Progress at home

From the weekend of September 27-28.......

This past weekend was very wet so I took the opportunity to stay at home and play in the circuit breaker box. In late July we began renovating 2 rooms in the house (nursery, office) by tearing down all the horsehair plaster walls & ceilings. Since then I've been insulating (there wasn't any to begin with) and replacing all the old knob & tube wiring with new Romex.

Having run 3 new circuits to the basement, my objective on Saturday was to unplug and remove the old circuit and get at least one circuit with the new lights plugged in. For the record, please note that my two primary objectives are always to (1) not burn the house down and (2) not send 120v through my body despite your curiosity to see if I'd actually hit the back wall.

In the nursery I replaced the one center light with 4 recessed lights (6") attached to a dimmer switch.  This new circuit will power the 6 recessed lights in the master bedroom (remodeled in 2007) and the not yet installed track lighting for the office.

With the breaker off, I removed the old lights and wiring in both the nursery and office all the way to the panel in the basement. Shutting off the Main, I replaced the existing 15A breaker with a new one and plugged in my new string of lights.  Flip the switch and...... Success!   Everything works except the basement lights.  Why are the basement lights attached to the 2nd floor lights?  Good question that only one of the previous owners would know.  This was not a surprise since the basement lights went out as soon as I shut off the breaker.

When we first moved into our house in January 2007 it was quite evident that the wiring in the basement was not up to code.  To be honest - it was down right scary and over a year later I had done nothing about it.  Time to get it done.  All the wiring was accessible thanks to my efforts last winter pulling down the plaster & lathe ceiling.  With a low ceiling and the floor joists exposed it seemed a logical choice for recessed lights.  A few hours later there was light coming from 4 recessed lights controlled by a switch at the top of the basement stairs.  I would like to add additional lights later, but for now there is enough light to do laundry and work down there.

I was very happy to see all of the old wiring in the nursery, office and basement replaced.  I think it was a big improvement to the overall quality and safety of our house.  Replacement windows are next!

In search of striped bass

The alarm went off at 4am on Saturday morning. Still half asleep, I threw on the clothes I had put out the night before and headed downstairs to begin loading up the boat with fishing rods and tackle. The trailer had been hooked up to the truck the night before to allow for a quicker getaway in the morning.

At 5am my Dad and I are fueling up at Dunkin Donuts where we find Wayne picking up his morning coffee as well. (Random observation: the same 2 old guys are sitting at D&D at 5am every Sat. morning that I go fishing.) Wayne followed us over to the boat ramp at Falmouth Harbor and in short time the 3 of us were making our way out of Falmouth Harbor under the limited light of the half-moon. At the harbor entrance we hit the throttle and are headed southwest between the Vineyard and Elizabeth Islands.

There are so many places to catch fish along the south side of the Elizabeth Islands and west side of the Vineyard and the fall is usually prime feeding time for striped bass. Our first stop was at Devil's Bridge (off Gay Head) where we put the lines in the water and made multiple passes along the rip. Nothing. We moved down the west side of the Vineyard from Gay Head down to Squibnocket. Nothing. We marked a few fish, but no action. Finally, off Squibnocket beach we we managed to pull in a small bluefish. Not quite the striped bass feeding frenzy we were hoping for.

We decided to change locations and headed up to Quick's Hole, a narrow channel between Nashawena and Pasque Islands (part of the the Elizabeth Islands chain). On the south side of the channel we pulled in some bluefish in the 8-10 lb. range. Not the striped bass we were looking for, but good enough that we kept 6 to bring home for dinner.

By 11:30am the bite was slow so we decided to head back to the harbor. The wind had picked up a bit and the ride back was a little bumpy, but not bad. Back at the dock we loaded the boat back on the trailer and stopped to fill up the gas tank on the drive home.

Once at home I had the responsibility of filleting the fish. I find bluefish very easy to fillet and in no time had them packaged in ziplock bags. I then took a walk down to the beach to dump the fish carcasses, returning to the ocean everything we won't eat. This way none of the fish goes to waste. My parents w

While at the beach I receive a call from Wayne with an invitation out on his boat for the evening. I'll meet him at Little River Boat Yard as soon as possible.

Wayne had spent the afternoon cleaning up his boat and by 4:30pm we were off the dock and headed out towards Waquiot Bay. We fished the entrance to Waquiot Bay for quite a while but had no fish to show for our effort.

With daylight fading, we started to make our way back to the boatyard. As we passed through the "no wake" entrance of Waquoit Bay I made a few casts, throwing a white sluggo with a jig head off towards the sandy beach. I cast towards the shore to about 2 feet of water, a few twitches and BANG! A big splash of water as the fish hits the sluggo and my rod bends over. Fish on!!!, but I don't even get the words out of my mouth. The line breaks at the leader and the fish is gone. Probably not a huge bass, but it would have been a good fish to end the day with. The most frustrating part is that I've been putting in the effort to learn and tie better knots and trying out different fishing line. Needless to say, I won't be purchasing this brand again!

I drove back to my parents house and grabbed a quick bite to eat. I was tired and needed to go to bed to get some rest to do it all over again on Sunday.

