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September 24th, 2004

No Greater Joy

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You really haven't lived until you've taken your kids on their first big fishing trip. I don't have to explain that you you dads out there, and I guess the rest of you I can only hope will have the chance someday.

Last weekend, after hearing the stories about epic bluefish blitzes in Narragansett Bay (I know it's not Boston) I dragged my boat along with my two daughters, 6 year old Madison and 5 year old MacKenzie along with my buddy Gerhard down to Barrington to get in on the action.

Bluefishing is a great way to start kids. You don't have to get them up at 3 in the morning, which can make for a truly cranky kid, and if there's a little action, there's generally a lot of action. Kids don't have long attention spans, so if you're not on the fish, you're going to get a lot of suggestions about other stuff to do, like using the casting platform as a dance stage, or trying to tune in Cartoon Network on the depth sounder.

We were on the water at the crack of 11, and without much surface action evident, we took a short troll over towards Conimicut Beach for a swim and to collect starfish, which are probably now festering in some crany on the boat. That done, we headed over towards Barrington Beach, where we found the action just as advertised.

The first pod of fish we got into kind of scared the girls a little, and got Gerhard and I really pumped up. He hooked and landed one, which promptly slid around the deck, with the girls up on the seat screaming (they were well warned about bluefish teeth). Gradually over the next few fish they started to ease up and were ready to handle the rods. First we started hooking the fish and then holding them as they reeled in. From there, it was a short trip to MacKenzie insisting on casting herself, which made things interesting, as a 5 year old slinging a plug with treble hooks is the fishing equivalent of a loose cannon on deck. Still, she managed to hook and land her own fish. Way to go!

We really never got a count on the fish, but we must have landed around 15 or so, and short released twice that. By the end of the day, MacKenzie was casting from the front, while Madison was steering us to the pods of breaking fish.

We filleted up a few to take home (yeah, I love bluefish...errr...) and the girls were into it, asking to see what the fish had been eating in that time honored tradition of children everywhere.

MacKenzie's comment on the way home summed it up. "Daddy, don't go to work Monday. Let's go bluefishing again."

Note: Next week will be the last Fishwire of the season.  There's still fishing out there, but the reports are too few and far between.  Send me your best pics and summaries for the years action.

Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Boston Harbor

The reports are pretty thin.  Good surface feeding going on off Revere yesterday morning.  The action in the harbor is continuing, and I expect it to only get better over the next two weeks.  Get out there and do it now, the season is drawing to an end.  (I'll be adding more reports at noon today).

South Shore

Plymouth is on fire.  Look at places like Brown's Bank, the Mary Anns, Powder Point and the harbor.  This is the time of year when this area really shines.  To the north, theres action on the beach fronts, and things in the North are improving. 

This is like clockwork, it happens every year.  Get out there...

North Shore

The fish are around. Guys in the Merrimack are doing well at night.  My general feeling is that the migration is just getting ready to start, which means we can expect to see epic blitzes around Cape Ann and Marblehead over the next two weeks, as it happens every year.

The Merrimack River

Chunks at night, and a lot of guys scratching their heads wondering where the fall blitz is during the day.  Hint: there is still a lot of action to our north, and those fish will not be hopping a jet from Portland.  Get out there, it's going to break open, most probably this week.