Last weekend I went back up north for the first time in almost 5 years. I met up with my old college buddy and fishing partner, Dan, for a weekend shark fishing trip out of Newport, RI. It's been a while since I've done big game fishing, and even longer since I've caught anything more than a couple pounds. Luckily, Dan now captains a 50 foot sport fishing boat on the weekends (Commotion Charters), so it was much better than our old style of fishing which included no bathroom, a couple benches to sleep on, and an open air cabin. This boat sleeps 6, has a full bathroom (yeah, a shower too), and an air conditioned salon and galley. Not too shabby.Our first day consisted of fishing for bait. Good thing when you're talking about catching shark, we aren't going after minnows. No, we're going after bluefish. 3-5 pound bluefish. Unfortunately, the fishing started out pretty slow. It took several hours to catch our first one, but when we did, the fight was everything I remembered. Throughout the day, we probably got about 10 fish on the line, but we had some troubles pulling the hooks out of their mouths and only ended up getting 3 in the boat. It turned out to be OK though since we ended up not even using the live bait.
Day 2 consisted of the actual shark fishing. Surprisingly, we caught as many shark as we caught bait. The owner of the boat got to reel in the first one (picture below), but I got the next two. I wasn't being a rod-hog, but just got lucky. The first one I caught, we intended to have me fight, and fight it did. A 9 foot blue shark has a little strength behind it. The second one actually bit the bait as I was reeling in the line for us to move locations. Lucky me! Unfortunately, the whole trip, I only took about 5 pictures. Another guy on the boat was taking a few more, so hopefully I'll be able to snag some from him.
Sunday was the final day, and we enjoyed the town of Newport. I had my first cup of clam chowder. It was part of a $15 lunch special at Benjamin's which included the New England Clam Chowder, a salad, and 1 1/4 lb lobster. I was a happy man. Another really cool place I found while wandering around was Anchor Bend Glassworks. They make all kinds of hand blown glasswork, much of which is nautical themed. I ended up picking out a glass sailboat. Their stuff is really cool, so if you're looking for a neat decoration, check it out!
This weekend, I'm off to the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia for Susanna's old roommate's wedding. Another post to follow soon!
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