The "India Marie" began her offshore fishing season in earnest this week.The weather has been perfect, a 180 degree change from last season. Large schools of herring are moving into are area, and nice schools of spring cod are hot on their tail. Our illustrious crew caught a real great assortment of fine fish throughout the day. It was great fun. There are definitely more herring than in the last few years, maybe the little moratorium on their overfishing is starting to pay dividends. Large schools of fin back whales were swimming around "India" most of the day making the trip that much more enjoyable. Randy Jewett (Me) was fisherman of the day. Randy landed the largest pollack I've ever seen in the spring, his 29 pound 46 inch trophy is seen (left). Shortly after landing this fish Randy's drag started streaming out again and after at least a 9 minute battle a 30 plus pound trophy cod broke the surface. Randy was considerate enough to allow us to release this beautiful cod back to the sea alive after I took this quick picture of him. (right) Kieth did his revival work on this beautiful big breeder, and after about four minutes she happily swam back down to her school. Fish of this size produce well over 2 million eggs each season,while it is certainly legal for our guests to keep them, we try to convince folks to consider releasing them to build up the stocks for our grandchildren. We were happy to award Randy a Captain Satch and Sons.. Catch and Release tee shirt for his quick, cool thinking. Thanks Randy! Gus Elliot (Me) fishing n the pulpit landed the third largest fish of the day a nice 21.5 pound cod."Shown top of post" A rookie on the boat Nick Sawyer (VT) was high hook landing double keeper catches fairly consistently. A fine assortment of fish was landed by all, and it looks very promising for a good week f fishing with good weather predicted for at least the next few days.
Inshore we made two family trips this week. Naomi and Tom Masterson (NY) are shown on their two hour evening trip.They spent their honeymoon in Bar Harbor and enjoyed an evening with Christin and I on their return home. It was Naomi's first trip on the ocean and although we didn't land any stripers a great time was had by all. My old mate Quintin Gallucia and I also enjoyed taking our neighbors Joanne and Charlie Anderson (Me) on a tour of the Kennebunk coast. We worked their son Neil's friends from Florida and Georgia hard trying about everything in the book to land at least a mackerel to no avail.But we all had a great time. The good news is that the bait has just arrived in good numbers inshore as well. Stripers are chasing small fish into the local rivers as I right this column. Christin landed some nice stripers in the Saco River the last few days and I beliee he and Captain Whit will land our first ones aboard India this afternoon.
As of this morning we still had room for two guests on next Friday's May 28ths 10 hour offshore trip. Don't forget the Captain Whit's Gath IV debuts her 2010 season next weekend Memorial Day. Sir Ernie Pigeon "one of Maine greatest guitar pickers" will be aboard on Sunday evening's 2 hr family trip to start the season off right with a sea shantie's . This will be one of those trips talked about for years to come. Give Ensign Ed a call @ 207 339-9531 or 337 -0800 to make your reservations while we still have room. Best Satch
