Finally some fish

Had a very disappointing trip out to Stellwagen Bank that saw no tuna and even stanger, no whales. That was a first. When leaving Marshfield last weekend I came across a huge school of fish that were mostly bass and I was able to get a couple nice 30" class fish before heading back to Falmouth. Went out at an insanely early time on Wednesday and caught a couple bass just under keeper size with live eels. The weird catch of the day was the huge black sea bass that took an eel around Quicks' Hole.

A much needed update

Fishing -

I have been fishing a grand total of 2 times since my last post. Glad that I got a nice fish out of the way early this season or I would be majorly depressed. Still feel pretty crappy about the small amount of fishing that I have done, but some is better than none. I went fishing out of Bass River with a guy I met online at Stripersonline. We happened to share a lot of the same experiences and similar fishing styles. Funny thing is that he lives year round in Woburn, right near Reading and summers down here on the Cape. We went to Monomoy in search of stripers, but none were to be found other than some finicky fish that were porpoising and sipping krill. I had only read about this and true to what I had read they are impossible to catch when keyed in on such small bait. We spotted a charter boat moving north along Chatham that we both recognized from his local fame at catching large tuna. Sure enough, after a short ride we happened upon busting tuna. I hooked up on the 5th or 6th try and after a 25 minute battle or so we lost him. Unlike the last two that I have fought, this one felt huge and heavy. My arms were sore.

Teaching-

I have received the Curriculum Coordinator position in Falmouth. I am very excited about it and am happy to be in this position. Schools all over the country are really struggling to stay afloat and Falmouth is no different. Not a lot of money to go around. I was happy to be involved in the interview process to find a new music teacher for Falmouth and I could not be happier about the person we found.

Today I started at Boston Conservatory and the students taking the Brass Methods course seem to be kind, motivated and talented people. Should be a good class.

Family-

Gwen's lacrosse team had an undefeated season that lasted all the way to the jamboree which consisted of three games. In the first game we were tied up 4-4 with only a few minutes left and Gwen scored two goals in a row giving her a hat trick for the game. She also guarded the other teams top player and was just outstanding. Unfortunately the team lost the last game of the jamboree against an amazing team from Andover that was an "A" team and not all inclusive like our team. I would have loved to have seen that game if we did not have our weak players playing.

TJ played to spring sports, travel soccer and baseball. I had the pleasure of assistant coaching both teams. I would never have thought that I would have enjoyed coaching a losing team so much as i did the boys soccer team, but they were such an awesome group of kids. most of the kids were playing up a level too. So, the three wins we did have felt awesome. There were multiple 8 year olds playing on the Under 10 team. Baseball was awesome. TJ was one of the starting pitchers on the team and had 25 strikeouts on the season. He ended up hitting .474 for the season and had two home runs. Our coach was a stat Nazi, I never would have paid that much attention. :) Although we did not make it to the championship game as expected it was an awesome season.

Family-

We did out first family camping trip over the July 4th weekend. We had a lot of fun and it was great to really bond as a family in that atmosphere. We bought an 8 person tent that was on sale which was great size for a family of four IMO. The campground we chose was VERY full and the campsites were right on top of each other. For the most part it went well, but there was one late night party that was very loud and some parents that found swearing and hitting their kids their main way of parenting. the last day was the best as we stayed longer than the 4th which gave us an almost private campsite.

So Much Fun I Forgot to Catch

Yesterday morning I went out with Gene with a very specific plan. First, start out by fishing for bass and then after the sun came up, head to the Heights where the Albies have been lurking. The plan was well executed, mostly. Got to the hot spot from this season around the Elizabeth Islands and even though there were a couple boats already there Gene pulled in a nice 24 lb. bass on a 14" bone Hogy. Fished a little more and I missed one fish, but the sun came up and we headed to the Heights.

As soon as we got to Falmouth Harbor we started seeing the Albies crashing peanut bunker. We both had multiple shots at these fish and I did manage to hook up for about a half second before being bitten off. I went with the no leader approach. Argh!!! The only one we saw hook up was a kayaker. I was happy for him. Pretty cool.

