I caught a shark

   

   When you last came to this blog, you may recall that we left off  with a night of shark fishing with two of my buddies. One of them, Adam, hooked into a behemoth that we took turns fighting for over two hours. Adam's fish made it clear to me that my ten foot medium heavy surf rod was far too small for an ordeal like that.

   So I returned my rod (it was on its maiden voyage so it could be resold) and ordered a twelve foot heavy spinning rod. I had to wait for it to come in so I was in shark fishing limbo until I could pick it up in the store. Once in, I made plans with Adam and James to go shark fishing again. That trip was last night.

    We met at 6 pm and rushed to buy eels at Red Top. From there, and a quick stop at McDonald's we made our way to the beach. We set up our rods right about dark and waited.  James bought some glow sticks so after we casted we put them on our rods. We all converged in the middle so we could talk. My new rod was at the far left. 

   About an hour in, my glow stick fell to the ground and I ran over to it...nothing. Probably the wind. This happened again so instead of putting the glow stick on the tip I moved it down to the third guide from the top. Again I had my glow stick fall and I ran to my rod. My Shimano Baitrunner was screaming. I pulled my rod out of the sand spike and set the hook. As I did, I felt the fish drop the eel. Heartbreaking. Adam, never one to pass up a chance to make a moment more awkward, gave me a hug. We suspected it was probably a skate pulling the bait because any size shark could have handled that eel.

   A few moments later I felt some tugs on my rod but nothing took it and I left it alone. This was a good decision. I had another run. This time I took the rod out of the sand spike gently. I let the fish run for quite some time. I even took the glow stick off of my rod while it was running. After I felt it make a brief pause I finally set the hook. Fish on!

Unlike the fish we fought ten days ago, I knew within fifteen seconds I was going to see this fish as long as it didn't fall off. After I set the hook it kept running despite my drag being as tight as I could tighten it. But it quickly slowed and I could gain line by pulling back on my rod, reeling down and repeating. During this process the shark had three more runs in it and I had to recover line that I  previously had on the spool seconds earlier. Once I got the fish into the shallows it fought much harder. It did not want to go into skinny water. I'd say half the battle was when the fish was within thirty feet of dry sand.

   

   The battle lasted about twenty minutes. I turned on my head lamp just as I got the fish in the wash. Adam pulled it up by the tail. I held it down and lifted the mouth so Adam could pop the hook. James took photos. After the hook came out we took five more photos and got the fish back into the drink. I tried to lead it into the deeper water but it turned on me to bite me. Adam pulled the tail and got  it just under knee depth and it swam away. 

   A half hour after we released the shark, Adam hooked up into a small Dogfish. I had never caught a Dogfish before and I actually get teased about it at work. Adam caught one earlier in the day on a boat and caught hundred fishing bait in southern RI. So to get the monkey off of my back, Adam let me reel in his small Dogfish. There wasn't any fight on the huge rod but it was cute as hell. It definitely has a better smile than I have.

   We fished another ninety minutes but the current really picked up bringing with it a lot of weed. The weed was clinging to our line and dragging our rigs down the shoreline. I even put on ten ounces of lead and the sinkers still rolled. So we packed it in and we drove home.

   

Lastly, I know next to nothing about shark fishing. Like I did with pike, I ask anyone with experience what I hope are the right questions. With pike, it still hasn't mattered yet since I still haven't caught one. The shark that I caught was the manifestation of learning what size bait to use, time, and the right gear (replacing what I realized was a rod not up to the task with one that is basically a 2x4). After the first fish dropped the bait, I remembered being told to let the fish run and set the hook at a pause. I did this and it paid off. Do not discount getting info from books, the web, or people you can talk to face to face. 

Shark fishing!

    Don't ask where but sharks do roam close to shore in New England. Believe it or not people can catch them from shore. Usually it is a night thing. One of the pioneers of night time shark fishing is Roy Leva. I have always wanted to try to catch a shark. 

 

 I went with two of my work buddies (Adam and James) the other night. We set up our rods about dark and waited. We only waited an hour before Adam hooked up. We were using chunks of eels with shark leaders. Adam's fish took off. We had four rods out. Of the four, the strongest was the one that the shark hit. The rod that Adam was using is a twelve foot conventional with fifty pound mono for line. The conventional reel had over 40 pounds of drag!

