then there was Tom Brown (NY), who was fishing in the hoop in the bow. He was having a hard time getting his fish in the boat as it was. At times, I thought he was either going fall overboard, drop the rod overboard, fall on his rod or break something. After a while he seemed to get the hang of it, sort of. That is until he caught the trophy haddock and tried to get that in the boat. It might have been the biggest haddock of the last couple of years at 10 pounds or so. He tried everything he could to lose that fish. And, finally, he did. I instructed those guys in the bow to call for a gaff well "before" they saw the fish on the surface. Chris and Phil had no problem with that. Tom, on the other hand, not so much. Oh, well. I cried a little bit for the lack of a good trophy haddock picture. But I will surely get over it - after a few weeks.
Several people gave me donations sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge. The donors and their donations appear as follows: Barry Ano (NY) gave a generous $100.00, Elizabeth Scott (NJ) gave a generous $100.00. Her donation was made in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site. Bruce Andersen gave $50.00. Chris Cote gave $40.00. Thank you all so very much for your support, thoughtfulness and generosity. It means a lot to me but to the researchers who are doing all the work and the patients who see the benefits of this research, it's priceless! Needless to say, this is much appreciated by so many.
After another coolish morning, the day turned into a "111" for weather. We had northwest wind over ten knots until the end of the day. The sun was warm but it was not humid. And despite a high air temperature of 83°F, it was very comfortable all day. The sky was clear and there was plenty of sun. There was no cloudiness or haze from the wild fires in Canada. The visibility was excellent. There were few clouds. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 85°F (with a low of 67°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of 52°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 80°F (with a low of 57°F).
After we got back in last night and settled stern to the float until we sail again, I drained all the engine lubricating oil out into containers while the engine was still warm. It was my early day in to the restaurants again, this being a Friday. I got there at 4:30 AM, walked our dog, Gill, back home at 5:15 AM and went back down to go through the routine of getting the restaurants ready for business. While there, I also spent time working getting the new engine oil back in the engine and changing out the three engine oil filters. Because of this, I did not have time to edit this fishing update section of my website. It was too rough on the way in yesterday so I had to start from scratch to write this up. Not a big deal. But it all takes extra time. And time away from other things.
Between all the work, I have had Tim Darling's company tear up the old driveway at the house, run new sewer and water lines and get the driveway ready for paving. It's been a lot of work requiring the expertise of plumbers, electricians and the good work of Tim Darling. I've had to go back and forth on decisions. And, during all this, it's been a musical chairs dance with moving vehicles around all the time. I'll be glad when it's all done but I expect that it will end in a couple of weeks. A lot of capital outlay.
I spent the rest of the day at the restaurants. I have the greatest employees. I really do. It's just one of the things that truly make me love what I do ashore. I also have a great deck hand in Danny DellaMonica. When I came down to finish the oil change this morning, the boat was spotless. This after a very busy day of filleting almost five hundred fish, untangling lines, answering the demands of our patrons in the nicest way possible and just working like a demon. He still had four boxes of fish to cut on the way in, including almost a full box of redfish, with the boat crashing and thrashing as we poked through the waves home. Granted, the redfish were big redfish. But they were redfish, which are harder to fillet and have spines that sting. And, try as you might, as good at filleting as you might be, doing a lot of them, inevitably, you get stung. The boat wasn't trashed when we got in. But it wasn't in "Danny shape" when we pulled up to the float to unload. I think when he did get everything clean, that night, he went around and spent two hours with a toothbrush getting the rest! Needless to say, when I got to the boat it looked and smelled like it never saw a fish and was just launched. So I enjoyed my day with my restaurant employees while also thinking how lucky I was to have hooked up with Danny. A most enjoyable day.
The ocean started off calm with a lack of wind over it. That changed as the day progressed. Even at 10:00 AM, there was zero wind. By noon, the wind was out of the south at almost ten knots. But, at the high tide, 2:30 PM, the wind struck at twenty knots from ten to fifteen knots just twenty minutes earlier. The wind steadily increased with gusts to thirty knots offshore. Southerly winds never did subside while I was awake. When I went to bed, the Portland Lightship buoy was showing five foot seas every six seconds. Shortly after sunrise, the sky started to cloud up. Some of this occlusion might have come from the smoke from the Canadian wild fires. The sky was fully overcast by 10:00 AM. By 1:30 PM, we saw a few drops of rain. There wasn't even enough rain to don foul weather gear until 3:00 PM, when it really started to come down. It rained for two hours, soaking everything. It drizzled for a while after that but was done by 6:00 PM. The sky stayed overcast through into the night. The visibility was good in the rain. The air temperature was mild with a high that I saw, around noon, of 78°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 82°F (with a low of 63°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 77°F (with a low of 57°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 73°F (with a low of 54°F).
