Some of the Romeo gang (Retired Old Men Eating Out) decided to go deep sea fishing a few weeks ago and asked Paul Girard to find some possible fishing charters out of Gloucester, MA. Paul has had great success planning other trips and suggested the Sandy B Fishing Charters. You can see the web site at the link …… http://www.captbluefin.com/index.htm Paul emailed the info and five Romeos signed up to take the trip: Paul Girard, Jim Terlizzi, Joe Pignatiello, Joe Lapiana and Mark Ryan.We booked the trip for September 15, 2009 and we all met at Solomon Dock in Gloucester. This would be a 4 hour trip from 8 AM to Noon. We all had high hopes of catching a ton of fish and I brought a cooler and some bags to “lug” home the heavy load.
If you have ever been fishing, you know that there are good and bad days where you catch more than you can use or nothing at all. With great anticipation, I told some of my family and neighbors about the trip and even promised them some. After, we would have a big “Fish Fry”. You can see photos of the trip at the link ….
http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/FishTrip91509#
It was a beautiful day with blue skies and a few wispy clouds. We met the boat near the Heritage Maritime Museum and Solomon Dock at 7:45AM and were soon on our way out of Gloucester Harbor. There was already activity in the harbor with fishing boats, a rowing team and the Coast Guard moving out. Along the way we observed the shore line with all the beautiful homes, some hotels and Hammond Castle. We also saw the Twin Lighthouses, lobster buoys, sea gulls and cormorants.
We first stopped about a ¼ mile off of Hammond Castle around a small rocky island and cast our lines with herring bait near the rocks. After 30 minutes and no bites we moved on to deeper water. The captain navigated out between the buoys to an area about 80 feet deep. Although there was no sign of fish on the electronic fish finder, we again cast out our baited lines. With no bites we moved to another location and dropped anchor. The boat swung around into the current as the anchor grabbed the bottom. Again we had no luck and decided to pull up anchor and try some trolling as the bout moved along at about 5 mph.
The mate, Paul Gaddis, changed rods and attached big lures to the fishing lines to get ready for trolling. Only two fishing rigs could be used at a time while we trolled, so there would be no tangling of lines and less confusion. As we trolled the lines out, we threw out some chum over the stern to attract any fish in our wake. Chum is just a soupy mix of chopped up fish bait.
At about 11 AM one pole bent over and Joe Lapiana started to work the catch by pulling up and then reeling in. At the same time the other rod caught another fish and Mark Ryan worked that rod. Within a few minutes we had both caught a Blue Fish. The captain helped net the fish and brought them on board. The mate unhooked the Blues and put them both in a catch box. Both fish measured about 10 pounds and about 30 inch in length. At least we caught something. There are good days and bad days. Although fishing does take experience and boat captain know how, the fish are not always in the spots that you are looking.
Although we continued trolling, we got no further bites and decided to head in. On the way in, the mate Paul put on rubber pants and filleted the fish. Like an expert, he cut off the head and tail and sliced some fillets off each side of the fish. He also removed some of the dark red arteries that ran down along the fish sides. Paul then put a few fillets in several plastic bags so we could all take some home.
We tied up at the dock about 12:15 PM and said good bye and thanked the captain and mate for a relatively good day. Being hungry, we decided to stop for lunch at the Causeway Restaurant on Rte. 133. The food was great, the placed packed and the company terrific. Life Is Good!
