Back in the hunt...

Ms. Jeanette and I hosted the "John Mansur, Danny Weldon Charter" on India's first offshore trip of the 2010 season yesterday. The weather as perfect as I've ever seen the first week of May. "Indi Marie" ran flawlessly thanks to the special care and skill little Dennis took reviewing all our mechanical systems. And the spring cod fishing was excellent, especially considering we had to find the schools of the new arriving stocks. By the 3rd stop of the day we were right on them and our illustrious crew caught white bellied cod steadily throughout the day. As always we had a really fun time with this fine crew. It's great to have guests that really appreciate the effort my illutrious crew puts in. John won the pool with our largest cod of the year so far a fourteen pounder, hard to believe but I pretty sure Phil Streeter was high hook, his brother Paul is shown w/ a 10 plus pounder in the picture with John. Dan "Woody "Yankabitch (top of post) led the pool for a while with a his nice 8 pounder.




We also caught a nice slew of redfish "Ocean Perch" and even with all those spines we didn't require the services of "Doc Mulligan" to pull any hooks or spines. I'm really thrilled to have India sound and ready for the new season, and I again want to thank everyone that contributed so much to get her ready. We are now available for charter every day, I believe Keith and I still have room for two anglers on next Friday May 14th's 10 hour offshore trip. Ensign Ed's number is 207 339-9531. Hopefully we will continue to enjoy fair weather. The cod and haddock are here, and the stripers aren't far behind, the first schoolies were landed at York River this week.

Captain Whit and I are still very busy putting the finishing touches on the "Gath IV", our topside paintwork is complete and she's looking fine, now on to the house and interior decks. There is always a slew of paperwork and safety items to prepare for her annual Coast Guard inspection. Whit's busy with that, she's scheduled to launch the week of May 17th so if you "like Cousin Bob" missed out on a day at the yard painting India, you still have a chance to enjoy passing a brush over the new Gath IV. Till next week..Captain Satch

A full week of perfect spring weather and the most conscientious crew in Maine!

The India Marie and the Gath IV were transformed this week "like butterflies coming out of their winter cocoons". Eric, Dennis, Captain Whit, and I worked every day shining up both boats. Little Dennis went through all of "Indi's" mechanical systems with a fine tooth comb. On Wednesday, we had this whole crew plus Frank and Jeanette, and even little McCarey jumping into the frey. Wayne Guyette took time off from the hectic pace at his new fire protection company in Keene to cross the entire state of New Hampshire to perform our annual fire suppression system inspection. No other boats in New England could possible have such dedicated folks that take so much initiative to pull it all together. Little Dennis's wife Sara presented us with new American flags and I picked up our new lettering from Gary@ "Burpee Signs" to put the finishing touches on our proud little vessels.


Captain Whit, Eric and Ms. Jeanette are shown in this picture finishing up the new fishing spot Kieth designed on Gath's port house. I'm not even going to show a picture of the boats yet, you'll have to come to Indi launch to have a peek. We will be launching this week... feel free to give me a call on my new boat cell 207 475-4676 for the specific day and tide. Best Satch

April Vacation...

A big week ahead. Launch day is fast approaching. With a week off from school, Captain Whit, Eric, Little Dennis, Keith, Jeanette, Frank and I will all be on hand every day this week working to insure Gath is ready for her annual Coast guard inspection. We had another week of steady progress. I worked till 8 pm Friday helping Keith design and make modifications to Gath's house to add an additional fishing spot on her port side. Keith polished of a jig saw and at least five blades cutting through the thick fiberglass panel. The change not only gives our guests a lot more fishing room, but also adds to the overall sleekness of "Aggies" lines. We also engineered her aluminum safety rail modifications and dropped off the drawings for our welder Paul Wallace to perform his magic. These modifications and her new Stealth green hull make her look like a new Southwest harbor coastal cruiser. Most major projects on the "India Marie" are complete, Little Dennis and Keith will be double checking all her mechanical systems this week. Checking through hulls, replacing hose clamps, cleaning and checking terminals on starter, alternator and bilge pumps.In my capacity as Captain I'll be rebuilding the head facilities.

Our old 1st mate Kelly and her husband Chris were up from Pa. this week to celebrate their 1st wedding anniversary.They stopped by the house this morning as Captain Whit, Jeanette and I were finishing up our annual federal fishing permit paperwork. They had a great day fishing aboard the "Bunny Clark" with Captain Tim yesterday, reporting some of the best spring fishing in years.