I spent a lot of time catching up, finishing up the writing of this report and finishing up items in the office. I managed to save enough time to jump on the stationary bike for twenty-five miles in front of Tour de France TV before taking a shower and going to work at noon. Today's stage was a mountainous stage that was particularly interesting to watch.
The World Cup game for the bronze was much more interesting than anticipated. I swore I was not going to watch after the pathetic show England put on against Argentina. But it was actually a fun game, both teams seemingly agreeing to not tackle hard and just play the game. It brought out the best in some of the players included Mbappé for France and Saka for England. I couldn't watch all of it because of work but I did watch about thirty minutes while eating my dinner in plain clothes in the lounge. There was a lull in business at the time.
The restaurants were busy before the rain. But the rain quelled the fire of business to a degree. I went back home at the close of business this evening.
The wind didn't stay out of the southwest very long. By 6:00 AM, the wind was out of the west northwest or northwest at fifteen to twenty knots with higher gusts. This wind stayed with us for most of the daylight hours today before fading away before sunset. The sky was clear the whole day. The visibility was excellent. The air temperature, that I saw, reached a high of 79°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 81°F (with a low of 69°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 79°F (with a low of 57°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 79°F (with a low of 62°F).
The day was spent working on getting everything ready for tomorrow's offshore trip along with working at the restaurants and taking a peek at the final World Cup match. Had I had time, I wouldn't have watched the half time show.
A friend of mine gave me some bluefin tuna steaks. The buyers didn't want a fish over 90 inches so the fish couldn't be sold. So lucky us, Deb & I. We had some as sushi and some as seared steaks on the grill. It was extremely good. Deb said it was her best meal of the summer.
I received a generous $100.00 donation from Bob Zuker (MA) sponsoring me in the Pan-Mass Challenge, as you know by now, a cycling event to raise money for cancer research. Bob made the donation in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site. Thankyou very much, Bob. I so appreciate your thoughtfulness and support!
The day was another beautiful summer day. The sky stayed clear most of it, the part of it that I saw. The visibility was very good to excellent. The wind was light out of the west, died out and backed out of the southwest. Wind speeds might have approached ten knots. The air temperature reached a high just over 80°F. I didn't check it closely. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 82°F (with a low of 64°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 83°F (with a low of 49°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 83°F (with a low of 56°F).
I spent the day getting ready for the overnight trip tonight and working at the restaurant. I worked mostly at the restaurant.
We left the float at 10:00 PM with a select group anglers I had invited to do this trip. It's an annual trip, called the SOFT, I arrange that doesn't go as far out as we go on the Ultra Marathon but is still special in that we do things I can't do on a regular marathon trip and, of course, we have more time and can take advantage of every time of day. Bryan Lewer (Salty Lewer Charters) was my second captain and Ali Laflamm was my second mate. Of course, Danny DellaMonica is may deck hand, or first mate, on all my trips this season.
For the first few miles after we left the float, I stayed at the wheel arranging the pool money, setting the engine rpms, going over my plan with Bryan and checking everything I needed to check before retiring. Bryan took over steering after that.
The weather day turned out better than expected. I don't think we had more than ten knots of wind at any time of the day. There was always some wind and some drift. We went from a southwest wind that might have been fifteen knots, just before we arrived. Daylight saw less than ten knots of southwest wind. This dropped and was replaced by a southerly wind of ten knots or less. Seas were, at most, two feet in chops but mostly less than that. The sky was clear, hazy clear, mostly cloudy with high thin clouds that were thicker than normal, followed by a haze clear sky with sun, just before we left to head home. The air temperature reached a high of 71°F. The tide (current) was light to moderate. It was a very slow drift to start. The visibility seemed to range from fifteen to twenty miles. However, it would be hard to qualify that with no reference points, no land or boats. The surface water temperature reached a high of 66.7°F.
The wind backed out of the southeast when we went to leave for home. Wind speeds picked up to twenty knots with seas in chops of three to four feet. The sky remained haze clear until about an hour or more from Perkins Cove. There, we ran into heavy rain with no more wind than we brought with us. This lasted until we arrived at our destination. The rain stopped as the hull of the Bunny Clark kissed the float in Perkins Cove. It was an easy ride home despite the wind and the seas.