Ignore this 
duplicate 
photo

   After fighting the shark for forty five minutes Adam's back, forearms, and legs were done. He handed the rod off to James who took his turn fighting the fish. After James got burned out I took a turn. While one of us was fighting the fish holding the rod and reel, another one of us would hold the rod about five feet up. We would try to drop the rod, reel in line, and pull the shark up and repeat. We did this for the better part of the next ninety minutes. The shark would not move. Every time we pulled in thirty yards of line on the reel, it would take it back at will. 

 

 I have never felt anything in my life as strong as this shark. It had to be huge. After over two hours, the line snapped. We never had the fish closer than eighty yards from shore. It would seem to be a crushing blow to fight a fish for two hours and never even see it, but it was such an epic battle that the three of us were just grateful to experience it. By the time the line broke, it was almost midnight. We had been watching lightning all night and it was getting closer so it was time to leave. 

   We made the right decision because our entire ride home was in a rain storm. We tried to figure out what could have been done better, but I think it was the perfect fight. The shark hit the strongest fishing rod/reel we had. We fought it to a standstill but this time the shark won. None the less, it was an amazing night!

Not all whale watches end in a whale of a tale

 

Saturday we went on a whale watch out of Galilee on the Francis Fleet. For me, the point of this trip was to hopefully find Scopoli's Shearwater, Last year, a species called Cory's Shearwater split into two species. It was determined that a subspecies of Cory's was actually a different species. So the birds that have all black at the wingtips remain Cory's and the ones that have white near the wingtips are Scopoli's. There are other genetic differences too but for birders that is the key field mark. 

    I've seen Scopoli's in North Carolina when I went on pelagics. I've almost certainly seen them in Rhode Island too. But since they were all considered the same species I never really tried to pick them out. Now that their are two species, I can pick up a species on my Rhode Island list by identifying a Scopoli's. 

   Six of us went out on the whale watch. Obviously, most people wanted to see whales. However, the six of us would have been happy to see birds and no whales. If no whales are spotted, the company gives out a free ticket to come back at a later time. 

   We travelled twenty three miles from port without seeing a whale and our prospects were good to not see one. Then one stupid Humpback decided to surface. Now don't get me wrong, I do love to see whales and I've had incredible whale watch experiences. This whale was feeding. It surfaced a mile from the boat for thirty seconds then dove again. We motored over to where it was seen and waited. It stayed down for over ten minutes before it came up for air. It did this three times. Each time it came up it was hundreds of yards from the boat. These disappointing sightings meant we were not going to get a free ticket for a future whale watch.

   

Wilson's Storm Petrel

Because it took so long to find the whale, we only had this thirty minute window to watch it. It did the three deep dives and off we went. The birding was very good. We saw plenty of Great and Cory's Shearwaters. We saw two Manx and a possible Sooty Shearwater. Wilson's Storm Petrel, a common pelagic bird was out on the water by the hundreds.  Unfortunately, I am still without a Rhode Island Scopoli's.  The finacial cost it is taking to see this bird is adding up quickly! 

Providence Ghost Tour

 

 Another of those 2025 bucket list items was to go on a Providence Ghost Tour. Laurie had done it with her girlfriends a couple years ago and told me I would enjoy it because you learn a lot of history. Most, if not all ghost tours I've been on teach you a lot of history about the area. For example, on this tour, I learned a little bit about Edgar Allen Poe. He did spend time in Providence courting a woman that he eventually became engaged to.

 

   We met on the east side of Providence at a small park where Roger Williams "dust" is buried. The tour leader was dressed in period clothing which must have been warm on the muggy evening. We walked for roughly ninety minutes with four couples. We stopped at multiple locations where the guide would tell us a story about "a ghost" or a haunted building. 

   The area we walked is extremely hilly and we did have a couple of good climbs but the area was really cool. Most of the buildings we walked by are owned by Brown University and RISD. Many of them were brick and reminded me a lot of the part of Philly that Independence Hall is in. I enjoyed the scenery as much as I did the tour. 

 

The park we met at
has this statue of
Roger Williams 
looking over the
city 

Up until Laurie went on this tour with her friends, I had no idea that this tour existed. The tours run April until October. Times change throughout the year starting at 8 pm in July. The cost was a steep $27 but it was worth doing once, or at least once every few years. I enjoyed going on the tour.  Link below

https://providenceghosttour.com/  

An Onset Evening with Pink Houses

    It's official, I am old. How do I know this? I went to a summer outdoor concert in Onset, MA last night and I was one of the old people dancing in front of the stage. But here me out, (I'm trying to make an excuse) I did want to just sit on the benches and eat my hot dogs. 