Here's nice pic of Captain Whit and Keith in the brisk 17 degree morning air aboard the new Gath IV. The weather forecast is for a favorable week to finish our paint work and were still hoping to start our fishing season a week earlier than originally scheduled. If your around the harbor this week your welcome to lend a hand putting it all together. Best Satch

Closing in on Launch Day!

The warm spring weather continues and presents us with a great opportunity to get the paint work completed ahead of schedule. Gloria and I traveled to Conn. on Thursday to attend my mom sister's "Aunt Flora's" 95th birthday party celebration. I sure was born into a wonderful family, a real special time was had by all as we shared memories with our cousins who attended from all parts of the country. Other than that my full effort has been spent at Scott's yard preparing and painting Gath and India. With Jeanette, Franks, Dennis and Whits help things are shaping up quite nicely. I expect we'll get even closer to our goals in the the next three days as the weather is predicted to be perfect for painting at least until Friday. Come on down and say hi, so far were seen Chris and Terry Lamb, Gary Coffie, and Pete Sage.

In other news,Gloria has decided to sell her 2007 "Honda civic hybrid". It's in super condition with a 120k mile Honda warranty. We inherited my mom's car that's paid for, and we have no need of both. So it's going to be a very good deal for someone. Please give me a call if you know of anyone whose looking for a real nice small car.




"Gath and India" are shown in the background in Emcee Spose's new video album "I'm Awesome". Filmed in Wells Me.. http://vimeo.com/10820195 I believe it's on the top of the Rapp charts, so it's pretty cool for the younger crowd. The boats are at 3:17 seconds on the album. Beware it has some inappropriate language for kids.

The crew and I will be working on the boats through the weekend so feel free to stop down, check our progress and say hi. Best Satch

Happy Easter! Wishing your families a very happy and holy Easter morning. Easter is favorite holiday, bringing arrival of spring and the hope for new growth in the coming year.

We've made good progress on the boats this week, Jeanette and I clucked along on the office work, Frank painted the white work in Indi's cabin house and I prepared the topsides on both India and Gath for the new season's paint job. Captain Whit has chosen a relatively new shade of green.. Stealth green, hopefully Whit and I we'll be applying the first coat later this afternoon.We've sure been blessed with the best outside painting weather in many years. Folk's are chopping at the bit to go fishing, and I'm starting to feel the pressure trying to get everything ready for launch. There's always so much to do with federal and state permits, CG inspections, harbor problems including new concerns of shifting sand bars, etc. It's so relaxing to spend a nice New England spring day just preparing and painting the boats, something I really enjoy, look forward to and another reason I love this business so much.

On a personal note..McCarey wound up his 2010 youth wrestling season yesterday at the Portland Civic center. He was the runner-up, in the New England Championship match taking 2nd place overall. Sixty eight teams came from throughout New England. He gave it his all, competing in the 70 pound, 5th and 6th grade class and did very well. He fought a boy from Connecticut in overtime rounds for the 2nd week in a row to make it to the championship match. Last week, he and Leo Abadee (Me), wrestled four addition overtimes..7 rounds..to establish the 3rd and 4th placement in the Maine State championships. It was a super match which went a long way to help promote the sport of wrestling. McCarey is really exciting to watch, I don't think it's just because I'm his grandpa that so many fans , move in to watch and cheer him on. McCarey has fine coaching staff, Shane Richard and his assistant Jared, inspire discipline, hard work, leadership and promote real sportsmanship. He's really grown the most in these aspects of sport and will take these traits with him for a lifetime.We'll now it's on to baseball, he was chosen by coach Ed Ballou to be on the No. Berwick Red's squad our towns longest running little league team. Ed's the "ol man" around the league, has been coaching for over thirty years. I believe one of our town fields has been named in his honor. Anyway practice starts this Wedsday evening, lets hope McCarey can help him steal enough bases to win to make the championship game! Best Satch

Work progressing toward launch day! An early spring continues to help our forward progress on the Gath and India. Over the weekend Captain Whit and I traveled to Patton's Boat yard in Elliot to pick up our new keel coolers for "India", we then made a quick stop @ Dave's boat shop to see the old crew and pick up our yearly allotment of Popsicles sticks. Yesterday Frank and I spent most of the morning getting brochures ready, and filing out necessary licensing paperwork, then we set off to visit our friends at Jackson's Hardware and Fasteners Warehouse to pick up material this weeks project lists. This afternoon, I was able to prep and begin painting the bottom of Whit's "Gath IV",while he was busy helping the kids at his High School. What a difference a year makes! Tomorrow morning it's off to Portland to deliver the life rafts for there annual inspection. No shortage of things to accomplish. I'll be working on the boats almost every day for the next three weeks, if you'd like to come by on a nice spring day and lend a hand, I have plenty of extra sanders and paint brushes ready to go.

