Today Tuesday the 23rd, was the 13th and final day of senior project. Having completed all fishing and construction adventures, today I was left with lots of time to reflect on the project. I spent lots of time writing my reflection essay, then prepping some videos. I had different videos to do, ones for tomorrow showing our fishing and construction, and ones for Jordan's Instagram that focus just on fishing. I then made the 4 hour trip up to Proctor. What a last 2 weeks! Total hours: 74.5
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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
Good day today. We got to Jordan's house at 8am for a day of fishing. On the boat, I focused a little more on filming, as Jordan needed some clips for his Instagram. It was cool finding out that he had all these sponsorships from different apparel companies, and he needed some videos of him repping their gear while catching fish. We went pretty far offshore today, about 6 or 7 miles Jordan said. We only ended up catching one fish today, but it was the biggest we've caught so far, a giant blackfin tuna (photo below). When we got back to the docks, Jordan fileted the fish while the 3 of us watched the fish below, the water is super clear there and the fish love staying under the docks so it's a cool spot just to sit and watch them. We got back to the house, cleaned the boat for a little over an hour, and called it a day at 3. Today's time: 7 hours (8am-3pm) Total time: 56.5 hours
Today was a good day. It's Mother's day, Sunday the 14th and our 7th day on the job. We had a sleep in today, and got to Jordan's house at 9am. Today he taught us how to fully take apart, clean, and re-assemble many different types of rods. Jackson and I cleaned the salt and grime out of tons of rods this morning, working for over 4 hours cleaning these rods while Sam helped Jordan with plumbing issues and the kitchen sink. Jackson and I worked in Jordan's decked out garage, and learned a lot about fishing rod assembly, which isn't as complex as we thought it was. Afterwards, Jordan told us some life stories of his running several different companies, and we had a lot to learn from him about how to properly communicate with people if you want to work your way up in a business or company. It was a shorter day, as we ended up leaving at 1:30. *Some of* the rods we cleaned: Today's time: 4.5 hours Total time: 49.5 hours
For day 6 (Saturday 5/13), we left the house early, meeting Jordan at 6:15 to go fishing again. Although the weather was really nice as it has been the entire trip, the water conditions were very choppy and windy, which was different. We stayed out there until 10:30, a bit of a shorter day. Sam, Jackson, and I didn't catch anything, but Jordan caught a dolphin tuna. When we got back we did a quick clean of the boat, then headed to the beach with Jordan and his daughter Charley. There, we played with Charley on the beach, then Jordan and her left to go to the playground. Jackson, Sam, and me played football on the beach then went body surfing in the waves before heading home around 2:30. Today's time: 8.5 hours Total time: 45 hours
Day 5 we had an early start. We were at Jordan's house at 7:30 and began working on a platform for his company boat. First, we organized all of the boards we took frrom Jordan's ex-wife's house a few days ago, separating the clean and dirty ones. The dirty ones had nails or screws sticking out of them. While Sam cut the screws off with power tools, Jackson dug a ditch running from the house to the deck for a water line for the deck. My job was to hammer the nails through the boards and pull them out on the other side. After a few hours we finished the deck, and afterward, we spent over an hour in the garage where Jordan gave us some insight on running businesses, then proceeded to show us how to tie PR knots and several others. We had an early departure, leaving at 12:30. Time today: 5 hours Total time: 36.5 hours
We started the day early yet again. We were out of the house at 5:45am, and arrived to Jordan's at 6:15. It was a fishing day so we were in high spirits right from the wake up. Yesterday we prepped our rods and equipment so we were ready to go this morning. We headed right to the docks, and were off at 6:30. We fished off shore about 2 miles, and caught 4 tuna. Highlight of the trip so far, picture of mine below: When we got back to the docks, Jordan showed us how to fillet the tuna and several different ways of cutting it to be eaten. We ate it fresh right there on the docks, I wasn't the biggest fan. When we got back to the house around 11:30, we had our work cut out for us. Until 1:00 we cleaned the boat thoroughly, starting on the exterior with brushes and soap going around 3 times. We then climbed up inside to go to work on the interior. Wish I took a before and after because we left that thing looking like a brand new boat. Afterwards, Jordan taught us how to properly di
Another long day for day 3 of our senior project. We had a bit more of a sleep-in today, and after another Eggo breakfast we were off to start the day at 8am. Upon our arrival at our mentor's house, we left immediately for his ex-wife's house to get wood to build a platform by his boat ramp which we assembled yesterday. We spent 3 hours taking apart his old deck. Jordan taught me how to use a circular saw and a reciprocating saw, which I used to take apart that deck and cut through screws to be able to lift up the big planks of wood. We had a solid process going, I'd cut the wood, Sam would bring it over to by the truck where Jackson was, and he'd take care of any exposed nails or mishaps with the wood. A before and after of our work there is below: We then brought the wood back to Jordan's house, where we then saw the dried concrete ramps from the day before - they look real good, pictures to come tomorrow. We unloaded the wood into his back yard, and the first hal
We started the day early again, leaving the house by 6am. Sam and I dropped off Jackson at the docks, where he went fishing for Mahi tuna with Jordan's friend Mike. Sam and me then went to get breakfast and I had Krispy Kreme for the first time, and we were off to Jordan's house to start the day. Today's project: building a boat ramp in Jordan's backyard. We went to Home Depot to get some bags of concrete mix, where they ended up bringing a forklift to Jordan's truck and we unloaded the 80-pound bags of concrete into his truck bed. When we got back, it was time to work. Jordan taught Sam and me how to make concrete from the mix we had. We mixed it with water in a wheel barrow, then poured it into the wood frames we set up yesterday. After 2 hours of making concrete, dumping it, then leveling it out, the ramps were done and they looked good. Photos are attached of our work. Once the ramps were finished, the day was basically over. We went back to Home Depot to drop
Jackson, Sam, and I had a busy first day. We were up at 4:45am, to shower and make breakfast. After our Eggos, we departed at 5:30 to begin our first day of work. We arrived at Jordan's (our mentor) house just after 6am. When we got there, he introduced us to his sister and her husband, then walked us through his backyard, as when on-shore we will be building a ramp for his boat trailer. We left for the docks at around 6:30, and were out on the water well before 7am with Jordan's friend Mike. We stayed out until 11:30, and Jordan immediately taught us the ins and outs of slow-pitch jigging. We only caught one fish (a king fish), but we learned so much about jigging and the way that we'll be fishing throughout the course of this trip, the morning was well worth it. For the record, Jordan is a brilliant educator and fishing-related teacher. He told us a lot of his life story, including how he sold his IT business and retired early to run his fishing charter company. Truly a s