  We went to Onset because a John Mellencamp Tribute band called Pink Houses was playing. We sat on benches and listened. Pink Houses was great. During the short intermission we went over to Onset Pier and looked at the beach and the water. When we walked back the seats were occupied by others. No big deal, there was plenty of other places to sit. We found an empty spot with a good view of the stage.

   

Unfortunately, the people in front of us were talking nonstop. So we moved to another bench seat. Again the people did not shut up and it was ruining my experience. So we moved to a third seat. All of this happened in the course of two songs. Laurie was getting annoyed with me. At this last location a couple behind us talked really loudly and I could hear their conversation easier than I could the lead singer. I looked back multiple times with a death glare but they were oblivious to anyone but themselves. I wanted to say something to them and Laurie repeatedly told me not to.

   Laurie got up and walked to the side of the stage. After a few minutes I decided to follow her instead of argue with the people behind me. This turned out to be a good decision. We danced with all of the people in front of the stage. I really enjoyed listening to the band from three feet away. We danced to "Small Town", "Cherry Bomb", "Pink Houses" and others.   So there it is... I was dancing around with old people and I was one of them.

I can't dance for shit. I can barely hold a beat. Mostly I just sway or do old moves like the Mashed Potato or the Twist. Laurie on the other hand took a decade of dance class as a kid. So she changes moves every eight beats.  

   Driving to Onset, I havd planned on doing a blogpost about Wareham being my favorite town in Massachusetts. I was going to write about the summer concert series, Cape League baseball, and the fishing and food. I had to change the direction of this post when I did the Mashed Potato to "Jack and Diane" with blue haired old ladies...I'm officially old!

Postscript- The Mellencamp Tribute band  Pink Houses was amazing. The lead singer sounded like Mellencamp and the band was amazing. At a town common concert or at a real ticketed show, go see them. Worth your time!

Fort Trumbell and Fort Griswald, CT

Fort Trumbell

    Over the winter a rare bird was found in New London, Connecticut. We went for it but didn't see it. What we did see was a state park named Fort Trumbell with a very large concrete fort just feet from the parking lot. I love history but had never heard of this fort. There was no doubt that we were going to go back in the summer when the fort would be open for exploration.  Last Saturday was the opportunity... 

   We had three specific things to do on the trip

    

     1. Explore the fort

    2. Take a boat trip around New London Harbor

    3. Get lunch a mile from the fort at a little beach joint named Fred's Shanty

   We got to New London roughly 9:15 am. We went into the Visitor Center and paid the  six dollar admission fee. This covered the self guided tour of Fort Trumbell and the museum in the VC. We went into the museum first where we watched an introductory video. There was a lot of reading in the museum and not too many artifacts. Still we learned a lot. 

   

After Benedict Arnold turned traitor, we invaded the Thames River in 1781 with the intent on burning New London. There were two forts on the river, one on each side. Fort Trumbell and Fort Griswald protected the harbor. When Arnold invaded he split his force. He sent men to burn New London and others to take the fort. It turned out that taking Fort Trumbell was easy. All of the canon batteries faced the sea so it was very easy to take it from the backside. The Americans realized this, spiked the canons and crossed the river to help defend Fort Griswold. So in reality, Fort Trumbell did not really see any action during the Revolutionary War. This small disappointment did mean we would want to go to Fort Griswold. but more on that later...

    It did turn out there is a ton of history at Fort Trumbell. It was rebuilt in a more modern form in the 1800's. It's real claim to fame happened during the twentieth century though. The fort was turned into a science lab and the military developed sonars to identify German submarines (U-boats). Moat of the technology that was used in WWI and WWII was to fight off German subs was developed right at Fort Trumbell. There were short videos in the museum that explained how the technology was developed. 

   We explored the fort after the museum and the grounds around the fort with views of New London Harbor and the massive Electric Boat Company. In the fort there were rooms that were made to look like different periods in it's history. 

 

The water taxi

 Part two was to take a boat ride. There is a water taxi that stops at Fort Trumbell, slightly upriver at City Point, and across the bay near Fort Griswold. The cost is ten dollars and it only runs on weekends. We didn't plan on getting off, we just wanted to take a boat ride. Once we found out the real Revolutionary War battle was across the river ar Ft Griswold, we decided we'd get off there. 

   The water taxi comes by every hour so we had an hour to explore the fort or wait for the next taxi two hours later. There is a steep hill leading up to Fort Griswold. The actual name of the battle is known as  The Battle of Groton Height. 

