Old guys and the sea
About 15 years ago, my son and I decided to take the grandkids on a deep sea-fishing rip. We were living in Martha’s Vineyard at the time and the family was visiting. We called on of the Charter captains in Menemsha and got a rate and a date. (As an aside, Menemsha is where a lot of the boating scenes were filmed for Jaws)
Bright and early we packed everyone into the car and drove up Island for our date with Captain Jack. He turned out to be a rather nice young man who made his living doing charters. He charged by the half-day and we could pile as many on his boat as we wanted. There were 8 of us and we brought our lunch and a cooler of sodas for the kids.
We left and the kids were all excited. The captain said he would explain everything to us once we got to his sweet spot. He said he was the only one that never came back without a fish. The rule is, “No fish, you don’t pay”. He said all the other fishermen wanted to know his secret and actually followed him when he set out to fish.
The trip was beautiful and in the morning sun the Vineyard is spectacular. We rounded Gay Head and headed for a place called Squibnocket. Captain Jack pointed out the shoreline and said this was the area here Jackie Kennedy had her family compound. In fact, it was the area where John Kennedy crashed his plane in the morning fog. People assumed he was trying a fly over to show the passengers his mother’s place and got disoriented.
We anchored and Captain Jack started his tutorial. At the stern he had this Trolling chair and said we would all get a chance to fish one at a time. He took my grandson Kyle and strapped him in and gave him the gigantic rod and reel. The line was 100-pound test and it had a steel wire leader with the hook attached. He said, if he didn’t use that the fish would bite through it.
He then reached into his bag and pulled out a 10 in section of red surgical tubing and placed it on the hook. He did all this while shielding himself from the other boats nearby. He said the surgical tubing was his secret weapon and vowed us all to secrecy. The kids loved the solemn nature of the moment.
The line went overboard and he started the engine and began a slow trace of the shoreline keeping his eyes on the fish finder.
All of a sudden – Wham, Kyle had hooked a monster Striped Bass. The Captain came back and showed Kyle how to work him toward the boat using the reel and slack line. The Kid was excited and when the fish broke water, I thought Kyle was going overboard. We got the fish on the boat and measured him. In Massachusetts the fish has to be a minimum 28 inches and weigh more than 30 pounds (this has changed since we went). Kyle’s fish met the qualifications but we decided to go for bigger. Captain Jack then pick up the fish over his head and shouts towards the other boats and heaves the fish overboard. The yells and screams from the other boats were kind of enjoyable. His message was “Don’t mess with Captain Jack”
We did this for the next 2-3 hours and everyone got a chance. By Law we could only keep 1 fish for each person fishing so our keep limit was 7. We caught 35 and threw the rest back keeping the largest. 7 fish. The ones we released were all alive when we let them go.
By noon we were headed back to port with our catch. Everyone seemed to have a smile on their face and I hoped it would be an experience they would remember.
The Striped Bass is a beautiful fish and size can go up to 50-60 pounds. Just watching the smallest grandchild reeling one of these in was a joy. It wasn’t easy for them and it’s like hooking into a small refrigerator. Kyle was the weight winner of the day at 42 pounds.
When we got to Port we had to unload our catch. Our 7 fish weighed in at over 200 pounds and Captain Jack started the process of filleting the fish. He had this beautiful boning knifes and was an expert using it on the fish. The kids all stood around him watching the process and up on the dock about 75 people stopped to gawk at Captain Jack and he made a grand show of his artistry. It was free advertising for him
What a day! We thanked the Captain and headed home with enough fish for a month. The conversation going home was excited and everyone had stories to tell their friends
That night some of the catch was our dinner.
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