Ashore, these were the air temperatures in selected New England cities: In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the high air temperature was 75°F. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 79°F (with a low of 62°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 75°F (with a low of 60°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 73°F (with a low of 60°F).
The fishing was excellent. When the drift picked up it was also time to anchor. Both drifting and anchoring were accomplished easily. The catching was good to very good only because of the large number of blue sharks that were there. We ran into pollock almost everywhere we started. The blue sharks were right with them. We ended up losing twenty-three jigs today, twenty were to blue sharks, one was to a halibut and two were lost after getting hooked on bottom. Landing were very good overall, excellent on the last two stops. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. They were all about the size that we have been seeing everywhere we go. The average size was about 5 pounds with some bigger and some smaller with very few sub-legal ones. Legal landings also included thirty-nine cusk, fifty-nine haddock, a halibut and a redfish. Released fish included the blue sharks, ten market sized cod, eleven small cod, one cusk, four sub-legal haddock, three halibut we didn't actually see, eleven sub-legal pollock, thirty-one dogfish and two wolffish. As mentioned, we drift fished and anchored. Each had it's time. All terminal gear worked well but most used jigs and cod flies.
I couldn't tell you who was high hook today with the most legal fish. My picks today would have been Steve Selmer (NH), who also caught fifteen legal sized haddock to bring home, Mark Girard (NH), Mr. silent and deadly who had a great day for quality, Karl Day (ME), who was one of three individuals who hooked into a halibut and lost it and Lewis Hazelwood (MA), who is so often high hook that I assume he will be when I see that he will be on the trip. These four anglers caught by attention by actions alone. They continually caught fish all day long. I didn't count fillets, nor did I ask Danny his opinion - which I should have.
Jeff Corey (MA) was the star of the day. He hooked into a halibut during the mid morning and boated it after more than fifteen minutes. I didn't time him. He hooked it while fishing in the bow pulpit. I knew he had one right away. He hooked it with a rod that his daughter had commissioned Bryan Lewer to build for him as a Christmas gift. Bryan builds some excellent, good looking, great feeling and great fishing rods. This rod acted exactly like it was supposed to. Jeff had had a great time with it before today and was loving it today. If someone told me that he took it to bed with him this evening, it wouldn't surprise me. It seemed like everyone took part in helping get the fish aboard. I had everyone reel up so we wouldn't have any unwanted tangles. The fish was boated in the cockpit. It weighed 94 pounds exactly, a Maine state trophy for size and 59" caliper fork length. With this fish he won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish of the trip. He also caught the biggest haddock of the day at 6 pounds. This is the third halibut that Jeff has caught on the Bunny Clark. The first was a 28 pounder that was sub-legal by an inch that was caught with Captain Ian Keniston. The second was an 18.5 pounder he caught with me a couple years ago on Platts Bank. He has caught Pacific halibut up to 60 pounds. But this is the largest halibut that he has ever caught. We brought four large fillets to the dock where Danny portioned up the fillets and, at Jeff's urging, gave out bags of halibut steaks to everyone who participated in today's event. Jeff always catches a lot of fish. Today's trip was no exception.
That was an amazing, exciting thing that happened to Jeff. But we did have another exciting thing. At least it really appealed to me. Dave Burton (MA), who had a very successful day today in fish count, caught three barndoor skates. We haven't seen a barndoor skate on the Bunny Clark this season yet and Dave gets three? No angler has ever caught three barndoor skates on one trip before. Steve Selmer held the record with two barn door skates caught on the same trip. No one person had ever caught more than one on a trip until Steve caught his two. Now Dave has caught three. This gave him the second, third and fourth largest fish of the trip. And he won the boat pool for the second largest fish and he also won the boat pool for the third largest fish. His barndoor skates weighed 24.5 pounds, 22.5 pounds and 20 pounds. I took a picture of Dave holding his second largest barndoor skate. This digital image appears on the left. Dave now has caught the top three barndoor skates of the Bunny Clark fishing season and the only barndoor skates of the Bunny Clark fishing season. We have now seen seventy-eight barndoor skates caught on one of my boats via rod & reel since 1975, all caught starting in 2008 on the Bunny Clark! Dave also caught the largest cusk of today's trip at 10.5 pounds. And he lost a halibut, just when we were about to see it. It broke his leader line right at the jig.
Mark Girard caught the largest wolffish I have seen on the Bunny Clark this season so far, today. [I didn't actually see Matt Luce's big wolffish before it swam to bottom the other day.] It weighed 19.5 pounds. I took a picture of Mark holding this big wolffish before dropping it back into the ocean alive. I didn't get the best image I could have as waiting too long would have compromised the life of the fish. This digital image appears on the right. Mark also caught a big haddock of about 6 pounds, that I didn't weigh, which he gave to Deb & I to eat tomorrow night.