Made the journey at full throttle from Falmouth Heights to Fiddler's Cove in a little over a half an hour. Awesome time. Got home took a shower and took the kids to church. It wasn't until a few hours after church that I realized I did not even catch a fish. I am not quite sure why, but I had an absolute blast chasing those fish around and it is an interesting feeling that when you are captaining a boat you feel at least a little responsible for other peoples' fish.

Here is a picture of Gene's fish which does not do it justice.

The Skunk is Off!!

I caught my first fish of '09. During lunch today I swung by Trunk River and threw out a 7" amber Hogy a few times. On around my 15th cast or so I got a solid hookup and was a bit surprised when my dragging started sounding. It ended up being a fish close to 30" and had a nice belly to it too. First of many I hope this year.

In other news I am trying to setup a trip with someone I met online while doing TJ's raffle fundraiser on Surf Talk. He has a son that has diabetes and is going to bring him along. We are shooting for sometime towards the end of May. Perhaps early June.

48 lbs. Two pounds away from being down 50 lbs. Crazy!! To be honest I have not been working out that much. An occasional run here and there, but I am really watching what I eat. I have not had a bagel, fast food burger or fries since December. I really think that helps. Plus, I have been able to make good choices at home and I order differently while out to eat. Recently I have stopped drinking which can only help. I stopped for reasons that are a whole blog entry unto itself. Whether it ever gets written or not is a different story.

Catching Up

Weight loss - So far so good. I have not lost a lot recently, but with my schedule which has equated to eating out a lot I am not that unhappy with it. Over the past two weeks of the All State Conference and the run of "Crazy for You" at Bourne High School I managed to not gain any weight. I have tried to keep running, but it is hard to maintain a consistent schedule plus it has been rainy lately. May go back to Atkins for a few weeks, it always has a way of jump starting some good weight loss for me. In general, I have found my portions of food to be a lot smaller. Last night I ordered a quesadilla for my meal and I was unable to finish it. Really weird for that to happen to me.

Sports - Kids are fully going in lacrosse and soccer. A lot of practices have been cancelled due to rain and it looks like another will be tonight. Good.

Fishing - Can't wait. Looking forward to a great year. I may purchase a couple new reels for the kids' rods and I am thinking about getting myself a nice setup that will allow me to cast the soft plastics I like so much, but still be able to bring in a nice fish if i manage to hook into one. I am not in a hurry for this, but it is probably the next toy I will treat myself to. Perhaps if I do well at Foxwoods during April vacation I will use any winnings (or lack of losings) to get this new setup. I am hoping that the bluefish come back to Buzzards Bay this year, I missed seeing those breaking schools.

Marshfield Trip

Before leaving for Marshfield I did some research to figure out whether my boat was capable of getting out to Stellwagen Bank safely. Seeing that it was possible I needed to then figure out how to fish for tuna with my limited resources of rods, tackle etc. The guys at Hogy were helpful in showing me the best things to throw at busting tuna with spinning gear. The guys at Bad Fish hooked me up with a nice trolling spread at a reasonable price.

Went to Stellwagen three times. I had a nice map and Christine's hand held GPS was very helpful. Within two miles of the bank I was looking at some boats and saw this huge black mass come fully out of the water and splash down. Humpback whale, so cool. I have been on three whale watches and never seen a humpback. I did see a few schools of tuna rise, but they come up and go back down so fast I only managed a few casts that had a reasonable chance at hooking up. I trolled for a while too, but no fish. On the radio it sounded as though nobody was hooking up so I didn't feel that bad.

Went back the next day with Christine's dad and brothers Mike and Dan. The seas were choppy and the ride there was slow. When we got there we did not see any tuna, but we saw the most amazing whale show. We were beside a humback for about a half an hour and he was jumping up and out of the water for us. Incredible.

Two days later I took the family out with Christine mom and Aunt Bitty. About half way to Stellwagen we saw multiple small schools of tuna rise up. I made a few casts, but still no luck. We went out to Stellwagen and it was feeding time for the humpbacks. They were travelling together today usually in groups of tow or three and coming up to gorge on food. While I was there I saw the hugest school of sand eels that I have ever seen. Off and on I would mark bigger fish down below and was hoping that they would come up to feed on those sand eels, but no luck. Christine got some great pics. Here is my favorite.