  As I said, the defenders crossed the river to defend this high ground. The British attacked the fortified Americans. I'd like to say the Americans won but it was a route in favor of the redcoats. The fort was defended by about 175 Americans (according to the signs at the fort) but they were attacked by 800 British. When the British overran the fort they showed no quarter and massacred the Americans that had dropped their weapons. Almost all of the defenders were killed or wounded. It truly was a massacre. 

 

Fort Griswold

 While the British were fighting the Americans at Fort Griswold, the other British attachment did burn New London to the ground. This was the largest Revolutionary War battle in Connecticut.

   After exploring the fort we waited for the water taxi to pick us up and bring us back to our car parked at Trumbell. Once back at the fort, we left to go get a late lunch at Fred's Shanty. This little spot has their own burger called the Shanty Burger. It has fried pickles and ranch dressing. For $6.50 it was pretty good. The fries we got kind of sucked. They were really skinny and too crispy (not burned, but so skinny that they had nothing on the insides that wasn't cooked too much). I did get a delicious milk shake. All in all, it was an okay lunch that I enjoyed eating 

   Going to the fort was on our summer bucket list and I have to admit, it did not let me down. I didn't have as much fun as I did at the Adams National Historic Park but it was a really good day.

Adams National Historic Park

    Last Saturday, Laurie and I went to the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy. This area is dedicated to the protection of the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the second and sixth presidents of the United States. The home called the Old House at Peace Field is also protected. John Adams lived in this house in the latter years of his life as did the next four generations of Adams.

   Because Trump is an asshole, the budget only allows for this national historic site to be open four days a week. To make things even worse, you can go inside the houses of the two president's birthplaces on Thursday and Saturday or you can go to Peace Field on Friday and Sunday. The park does not normally have the funding to have all of the buildings open all four days. Very sad, that Americans can not see an entire national historic site all in the same day.

   Luckily, and I mean very luckily, the Saturday Laurie and I went, the town of Quincy was having a festival. As part of the festivities, all the houses were open on this particular Saturday. Laurie and I arrived at the visitor center around noon. We watched the 25 minute program about the Adams family. Then we bought our timed tickets for the houses. The houses of the president's births are a mile from the VC. The house at Peace Field is also not in the same area. Luckily, there is a trolley that takes you to both spots and runs on a 45 minute loop.

John Adams birthplace owned by his father

  We boarded the trolley about 1:15 and went to the saltbox houses the Adams's were born in. They are self guided and it doesn't take long to see both homes. There is a ranger (and/or volunteer) to answer questions. After we looked into both homes and asked a couple of questions we waited for the trolley to pick us up and bring us to our next stop. 

John Q Adams birthplace
John Adams home with Abigail

   We had a fifteen ride to the almost mansion sized home at Peace Field. John and Abigail bought this farm later in life. John Adams despite his brilliance for knowing the law loved farming. He would have been just as happy as a farmer as a Founding Father. The land is no longer farmland but now a Victorian type formal garden. One of his grandchildren turned some of what is left of the property into a formal garden which is very pretty.

Peace Field

    Usually you can take a normal guided tour of the house which talks about the Adams family and the house they lived in but there was a special tour running that we took instead. The tour was unofficially known as "the death tour". It concentrated on the deaths and last few days of John Adams, Abigail Adams and also Thomas Jefferson. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. This is exactly fifty years to the day since they signed the Declaration of Independence. This tour was quite amazing. It was lead by a park ranger dressed in period attire for mourning death.

The room and bed Abigail Adams died in

  We did see the room that Abigail Adams died in and the bed is original to the room. Since Adams lived to be ninety in a time when most people were dying young, he experienced many deaths in his life. Abigail died before him, so did a daughter of breast cancer. Most of the other founding fathers died before John Adams. John Adams final words were "Jefferson survives" not knowing Thomas Jefferson died a few hours before John Adams the same day.

Our noble steed

   After our tour was over we went back to the Visitor Center via trolley and then the ten minute walk back to our cars. All in all, we had a fantastic day. We got extremely lucky to do all of the houses on the same day. 

If you go... The cost for the day is $15. As I said in the beginning, this would normally cover either the birthplaces OR the farm. So to see all the park has to offer, you most likely need both days. Due to lack of funding, the park is open Thurs-Sunday. Parking on street is tough and mostly limited to one hour. There is a parking garage and the National Park Service will validate your ticket. The park is only open for a few months during the warm weather and not year round. Because of the distances between the visitor center, the birth houses and Peace Field, I don't think walking to all of the sites through urban Quincy is an option. You can not reserve tickets in advance you have to buy them the day of the tour (you used to be able to buy them in advance until this year)

Front view of Peace Field from the street