I actually get up earlier on my days off than I from work. I spend almost every day that I am not working out playing. Really the only thing that keeps me indoors are unsafe roads during a snowstorm and intense heat. I can not stay still. Sometimes I have my days off planned months in advance. For instance I already know when the new moon is in July 2019 in relation to my days off. I can also tell you, I will be in Narragansett fishing for albies on September 12, 13, 2019 unless there is an offshore hurricane.
Besides all day expeditions, I also consider ticketed events as a daytrip. Going to plays and concerts is something that not only costs money but requires planning. They are also things I look forward to during the days leading up to the event. On the opposite end, I consider an overnight to New Hampshire as one daytrip even though a trip to NH usually starts Wednesday after work and I come home Friday night. I do not consider fishing after work a daytrip even if I drive the hour to "gansett" fish for four hours and drive home.
This year I went on 105 daytrips. This is the breakdown
All day birding trips 31
All day fishing trips 11
Combined birding/fishing trips 13
New Hampshire Trips 4
Other Overnight 4
(Plum Island (2), Acadia,
Monhegan Island)
Trip to Concord, MA 1
Block Island Ferry 1
Plays 9
Concert 5
Musicals 4
Museums 5
Ghost Tour 1
Enchanted Village 1
Sporting Events 5
Fireworks 3
Fairs (Washington County) 1
Fishing Expos 3
Presentations 3
Some weird things looking back-
I went on 69 daytrips in both 2016 and 2017. I can partially explain 2017. The weather was miserable on my off days from work the first half of the year. It seemed like we would have five days of nice weather followed by snow or a deluge of rain for two days when I wasn't working. This year, I have had much better weather landing on days I can play. Also, there were always birds to look for this year, so if I didn't have anything to do, I still had a reason to leave the house. In all the years I've kept track of daytrips, never before had I broken the one hundred barrier
None of the sporting events were normal football, basketball, or baseball games. Laurie wanted to go to two skating events, and Gymnastics Nationals. We went to polo match and a rodeo
The Presentations were: A Creepy Christmas and New England Legends with Jeff Belanger, A slide show of a trip to India at Jamestown Library by birders in my club.
Most of the combined fishing/birding trips were late summer and fall. A typical day would be to fish for albies at daybreak. Go to Trustom and/or Charlestown Breachway for the rest of the morning. In early afternoon go back to where I saw bait and catch stripers till dark. I spent the most day trips birding because birding is my best option during the colder months.
The plays I went to Lost in Yonkers, Trial of Ebeneezer, To Kill a Mockingbird, Midsummer Night's Dream, Last of the Red Hot Lovers. All of which I really enjoyed. The Crucible, Arcadia, and Romeo and Juliet, American Strippers which I really didn't
The Concerts- The Beach Boys, Femmes of Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dropkick Murphys, A Stadium Christmas, Sawyer Brown at the Washington County Fair
The Musicals- Buddy Holly Story, Jersey Boys, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, A Christmas Carol
Fishing-
Normally I will give a rundown and a letter grade to trout, carp, and saltwater. The only one I can comment on this year is saltwater. I did not fish for carp or trout enough to form an opinion. Despite my birding, I striper fished a lot. I was out almost every night. Even when I birded all day, I usually went fishing instead of home for the evening.
Stripers-
I caught a ton of stripers this year. As my friend Dave Pickering said schoolies were everywhere. I don't know how many days I ran into huge schools of fish. They were in the bay in the spring and the ocean in late summer and early November. Mid summer was not nearly as good as last year, but there were just enough schoolies around to justify driving twenty minutes to get out of the house summer evenings.
As for keepers, overall, their numbers are still down. However, for me, I caught a few more than in 2017. In Rhode Island I had a three keeper day in August. I had a few other keepers throughout the year. At the Canal, I had one good day catching eleven fish including three keepers. It was the only good day I had at the Canal as I kept being a day late (it's called having a job). Still for me, the number of keepers was better than last year so I'd say B- even though I know keeper numbers overall are still poor.
Other fish
I caught my first two legal tautog, which is something I've been trying to do for years.
I only caught one albie all fall. However, my friend Dave took the perfect picture of it in perfect light, so I am more than happy with my one fish in a year where very few were around.
I caught a few gorilla bluefish in one spot in May from my kayak. I think I caught a couple in the summer and one 10 pounder in the fall. I really hope their numbers rebound.
I went Black Sea Bass fishing twice. I went on Eric Meyer's boat in Buzzard's Bay where we hammered them all day. We didn't keep any under 18 inches. I went on Dick Durand's boat in Narragansett Bay. We didn't get as many because they were much harder to fool, but I caught my biggest one ever at 23 inches. It doubled my rod over in 60 feet of water for five minutes. I couldn't have been happier.
I caught 14 species of fish this year. This is probably an all time low. This is a combination of fishing almost exclusively for stripers and birding. Instead of taking trips to the Cape for trout or putting my kayak in ponds I looked for birds or striper hotspots. My all time number of species is 32, so this number is tiny. I didn't even catch a largemouth bass.
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