A week of firsts

This past week was a week of firsts.

1. The family went out on a little boat trip with Suzanne and the Earley children. On our way from West Falmouth to Meganssett I saw a boat approaching and I just knew that we were going to get boarded. Long story short we did not have a third adult life jacket so the Coast Guard was going to follow us in so that we could get one. The funny thing is that I knew this would not be the case. Tommy Earley was on the boat which meant we really could not go that fast. After about 2 minutes of following us they pulled up beside us and said they weren't going to follow us in.

2. Mike Earley and I went out on a fishing trip that we turned into beer drinking, sightseeing, maybe a little fishing trip. When Mike was gassing up his boat the gas overflowed a little bit so Mike knew he had a full tank of gas. With a full tank, flat calm seas and a twelve pack of beer we decided to head towards Cuttyhunk. A first for both of us. On the way there we came accross some unorganized bird action which turned out to be a few schools of schoolies. Mike got hold of a nice healthy schoolie. We then road south and we did hit a little fog here and there, but we made it to Cuttyhunk and went in to the harbor. It looks like a snapshot of 1910 if you ignore all the boats in the harbor. On the way back we stopped by some fishy looking rocks just north of Quicks' Hole. I prophesized that I would catch a 32" bass and sure enough I was able to bring in a 31" keeper. We would have thrown the fish back, but unfortunately the hook was caught up in the gills so bad that by the time we were able to free it the fish was severely bleeding.

3. Yesterday morning I went on a fishing trip with Mike Kennedy. We were headed towards the Elizabeth Islands for the hopes of some bass, but the expectation of bluefish. I was right on with this prediction other than the fact that I missed about 4 bass hits near Quicks and Cuttyhunk. There were nice schools of bluefish in Quicks' Hole and Cuttyhunk. We could have stayed all day and caught hundreds I am sure.

Yesterday afternoon our family boated around to Washburn Island. We met the Fish/Lott family and did a geocache. We tied up and ate dinner before attempting to beat the sunset. On the outgoing trip it was a little rougher than we had hoped so we left an hour and a half to make the return trip. Vineyard Sound was much better on the way back with 2 foot waves, but very navigable. As soon as we hit Woods Hole the seas were down to nothing and we were pleased to see that they were the same on the Buzzards Bay side. This was lake calm and we were actually able to open the boat all the way up and we were home in no time at all.

Oh Yeah!!

The Celtics Win! The Celtics Win! Theeeeeeeeeeee Celtics Win!!!!

Amazing game last night. So much fun to watch an outstanding team just demolish another team in the most important game of the year. It is definitely fun to be a Boston sports fan. The Patriots, the Red Sox and now the Celtics. Awesome. Now if only the Bruins would get sold to an owner or owners that actually cared about putting together a contending team we would be all set.

I had a big win today too. I just "won" a Penn Captiva 8000 surf casting reel on ebay. I am pretty happy with it. Good price and it was exactly in my "Mr. Cheapo" price range. $62 including shipping. Looking forward to getting in some fishing real soon. As much as possible before the dog days of summer really get here. Here is a picture of my new reel that will be here in a few days.

A Couple Lessons Learned

Went back to the West End of the canal last night. The fish are still there, but there are more small fish and bluefish now. I did see someone catch one really nice bass, but mostly I saw small fish being caught. I caught one fish on the night, a nice healthy 25-26" fish I would say. I lost one more and had my offering exploded upon on numerous occassions, but with no hookups. There was a boat out in front of me and the other two guys near me and I tried my hardest to cast as close to the boat as possible as to let them know that they were too close. I landed a couple casts within 10 feet I'd say. Not sure they understood the message, but they did not stay too long. The two guys next to me were sporting their $800-$1000 surf casting setups. As a direct descendant of "Mr. Cheapo" i would show them that I could catch fish just as good as them. Well, one of them anyway. The guy immediately to the right of me did not hook up at all while I was there, but the guy on the other jetty probably brought in 10 fish. Wish I was bold enough to ask him what lure/color he was using, but no big deal. This night ended up being one that I will chalk up to learning the ropes. I will be better prepared in the future because of it. I have been doing a lot of reading and feel that I had all my necessary supplies packed in one backpack. Loaded up, but not overdone is what I was shooting for and I am pretty much there. New lessons are:

1. Braid line will mess up your finger when casting hard and often.

2. Close the bail with your hand to make sure that the braid does not spool on loose.

3. Put your light on a lanyard.


1. After fishing on Thursday night when many awesome fish were caught my finger had a small cut on it that I chalked up to nicking on a hook. Don't get me wrong I had heard that casting braid will mess up your finger, but over the years I have not had that happen. In retrospect I have not had this happen because usually I was casting with eels and not trying to cast my plugs the lenghth of a football field out into the middle of the Cape Cod Canal. Anyway, about a half hour in my finger is killing me. I decided to work through the pain and deal with it later.

2. Shortly after repositioning myself on a jetty I notice I have a knot in my spool. I empty out the line to get to it and it is unfixable. I retie the leader and begin fishing again. About a half hour later there is an even bigger knot in the spool and it was obvious that it happened at the very end of a cast because it was deep in the spool. Unfixable again. I had to stop fishing because I no longer had enough line on my rod.

3. While getting the final knot out of my spool I had my mag light flashlight in my mouth so i could see what I was doing. It fell out of my mouth and in to the water. Now it looked like there was a spaceship hovering under the rocks of the jetty in three feet of water. Light coming up between every crack. This made the last few minutes of untangling and cutting the braid very challenging, but eventually I did it.

Solutions:

1. I will wear a bandaid whenever i am going to be casting with braid or tape it up. I am way to cheap to spend $20 on an Aquaskinz casting glove.

2. First I am in need of a new reel that closes as soon as I begin reeling, but in the meantime I think I can avoid the knots by closing the bail myself.

3. Not that I haven't read that I need to keep my light on a lanyard, but now I will definitely do that.

Although last night was not a very successful night in terms of fish caught I did avoid the skunk and manage to catch more fish than one of the $1000 shore fisherman. More importantly i can chalk last night up to a good learning experience that will hopefully allow me to have more success in the future.

Great Weekend

Had three gigs this weekend. Nice to get some extra cash. I am really starting to like playing with Salsa Night Band. Even though I do not understand what the people are saying much of the time they are really nice and we communicate with bare bones English and my limited Spanish.

Saturday morning Mike Earley took his friend Rick back to the West End of the canal and Rick hooked up to a nice 28 lb. bass. Mike also brought home a honking bluefish that had to be at least 12 lbs. I was too tired from the night before to get out in the morning with them. It is a really weird feeling that I feel because before Thursday night if I knew there were huge fish in a particular area I would have been there in a second no matter how little sleep I had. Thursday was so good I almost feel as though I have no need to experience the same fishing at the same spot. At least I am not felling the same desire to prove my fishing expertise or lack thereof because now I have 4 keepers under my belt for the season. Having said that, I had so much fun that I think that I am going to go back there tonight. Apparently the fish are still there from reports that I have received.

Great news!! After Thomas' baseball game and my wedding ceremony on Saturday I was able to get the boat put in and it is now being officially rack stored at Fiddler's Cove. On Sunday morning we went out on a family boat outing with Christine's parents. It was awesome. We went into the west end of the canal and were able to dock up in Onset Harbor and eat lunch at Marc Anthony's. Best pizza in the Cape Cod area. There were a lot of boats fishing, but I did not see a single hookup.

Gwen scored her first goal in lacrosse yesterday. I was so proud of her. There is so much luck involved in girls lacrosse. If a girl gets a pass and it is the second pass they need to pass it again until their team can legally shoot on net. I can't count the amount of times that Gwen was the second girl to receive a pass only to have to make one more pass and have that girl score or get a shot on net. No biggy! She is really starting to understand the game and I am so proud of her newly found athleticism.

Thomas had a game and although he did not score he played outstanding. He was very agressive during ground balls and was able to get a couple shots on net. It was their 2nd and last game of the year and they ended up in a 5-5 tie.

