Captain's Log!
This weeks adventures updated 12/20/09
Captain Satchie's ... Wells harbor Weekly

"
Please scroll down for your latest pictures and updates"
**************************************************************************
Please
feel
free
to
call
Captain Satch
during the winter season
on his cell (207) 337 0800
Winter
office
phone:
(207)
324-9655

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week ending 12/20/09...Annual Gath III
Christmas Party! Last night we celebrated our
13th annual company Christmas
party. Our fishing family and crew met at
the house to celebrate the close of another safe and successful season
aboard "Gath" and "Indi". A
grand time was had by all. it's the only
time during the busy year that all the crews wifes, families and
special guests are able get together as one... Captain Whit and I do
our best to thank everyone for
putting up with the long strenuous hours
the crew families experience during the busy summer season. I'm truly
honored and in awe of the efforts my crew exerts to make your trips
with us possible. An example of this was pointed out in this years
funniest story presented by Captain
Den. He spoke of observing Ensign
Ed mowing his lawn with the
reservations book bungee corded to
his yard tractor
as he tried his best to keep up with all the rescheduling
conflicts
caused by this seasons unusually bad weather.I can't say how
humbled I
am by how much time, hard work and sincere effort you all put in to
keep our guests happy and secure in the fact that they our experiencing
Maine's best charter fishing boats.
Pictured below, Ms. Jeanette
is slicing the ham my wife Gloria,
the Bobinator, Ensign Ed and his wife Jodi are
in the
background.Gloria was up a 6am preparing all day for the evening
festivities. There was just so much great food, baked ham,venison
meatballs, shrimp cocktail , baked lobster tails, homemade lasagna,
special chesses, cakes, assorted home made fudges, blueberry pie,
chocolate chip pie,chocolate and coconut date squares ..you get the
picture! In
the center,Captain Whit,
Mellisa
Porter, Jeanette, the Bobinator and Captain Satch enjoy
a quick
end of the season cigar in the 10
degree night air. As always the
highlight of the evening for me, was sitting with our friends and crew
telling
stories about another great season we are leaving behind, and their
expressing the hope for our renewed adventures in
the spring of 2010. On right, mama Sarah
opens her Santa swap gift
as Mary
Ann, Gloria and Little Dennis
wait in anticipation.

Tommorrow, I'm making a quick trip to Connecticut before Christmas to
show my Mom's little house to a potential renter and to thank a few
close relatives for all their help getting it ready this fall. If you know of anyone looking to rent a
really nice little private house in central Connecticut
"Wallingford" let them know... I just finished refurbishing my
Mom's and have them call or e mail me.
Thanks
Satch...

Week ending
12/06/09..Lobstering in December. Captain Whit, Little Dennis and I
pulled Whit's traps beating the first snowfall of the season yesterday
by just a few hours. We had a great day, the wind was out of the north
at about 17 knots making for a cool, brisk day. There were only two
other boats on the horizon working their traps. It sure is rewarding to
still be enjoying fishing with the crew in December. By January, the
seasonal snows will cause the shallow water within three miles of shore
to become to chilly to support the lobsters and they will
complete their annual migration offshore to deeper water to return
again in the spring. In January we'll haul the "India Marie" out of the water,
clean her up and begin preparing her for next springs charter trips
with you folks.
In the picture below, Captain
Whit displays a notched tail on a female that indicates her as a
breeder, she'll have to be returned by Maine law in order to produce
many more offspring. Although you can catch quite a few lobsters in a
trap, most will be returned because of their size or because they are
egg bearing. We really look forward to spring and fall lobstering. It's not as hectic
as taking our friends fishing in the summer, but we still do enjoy
taking friends and guests along for a winter lobster adventure. If you'd like to go check it out
just give Whit or I a call on the boat cell. The cabin is heated but be
sure to bring your mittens and a winter hat if you want to spend any
time on deck with the crew.