The alarm went off at 4am on Sunday morning and I repeated the ritual of the prior day. Get dressed, load up the boat, and drive to Falmouth Harbor. Roby H. was driving down from Duxbury to fish for striped bass off the Vineyard. Based on my luck the previous day, I was less than optimistic. We were off the dock by 5:15am, again making our way in the dark towards the west side of the Vineyard.

Within minutes of the lines being in the water on Devil's Bridge we had a fish on, a small bluefish that shook free just as we got it to the boat. I had enough bluefish from the day before so we weren't keeping any blues today. Unfortunately we encountered the same luck as Saturday, no bass and only the occassional bluefish as we fished the entire west shore from Squibnocket to Gay Head. We even anchored and threw chunked bait with no luck. Fishing the rocks at Quick's Hole produced nothing around 11:30 we headed back to the harbor - striking out all weekend on the bass.

Despite our lack of fish, I was able to observe a charter fisherman who was also fishing the rocks around Quick's Hole. I've seen this guy bring in BIG bass so I'm looking to trying a few of his techniques on my next trip.

Back at my parents house I rinsed down the boat and all the fishing gear and by 3:30pm I was in the car driving home to Winchester, dropping off a few bluefish fillets to our friends Kathy & Larry in Arlington on my way home.

Going into the weekend I had hoped for a much more successful fishing weekend. With the fall being one of the best times to fish for striped bass it was disappointing not to catch any. But I had two enjoyable days out on the water and I can't complain about that. I'll just have to find time to get out again before the season is over.

Fishing Devil's Bridge

Back in April I was out of town and missed Jack's 7th birthday party (For those in attendance, Jack was the ring bearer in our wedding back in 2006.) Despite my absence at the party, I sent along a gift certificate for him and his dad (Matt) to spend a day salt water fishing on my dad's boat. After a busy summer, we finally agreed that Saturday, September 13th was the day to go fishing. The only goal of this trip was for Jack to catch a fish, didn't matter what size or kind.

My dad and I had pulled his boat out of the water when the remains of hurricane Hannah came through a little over a week ago. With the boat on the trailer, it givesus the flexibility to launch from the boat ramp at Falmouth Harbor. I left the house at 5am, picked up a coffee & bagel at Dunkin Donuts on Main Street and launched the boat in Falmouth Harbor around 5:30. It was still dark and drizzling as I put up the canopy, set up the GPS and fish finder and got the boat prepared for a day of fishing. Matt & Jack arrived by 6am and we pushed off just before sunrise.

Despite the light rain, visibility in Vineyard Sound was decent, probably 2 nautical miles. I figured we would start at a rip off Marthas Vineyard called "Middle Ground", a popular fishing spot where the depth changes from 8 to 25 feet. We trolled the rip for 30 minutes and did have a fish on, only to have it come loose half way to the boat. We were marking plenty of fish on the fish finder, mostly smaller stuff on the surface that were likely bluefish.

While we trolled along the rip I watched boat after boat go past, all of them headed west towards the west side of the island. Despite marking fish on Middle Ground, I couldn't resist the temptation of bigger fish on the west side of the island. We pulled the lines in and headed west towards Devils Bridge, a ledge off of Gay Head in the northwest corner of the island.

The tide was running against us as we made the 30 minute run down to Devils Bridge. At one point I turned around to see four other boats following us down the coastline. There were plenty of boats anchored up on Devils Bridge when we got there and the seas where decent, just the occassional big rolling swell. I identified a good trolling route outside the other boats and we let out two lines trolling a tube & worm rig. A tube & worm rig (t&w) is nothing more than a rubber tube with a hook in the end, with a live sea worm attached to the hook as a teaser.

The fish finder is marking big fish sitting on the bottom, a clear sign that there are striped bass in the area. On our second pass, it's FISH ON! I hand the rod to Jack and he puts all his effort into just hanging on. Matt & I quickly recognize that Jack is going to need some help so we both hold the rod in front of him so he can crank the reel with both hands. In no time the fish was at the boat and I grabbed the leader and pulled it on board. Jack had his first salt water fish... an 18lb striped bass that was almost as big as he was.

With lines back in the water, we continued to troll along the rip. Not to long after we had another fish on. Matt got that fish to the boat, another striped bass that was close to the 28" limit. After that it quieted down and we were not marking many fish on the fish finder. We decided to call it quits at 11:30am and motored back to Falmouth Harbor.

Despite the overcast skies and occassional drizzle of rain we were able to find some fish and get Jack his first salt water fish. A successful day in my book.

Unplugged in Ireland

Our 8 day vacation in Ireland included no cell phones, television or internet. Good for the mind, but not the blog. Details and photos will be here shortly!

When I boarded the plane on Aug. 26th the Red Sox were (I think) 5.5 games behind Tampa Bay. Based on how the team was playing, I was fully prepared to arrive home to a 7+ game deficit and a fight for the wild card. Today we are 1.5 games back heading into a pivotal 3-game series with Tampa Bay. I'm back on the wagon baby!

Welcome to the Matt Cassel era. An insider told me Chris Simms and Tim Rattay were told to go home today so the only other option might be Daunte Culpepper. Since this is only Week 1, I think Belichick gives Cassel the job and any QB brought it now will be as a backup.