Other Angler Highlights: Steve LaPlante (CT) caught an 8.5 pound cusk that I weighed early in the trip. He caught a lot of fish which I am now accustomed to seeing. Pete Atwood (VT) caught a lot of pollock and the haddock he was hoping to catch. I was hoping he would catch a halibut. Steve Selmer caught the two biggest pollock today. One weighed 9.5 pounds. The other weighed 10 pounds. He also caught a 10 pound cod head. A blue shark had bitten it off right behind the gills. It would have been a 20 pound fish? Bill Harding (ME) did a similar thing catching a gutted cod, where the blue shark had totally bit out the belly section of the cod. What was left weighed 9.5 pounds. Joe Columbus (MA) caught a lot of fish, mostly pollock and haddock, his biggest was a 10 pound wolffish. It was great to have him aboard today. Ali Laflame fished today but did not do as well as she did on Thursday's trip. But, then, it would have been hard for anyone to do as well as she did Thursday. Buzz Leonard (ME) didn't catching anything outstanding, just a lot of fish including just about all the species of fish he wanted to catch but one. Bryan Lewer fished a bit but not as much as he usually does on these trips. He's an excellent all-rounded fisherman.
I received several donations today sponsoring me in this season's Pan-Mass Challenge. The donors and donations included: Larry Ingham (MA) for $50.00. Larry made the donation in the form of an "eGift" through the PMC site. Jeff Corey for $50.00, Dave Burton for a generous $140.00 and Mark Girard for $50.00. Thank you all so very much for your thoughtfulness and generosity. I so very much appreciate the support!
The fog was just about gone by 7:00 AM. By 9:00 AM, there wasn't a hint of it. The visibility was very good in some haze all day. It was also fairly humid. Had the air temperature been higher than it was at 83°F, it might have been unbearable. We had no wind in the morning to write about. This is why the fog hung around for a while. By 6:00 AM, we had about ten knots of southerly wind which kept the shoreline cooler than it would have been. Wind speeds increased to fifteen knots by noon. By 2:00 PM, we had wind gusts to twenty knots with a sustained southerly wind of fifteen knots. But this wind started to back off at 3:00 PM. Or, I should say, I noticed it had backed off at that time. Wind speeds at 6:00 PM were about ten knots, still out of the south. We had sunny skies all day until around 2:15 PM, when a line of showers moved over Perkins Cove and drenched us for fifteen minutes before leaving us and the sun behind. I did see another shower go over York. But we didn't see another one during the day. In Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) the high air temperature was 86°F (with a low of 71°F). The Concord, New Hampshire's high temperature was 85°F (with a low of 66°F). The high air temperature at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine was 79°F (with a low of 64°F).
I had so much catching up to do that I never did to exercise much except for my core work that helps my back. I couldn't write the fishing update on the way in because it was too choppy to work on the laptop and steer in. So all of it I had to do at the desk. And I was over three hours at the desk at home. I also went back and forth to the restaurant on the scooter. I took our dog, Gill, down in the Bunny Clark truck so I could walk him back. It was a four bone morning for him - which has been the norm. I was also able to get all my stuff ready to run the boat tomorrow.
I was at the restaurant at noon. I was there until 5:00 PM. I took the scooter back to the house, grabbed Gill and walked him down to get the truck. He does still enjoy his walks, albeit, a bit slower than they used to be.
Mark Girard and Dave Burton each gave me a haddock which I filleted. Deb cooked it for us. It was absolutely delicious. Nothing like eating haddock that you know where it came from and that is prepared so fresh and ready to eat. Thank you both for the opportunity!
I received another generous $100.00 donation, this time from Peter & Patti Vangsness (MA), sponsoring me in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge. Peter & Patti have supported my cancer project for years now; I don't remember how many. But they always give me the utmost support. Thank you so very much, Peter & Patti. This is so very much appreciated!
We have several future marathon trips that have openings. The dates and the number of spots available are as follows: July 28 has twelve spots available, July 30 has six spots available, August 4 has sixteen spots available, August 6 has fourteen spots available, August 11 has ten spots available, August 13 has seventeen spots available, August 18 has fourteen spots available, August 20 has eight spots available and August 25 has 13 spots available. The fishing has been very good so far with pollock showing up, less haddock but enough for everyone who wants one (or ten) and new spots to try. Be there or be square!
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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