We
feel so lucky to live in Maine,
and weekends in the off season we enjoy family time. This week, McCarey
and I brought in a big load of fire wood before the snow came. It's a
great environment for kids to learn his real life working values. He
was also able to pick out and saw
down the family Christmas
tree at our local tree farm this week. Gloria and I are getting the house
ready for our annual crew Christmas Party! Since our first season, we've always taken
a special night to honor and enjoy all the special folks who've built
our business over the last thirteen seasons. We're shooting for
the weekend of December 18th and really looking forward to this years
extravaganza.
Still looking and
hoping for any video clips you may have of your trips
aboard Gath or India. If you'd like to share them with our other
guests, I'll try to make a clip of them to post on you tube this winter.

Week ending
11/27/09 Happy
Thanksgiving! I hope that you are able to gather
your families together for a special traditional
Thanksgiving day. My cousin Tom
and Lesli arrived last night from Philadelphia to share the
weekend with us. Gloria's mom has prepared the pumpkin pies. Captain Den is deep frying the
turkey. I've prepared a few bake stuffed lobsters and Gloria working on the pork roast,
gravy and all the trimmings.

I hope you found the pictures of your family that I posted on our
2009
season slideshow video on
You tube. Last week I
was also able to edit and upload a "really cool" 5 minute flick of
Paulie Mier (PA) catching our
largest Bluefin Tuna ever. It's titled Paulie's 15th birthday surprise (click
here). There are at least seven Captain Satch videos on
you-tube. When you are watching one, if you look to the right there is
a highlight: more
from Captain Satch, click on that heading and all seven will
pop up for your perusal.
Please
feel free to e-mail me any video clips you may have of your trips
aboard Gath or India. If you'd like to share them with our other
guests, I'll try to make a clip of them to post on you tube this winter.
The picture on the right is of the "only
giant leather back sea turtle" I have ever seen in Maine
waters. Nancy Noyes (Me) was kind enough to e-mail it to me. She
was able to snap this picture of him this August ,when I was driving
"India" back from a 10 hour offshore trip. It was taken about seventeen
miles offshore.

Week ending 11/09/99 This Season's Highlight
Video' is now on You Tube ! click here 2009 Season
highlights
to view a really neat
video I produced from this seasons best pictures. I spent about 26
hours preparing it, hope you all enjoy it, please post a comment on the
you tube site if you have the time.
Captain Whit, Jeanette and I are
going lobstering in the morning. Can't wait to get away from the office
and this computer. Now's the time to call if you'd like to ride down
and
pick up a few lobsters at a
very reasonable price for the holidays. We plan on keeping "India" in the water and lobstering at
least until the New Year. Captain Whit can be reached at (207)
651-6353, Satchie's winter cell is (207) 337-0800.

Week ending
11/01/09....Another memorable and rewarding season comes to an end!
Sincere
thanks
to
all our loyal friends and guests that helped make our twelve
fishing season another very enjoyable and successful one. It's so hard to believe how fast the
time fly's. It seems we just get the boats launched each spring and the
short days of late fall are upon us. Despite the crummiest
weather I have
ever personally encountered "in over twenty
years of taking guests fishing" and the worst of the worst economic
conditions, our faithful
friends and guests have stuck by us through a season that has
financially sunk a few good competitors in our areas charter
fishing fleet.

2009 was by far "our best year ever"for landing "Maine
State Trophy stripers.
Captain Whit and his crew landed twenty Maine State trophy striped bass that
were over 25 pounds in wieght. This amounts to twice the number of
trophy size stripers than we've ever landed in any previous season. Also, the two largest striper's ever landed aboard the Gath III, the Gath IV and the India
Marie were landed this
season! (Center) Rich Palmer (Ct.) with the help of the Bobinator proudly
displays his 44.5 inch, 47 pound
trophy bass, our largest ever! (Right) Sharon Waterhouse (ME)
now doomed to 2nd place with
the largest fish of her life, a 44.75 inch 38.5 pound striper. For the first time in over ten years,
Marilyne
Lamb (NY) finally outfishes all her brother and
sisters with the biggest fish of her life, a 30 pound 40.25 inch Trophy Striper. All three of these
conservation minded anglers were kind enough to release these beautiful fish back to the
ocean unharmed shortly after these pictures were taken. They
weren't required to do so by law, but just cared enough to help the
striper fishery recover for our future generations.
I
am fastidiously working on our 2009 season video slide show. I will
post it
on You/Tube next week, so that the best of this years pictures will be
available to all our guests.
It was also a super year for
family fun on our 2 hour evening trips. (Left) is Captain Satch
enjoying an evening "chillin" with the Jamacian
side of his family. My youngest
grandson, McCary center met his
grandmother Patsy for the very first time. She
traveled all the way to Maine to meet and visit with him this
August. McCary's 1st cousin, 10 year
old Ty (Center left) "looks
just
like him" landed the 25 incher, we all shared for
supper.
On the (right)
is Captain Whit and little Dennis
with the Herir family (MA), Grampa
John, and his sons Mark, Kevin, and Danny have been coming offshore
with
us since the early days of the Gath III. This year they were joined by
their newest generation thanks to the Gath IV's abilty to take a few
extra family members along on our inshore trips.

