The one that got away

Have you ever left a fishing pole in a fishing pole holder. Well, last Friday, I did and I basically forgot about it. I forgot about it until I heard this buzzing noise and realized, the reel is spinning out of control and the line is getting looser. I picked the rod up out of the holder and I almost jolted forward, whatever was pulling had a lot of power. I knew I needed to tighten the drag and start reeling in. I kept tightening the drag but it felt useless until it finally stopped the line and I was able to reel. The kids and staff were behind me freaking out. Ali yelled, "thats a striper", he could tell by how hard this fish was fighting. I was getting exhausted, crank after crank, I kept reeling the fish up. The fishing line started darting from left to right in a zigzag pattern, the fish did not want to come out of the water. Finally, it was close enough to see, it was a striper and it was big (at least compared to the bergalls we catch every day)! I told the kids and staff, watch out I'm going to lift it out and onto the dock. Everyone took a step back, I brought my rod up and went to go over the dock and SNAP. The line broke.

I stumbled back and looked at my empty fishing rod. We were in disbelief, we were shocked the whole thing just happened. Out of breath from the reeling battle I said, "bait every hook and drop them in the water". A little girl named Jasmine came up to me and said, "don't give up, you need to keep trying". I told her to give me a highfive because that was exactly what everyone needed to hear, including myself. No matter how let down you may be, you try and try again. I told her to always keep trying, not just on the dock but in anything she encounters. That moment was so much more important than the fish, it so valuable to teach our Harbor Explorers that we don't give up, we keep on trying!

P.S. For the record, Piers Park has never had anyone that close to catching a striped bass on their dock.

On that note: Don't give up!

Spent my lunch break fishing because I wasn't giving up

Briana

First Day at Camp Harbor View

Hi everyone!

      Justin here again with blog round 2! With orientation over it was time for my awesome team and I to head out to our site for the first time. On Monday we caught the ferry out and took a harbor cruise with the Camp Harbor View kids. We even got to help lead some of the camp songs as we were docking! After that we met the fishing club, who we will be seeing every day while we are at CHV.

      Tuesday is when the fun really began. We took the ferry out with the kids again and got our fishing rods, floating crate, and crab trap set up as soon as we got off the boat. The real treat though, was the 30 inch striper Bruce and I caught the night before. The kids loved getting to hold the fish and take pictures with it.

   

Natasha may have been the first one to step up and hold the striper, but she sure wasn't the last.

      And right then is when our floating crate tried to float away! After a failed attempt to wrangle it back in with our net, I decided to go for a swim! The kids got a real kick out of that!

Crate secured, Sam helps pull me out of the water!

      After lunch it was time for fishing club. They got a special treat. While they were fishing with the rest of my team, I filleted the striper for them and every kid got a piece to take home! About half of them were so interested in it they decided to watch me instead of fish.

      At the end of the day, we took what was left of the striper and put it in the lobster trap to leave overnight. I can't wait to pull that up and see what we get.

This is Justin Warrener, signing off!

(Come back later in the week and you can read about our fishing trip with the CHV fishing Club)

My first experience with Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay

At my first day working at the Save The Harbor and Save The Bay, I caught a big fish during the Fan Pier Fishing Tournament event. It was the first time I have been fishing in my life. I caught a really big striped bass, and it pulled very hard on the line. We kept the fish, and my mom cooked it with onions and tomatoes and hot peppers, it was delicious! We caught it using a live mackerel for bait. I learned that striped bass love to eat little fish since they are carnivores.

After the tournament we had lunch and saw some celebrities from the Red Sox. I also won a fishing rod for catching the striped bass! I am going to bring it to one of the harbor islands next time we go out! It was so much fun, and the boat was so fast. Our Captain was really nice, and was a huge help in catching some fish!

-Roza