“Capt., I want to fish a few days in a row, what can we fish for to mix it up a bit? I am bringing my family and friends up, and some of us want offshore, some want to see land all day, I want to scratch off a bucket list fish, and I have kids that I don’t know what to do with.”
This is my specialty. Over the winter, quarantining myself with Covid, re-examining my 17 years as a charter captain, I have done a lot of thinking. I got a new boat…quite similar to my old boat. Check. I love that fishing platform. And I am making it better than the old Black Rose ever was.
“I’m not sure if offshore fishing would be too much for my kids.” It’s a very common question. I usually answer “I had 7 year-old twins fishing for sharks without any problem.” These kids wanted to fish and they fished all day. I have had a four year-old dropping for haddock in 200′ of water. It’s really up to the kid.
Do you remember those “Choose your own adventure” books? I liked those a lot. You would get to a page and they would ask “do you want to walk to the left or walk to the right?” Depending on how you answered, you finished the story a different way. I could leave from Green Harbor in July ready for: haddock, striped bass, sharks, giant tuna, run-and-gun tuna, or even mackerel/whiting. All very different experiences, yet we all leave from the same port.
Depending on the winds, however, on that same day we might decide to leave from Mattapoisett ready for: Black Sea bass, porgy, fluke, bluefish/striper, tautog, cod, shark, or tuna. And the shark fishing would be very different from the shark fishing out of Green Harbor.
Or we could leave from Bass River in South Yarmouth for giant tuna, run-and-gun tuna, sharks, cod/haddock/pollock, striped bass, giant fluke off of Nantucket, sea bass, porgy, or even mackerel.
The “feel” of the ocean in each of these scenarios would be completely different. Even assuming great weather all around, one might have zero-vis fog and 50 degree water, another might have 75 degree water and another might have whales breaching for miles. You might be fishing in the lee of giant cliffs off of the Vineyard or with the Boston Skyline in the background. Shark fishing in one place you could be waiting for a huge porbeagle to appear, while another one you may be targeting great numbers of blue sharks, while the last you could be hoping for a mako or thresher to rip off line and start jumping.
Even parking and launching the boat is vastly different in each of these ports. Driving by mansions on old Cape Cod to South Yarmouth..the precise launching of boats into a river… The working port of Green Harbor, as charter boats assemble and lobster boats take off… The nicest people on earth in Mattapoisett talking with you as you wait around the ramp ready for a slow cruise through the harbor, while looking at priceless estates and million-dollar sailboats.
When people have a few days at their disposal, we have less of a daily urge to get it all done at once. “Smelling the roses” is a term that comes to mind. As I get older, passing the 50 mark, I appreciate the little details more and more. I’m glad that I have a clientele that does as well. Thank you very much. I’ll see you on the water, Capt. Rich 508-269-1882