Kayak Angling: A New Sport To Consider
Summer Is The Time To Try On A New Sport.
WhyKnotFishing guide Joe Gugino teaches how to kayak and fish in Marblehead Harbor.
Credit: Tamsin Venn
As a publisher of a sea kayaking magazine in the off season, I have witnessed the huge growth in the popularity of kayak fishing. It has been an opportunity for avid fisher people to get into the sport without the expense of a motorboat and launching and mooring fees, plus a chance to slide into some spots where only the kayak can go.
Fishing here in New England is big when the stripers move in around May and June. So in late May, I head over to the Little Harbor Boathouse in Marblehead, MA, to take part in a Guided Hobie Kayak Fishing Excursion. It would be a three-hour fishing program with use of a Hobie Kayak, fishing gear, and know-how from three very friendly and experienced guides: Jesse Minoski, Joe Gugino, and Mike Marquis. Perfect for a beginner like me. My first lesson was actually how to cast a line. Fortunately, my teacher Joe Gugino is a former fourth grade teacher. And even more fortunately, I was already used to a kayak wobble in unsteady seas so I felt secure in my balance with my hands free to fish. For skiers, that sense of balance comes naturally in a kayak, since we are so used to weight shifts.
The rocky shoreline around Marblehead is ideal striped bass territory, Hobie Team member Minoski says, and the Little Harbor Boathouse’s “hidden gem” location means you don’t have to go more than a half mile from the launch to fish and duck out of the wind behind Crowninshield and Gerry’s Islands.
Maryellen Auger, owner of Little Harbor Boathouse, has a Hobie Revolution 11 waiting for me. It’s an ideal boat size for women, she notes. Sleek and lively, the Revolution uses a pedal system to propel forward (a paddle is attached by bungee chord on the side if you need it). She points out the pedal system can be ideal for older people who may have developed shoulder issues over the years.
The kayak comes in three lengths, 11, 13 and 16 feet, increasing in speed with the hull length. A molded-in rod holder, multiple hatches, lots of on-deck storage, and a “hyper adjustable” Vantage CT seat with webbing, that is so comfortable you could sit out there all day and cast a line, are some of the pluses.
I “power-pedal” my way out through Little Harbor behind Crowninshield and catch up with six eager clients and three helpful guides.
I’m not so lucky in catching a fish, but I can tell you how wonderful it is to sit out on the ocean in a comfy seat on a fresh spring day, casting a line, enjoying the beautiful surroundings, camaraderie, and communing with a species that obviously knows the most of any of us about the water dynamics below. All and all, I had a very good time and highly recommend it, especially for someone new to kayak angling.
For more info, www.littleharborboathouse.com
For ongoing fishing guiding service on Boston’s North Shore—the blue fish come out in July—with 2017 Hobie Fishing Team Members Joe Gugino and Jesse Minoski: www.whyknotfishing.com
In the off season, Tamsin Venn publishes Atlantic Coastal Kayaker Magazine. www.atlanticcoastalkayaker.com
Fond Memories Of Blandford Ski Area
Memories Live On Even If The Area Closes.
Blandford has three chairlifts. When I learned to ski, it had seven rope tows but only one chairlift. Credit: Harriet Wallis
Nothing can replace this family-based ski area in southern Massachusetts. But Blandford is now on the brink of being closed or sold. It has offered what mega resorts cannot offer.
If kids got tired of skiing, they’d go off trail with their friends and build snow caves and ski jumps. When my son broke the tip off a ski, we knew exactly how it happened. When my daughter needed a break, she discovered she could mooch cookies from skiers in the lodge.
It was all part of the ski experience. Something that doesn’t happen at the big resorts.
Adults had their fun too. In spring, we’d take a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine to the picnic tables at the summit.
The ski school bell rang when it was time for lessons. Credit: Harriet Wallis.
If it rained we put on garbage bags and did “worm turns” rolling on the soggy snow. One rainy day when no one was riding the T-bar, a group of us slalomed the T-bar line. The Ts were moving targets coming up, and we skied around them going down. Naughty but fun.
Après ski was a food fest. Families brought crockpots and plugged them in on the deck letting dinner simmer while they skied. Oh the glorious smells! At the end of the day, everybody shared.
We skied there every Saturday and Sunday during the 1960s and early 70s when my kids were growing up.
There were family races—our first race experience with gates and awards. My daughter didn’t yet understand the race concept. She stopped to chat with each gate keeper.
The Blandford race team won many competitions even though they trained mostly on dry land because early season snow was too skimpy. The kids honed their muscles and reflexes by quick stepping through an array of tires and other dry land exercises.
The race coach also gave ski tuning demonstrations, a skill I continue to use today.
And he demonstrated ski binding release. He careened down the hill in Olympic form, carving hard lefts and hard rights. Then he would stop, lift each foot and shake his skis off! If you ski technically correct, your binding don’t have to be cranked down, he said.
The ski patrollers found ways to busy themselves as there were few accidents. One day, a patroller watched a youngster cut the chairlift line, slithering through the long line up to the very front. Just before the child got onto the chair, the watchful patroller sent him to the back of the line. The child never cut the line again.
One spring, the patrollers decided to tap the many maple trees and make syrup. Their first morning duty was to gather the makeshift syrup buckets — #10 size cans – and carry them to the patrol’s dispatch shack at the summit. There the dispatcher kept the golden liquid stirred on the pot belly stove. The patrol bottled the syrup and invited everyone for après ski “syrup on snow.”
Then there were parties. In summer, we enjoyed the camaraderie of work parties, pitching in to help with lodge and slope maintenance. That was always followed by a corn husking contest and a giant BBQ.
In winter, there were celebrations with a caldron of gluehwein simmering over a fire, torchlight parades with real torches, and then dinner and dancing. Kids danced. Adults danced. Everybody danced. Everybody danced with everybody.
Small ski areas are the heart and soul of skiing. It’s sad that this could be the end of iconic Blandford Ski Area that’s been in operation since 1936.
To read more from Harriet click here for her stories on SkiUtah.
June Skiing At Alta: The Never-Ending Season Goes On
Where Is Everyone? There’s Pow At Alta.
Thanks to Snowbrains for passing this along. June 13, 2017 run at Alta.
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