Week ending 2/08/10

Who Dat! It was pure meham in our house last night as our New Orleans Saints came roaring back to become the Super bowl champs.Captain's Whit and Den both native New Orleans have been waiting since they were iust little tike's for this moment. I wasn't even a bit nervous even when we were 10 points down because, like Drew, I truly believed it was our destiny. Following the Saints as closely as I do, I also new we had the better and most cohesive team, held together by strong ties of real love, trust and respect for each others abilities. You really have to be proud of the Saint's and of our entire country, last night the Saint's became America's team. I'm really confident that 2010 will be a much better year for all of us. I'm looking forward to us pulling together to get our whole great country back on it's feet, the way the city of New Orleans has just four years after Katrina.

This week, I started mailing out your 2010 season newsletters. They came our really nice and should be a good read on a cold February eve. If you left your address in our guest book you should be receiving your copy in the next 10 days. To be fair to all, our 2010 season reservations will begin Saturday morning, Feb 27th at 8 am sharp! Ensign Ed has agreed to help again this year, so you should be able to get through on either his phone or mine with out much problem.

Gloria and I escaped for our 1st winter weekend getaway. We were invited to my good friend Wayne Guyette and his wife Karen's home in Spofford Village, New Hampshire.We were treated like kings and had a wonderful time. The weekend was highlighted by the Guyette families 5th annual Chili festival. Couples from all over the Keene area come together to beat back the cold winter doldrums and offer up their "Secret Chili Recipes" for annual bragging rights.Pictured on the right are this years winners. "Left to right", Mike 2nd place, Amy 1st place, our hostess Karen, and 2nd place Madeline. Mike's chili was the hottest and one of my three favorites. Amy's first place entry was made with her husband and my good friend "Bob Posner's" venison steak". Karen's my personal favorite, was the first "cod fish chili " I've ever experienced. Move over Mexico! Pictured on the left is Gloria with "Wayne and Karen's" three loving boxers, Zoey, Bo, and Ceirra. Karen and Wayne has been involved with "Boxer Rescue" and other orphaned canine organizations for over twenty years.

Week Ending 1/15/2010

Week ending 1/015/10...Winter preparations for the 2010 season begin ..

Yesterday Frank Davis and I braved the chilly 6 degree morning air, taking the "India Marie" for a little ride out of the harbor, around the bell buoy and back to the launch ramp. Pictured right is Frank in the wheel house as we warmed up the engine for her last ride of the season.

Capt.Scott Worthing hauled her about noon time and gave us a prime dry dock spot right next to the "Gath IV" in his Webhannet River boat yard. Over the next 90 days the crew and I will do our best to pretty up the two girls and bring all their mechanical and fishing systems to like new condition.There's always a lot of annual maintence and a major project or two on each vessel. I can assure you we're going to be very busy refurbishing both boats and bringing them up to the standards we all enjoy ever summer. Lets hope for kinder weather this spring that will make the work more enjoyable. I'll keep you updated on our major projects and our progress every week or two throughout the winter.

India's launch is scheduled for April 27th and Gath's for May 15th.

Yesterday, I submitted our list of lucky anglers to the Maine Dept of Marine resources. This season we had thirty five guests who landed beautiful fish large enough to be recognized by the state of Maine as Tackle Buster Trophies. I'm sure some of these fish were also the largest fish of that species caught anywhere in our state during the 2009 season.We'll soon know as they will be posted on an annual Maine state recreational fishing newsletter. The other really "outstanding cool thing" is that almost all of out trophy fish were voluntarily released back to the ocean unharmed by our forward thinking guests.
Inshore Captain Whit landed more twenty five pound plus trophy stripers than in any of our previous twelve seasons, fourteen in total. Our two largest ever, Rich Palmer (CT's) 47 pound 44.5 incher and Sharon Waterhouse (ME's) 37 pound, 44.75 inch lead the pack.

"Center picture" below is 11 year old Suzanna Van Gelder (NY) and her dad Ed, they are long time annual guests on the Gath III. Suzannah's 35pound, 40.5 inch striper was our 4th biggest of the season. All four of these fish were released alive and kicking after their pictures were taken. Pictured on Suzannah's left is our good friend of many years, Frank Fazio (NH) with his 24 pound, 35 inch striper. On her right is another long time friend Kelly Cleveland (NY) with one of our biggest trophy cod of the 2009 season. Kelly's cod also released alive, wieghed in at 26 pounds, 39 inches. I can't thank you all enough for making 2009 another really fun,special and successful year for our Capt Satch and son crew.



I hope you found the pictures of your family that I posted on our 2009 season slideshow video on You tube. I was also able to edit and upload a "really cool" 5 minute flick of Paulie Mier (PA) catching our largest Bluefin Tuna ever. It's titled Paulie's 15th birthday surprise (click here). There are at least seven Captain Satch videos on you-tube. When you are watching one, if you look to the right there is a highlight: more from Captain Satch, click on that heading and all seven will pop up for your perusal.
Please feel free to e-mail me any video clips you may have of your trips aboard Gath or India. If you'd like to share them with our other guests, I'll try to make a clip of them to post on you tube this winter.