If you like to follow our Captains log adventures you might also want to consider becoming a Satch and Sons fan on facebook. Just click on the facebook box on the left. You have to give them your name, date of birth and an e- mail address to join..No other info is required. It puts you in touch with many of our other friends and guests that fish on the boats, info on open dates for offshore trips and other fishing reports are updated daily, you can ask questions and one of the crew will fill you in on the latest scoop, there are literally hundreds of guest pictures that I've posted, any fan can share their own pictures, videos or comments on our wall. It's fairly active and pretty cool. Hopefully it will get even better as the season progresses and more folks participate.Tech savvy folks can post the most current pictures and info right from their cell phones, so you can show that guy who missed the boat exactly what he did miss..post haste. You've just gotta keep up with the young folks if you want to keep young at heart. If you've been putting it off like I was over the last year, it's probably a good time to check it out and get connected.. Best Satch

Spring arrives early in Southern Maine.. Captain Whit and I took full advantage of the beautiful 68 % weather Saturday spending the entire day working on the boats at the harbor. In this picture you can see our dog Fisher waiting patiently in the truck, while Whit prepares the skiff for spring launch. We had an enjoyable day pressure washing both Gath and India both inside and out. Bilges, engine rooms, topsides and bottoms, this little extra step makes everything smell like new, and cleans the salt, grit and grime off all the surfaces making the paint preparation so much easier. It saves us many hours of paint prep work and makes the finished coats on the topside so much smoother. Painting has begun in earnest on the cabin houses, and I hope the bottom painting will begin this week. Kieth is designing a modification to cabin house in the new Gath IV. We plan on removing two windows and a hard panel section on the cabins port side, and replacing this section with a side curtain that will roll up to provide additional access for our guests to cast a line. This will make even more fishing room for our guests to enjoy. It's little modifications like this that my crew thinks about every winter, that keep us a step ahead of many other charter boats in Maine. Your continued confidence ans support gives us this ability.






Sunday was spent at the Derry, New Hampshire.. Rebel Classic wrestling tournament. This is the largest youth wrestling event held every spring in New Hampshire. My youngest grandson McCarey "right" and his teammates, Emery "center" and Jake "left" our shown in the picture below. McCarey came in a strong third place in his 74 pound weight class, winning three out of four matches against some very skilled wrestlers from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. This qualifies him for the Eastern regionals in Oswego NY, as well as Mid-West Tournament in Columbus Ohio in late April. We'll see, if I can get the boats and all the licenses ready for launch on time, I'm considering taking him to one of these events. Again, thanks so much for sending your deposits on time, it makes a huge difference in getting everything ready and shipshape. Best Satch

Another Rainy Sunday! Spent another day in the office helping my youngest son Captain Den rework his Construction Co. website. Den is quickly gaining a fine reputation for designing and building real nice home additions. The site is www.McMahonconstructionco.com In this picture his crew is busy building a 2nd story on a cottage he designed overlooking the Rachael Carson reserve @ Wells harbor.




Ms. Jeanette and I made our first annual spring trip to Jackson's Marine and Hardware in Kittery Saturday morning. Janet and her family have always treated us like family since we began rebuilding the Gath III years ago. The care, special service and expertise you get at Jackson's makes it worth the trip. We purchased enough painting supplies to complete the cabin houses on both boats,once the weather clears on Wednesday. I wasn't to surprised to find the younger generation in the office busily linking the Jackson Hardware website to a facebook page as well.

Our fishing reservations for the 2010 season continue to go very well. I''m very happy to have heard from so many of our old friends and a few new folks as well. A good sign that the economy really is improving and just in time. Thank you kindly. We've also had over 213 folks sign up on our Captain Satch and Sons facebook wall in just it's first week.That's really cool. You can check it out by clicking on this pages facebook icon on the left.

