gone fishin'

In order to be fully ready for vacation, there were a few things we needed to do.  First, get fishing rods for the girls.  Second, practice casting. (Third, pack everything we own into every nook and cranny of our car, but that is another story...)

 

Now when we came home with the rods and the girls asked if they could open them up and try them out, I was about to reply, "We will open them at camp.  I need to make supper and pack."  But before I could utter a syllable, Sandi said, "Sure, we can go up on the back deck and you can practice."  The next thing I knew she had whittled a fish weight out of a piece of wood and the kids were casting off the deck while I made dinner in total silence.

 

And this, my friends, is why it is ideal to have two parents.

 

Lacey, our surrogate dog who belongs to our wonderful neighbors, wasn't sure what to make of a wooden fish darting on an invisible line across the grass.  The birds nesting in the nearby trees whose branches kept getting hooked weren't sure about it either.

 

Our first day of vacation had us at camp by 11:30, promptly unpacked and settled on the beach.  But, as all real fisherman know, when it's time to fish it's time to fish and you get your vacationing bum off the lounge chair and abide the tide chart so you can fish your traps.  By 3:30, we were leaving a sunny Schoodic for a very foggy Beals.

 

The bridge connecting Beals Island to the mainland of Jonesport



This is what you call fog with a capital F.





San and her dad






Kristi and Kenna



Fish scouts.

 

 

Once we got out into the sea the fog evaporated and we were given a dose of coastal Maine magic.

Brevan was the offical buoy gafuer.  He didn't miss a single one.



Picking over the traps. 

Baiting her own pockets!

Honestly, the kids were more interested in the baby lobsters than they were in the profit producing ones.  They struggled to thrown them overboard and fought over who got to do the honors.

 

But, then you get a trap chock full of lobsters and that is just plain 'ol exciting.

 

 

 

Seals!!

For Ella to fish her 10 traps with her student license, her grandfather must double tag with her.  That means those are 10 traps he can't fish.  It is a very generous thing to do.  I adore this picture of the buoy with their shared initials.

From hauling traps to fishing for pollack and everyone got lucky.  It was Ella and Maya's very first time catching a fish.




Measuring the size.  Keeper or not?

Gram helping tame Ella with her first ever fish.

 

 

As usual, Maya's facial expressions take the cake.

 

What a wonderful way to start vacation.