Ms Jeanette Dublois(NJ) a newly retired life long grammar school
teacher and councilor, flanked by the Mier Brothers (PA). John left in
graduate school and his younger brother Paul a senior in high school
already. A few of the kind folks behind the scenes who believed in our
little business from day one.

Offshore, Keith and I had another
exciting and wonderful time with our guests this summer. Many of you
will recognize Leo Drinkwine (NY)
center with his 25 plus pound Trophy
Monkfish. Which one looks like he has the worst
bite? (Left) is Jeremy
Vanderpool (PA) with his 30
pound, 40 inch trophy wolffish, the largest ever landed
aboard the India Marie. (right) The
honorable
Chuck "Tread" Porter (Me)
with his largest cod of the 2009 season a nice 19 pounder.
Week ending 7/15/09 Best
fishing in years.... We are enjoying the best fishing we've seen in at
least five years years both inshore and offshore. Inshore
Captain Whit
and his Gath IV crew have landed their guests more "State of Maine" Trophy stripers in the last two weeks than they
did in the entire 2007 and 2008 seasons combined. In fact, Whit just called a few
minutes ago with the news that Gerry
Frankensfield's
"NH firefighters crew" landed the
5th "Twenty
five pound plus beauty"
in the last six days. All the folks who have consistently supported us
all these years are now enjoying the fruits of a fairly slow tourist
season along the Maine coast. "Gath and India"
are still departing
daily. ***Thanks
to
you
guys***
Offshore fishing is excellent.
Cod and Pollock are spread out along the grounds in more places and
greater numbers than we've seen in quite a few years. It is fairly well
established fact, that haddock and pollock are making a good comeback
and returning to their traditional spawning spots in the Gulf of Maine.
But
this
is
the
first
year in over twenty years that I am personally
seeing greater numbers of spawning size cod beginning to increase in
both numbers and frequency across the grounds. Great news for the kids, even if
economic times and family priorities are keeping a few avid fisherman
ashore this season.
Twelve year old, Shane Park "NJ"
is shown on left with his 31
pound
Maine
state
trophy
pollock. I
believe it's the largest pollack
landed in the State of Maine so far this year, the largest fish
of his life and one of the largest ever caught aboard the "India Marie". Mackerel Bob Engvold "NY" and his
brother Gary and family enjoyed a special day aboard yesterday.
Bob landed at least five double keeper catches, two fish on the same
line at the same time, Gary's
daughter "Tori " and her friend "Megan O'Brian both landed the largest
fish of their lives, a 15 pound pollock and a 13.5 pound cod
respectively.
Week
ending 6/15/09 Our largest striper ever!..Ms. Sharon Waterhouse (ME) got
our 2009 striper season off with a
big bang on Monday evening's inshore trip aboard the new Gath IV. Captain Whit and I
hosted Sharon's family from Tempe,
Arizona on a picture perfect four hour inshore trip. Everyone had a wonderful time catching
lots of mackerel, feeding the seals, riding under the drawbridge @
Perkins Cove, and getting a few snaps of some of Maine's famous
lighthouses. Then we tried our hand at striper fishing. Sharon's dad Harold landed the
largest fish of his life a nice 13
pound striper, most everyone landed a real nice striper or two.
Then just as getting ready to present the award ceremonies. Sharon
yelled out, help
help
I
can
hold
on to it ..and it was off to
the races.
Thank god both, Captain Whit and I were their to operate the
boat and chase the big one, it literally took the two of us working
frantically .. as a very excited Sharon took on the fishing battle of
her life. After a 12 to 15
minute struggle the largest striper we have ever caught in over twelve
years broke the surface. It certainly didn't seem real, more like a
good dream.. A jubilant Sharon and
Captain Whit display her 44.75 inch, 38.5 pound striper. Sharon
was kind enough to released it back to the ocean alive and healthy and
just a bit tired after the long struggle. Special congratulations to
Sharon,Captain Whit and the "new Gath IV". I'm fairly
certain it's the largest striper caught so far in the State of Maine
this year.

