This past Wednesday was our first day back on the islands. Even with the hot and sunny day, I was still getting chills as I was at the Blue Hills Pavilion welcoming the groups of kids and counselors from different summer camps and programs. After gathering every single groups into the big tent, I was shocked to know that we had 345 kids and staffs in total that came out with us on our first day back on the island. YES, I SAID 345! Ain't that amazing? Well I thought it was because I was not expecting that many people to come out with us on the first day. As we walked over to the Common Wealth Pier to get on the Provincetown II boat, I could see the excitement in the faces of many of these kids. After getting on the boat and walking around interacting with the kids, almost all of the Save the Harbor staffs started a game of 'quack-a-dilly oh my quack quack quack' with the kids. Most of the kids fell in love with the game because not many of them had played it before.
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| Playing 'Quack-a-dilly Oh My Quack Quack Quack' with the kids from the Bruce School on the Provincetown II |
Meanwhile they were playing, I decided to go around the boat and signing up groups for fishing and I remember every single counselor that I approached tell me that "Its too hot we are going to skip fishing for today." So after we got to the island, every group including the Save the Harbor staffs except myself went off to have lunch. I decided to stay on the pier with 5 fishing rods fishing all alone and all of a sudden, there were a group of lucky kids from the Bruce School that came down the pier to fish. I baited all 5 rods and casted them for the kids. As they held the rods, I had a girl that started yelling "Miss, Miss, Miss, I caught something." So I ran down to her and helped her reel in the fish when on the other side I had another little boy yelling "Miss, Miss I got a fish." After helping the girl rail in the fish, we all seen that it was a big striper and unfortunately, it snapped the line. When I ran to the other boy to help him, another striper had snapped the line. Although we were unable to bring the fish out on the dock, they were all excited to see both stripers that were on the line. What made them and their counselor more excited was the fact that I told them that in the past 3 summers, we have not caught a fish there.
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| Reeling in "Bruce" the Stripe Bass |
Later on around 1 PM, they decided to go to the fort so I stayed fishing alone. I had casted 2 fishing rods and at about 1:35 that same group came back and a few of them started asking "Miss, can I fish ... Miss I want to fish" and I had told them no that we are done fishing because it was almost time to get back on the boat. As that one kid Kevin kept asking frequently, I told Sam to give him a rod that I had casted and 2 minutes later guess what? WE CAUGHT A STRIPER and the kids named it Bruce. This time I was able to reel in the fish 5 minutes before getting on the boat and the kids were finally able to see the fish from a closer angle. One of their counselors helped me take out the hook from the fish's mouth and sent it back to the ocean. Running fishing was the best decision that I had made. Having 3 stripers on the first day for the first time in 3 years at Georges island made me feel very accomplished and good about myself because I had promised the kids that we were going to catch at least one fish and guess what happened? WE DID IT! Overall, Georges island was great and now I am looking forward to a spectacular week this upcoming week at Spectacle island.
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| Kevin, Andrea and the "Bruce" Stripe Bass |
Until next time,
- Andrea Lopes
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