It’s 3:15am and I have to drag my tired body out of bed to keep a commitment to one of my sons - to take him out on a “real” deep sea fishing trip.

If you’ve never been deep sea fishing before… or have been on one of those overcrowded large boats, where the crew is more interested in getting out and back as fast as possible, then listen up… because what I did today with my son is a whole different experience…

You see I’ve been on a disappointing deep sea fishing trip already and wasn’t looking for another.

So next time I vowed it’d be a different and memorable experience for him. A friend at work is an avid Deep Sea fishing guy, and he recommended a charter boat he uses.

The boat is called Alexa Ann out of Scituate in Massachusetts. It’s skippered by Mike Evensen. And as it turned out Mike really knows his stuff when it comes to Deep Sea fishing. And so does Paul – his first-mate.

After an 1 and 1/2-hour drive we arrived at Scituate harbor right around 5:30am.

Mike likes to take people out across Cape Cod Bay to Provincetown, and he likes to leave early. The jaunt across the bay takes about 50 minutes from Scituate.

Paul explained how the equipment would work, and how to “jig.” Jigging is what drives the fish crazy as it simulates a squid moving around on the bottom. Today we are after Striped Bass and Bluefish.

My son got excited as we approached the fishing grounds.

Mike keeps the size of the group very small to ensure everybody gets plenty of deep sea fishing time – we had six in our group.

My son got his first fish almost immediately and did it fight! You’d have thought he was reeling in a 10 feet Tuna! But it turned out to be a modest Bluefish and we let it go.

My turn was next. I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but Paul – the first mate – just helped me every step of the way and made it so simple for me. But he didn’t prepare me for the amount of work to come next.

I jigged as was instructed and then the line exploded out of my hand and bent the top of the rod I was holding as the fish took flight like a bat out of hell! The real critical part of the catch is the first few moments when they take the bait. Keeping the line taunt but all the time reeling it in, demands a lot of effort and concentration.

And I concentrated hard and sweated a lot!

I felt as I was working to get this fish on board what a difference from catching pond Perch. What a wonderful sense of accomplishment to getting your first deep sea fish. Mine was a bluefish, but large enough this time to keep.

We spent a number of sporting hours deep sea fishing for the rest of day. We hunted for Striped Bass and sometimes found them… other times we settled for Bluefish. But always had fun, and worked hard.

Most days this time of year the Striped Bass are running fast and hard. Today for us, it was mostly Bluefish. But I didn’t care – I was just happy to be out on a boat and Deep Sea Fishing with my son. As long as my son was having fun I was happy.

And he had a great time.

During the day we saw whales and sharks, and lost almost as many fish as we landed.

On the return trip back to Scituate, Paul the first-mate filleted the catch of Striped Bass and Bluefish for us. As we watched both my son and I agreed we would be eating fish tonight. After all, you can’t get any fresher than catching it yourself, and sticking it on the grill a few hours later when you get home… right?

Paul told us how he cooks them. Striped Bass fillet put in tin foil with some spaghetti sauce poured over it, and grated cheese to flavor. Then fold up the tin foil into a tent shape, and cook on the grill medium temperature for 15 minutes.

This is exactly what we did and it tasted great!

Paul suggested for the Bluefish, exact same thing, except he recommended Mayonnaise instead of sauce. We’ll be trying that one before the week is out.

For more information, reservations, and directions visit Mike Evensen’s company Nautica Charters by clicking here.

If you’re interested in more ideas and suggestions for things to see and do on your Massachusetts vacations click here, or for Cape Cod vacations click here.

Until my next Blog entry, great fishing!

Cliff Calderwood
Executive Director
New England Vacations Guide.com

Read all about New England vacation at New England Vacations Guide.

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