27 Fish in one Day!

Yes that's right! On Friday at Community Boating, using some hot dogs and carp cookies, (See previous CBI post) we caught 27 (and released!)  sunfish with just 4 poles!

And a variety too! we caught some pumpkinseeds with their distinctive red belly, blue gills with a black lobe on their blue tented gills and more. We have found that that the sunfish enjoy the shade underneath the public pear just east of CBI. Now that we have mastered catching sunfish and eels, we hope to move on to the giant carp that live in the river. So stay tuned!

Eels! Eels!

This week Community Boating christened two new eel traps. We sailed out to the traps to find 12 eels by the causeway and another 14 by a reedy spot on the southern shore. We brought a bucket of them to the dock and they proved to be quite the spectacle. 20 or so kids came running to see them when an announcement was made over the loud speaker.

In addition to the eels the traps have also caught some sunfish and small mouth bass that provided an up close view of what lives in the river.

This upcoming week is bound to yield more eels. In addition it is Compost week! We will start composting food scraps from lunches and paper towels from the bathrooms. The compost will also provide a great source of worms for fishing! Check back soon for more!

Paul

Exploring the Charles

This week we kicked of the new save the harbor save the bay site at Community Boating! After morning sailing classes we have been exploring the shores in the water of the Charles. Today we went for a beautiful sail in some Roads 19s, a keel boat, and then anchored to go fishing. Some ‘old’ sailors but new fisherman were excited to try their hands at the fishing rod. We have seen and hope to catch some giant Asian carp, an invasive species. As well as some eels! As soon as we get some traps. We also took a look at water samples from different depths.

You can see Cecilia holding up a sample from the bottom of the river, it is black from all the decaying matter. This summer is bound to be exciting and full of more sailing and fishing expeditions!

Paul

Hello!

I’m a recent graduate of Oberlin College in northern Ohio and super excited to be in Boston this summer. I grew up in Dallas, Texas where I learned to sail with my father when I was young. This summer I’m teaching sailing classes to kids at Community Boating in the morning and will be starting an environmental education program in partnership with Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay in the afternoon. While learning to sail on the Charles river, the kids at Community Boating will find out about the what lives beneath the boats and why it is so important to take care of our river.

If you don’t know about community boating you should check it out. http://community-boating.org/. It is a wonderful program with the simple mission of ‘sailing for all’. For those who qualify a summer of sailing only costs 1$.

We’ll fish and trap to get an up close view of what lives in the Charles . Also we’ll think about where the water in the Charles is coming from and where it is going.

I also love gardening, so I have a compost pile in the works and maybe we’ll even grow some food the with the compost we make at the end of the summer! Keep an eye out for me on the Charles sailing or pulling up eel traps!

Paul