Big wins all around

I got a great report of some nice bass being caught near the West End of the canal. I had to get there. Mike Earley and I went a little before 8pm. Amazing scene. Big bass crashing plugs. Usually I am a light tackle guy, but I knew I would have to be chucking plugs out deep so I let it rip with my 9 foot ugly stick. A cheap surf rod, but it got the job done. Plus, I have it lined with braid which definitely has added a good 20 yards to my cast. After all was said and done I pulled in four bass in the 20lb. range and one nice bluefish. Mike was unable to cast quite as far as me, but he hooked up twice and did bring in a nice 20lb. bass.

Celtics win, Celtics win, theeeeeeeeeee Celtics win!!! Huge win for the Celtics last night. Close game and I think that this could turn out to be a great series. Celtics definitely had the benefit of some hometown calls from the refs so I wonder if that will continue next game. If the Celts can pull off a game two win they are totally in the drivers seat. Knowing that if they can just get one win in LA that they can come home to win it all. Exciting times for Massachusetts sports fans.

Fishing report and a prediction

On Sunday morning Mike Earley went to Middle Ground and released 20 keeper sized striped bass. The squid are coming through and the big fish are following. This is just like the time I went out with Steve Page and we happened upon the same circumstances. It is truly amazing fishing. Monday morning Mike Hogan went out and pulled in 8 keepers with a charter he was running. So, Tuesday i decided it was time to take a day off and get out there. When I got to middle ground nothing was happening. I did not see any squid, fish breaking, or fish being caught. After an hour I look to my left and I see this huge seal. Yes, a seal in Vineyard Sound on June 3. I get out of there and try a bunch of other spots with no luck. I go back to middle ground and start fishing again. I see a couple seagulls diving here and there which at least tell me there is squid in the water again. I manage to catch three stripers on the Double Wide Amber Hogy. With so much weed in the water it was the only way to consistently get good casts in and not bring up a pound of weed every time. The fish were 26", 26" and 27". No keepers, but I felt good that I was the only one that I saw catch any fish. Every now and then you would see a bass come flying up out of the water to attack squid, such a cool sight. Apparently the fishing just kept heating up too because Gene Bourque went back and caught a few nice fish later. It was nice to get out there and catch some decent fish. This was the first time I had gone out on the boat by myself and I was really happy with all aspects of it. I was out for 5 hours and burned hardly any fuel. I continue to shave seconds off of my self proclaimed mastery of loading and unloading of the boat on to the trailer.

Prediction - More seals equals more Great White Sharks. There will be more sightings of Great White Sharks this year than ever. And, within the next two years my horrible prediction is that there will be a shark attack on an outer beach on the Cape.

MARTY!!

This weekend was incredible. Awesome meal and saw Martin Sexton in Portsmouth, NH with Chris, Jill, Mike, Jen and Christine. I was blown away by his amazing singing and guitar playing. Multiple times during the show I was almost brought to tears by his amazing voice. Standout songs to me were Candy, Glory Bound, Gypsy Woman, Purple Rain and his encore Way I Am. His falsetto vocals were breathtaking, but his huge voice in his normal range was equally impressive. I have always enjoyed the recordings I have heard of him when he uses a talk box to alter his voice to sound like a distorted guitar. He does it so appropriately and it reminds me of a tone that Jimi Hendrix used to get on his Fender. Not to be outshined by his voice his guitar playing was outstanding too. Although he never breaks into any amazing runs, he is flawless at playing his low E string in a bass-like manner while playing chords with the higher 4 or 5 strings. His thumbs on both hands are used much more than your typical rhythm guitar player. Often times his two thumbs were working to play the bass line while his other eight fingers concentrated on chordal accompaniments.

Fishing - NOOOOOOOOOO! It happened again. The big blitz of stripers that follow in squid to middle ground. Mike Earley reported to me that he was out early Sunday morning and caught 20 bass and they were all keepers. Unbelievable!! Glad Mike got into some good fish and I feel fortunate that once I happened upon this occurrence about 6 years ago. Also heard that Mike Hogan released his first 50 in Woods Hole. This year is just one that I would like to forget in terms of fishing luck. Admittedly I have not put in the time and I need to start. Early mornings and/or late nights need to happen with a little more frequency in order for me to really have a gripe about my bad luck. I guess when you get right down to it, I am just jealous.

