Costa Rica, Here We Come

Hey everyone,

First, in case I have raised undue worry, Gayle is only in danger of losing her hearing in the affected side. This would be Gayle's left side.

Yesterday we met with surgeon #2 and since Gayle still has just about normal hearing this guy suggested a different procedure in case he can save Gayle's hearing. Its complicated stuff but the bottom line is we would be in good hands with either surgeon. We have decided to go with surgeon #2 because he seemed highly qualified and suggested that there is a small chance of Gayle retaining some hearing in the affected ear.

Right now surgery is scheduled for February 16 which is the absolute soonest this guy can work on Gayle.

Tomorrow we head for Costa Rica. Pretty darn excited. If I get anything good to post and a wireless signal I will post again in the next few days. Our first day of fishing is Sunday so hopefully I will have something to show or tell Sunday night.

fish are in my future

Tonight, my wife, my dear friend Ralph, and I met with a potential brain surgeon for my wife's Acoustic Nueroma. The doctor raised no red flags with any of us and was pateint and took the time to educate us all, so even if the surgeon tomorrow is lame we feel good about moving forward. No word yet on when surgery might be, hearing loss is basically a given, but Gayle has a real good chance of avoiding other side effects from surgery.

Also, tonight my girl's basketball team lost a close game to Georges Valley, a rival school, located a couple peninsula's down east of us. My heart goes out to my players and their coaches. I know they are bummed but I hear from good sources that there was no lack of effort. We will play this team again at Georges Valley on January 25th. We will have to beat them on their court and I think we will.

A piece of fishing news related to Gayle's. We are going fishing on Sunday. Today, the doctor encouraged us to go on our vacation to celebrate my 40th birthday. We leave for San Jose, Costa Rica on Friday, after Christmas with Gayle's family. On Saturday we head to Manuel Antonio or right outside of the national park. Finally, on Sunday my wife and I will go inshore fishing with a guy named Jeffrey Zapata in his panga. Hopefully we will have some luck down there and I can post a picture or two. In any case, it will be wonderful just to have the opportunity to travel.

A Super High Tide, I Become the Girl's Varsity Basketball Coach, and MY Wife Develops an Acoustic Neuroma

Well, right now Southport Island is getting pummeled with a Northeaster. No school today. Winds are going to be over 30 knots, its snowing and word is there are two cars off the road on Southport alone. I am home alone and have been since last Thursday. Obviously I should use this time to clean the house but I feel the need to get some information out so here we go. By the way, I am going to save the most important stuff until the end.

Starting with the most benign piece of this post, the coast of Maine experienced some super high tides during the full moon last week. Those of you familiar with this view will note that the water is up over the seawall and washing across the lawn. In the clip below my friend Jonne Trees of BRCTV took some video out at Ocean Point. The audio is terrible because of the wind but midway through, those of you familiar with Ocean Point, will be amazed at the water level. Cool stuff.

December 3 Full Moon High Tide, Ocean Point from Jonne Trees on Vimeo.

Well, since I last posted I was also given the honor of becoming the head coach of the Boothbay Region High School Girl's Varsity Basketball Team. I have always dreamed of being a head coach of a varsity team so it's more or less a dream come true. One gratifying thing about it was I was given the job based on my reputation as a teacher. I had always hoped my prowess as a teacher would be how I would ascend to this position instead of working my way up through the coaching ranks. I really did not want to coach AAU or volunteer my time. Unless I was going to be able to run the show, I would just rather be with my family.

I love my team. They are terrific girls and I am so proud to be their coach. We have about 19-21 kids and we field a Varsity and JV team. We are 1 - 1 and the JV's are 2-0. You can see our first game against Monmouth below. We were pretty nervous to begin the game but if you hang in there we start playing better and better. We lost to Lisbon last night, a talented team, from a larger school. They were also well coached. I can not wait till we play them again to see our progress.

One cool thing about this situation is my buddy Ralph Posner is going to report on our games for the Boothbay Register. I will try to post those articles here in case anyone is interested.

BRHS Girls Basketball from December 5th, Lady Seahawks vs. Monmouth Mustangs from Jonne Trees on Vimeo.

Finally, my wife has been diagnosed with an Acoustic Neuroma, a benign tumor located in the ear/head. I have been in contact with a dear friend of mine from high school, Al Lozier, and he has been tremendous for us. We spoke at length last night and I can not tell you how much I appreciate his advice and counsel. Al is a brain surgeon out in Wisconsin and simply one of the most competent people I have ever known. He says my wife's tumor is challenging but treatable. She is going to live through this but it's no cakewalk either. Her tumor is in the large range. It is 3cm and snow cone shaped. She will most likely lose hearing in the affected ear. The worst case scenarios are ones arising from complications from the necessary surgery. Al did an Acoustic Neuroma surgery on Monday and it took him 10 hours. If the our surgeon is too aggressive trying to remove the tumor or he slips up or whatever Gayle could have permanent damage to her face like paralysis. So, we are now trying to work on getting the right doctor.