Not just me but any of my fishing guests that join as fans are able to comment and list important info, special events, post their fishing pictures and video's and finally all our guests can find and contact each other if they so desire. My son Dennis horsing around with my goddaughter Monifa shortly before she kicked his butt.

Our first Spring like weekend... A really beautiful week end. I spent most of Saturday finishing up the new website w/ Laurie and her husband Mark who is diligently cracking the code on my laptop so I can make these updates on the ride home from the fishing grounds. While we were stuck indoors, Captain Whit, little Dennis, and Eric enjoyed the spring weather and worked reinstalling India's Marie new Rudder bearing assembly at the boatyard.

Jeanette was kind enough to gather all the necessary little hooks, and various color tubing for little Eric's latest project. He's busy tying a hundred or so custom made fishing rigs that Captain Whit has designed for his summer guests aboard the Gath IV. Earlier in the week Frank, Jeanette and I got it all together and began pouring our 1st batch of "Burkett 16 oz jigs" for the 2010 season. Nice pic of Whit and the Bobinator with the finished product.



For those interested in my youngest grandson McCarey's wrestling progress. We got up Sunday morning at 5am and traveled to Thompson Me, just north of Bath for Sundays wrestling tournament at Mt. Ararat High School. McCarey took a strong 3rd place finish in the 75 pound class. losing his 1st match 6 to 4 on points, then cleaning up his next three opponents with a pin @40 sec, a 15 / 0 tech fall/and a pin in the 3rd round. Best Satch

Linking... Fair Weather Fisherman's club page to the new site..

Hey folks'....Sure am having fun with the new website. Thanks for your interest. Today I joined all the young folks and opened a Facebook page. It's my intent to link it to the web page this weekend. My intent is to have a club page where all our fishing guests can chat, bump, jive, and ping each other...I think we'll have a lot of fun with it. The page is already on Facebook and is titled, Captain Satch and Sons..by joining as a fan you can get to participate in the blog, keep abreast all the latest updates, including open spots on our Friday offshore trips. I've been dreaming about finding a way for all my guests to communicate with any other folks you may have met on the boats over the years. Once I get the bugs out I think this is the answer.This is real exciting stuff, jump aboard and have fun. Best Satch

Excited about the new Web page...Thanks for your interest in the newly designed web page. We've had so many of you compliment us already about content as well as how easy it is to navigate. I've tried to e mail many of you, concerning joining our follower's link. I believe its something like a face book type friends page. You would be able to email or contact other folks who fish aboard the boats. that members signs up to send you and e mail. You still have to approve the link. If you wish to remain unanimous you still can receive notice whenever I update it with the latest fishing news. I'll give it a few weeks and see how you like it.


I again want to thank Eric's mom Laurie for all the effort to give us one of the very best charter fishing websites on the net.

Ms. Lisa Anthony(NY) with her 2.25 pound Maine State trophy Red landed on our October 2009 trip aboard "India".

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Hopefully, the crew and I will begin pouring jigs tomorrow morning. We were blessed when Jeannette's mom.."Marlene" thought so much of us that she presented us with her late husband Fred's 16 oz famous jig mold. A professional engineer and avid offshore fishermenThis is the mold that Fred carefully designed and made himself. It's movement through the water is superb and must truly resemble a herring in flight. A real attractant to tacticent cod and one of the reasons for our fishing success on our offshore trips aboard India.Well anyway tomorrow we hope to start the process making our goal of 100 for the 2010 season.. I'll post a pic or two.

Best Satch

Captain Whit and Les Shan (NJ) w/India's 1st Halibut




Week ending 2/28/10... New Web site design just in time for 2010... Hope you all enjoy our new website layout and design. We have not had a face lift since we began the business thirteen years ago. I take pride in our site, both because we built it ourselves and because I believe it has so much great content. I'm really greatful that so many of you have kept abreast of our comings and goings over all these years. I hope you like and find the new layout much more manageable.

Many of you know Captain Whit's youngest mate Eric, turns out his mom is a accomplished software engineer and web site designer. Anyway, Lori's been kind enough to work with me over the last few weeks to bring us into the 21st century. As you peruse around the site, you'll find that things pop up faster and are much easier to find and manage.She has incorporated the latest software technology so that the younger folks and a few of you suave old timers will be able to access content pictures and videos on your new blackberry's and I pods.