Week ending 6/08/09 Our first trophy of the 2009 Season.. Yesterday's
offshore trip was as good as I imagined it would be. We were treated to
a special day with some of my oldest and most enjoyable guests. Stacy
Williams and her husband Lee were up from Texas for a few day's.
Stacy
landed our 1st Maine state Trophy cod of the new season. Her
beautiful
fish weighed in at 26 pounds.
She was kind enough to try and release it
back to the ocean alive. But try as I might I couldn't get the fish to
recover. The trophy fish was hooked in the eye as
reflected in the picture, this
really seems to stress a fish. In addition it took Stacy over 8 minutes
to
reel up this great fish which she hooked on her jig....besides this fish
she
also had an
eleven pound pollock on her line
which was hooked on her fly above the jig. The two
biggest
fish of her life at the same time.Wow!
On Stacys right, is Greg Brown
(VT) my summer neighbor with the largest cod I've seen him land
on "Indi" a
nice
twenty
pounder. On
her left is "Whit's little
buddy" Eric Sprague (Ma) with his second biggest cod ever... a
nineteen pounder.. Last year Eric landed a 20 pounder offshore aboard
the India Marie.. Eric caught his fish early in the day and thought he
had the pool won hands-down..Another
life lesson learned for this young fishing
star. Everyone on the boat landed cod in excess of 11
pounds including Ms. Jeannette
Dublois (NJ)@ 11 pounds with a haddock or two to boot,, Eric's dad Mark @ 15 pounds, and
Stacy's husband Lee who landed two
13 plus pounderson
the same line at the same time. What a
day!
Thanks
so
much
to
my
special guests. Satchie

Week ending 6/06/09 Birthday Boy's....Sam Knowles (ME) celebrated his ten
birthday with his school chums aboard the new
Gath IV over Memorial Day weekend with both Captain's Whit and Satch
along for the excitement. A great time was had by
all as we slammed the mackerel catching over 70 fish on Sam's big day!
All the guy's caught silver
and green sided Atlantic Mac's two and three at a time, as a
brisk westerly breeze made it feel a little bit like the Deadliest Catch TV series It was an exuberant group of 4th
graders that will never forget thier first trip on Gath..Thanks
Mom!.
Pic
from
the
past!
Fourty-five years
ago..aboard Dad's lobster boat. My
father,Uncle Bud at the helm.On the housetop left to right, Cousin Tim,
Satch @13 years, Cousin Rich and Cousin Tom.

Linda
Mier
(PA) was kind enough to send me some video of her sons,
Paulie and John landing the largest Tuna ever caught aboard the "India
Marie". I've been looking for any videos my guests may have taken so
that I can upload them to our new
Captain Satch and
Sons..YouTube channel.
Check it out! Also enclosed on
the disc was this great picture of Paulie taken with his
148 pound Bluefin on his 15 birthday. Paulie's older brother John worked
with him to land this gorgeous fish.

Our
20009
Christmas
party
celebrated
and honored my Mom,
Carolyn who passed on
unexpectedly at our home, just a week before Christmas. As those who
new her can attest she was a truly a lovely, special, and kind lady who
really cared and added significantly to her community and all those she
touched. She will be sored missed by everyone in our family. Mom was
one of my closest confidants and advisers.Someone who always cared
about our little successes, our guests and our boating adventures. I'll
do my best to carry her wonderful, caring spirit in my heart for all to
share.
Mom with Captain Whit abord the "India Marie."