Memorial Day Weekend

Friday - Christine took her students to Six Flags for a Great East Festival so I had the kids. We ended up swinging by Parker's after dinner. There was a lot of bait again. I decided to fill up a trash bag for the freezer. Everytime I snagged a menhaden they got chased by small stripers. The third one was chased by a beautiful 30" ish fish though. I tried leaving the menhaden out there, but no luck. Tried fishing with a Hogy and a Storm shad, but unable to get a fish to stay on.

Saturday - Andrew, Susan and Baby Aidan were over and we had a nice day at Thomas' baseball game and then a kids fair at North Falmouth Elementary. Later that night I took my students on a field trip to see the Boston Pops. John Williams was the conductor. Last year was my first year seeing the group in person at Boston Symphony Hall and I was brought to tears by the amazing sound and accuracy of the orchestra, but mostly by the brass section. The program was excellent and I was excited that they concluded the entire evening with E.T., my favorite movie score. The french horns were breathe taking.

Sunday - We decided to head out on the boat and we ended up having a great time. We headed out to the West End of the canal and then into Onset Harbor. By the time we made it into the harbor it was 11:00 and close to lunch time. After being convinced to dock the boat we did and we found the legendary pizza place, Mark Anthony's. Unbelievable pizza. We got home by 1:30 and it felt as though we were all ready for bed. I am impressed by my ability to launch and take out the boat. For a relative newbie I think I am the fastest at it that I have witnessed. Now if I can just get my boat driving skills up to that level I would feel a lot better. Getting there. Unfortunately, we missed out on going to a cookout at Mike Kennedy's that we had been looking forward to for some time. Christine and I were under the impression that Andrew and Susan would be leaving Sunday, but it didn't happen. It was impossible to talk Andrew to coming to the cookout with us and both Christine and I were uncomfortable leaving our kids with the Garcia's at our house. Overall a great day, but would have been nice to see some friends at Mike's. That would have been an unbeatable day if topped off with that.

Monday - Memorial Day Parade was a success. Wished I had more students there, but with how my scheduling has been for the past two weeks I can not blame me or the students. Thomas got sick and it was a frustrating cookout / graduation party / birthday party at the Kerrigan's because of it. He was a trooper as always and after he finally puked he seemed fine.

Why I hate lacrosse

Yes, I am being sarcastic, but with Memorial Day approaching I have yet to land a fish in '08. I love that both Gwen and Thomas are active and becoming more athletic. Gwen especially has become so much more comfortable with her body through lacrosse and gymnastics. I love it, BUT by this time last year I had already brought in close to 50 fish, schoolies, but fish. Now with Monday - Thursday nights all filled up with lacrosse practices I only have three possible days really to get any fishing in. Friday evenings I like to spend with the family and I am usually quite beat after a week of work. Saturday mornings Thomas has baseball at 9am. This is not a very good excuse because it has been going on for a month and he has only had one game! Why? The second thing that I hate - the weather. Every weekend the weather has been windy and rainy making the windows of fishing time even smaller than what they already are.

PHEW!!! I'm venting and I really don't hate lacrosse or the weather, I am just frustrated. Last night after work I swung into Parker's and had a nice fish follow my Amber Hogy in. I would say the fish was in the neighborhood of 28". About 20 yards past my cast I could see a huge school of menhaden and eventually they worked themselves to the dock I was casting from. They were huge and plentiful. I snagged one and livelined him, but had no takers. The fish I snagged had to be 14" long and weigh close to 2 or 3 lbs. That's a big bunker and there were about a hundred just like him. The rains came and I was still in my school clothes so I got out of there.

Proud Papa

Here is a picture of Thomas just after scoring his first goal in lacrosse. He is standing right in front of the coach in red. By the way, the goon in the background with his arms up is me acting like Thomas just scored the winning goal in the Olympics to upset the Russians. It was a pretty neat play. There was a huge scrum just to the right of the goal and Thomas entered it a little late. he got his stick in there, dug out the ball and turned to view a clear path to the goal. He threw an excellent bounce shot and that was that.