I'll have a little learning curve over the next month or so, but soon you'll be able to do a whole bunch of new stuff, like subscribing to the log to get automatic updates on offshore openings, text with other guests on line etc,etc,etc...Keep posted. Were so greatfull to Lori for her help, as the site develops, you may wish to request her help for your own business development. I be glad to put you in touch.Please let me know what you think of the site and if you have any suggestions of your own.

Reservations for this season began Saturday morning amidst the latest winter storm. Despite wide spread power outages across the Northeast, including no land line phone connection at our office, we did exceptionally well for opening day. Thank you all so much.

This week our welder Paul Wallace(NH) has begun modifying Gath IV's handhold's and rails to improve safety for our crew when putting her anchor down. Jeanette continues her steady pace repairing lures, making flys, and putting together guest logs for the 2010 season. Little Dennis is hard at it repairing Indi's rudder bearing, Frank and I are repairing poles and getting ready to pour some 16 oz. Burkett Jigs.We will begin our interior paintwork of the cabin houses in the next 10 days..We'll keep you posted. Thanks Satchie

Week ending 2/18/10

Spring newsletters hit the mail. It was a busy weekend as everyone chipped in to help prepare our annual Gath III newsletters for this weeks mailing. Jeanette spent days deciphering and updating our address book, Miss Trudy laid out and did the printing for the twelfth year in a row. Gloria, Courtney, Jeanette, Frank,Captain Whit and I folded, labeled and stamped for a few days and as if by magic.... they will appear in your mailbox this weekend. Hope you enjoy the read, it's fun for me to think back on each summers season and then do my best to present a four page synopsis that you hopefully will enjoy. As I re-read this years I thought of all the help and guidance my mom contributed over the years to give me this ability.Thanks mom! Anyway if you forgot to leave your name in the guest book and would like to receive one just call or e mail and I'll get one right out.This morning Jeanette and I reviewed and began to process of redesigning our fishing logs for this season. It will be another busy paperwork week getting 2010 reservation book ready for opening day next weekend. I wonder if we'll ever find the time to get back to the fun stuff like pouring jigs, rebuilding and spooling reels, and spicing up our jigging sticks.

Tomorrow morning, little Dennis, Frank and I will begin a fairly big project on India. We have to pull the rudder assembly to inspect and then repair or replace the bronze rudder bearing.The crew puts in a lot of hours and a serious effort in the off season to insure a safe and steady run offshore for our guests during the summer season. As you can see I have a bit of cosmetic topside work to complete and not much time before April's launch. Hope to hear from you next Saturday morning. Best Satch

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 1/25/10

Saints win NFC Championship! For the first time ever, and after a 43 year excruciating wait our Saints are off to the Super Bowl. As many of you know both Captain Whit and Captain Den were both born in New Orleans. We attended every home game in the Dome when they were little guys usually with brown paper bags on our heads to hide our identity as avid Saints fans.If you haven't lived in the "Big Easy" you just can't imagine what it like to be a Saints fan, inadvertent whistles and all. Anyway the entire family had one heck of a celebration last night with even Whit's old coon hound "Cooper" howling to beat the band ..When the Saints come marching in.. Archie's son Payton better buckle his helmet on the 7th.. See you in Miami.....

We enjoyed a fun Maine outdoor winter weekend. My lifelong friend Terry Shortelle (CT) came up for his first trip to Maine after retiring from his families business after 40 years. Always a true friend and a very kind guy,Terry brought little McCarey a full downhill ski outfit that his daughter had outgrown. Ski's, boots, poles, helmet, goggles, snow pants and jacket. Like every other sport he takes to McCarey took right off like the champ that he is. Pictured "left" all suited with his dog Fisher. Saturday, we spent the day at Powder House Hill in So Berwick. A super little beginners slope not five miles from the house, they have a real nice rope tow with 150 skiers maximum, and no lift line. Once he mastered the rope tow "second try", McCarey made quite a few friends and over 70 runs down the slope.We had a wonderful time enjoying the great snow conditions.

On Sunday morning, Captain Whit called and invited us ice fishing with his friends at Kennebuck Pond. It was my first time on the ice since we pulled "India" out of the water on Jan 15th. The fishing was very slow but the weather was beautiful. Looking at the horizon when your on a lake ice fishing in Maine is like your on another planet, another experience you can't really put into words.. If you haven't done it, please call and come up, the boys and I will be glad take you. Pictured on the right is 7 year old "Hunter" He ran head over heels to the only flag of the day and landed this nice 14 inch small mouth bass. Spring's coming, it's not getting dark till at least 5:23.... Best Satch

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.

