A Fishing Trip. Really?

     Our first cruise in the season was a fishing trip.

     Fishing? Me? Really?

     Yup.

     Mike Guay and I took Infinite Improbability to Block Island to join members of the Waterbury Power Squadron on the First Annual (if the wives allow it again) Men's Fishing Trip. Friday 21 May (Heather's Birthday!) we headed out early and when we got out to Block Island Sound we started trolling two lines behind us. We were motoring because of absolutely no wind but cutting back our RPMs to a better fishing speed. After being enroute for about 8nm the breeze picked up and we decided to reel in the lines to prepare to sail. That's when a Striper (Striped Bass) hit the lure Mike had put on my fishing pole. After a little scramble to get the boat organized I reeled it in. First time for me. Never fought a fish before. And it was a fight. This guy was not interested in being dinner that night. But he was.

I thought the fish was 3 feet long after we measured it but after being 'consulted' by experienced fishermen I found out it was 36 inches. Go figure. No matter the length, it was delish.

     Saturday the squadron guys went out on three boats for the actual fishing outing. Two boats were owned by big time fishing guys, the third was a cruising tug style vessel. I was with one of the fishing fanatics (finatics?) and Mike G. was on the cruising boat. We caught one skate. The other fishing boat caught a skate and one other non-edible species. The cruising boat caught 10 fish but only two were edible and they were not of legal size and were also released. 6+ hours, no keepers. I guess this is fishing. I caught one the first time out (enroute) and thought that's how it's done. Apparently not.

     We were fishing on the north side of Block Island, east and west of the north reef. It was so foggy we didn't see anything most of the day. I guess it was too foggy for the fish to find the bait. The bait was squid from Stop & Shop. We would have been better off making calamari for that nights dinner than fishing with it.                                                                                                                                                               

    On Sunday we headed back to Mystic and again it was very foggy. 1/4 to 1nm visibility but with a light breeze. We sailed a slow (trolling) speed but caught no fish.                                                                         

     All in all it was a great weekend, fog aside. Got some sailing in. Learned about fishing and fileting. Hung out with a diverse group of guys who love the boating (and fishing) lifestyle. What could be better?