Bacon Raton Deep Sea Fishing

 Monday, May 22nd was technically the 12th day on the job at senior project. Now I'm in Connecticut staying at a friend's house, finishing the project independently in a great way. Being in Connecticut with friends that love to fish and have access to a boat naturally meant I would be continuing my fishing adventures up North. Today was beautiful. I went with 2 of my friends on their boat and we fished in New Haven harbor. The bite was crazy and nothing like Florida. All we had to do was find these huge pockets of choppy water, which was pods of hundreds of bunker fish schooling, as they were being chased by striped bass and blue fish underneath. We'd cast out into the schools, catch a bunker, then keep that bunker on the line until a striper or blue fish got it. I took a picture of the first fish we pulled onto the boat, then we got bored and stopped taking pictures because we were constantly pulling up fish. It was a great problem to have. We fished from 11:00am to 2:30,

  Mark Rodeo Weekly Reflection 2 Great week to put an end to Senior Project. It was essentially a continuation as week one, as we found ourselves on the water and in the construction setting. Similar to week one, I had lots to learn from week 2. We started the week on the water, it was our 3rd time going out but I had the best time that day out of all 4 days on the water. The weather was perfect and I kept getting bites, as I’d just figured out how to properly slow-pitch jig. Consistently getting fish on my line completely changed my perception of fishing, as I was no longer bored and not knowing what I was doing. I also started using my GoPro and got some clips on the head mount of me casting my rod out into a pod of Mahi tuna, and Jackson got some cool clips of hooked tuna underwater with it. That day, Jordan caught the biggest fish of the trip, a huge blackfin tuna, which he couldn’t eat by himself. We brought a lot of it home and made Nagiri over sushi rice, seared strips, and sa

Today, Thursday, May 19th, is our 11th and final day on the job. We ended with a great day. We got to Jordan's house at 8, hooked up the boat to the truck, and we were off. We were on the water at 8:30, and spent the day fishing closer to the shore. Instead of going for tuna far out, we went for king fish and others only about 1-2 miles off shore in shallower waters. It was hot, and we didn't catch anything all day. The one fish we did have was on Jordan's line and it got snapped when Sam's lure hook wrapped around it. Although we didn't have the same results as we did the whole trip, it still was really nice having one last boat day and getting to talk some more with Jordan. When we got back we had to clean the boat quickly, as Jordan had to pick up his daughter. We said our goodbyes and were off at 2 once the boat was cleaned up.  Today's time: 6 hours Total time: 71 hours

 Wednesday, 5/17: Day 10. Pretty fun day today. We got to Jordan's house at 8:30 and headed right to the docks. We had tons of plastic bags full of frozen cuts of various fish, mostly tuna. We spent the whole morning at the docks on the filet table, cutting those large cuts into strips to be used for bait. It was harder than cutting strips sounds. You had to do it a certain way, so the strips were perfectly symmetrical thus being properly aerodynamic to look like a fish when being dragged through the water. You couldn't leave too much meat on the strips, but you couldn't leave to little either. I got this down pretty quickly, and felt like a true fisherman going through the motions on the dock for a few hours, cutting probably hundreds of bait strips. Afterwards we watched all the fish under the dock which was basically like being at an aquarium, and a local fisherman by us let me hook onto a huge Tarpin fish which was one of the biggest fish I'd ever seen. The line sna

Got a lot done today. We left for Jordan's house at 8 and I spent my day working there while Sam and Jackson went to run errands with Jordan, returning reels and going to Home Depot and Costco. I started my day cutting a bunch of metal pipes in half, making them small enough to fit in a large trash can to be thrown into the dump truck. I used an electric circular saw, and it was cool cutting through metal with tons of sparks flying (I was properly equipped with safety gear). I then took old foam pads from Jordan's boat, and used a box cutter to take off the covering and rip the foam off the plywood boards, which Jordan wanted to salvage, I believe to design new pads. All of that took me about an hour and a half, and afterwards I used a fiberglass spray and a rough sponge to scrub a lot of rust off of certain areas inside the boat. Once I washed the boat down after that, the rest of the guys were back and we got to work taking down a rotten tree in Jordan's front yard. He us

  Mark Rodeo Weekly Reflection  What a week we had for the first week of senior project. We’ve ended up doing many activities and learning many skills that I never would’ve thought I’d partake in. I’m very thankful for this experience as it has taught me several life skills that I will carry with me throughout my life. Outside of fishing, I’ve learned how to make concrete, how to pour and evenly spread and level concrete, and how to make ramps out of that concrete. I then learned how to use circular and reciprocating saws, and ended up taking apart and rebuilding an entire deck. I learned how to properly use a hammer for banging nails and taking old nails out of boards. This week has allowed me to find a love and fascination with construction. Being able to know how things work to the extent that you can entirely take something apart and put it back together is a highly valuable skill that I want to build upon after senior project. When it comes to fishing, this week has entirely t