About my last post --

Christine gave me a bunch of garbage about a product review in my blog. Obviously this is really stupid, but it is not as dorky as it may seem. Its actually pretty cool. While searching around the humminbird website looking for a new unit (more on that later) I saw a place to write reviews. On a couple of message boards that I frequent Humminbird really gets a bad rap and I like mine so I decided to write a quick review. When I was done writing the review it asked me if I would like to post it to my blog. Not that I really cared, but I thought it would be cool to see how they did it. I just sent them the blog address and then a pop up window asked me for my blog password and it was done. Pretty cool.

Why am I looking for a new fishfinder unit? On the last fishing trip I talked about how Mike and I were marking fish and making a drift, but what I failed to mention is how hard it was to turn around and make the same drift. It would have been very easy if I had a GPS unit. Mark the spot on the GPS unit and return to it after the drift is done. This is the case with most companies, but apparently not Humminbird. I had been told that if you want to change electronics you need a whole different transducer and mount etc. I went on to the Humminbird website and found a unit of the same size, but had GPS. I currently have the 343c and the 383c has GPS. The price difference is not even $200 and I think that if West Marine had this on display I would have bought this in the first place. I called Humminbird and they said that their units are completely compatible, meaning that all I need to do is attach the face of a 383c to the base of what I already have and I am good to go. Now I am pumped up. I decided to check out ebay and see what is up with prices. It looks as though I could sell my 343c for about $200 (probably a little less since it is used). It also looks like I could buy a brand new 383c for around $360. Pretty good deal. I will probably end up buying the 383c first and sell the 343c on ebay with the mount and transducer that comes with the 383c. I have also thought about calling Humminbird and seeing if I can just send in the face of my 343c and pay the difference for a 383c face. Wish me luck!

So Close

I took a few casts here and there yesterday during lunch and after work. I have not been hitting a lot of the usual early season estuaries and river systems, but I have been fishing the warmist water I can find easily. Along the south side of Falmouth there are many outflows from small estuaries that dump out into the open ocean. I fished a few of those and had my first hit of the season. I admittedly was not ready for it and probably could have hooked up if I wasn't in a daze. Stayed for another 15 minutes and was unable to draw another strike.

I took Thomas for a few casts at West Falmouth Harbor before Christine's concert and we had a lot of fun. Thomas was excited to finally try out his new RED fishing rod. He also put on one of the shad lures that I got him at Bass Pro Shops last weekend. He casted really well. I am hoping that he or Gwen get into their first keeper this year. I had another hit, but again I missed it.

Saw a really promising fishing report on Surf Talk from a boater who went out yesterday. He told of a lot of top water action in Buzzards Bay, including the West End of the canal. Of course, like last weekend, the weather is supposed to be horrible this weekend. I do not think I am going to sit around and do nothing this time though. I am finally going to put the foul weather gear to the test and rough it. No Excuses!!

Almost there, Really!!

Went out on the boat twice over April Vacation. Both times were very relaxing and I was more concerned with getting comfortable with the boat again and chatting with the family than fishing. Did I just say that? Anyway, on Saturday I had to convince Christine that we were not crazy for going out this early. There were enough boats being trailered on the road and out in the water for her to feel comfortable. Phew. The seas were almost flat calm so this was very nice for everyone because our last trip with the entire family was much too rough to enjoy. I was hoping to get up into Onset Harbor or Buttermilk Bay to see if there were some fish or seals, but the kids got a little bored around Mashnee Flats so we turned around.

Then, on Thursday I took my mother out while Christine and the kids went geocaching. The seas were around 2 to 3 feet, but the temperature was mostly comfortable and it was nice to just chat about life with my mom. Ocean temperatures were a good 4 to 5 degrees warmer on Thursday then they were on Saturday. Good weather to blame for that. We went into Red Brook Harbor and the water actually reached 57 degrees. This was the only spot I took a few casts, but this was mostly just to get my line wet for the first time and cast the new Hogy Skinny.

Fish reports have more and more fish being caught on the south side of Buzzards Bay area like Marion etc. Even a report of a couple keepers. Usually the first keeper out of Woods Hole comes the first few days of May so maybe this weekend I will see what is happening there.