Well, that's probably more information then anyone wanted. I will try to get some fish stuff in here soon but I have a lot of non-fish stuff going on so bare with me.

Striper Fishing 2009 on the Coast of Maine

Fishing this past summer was up and down. We had great days and slow days. According to Barry Gibson on the Shark 6, "Only about 25% of the stripers that migrated north to Maine in 2006 and 2007 made it up here again this year."(Maine Sportsman, October) Barry offers this explanation,"Sand Eels... mushroomed on Stellwagen Bank and adjacent areas, providing a perfect forage for stripers... There was basically a solid wall of sand eels in the path of stripers migrating north, so the bass just stopped there."

Others have suggested the cold water and rain at the beginning of the summer as the reason for this year's decline in numbers. From stories I have heard about people fishing on Stellwagen and other places outside I am more inclined to believe Barry's explanation. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Striper fishing is illegal in places like Stellwagen because it is outside the 3 mile federal limit.

Here is another thing to consider when thinking about the numbers Barry is talking about. The Striper fishing in Southern Maine was excellent in many places for much of the summer. As a result, when you are talking about 25% of the previous years catch you know that the fishing in Northern Maine may have been even worse.

In the end, I am not ready to make any final guesses about why the fishing has been on the decline. 10 years ago the fishing was much better. We had tons of schoolies and fish could often be located by diving birds. The absence of schoolies is the most distrubing piece for charterboat captain. We are on the northern edge of the Striper migration pattern and I have heard NMFS officials say that its always the edges of a migration pattern that get hit first when there is a change. Hopefully, El Nino can reverse this pattern. 11 years ago we had an El Nino and terrific fishing followed. Also, the fishing 11 years ago began the third week in May because water temps had warmed quickly with the warmer temps. We shall see.

Columbus Day Weekend

Well, I can honestly report that I found no Macs between Burnt Island and Mouse Island today. Got out of work and my family was still in Portland so I decided to run the boat. Juju and I cruised around for a few minutes which felt great. Pretty chilly but still worth it.

I have not been Striper fishing in almost two weeks now. I have no reports from any captains but I would not be surprised to find that there are still some fish around. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and blowy so I don't want to bother but I would not mind going Sunday. We shall see.

Yesterday

I fished yesterday with my friend Adam Harkins. The Macs were a bit slow out by the tip of Southport but eventually we got plenty of them. The weather was brisk to say the least. We had a hard frost the night before and cruising was tough. Wind chill had to be well below freezing. Long after getting off the water both Adam and I still felt the chill.

We fished from the mouth of the Sasonoa to Morse Cove on the Kennebec. No luck at all. Checked in with several other charter boats and they all had the same lame report. Hopefully, it was just one of those days. But, I am afraid that this year's bite might be over. We shall see... I was scheduled today to take a couple of students out but it rained. Hopefully, we will go out tomorrow after school. If we do go, we will be fishing the incoming tide. Tomorrow might be the day I admit my season is all over.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to fish with my friend and fellow guide, Peter Fallon. Check out his blog entry of the trip. Getting experiences fishing with my fellow guides are priceless. Peter is a super hard working guide. He must be in much better shape from polling his new boat around. You can see his sweet ride below. Someday I want to own a flats boat too. My boat could be poled around but conditions would have to be perfect for it to work with my T-Top heavy boat.



One last piece of information. Ben Polk of Jabez Charters just texted. Evidently the bite is on big time off the coast of South Carolina. Polk boated 13 White Marlin while other boats reported catching in the 20s and one boat took 41 White Marlin. I can not imagine that bite. But, if you have time and the opportunity SC sounds really hot right now.

Fishing Deep

The fish above were caught in between 25' and 40' of water on the Kennebec River over this past weekend. The weather was real nice but breezy. The lower temps make cruising along in my open boat a bit chilly. The Macs have been ok but not nearly as abundant as I would like. We have been getting some real nice tinkers mixed in with larger Macs. Most of the bait has been caught around the Cucholds Lighthouse.

Got some custom made Rods from OC Polk. They proved to be perfect for the fishing we did. I am hoping that I can order some more of these rods for next season. I am hoping to buy all new gear for next year. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to let me know.

The picture below was taken yesterday from Damariscove Island. Mark Piccerelli is the guy you can see clearly. Later that day Mark grilled up some Striped Bass that was absolutely terrific. One of the finest fish eating experiences I have ever had.