Week ending
12/8/08... YouTube video's...I spent a few long nights
last week and finally figured out how to upload you pictures to
youtube! Once I did, I was so excited I couldn't help but spend a few
more long nights putting together our
"first" three video DVD's with a score of your special fishing pictures.
Please check out my preliminary
attempts a movie making... and click on a rating star... Thanks!
1. 2008 Season Highlights
2.World
class anglers 3.Women's World
Pretty cool fool, the neat thing is
that now I can put together any video clips that you may have taken
during your trips aboard Gath and
India. I've asked
Paulie and John Mier to e- mail
me the video clips of their Bluefin
Tuna catch. I'll
be
working
on
that
next, along with my Family
Fun
DVD that
highlights all the great shots I've got of the kids.... So stay
tuned for additional " Captain Satch and Sons...
Productions" in the near future.
**The
action.... I think these three pictures taken aboard
the "India Marie" give a true
indication of the fun and action our great guests have been
experienced last season.

left...Leo Drinkwine (NY) and Keith battle and
land our largest fish of the 2008 season. The boys from New York landed
a 400 plus pound Blue shark after an 1.5 hour, 3 mile fight! The Drinkwine and Sweat families never
head home without having a super time while landing special fish
besides. center... Keith helps my grandson "little Whit" land a nice 12 pound
blue, his largest
of the season. right... The famous Al Timm (MA) comes wicked close to
"having and catching" the big one. Al's lost tuna harpoon the only one ever
landed aboard "India" weighed in at over 21 pounds.
Week ending Jan 9th... Our
dear friend ...My dear friend and our chief mechanical engineer Bobby Helinski passed on
today. Bob was one of the kindest and most
brilliant men I have ever met. He will be sorely missed by my
family and all our friends and guests. Bob spent the winter with Whit
and I last year installing the new Cummins engine in "India". For
those of you who enjoyed one of our 75 offshore trips last
summer ..Bobby was the one behind the
scenes that made it all such a success. He was our "Click and Clack". The India
Marie's equivalent to the Bunny Clark's Dave
Pease. One of the kindest closest friends I've ever had. Bobby was also
a gifted teacher who taught me more about engines than anyone else ever
could
and also some very special lessons about what life is really all about.

Bob
works
out.....how
to fit
that big heavy
engine in that little hole. "March 06".
Mrs
Gath
Coombs
with
Den
and Whit during Gath's rechristening, July
"96".
Gath bought
the
champange
to
celebrate
her rebuilding.* Note that the boys were
still in high school at the time.

*Please note our new
post office box address:
Capt. Satch and Sons... PO. Box 225, No. Berwick.Me. 03906.
The
"Gath III" is a
nice example of one of the few remaining
(50 Plus year old) wooden boats once
built by master craftsman in down east Maine. I've seen lines of a
similar style in the state boat museum in Bath., but I've never seen another currently operating
vessel with the fine workmanship that was put onto Aggie. I'm thrilled
to be involved in keeping her a viable and active member of New
England's fishing fleet. We were just
blessed that a few exceptional Maine boat builders recognized her as
worthy when my sons and I started this project 12 years ago. The expert
knowledge of "York Counties premier boat builder" Dave Pease and the fine
craftsmanship skills of Keith McAvoy
(Kennebunk) make
it possible for my boys and I to offer you "the adventure" of
fishing on the Gath III
each season.

Picture of Captain Bobby Coombs, taken in 1943 in his New
York
Giants
uniform....... Bobby received
his Captains license in August of 1951,
the month and year of my birth. In the
early 1950's he began taking guests aboard the Gath II, which he
sold to Mr. Bush in Kittery Me..prior to purchasing our own Gath III a few years later. Photo and history courtesy of his son," young Bobby
Coombs".
For
information
and
reservations
call
office (207) 324-9655 or boat
(207)337-0716 any day between
6 AM and 9 PM.
Captain Satch
Back
to
home
page
!