Catching Up, A couple things

The Boat -

The boat is winterized and ready to be picked up. Under warrantee the engine was fixed and problems gone. The trim motor was replaced and the excess salt that was building up in the engine was due to the transducer of the depthfinder/fishfinder. Apparently at high speed the water was splashing up from it and getting into the engine. The boat is shrinkwrapped and has a part being made to fit the fishbox up front that had a crack in it. Very happy to have all of this covered under warrantee.



The Concert -

Martin!!! Went to see martin Sexton with Christine, Mike and Jenny. So amazing, again. The acoustics in the Berklee Performing Arts Center are incredible which was an added bonus to the performance. Memorable moments to me were Candy, Glory Bound, Way I Am, My Maria and Blue Christmas. Most amazing of all was Hallelujah though. A song that I never really listened to much on my ipod. It was nothing short of breathtaking. He was able create an amazing chorus using the more talented than usual crowd. Everyone singing Hallelujah in harmony was unbelievable. Tears were literally streaming down my face. Gypsy Woman was also really cool. When he went over to his effects microphone he jammed out on an Eastern Scale for awhile until going into The Star Spangled Banner ala Jimi Hendrix. Awesome!!

Oh Well, Next year

Went out on the boat on Columbus Day weekend with Gene Bourque. We found a nice school of bluefish in Quicks' Hole. That was fun, but we were both looking for one more nice bass for the year. No such luck. Tons of people were out there for the final day of the Martha's Vineyard Fishing Derby. More boats than i had seen out there all year and we were out there early too.

Long story short(ish). Trimmed up my engine while fishing in close to some rocks. Left the engine in the water just barely and engine running. The trim motor ends up burning/shorting out on me and it would not go back down. Had to start heading back in early and it still took us nearly two hours to return. Normally a 20-25 minute drive. It's covered under warranty so I am optimistic. Boat is getting worked on and winterized at Edwards.

Thomas has officially caught the last bass of the season. We went to Parker's and he caught a 14" bass on a small Storm shad. Really cool. This was his first bass that he had casted, hooked and reeled in by himself. Doubt I will muster up the energy to fish one more time at Mashnee. Such a long haul to get there and now it is such a crap shoot as to whether or not there are fish.

I have to say that I had an awesome fishing season. I remember having an earlier post about trying to find the irony in how slow my season started. I think I learned a lot about fishing, family and me as a fisherman this year. I am not going to be one of those guys i read about that fish 5 nights a week between the hours of 2am and sunup. Isn't going to happen!! Sure I will do the occasional nighttime excursion, but not with enough regularity to compete with the likes of the local sharpies. I have come to realize that in the spring and fall (which happens to coincide with the best fishing for bass) I am just far too busy to fish like crazy. School is in session and our whole family revolves around a school schedule. Add the kids' spring sport schedule and it is hard to find any time to relax let alone fish.

My memories from this season will be:

1. The epic fishing at Mashnee during the first week of June. I caught and released multiple bass in the 20 lb. range.
2. Fishing the Elizabeth Islands including Cuttyhunk and catching bass on every trip. Almost a keeper every trip too.
3. Taking the boat out to Stellwagen Bank and watching the whales and searching for tuna.
4. Going out with the family in the boat and docking up in Onset and eating at Marc Anthony's.
5. Fishing in the same spot as other people that were catching nothing and hooking up on the 7" bone Hogy. Happened multiple times.

Tom's fishing blog will most likely become a Borning family blog for the next 6 months or so. :)

Where did September go?

I can't believe September has come and gone. I think my grand total of fishing outings for the month was 2!! Only really upset that I wasn't able to get out there and try for the Albies that finally came in to Buzzards Bay the past couple weeks. Between the start of school, kids soccer, vacations and weather it has just been near impossible for me to find the time to get out there. In situations like this in the past I normally would sacrifice a little sleep in order to get some fishing in, but the fact is that for the whole month of September I was sleeping horribly. I had the worst case of allergies that I can remember since I was in high school. So, the amount of sleep I was getting was already compromised - forget about adding fishing to that! There were even a few nights that I was up from 2-4am blowing my nose and sneezing that I considered heading out to wet a line. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Only a few weeks left and the big bass are on the move through the canal. If wishes were horses (I still have no idea what that saying means) I would get out to the Elizabeths one more time on the boat and the west end of the canal a few more times sprinkling in some dock fishing at my October secret fishing spot, Parker's Boatyard. Thanks to Dr. Mosychuk I can actually breathe and sleep again. So maybe I will get some nighttime fishing in with eels and search for my first 30 lb. shore fish. Frankly, one more keeper bass would be nice no matter what the size plus I would love to get a couple big bluefish. Here's to hoping.