Week ending 1/02/10

Happy New Year! Wishing all our good friends and guests good health and the hope of easier financial times for those in need this coming spring. We spent a few days over Christmas break with my grandson McCarey's Jamaican Grandma. Ms Patsy, I believe she summed it up best. "We are praying to God for continued good health and the strength to support our families in the coming new year." Here in Maine we are very blessed to have such a good life, clean water, great schools, caring friends and neighbors, a couple of strong seaworthy boats, our own farm and plenty of wood for a warm family hearth. It's my hope that we will continue working together over the next few years to make it easier for those who have so much less.

On Thursday, we officially ended or 2009 season aboard the "India Marie". On the last day of the year, Captain Whit, little Dennis and I hauled in the rest of Whits lobster gear back to Wells harbor. Pictured below are Whit and Den seated a top a fully loaded "India Marie". In her role as commercial lobster boat she is superb, able to haul at least 40 traps to and from the fishing grounds in heated comfort. " For the Captain in the wheel house at least". We enjoyed a very good fall lobstering, but all good things always come to an end and with the oncoming cold weather and heavy snow it was time to call it a season. I believe we timed it almost perfectly getting our gear in before this very large winter storm hit this weekend.


At noon time, I rode down to the harbor and tied additional storm lines on "Indi". The forecast is for northeast winds with gusts to 40 knots tonight and tomorrow morning.On the ride home I passed Captain Whit (pictured above) he was out helping his brother Den make a first pass on his ambitious snowplow route. Both boys will be busy plowing for a few days cleaning up this big mess.

I've already made arrangements w/ Captain Scott Worthing to have "India" hauled out at his Webhannet River boat yard early next week. Then little Dennis and I can begin working on our list of winter maintenance items. Whit and little Den spent a few days over the holiday insulating his new maintenance workshop. This will give Ms. Jeanette, Frank, and the rest of the gang a nice warm, well-lighted place to hang out make jigs and rebuild our fishing gear. Now that the seasons over, I'm already looking forward to a nice relaxing day ice fishing with my boys before I get immersed in submitting our guests trophy lists and my annual season newsletter.

Anyway Happy New Year and sincere thanks for another successful season..Satchie

Week ending 12/20/09

Annual Gath III Christmas Party! Last night we celebrated our 13th annual company Christmas party. Our fishing family and crew met at the house to celebrate the close of another safe and successful season aboard "Gath" and "Indi". A grand time was had by all. it's the only time during the busy year that all the crews wifes, families and special guests are able get together as one... Captain Whit and I do our best to thank everyone for putting up with the long strenuous hours the crew families experience during the busy summer season. I'm truly honored and in awe of the efforts my crew exerts to make your trips with us possible. An example of this was pointed out in this years funniest story presented by Captain Den. He spoke of observing Ensign Ed mowing his lawn with the reservations book bungee corded to his yard tractor as he tried his best to keep up with all the rescheduling conflicts caused by this seasons unusually bad weather.I can't say how humbled I am by how much time, hard work and sincere effort you all put in to keep our guests happy and secure in the fact that they our experiencing Maine's best charter fishing boats.

Pictured below, Ms. Jeanette is slicing the ham my wife Gloria, the Bobinator, Ensign Ed and his wife Jodi are in the background.Gloria was up a 6am preparing all day for the evening festivities. There was just so much great food, baked ham,venison meatballs, shrimp cocktail , baked lobster tails, homemade lasagna, special chesses, cakes, assorted home made fudges, blueberry pie, chocolate chip pie,chocolate and coconut date squares ..you get the picture! In the center,Captain Whit, Mellisa Porter, Jeanette, the Bobinator and Captain Satch enjoy a quick end of the season cigar in the 10 degree night air. As always the highlight of the evening for me, was sitting with our friends and crew telling stories about another great season we are leaving behind, and their expressing the hope for our renewed adventures in the spring of 2010. On right, mama Sarah opens her Santa swap gift as Mary Ann, Gloria and Little Dennis wait in anticipation.

The picture on the right is of the "only giant leather back sea turtle" I have ever seen in Maine waters. Nancy Noyes (Me) was kind enough to e-mail it to me. She was able to snap this picture of him this August ,when I was driving "India" back from a 10 hour offshore trip. It was taken about seventeen miles offshore.