I missed it earlier but Clamdigger posted that he's marking fish!!! Obviously these aren't those stripers that'll get us all in a bunch soon enough but they probably are Herring, Buckys, Alewives, Bluebacks, Striper Candy, or whatever you want to call them. They are also a clear sign of the home stretch people. Less than a month from schoolies at the wall and about two months til days of catching keepr bass, blues, and squeets all on the same day...

we have been seeing a few herring in the local runs .
The guys that are dipping smelt in the rivers and getting a few herring also.

Only one problem, we have to get by this monster of a storm, plus the week or two of melting. I feel for pour Jenn, and anyone else living in the interior of Mass, RI or CT for that matter, they are going to be dumped on big time. The weather guru's were talking upwards of 40 inches in spots and that could have been 50-60 inches, if the snow were drier with less water content.

Sorry for the mixup John, Saturday was an ok day and my brother in law enjoyed the fishing. He lives in Ellsworth Maine, so his first opportunities to wet a line are during his annual pilgrimage south. He really enjoyed the boat ride past the 15 odd submarines at the navy base in Groton, until the navy boys decided I was running the boat too close and told us to move away.

Hey Slipknot, your guy Paul at Atlantic Boats might be the Suzuki ace, but I'm not happy at all after my first experience with their service department. Bring it in with a shift problem that only happened twice during the winter and then wait over 30 minutes to pick it up on Friday. Then I leave with a broken trailer light lens, launch 5 minutes later down the road and find the throttle cable disconnected and had to pop the cover to correct that. Saturday on the Thames, I find the oil level/temp gauge and the tach aren't working and both were working when I brought the boat in. On top of that I had to pay a $310 labor and $16 parts bill, for them to remove some fishing line from the prop seal, change the lower end grease, pressure test the lower unit, check the cables and control box and sensors.

Sorry for the vent, but I hate service shops (auto & boat) that rape you, JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN.

Everyone remember to play it safe this week. These conditions have a nasty way of kicking you in the butt... For all of those who get nailed with snow, hope you dig out by next week..

OUCH! That hurt. But having worked at competent repair shops in the past, I can tell you that even a good shop will occasionally screwup by the numbers. The bad shops ARE REALLY BAD. The ticket to a good shop will be how they respond to their problems. If the are quick and painless in resolving the issues they might get another chance. Otherwise Auf Wiedersehen. Hopefully you were just the small percentile that slips through the cracks of a good shop and not in the majority of screw-ups of a lousy shop. I have never seen an "Excellent Shop" when it comes to cars, trucks, or boats. Good is always the best...

As far as your Thames excursion went, that's OK. Getting a chance to take a family member that lives a good distance away is alwasys (er, usually) worth it :P ... Besides, we'll do some quality fishing soon.

I would have loved to see those subs. I went to the Nautilus Museaum a couple years ago and while waiting outside I saw what looked like a Sturgeon class coming in with some of civilians on the sail. A Navy Commander next to me said it was her (the boat's) last cruise for decomisioning. Sad to see a boat going on her last cruise I guess... But I've always had an interest in ships in general and warships in particular... Gotta love the History Channel...

Sorry to hear of your bad experience there GS. I hope you vented on the owner John Cornish and let him know all about it. I am not sure how good or bad their service dept. has become lately but I have heard complaints about the owner getting the greed disease(new building , expanding business- more bills to pay) . That type of careless service should not be acceptable. Anytime I've had a problem they took care of it but I am a little apprehensive about the future. One of the drawbacks of a Suzuki is there aren't that many places that service them and even fewer that know what they are doing. Maybe my next motor will be a Yamaha.

I sent John a letter and will see how he responds. I told him flat out, I expect at a minimum the gauges be put back in working order and at no additional charge. No excuse for a boat to go into the shop with one problem and come out with four. Like you said, who else is close to the area and specilizes in Suzuki. Everyone I spoke to or emailed before buying raved about those outboards, but everything needs service unfortunately.

Tight lines.

Hey GS if you feel so bad for me does that mean youre gonna come help me dig out??? HA!HA! Besides where abouts are you located that makes you think YOU wont be breaking your back with the shovel???? I thought pretty much all new england was going to get hammered pretty hard....but then again I have'nt been watching the news all weekend either... :)

For all you hunters.....I saw LOTS of healthy deer this weekend in Northern VT.....they were traveling the groomed snowmobile trails a lot due to the fact that there is an average of three to four feet of snow!!!!! it was nice to see that they were healthy though......
Also saw two moose.......real close! One was a LARGE BULL and boy-oh-boy do they have a way of making you feel insignificant!!! :O

Jenn
Any chance you found some shed antlers?
Maybe to much snow to look.

Been looking around the cape and found a few.

At least I know a few Bucks made it through another season

BTW - the roads are pretty lousy out now. I just got home from Bahstin (well, at least the train station) and the roads were 1/2 thick with ice and there were as many plows on my street, 1 as I saw on the highway...

Sorry no shed antlers that I saw.........of course I wasnt really looking either!!! But I was really surprised to see how much larger they were compared to most I see around here! I guess that is what thousands and thousands of acres of unspoiled land will do......