Surf Talk and JDRF Fundraiser

I decided to do a fundraiser on a message board called Surf Talk. It has been a success so far having raised $85. What surprised me was the tremendous outreach by other anglers out there that have been willing to donate plugs. I now have 10 prizes in the raffle. Two RM Smith plugs which run at least $25 a piece, a package of Hogy's, 5 homemade plugs that look amazing, an antique Atom plug and a couple other plugs as well. My goal when i started this was to hopefully raise $100 so I am almost there, but now I have a feeling that I may get closer to $150. As of right now I have 5 entrants in the raffle so each person will actually win two things and when I repost a new thread I will include pictures of all the great prizes and discuss the incredible odds of winning. Hopefully this will gain me another handful of entrants at $5 a piece. Here are some pictures of the prizes being offered.

Getting Ready to Heat Up - Or Cool Down

The general temperature of the Cape is starting to cool down quite a bit which means to me that the fishing will start to heat up. I have been disappointed at the lack of bluefish, albies and bonito in Buzzards Bay this year and I am hoping that those that fish these waters regularly are rewarded with a nice fall blitz. Overall I am very happy with the season I have had as it has been the most productive in terms of keeper bass that I have caught on my own ever. It will take a long time to add up to two of the amzing trips I have gone on with Steve Page where we threw back probably close to twenty-five 40" fish each trip. In a way though I do not even count that trip. I did not catch the fish. Yes, I was holding the rod and reeled the fish in etc, but I was not the one who found the fish and chose what rod, lure, line etc. to use. With the lack of fish in Buzzards Bay it has meant that I have had to make many a trip to the Elizabeth's in order to find the good fishing which has been loads of fun, but it has not been kind on my gas bill. Yes, I get great mileage on my boat and can get three to four lenghthy trips out of it, but it adds up real quick for a family of teachers. Christine has been awesome about letting me go out on the boat just about whenever I ask. I alos think that I am quite reasonable about it too and try to make it as painless as possible. In the early summer i could leave at 4am and have enough light to see so I was done fishing by 9am. Now that I have to leave at more like 5am I am done around 10am, but the possitives are that I really still have an entire day to spend with the family after I have done a morning fishing. I am thinking that I am going to have to be willing to get down and dirty this fall. Lots of layers and deal with some heavier seas and not be afraid to get a little rained on. With school in full swing I am going to need to take advantage of the weekends as much as possible. I am not afraid to take a sick day or two, but with having to be out a good amount for Thomas and music festivals etc. my days add up really fast. Before my last trip with Gene I told myseof that I would like to get just one more keeper before the season is done, but since it already happened I think I may add one more to the list.

Labor Day Weekend Fishing

I was looking forward to getting in some fishing this weekend before getting back to school. I went out early on Saturday morning with some eels and Hogy's. My plan was to fish the Vineyard sound side of the Elizabeth's. I started out casting around some rocks near Robinson's Hole where I have caught some bass before. Nothing there. I moved on to some rocks near Quicks' Hole and still no luck. I decided to move towards Cuttyhunk. This is the first time I have fished the Vineyard Sound side of the island. I went right up to the fishing club and stated throwing some eels. I saw a few fish near the surface that were pushing some bait around, but they were not interested in eels so I threw the Hogy at them and soon after I started doing that they were no where to be seen. I ended up going all around the island fishing rocks and the rip that sets up at the end. Still no fish.

On the way home I decided to fish a couple spots around Naushon to try and avoid the skunk. I did manage one small schoolie and a few casts later while I was getting out a knot I reeled in and had a fluke. My first one of those.

Yesterday I went out with Gene Bourque. There was a stiff NW wind that made Buzzards Bay pretty unenjoyable on the trip out to the Elizabeth's, but after we went through Wood's Hole Vineyard Sound was as flat as could be. Gene showed me some great spots along Naushon to fish. At one spot Gene got two nice keepers in the 30-35" range and I missed two fish and my line snapped on another upon setting the hook. Maddening. We worked our way south and Gene was able to get one more fish just under keeper size. We were almost at Cuttyhunk and decided to fish these rocks on Nashawena that looked rather fishy. This time I hooked up twice and brought in a nice just under keeper fish and a nice 30+" fish.

The interesting thing about the fish we caught was that each time one of us hooked up the other one missed a fish at just about exactly the same time. It was like as soon as one fish decided to attack another followed.

The ride back was awful. Vineyard Sound was OK in spots, rough in some and dead flat in others. After thinking we may go through Robinson's and return through Buzzard's Bay the 5 foot waves changed our minds really quick. We were able to really make good time from Robinson's down to Wood's Hole on the Vineyard Sound side, but it took nearly an hour to get from Wood's Hole to Fiddler's. What an uncomfortable and bumpy ride. But, worth every second of it.

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.