Fishing, Sometimes Catching

This summer, one of the things I'm most proud to have learned is how to fish! Before working for Save the Harbor / Save the Bay, I had never been fishing and it was only something that vaguely interested me. I'm a scuba diver at heart and seeing fish while underwater is more my thing.

However, since the beginning of the Boston Harbor Explorers program, I have been eagerly learning the best ways to fish in certain areas, best baits to try, the frustrations of not catching anything, and most importantly, how great it is to teach a child to fish and have them actually catch something.

The first fish I caught at the Fan Pier Fishing Tournament

We didn't catch anything at either site for about three weeks. But at Community Boating, as the water grew warmer and we perfected out technique, we started catching more and more sunfish. Pretty soon we had more than we even knew what to do with. We are still trying different things to try and catch a different freshwater fish. But as I now know, fishing takes lots of patience.

Putting bait on a line at CBI

At Courageous, we fish from the pier or the dock and we've tried many types of bait. We have used mackerel, herring, quahogs, crabs, mussels, squid, and even live eels. Despite all our efforts, we have not managed to catch anything there. I think it's just a tough spot with a lot of boat traffic. We have occasionally spotted fish, but they are too smart to fall for our tricks. Our Save the Harbor staff and the explorers are definitely optimistic and we will keep trying until the end of the summer.

Fishing at Courageous

I'm so glad that I have learned these lifelong skills and will continue to try and catch the big one.


Keep casting your lines,
Sej