As many of you know, the Burkes sold our boat last season and were without a rig throughout the summer of 08. Our good friend Mick Carrier was nice enough to give us a lift for the tourney, but we’ve been looking for a new boat for over a year now and the wait may be coming to an end.
For those of you involved, there was little confidence the Burke clan would get it done. I can’t blame them, we are not always known for being quick on the trigger with these types of decisions, but we may be changing that tune very quickly – and with a vengeance.
My brother and I took a sea trial on our potential new home. We have the deposit in, sea trial in the books, and are now finalizing a few specs (including adding radar, outriggers, etc.) and could be good to go. I’m still using ‘could’, ‘maybe’ and ‘potential’ because being in sales, I know the deal is never done until the paperwork is signed. And this baby is sweet, so I’m don’t want to get too excited. Yet.
The boat is a 2004 Boston Whaler 275 Conquest. The price was a little more than we were looking at, but decided that we wanted something we could rely on for the next 10 years (at least) and have a rig equally fitted for the family and for fishing. This baby comes with a 2 year warranty and has everything we’re looking for – size/stability for chasing tuna and handling the rips, twin 225 Mercury 4-strokes, a full head (only a matter of time before Ethan destroys it), space to sleep 4, and clean as a whistle.
The sea trial today was great – boat is a tank. Got her up to 40 mph pretty quickly, and were impressed at how stable she was in the water – very unlike our old rig (we love you Goose!) who rocked and rolled all over the place.
Either way, the Steve Curley at Russo Marine has been great – if you’re looking for a boat and want an honest perspective – Steve is the man. We’ll keep you updated on how this shakes out, but looking more and more like the Burkes will be back on their own rig for this years tourney.
On the fishing front, Ethan and I finally got the monkey off of our back in Plymouth and slayed them on Saturday am. Inside Plymouth harbor we anchored up outside of Kingston/Duxbury and had fish all morning, with 5 keepers up to 34 inches. We live lined the mackerel we got off of the Gurnet (thank you Plymouth Fishermans Outfitters for telling me the mackerel were gone already), and used some Yo-Zuri minnows.
Trying to prolong Memorial Day, I hit the canal with the family on Monday night. Our friend Rich had 6 fish over 40 inches that morning from the canal and witnessed a 56 lber being weighed in. I only had a small window with my 4 month year old in his car seat lodged in the rocks and my wife reading in the tall grass getting eaten by bugs, so I came up short. On a few occasions, the bait were literally getting pushed onto the rocks as I could see the bass with their backs out of the water chasing them in water less than a foot deep. Crazy stuff, and hope to be back out there soon.
T-Shirts are almost ready so get the orders in and sponsors need to let us know asap so we can get you on the first run of the shirts.
Thanks for everyone who have supported or helped us on the boat search, you’re all invited to fish with us on the new rig this summer once we make it happen!
