The biggest catch of the day!

We were on the road at 6:30am yesterday morning, headed for the popular coastal tourist town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where we had an 8:00am reservation to go deep sea fishing with Lunenburg Ocean Adventures.

Arrived at 7:30am to find it spitting with rain. And in the process of making sure grandson Cameron had everything he needed, Ruth realized that she had forgotten her own raincoat!

We wandered on the boardwalk until we were ready to board our boat.

Cameron, with Capt. Seymour Fogg.

Lunenburg is well known as the place where the Bluenose II is berthed. The original Bluenose is Canada's famous tall ship that is depicted on our 10 cent coin here.

The Bluenose II was parked right beside where we were departing from.

And there is our boat... the Islander VIII.

Ruth had forgotten her jacket, and there was a pink women's coat lying on a nearby picnic table when we had arrived. It had obviously been there all night, so Ruth grabbed it to wear on the boat! She would return it to the same spot when we got back.

Captain Bill introduced himself, along with first mate daughter Emily. They do lobster fishing in the winter, and deep sea fishing and diving excursions during the summer. Bill is also heavily involved with the film industry here in Lunenburg where several movie and television series scenes have been filmed.

The fishing rods are ready!

There were 18 of us on the boat, as well as Captain Bill and Emily. Many Americans, and all male except for Ruth, Emily, and one other lady.

Making our way out of the harbor, Emily was driving while Bill told some stories and pointed out some interesting things.

This old trawler was turned into a tall ship. 

It has done 8 different circumnavigations of the globe.

A rainbow behind us as we headed out to sea.

Ruth (in her borrowed coat!) and Captain Bill.

Cormorants.

Sea caves along the shore.

Emily, showing the group the basics of using the rod and reel, while Cameron ignores her!

Me, with my first catch... a very small mackerel!

Ruth, reeling one in!

We caught a lot of mackerel. But we were told that they are best eaten the day they were caught, so it only made sense to keep enough that we would eat that day. 

We moved to a different spot, and people started catching some cod and pollock. I caught one decent sized cod, and we kept that one. Cameron and Ruth each caught one as well. 

The older lady was fishing right beside Cameron, and was reeling in one after the other. I think Cameron was getting a little frustrated by all the little mackerel he was catching. The older lady caught five decent sized Cod, and one big pollock. Of course it's all luck, there isn't very much technique involved with this kind of fishing.

And then I felt something big on my line. At first, I thought I had caught the bottom, but quickly realized there was definitely a fish on there. By the time I got it to the surface, most of the group was on my side of the boat waiting to see what I got.

Me, with Captain Bill and the biggest catch of the day!

But it was actually too big! There are size limits on the cod, both small and large, and this one was bigger than the 30" maximum. I was quite happy to throw him back in the water. As Captain Bill says, when they get that big, they deserve to live a little longer!

Ruth, reeling in another one.

Cameron finally caught a nice cod.

Emily is very efficient at filleting fish!

She did everyone's fish for them on the ride back to the harbor.

There is the Bluenose II heading out on a daytrip!

We passed right by her.

Canada's dime.

Back on shore by noon, and Lunenburg was a lot busier than when we left at 8:00am! We had a lot of fun out fishing, and while Cameron didn't catch the biggest, he might have caught the most! He says he's going to save his money so that he can go again. At $75 CAD ($55 USD) each, we thought it was pretty good value and we had lots of fun!

We went for a walk around town...

Cameron, in an oversized lobster trap.

The original Bank of Montreal building in Lunenburg.

Lunenburg is a colorful place, even on a grey sky day!

We stopped by the Lunenburg Academy. This was the public school in Lunenburg from 1893 until 2012. The Academy is one of very few large scale wooden buildings in Canada still surviving from the nineteenth century. Ruth and I had been here in 2011 (the year Cameron was born) and we took a photo of it then...

It was a grey day in May of 2011 as well!

I took the same photo 13 years later. they have installed community garden plots!

Old church hall turned into a house.

More colorful houses.

We had a great day, belatedly celebrating our grandson's birthday with him. We ended it with an ice cream treat back at Greenwich. 

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