I’m back at school so I guess I should continue this blog. I realized over the past months that I never go on the computer in the summer.

Recently, I’ve been feeling very confused and frustrated. I still don’t know what to do with my life. I love to fish and I would love to be a great fisherman, but great fishermen aren’t born overnight, it takes many years. I also have this burning desire to work on a fishing boat and be out at sea for weeks. I’ve never done anything like that. I think I really want to test myself. I want to see if I’m tough enough. I don’t think my family wants me to be a fisherman and it kind of bothers me. Another side of me knows I have to start my own business and seek greater fortune. I want to be great at something and I’m not totally sure where to head. It will have something to do with the ocean, but as we all know the ocean is very big. I am what you would call well rounded. I’ve had a well rounded education and I want to move away from this. I want to be great at something I love.

Lobstering has been good for me in the last week. There’s been some size to the lobsters and it has been helping me out big time. However, I’ve started seeing some signs of shedding and I expect the lobsters to shut off for awhile soon. The 4th of July is traditionally always a low point in the season. Typically a lot of guys haul their boats out to paint and do some maintenance.

It’s really hard to keep up with this blog in the summer. The truth is that I’m never on a computer in the summer. I fish almost every day after work and I’m lobstering. Unfortunately the striper fishing inshore has been horrible around my area. I hope it picks up soon. Offshore the striper fishing has been great. My brother was lucky enough to work for a charter captain and he hooked up to a 48 pound bass. Too bad the customer got to reel it in. Lobstering on the other hand has had a better start for me than last year but I expect the lobsters to shed soon and disappear for awhile.

My brother and I have been working on our boat. I don’t know if I mentioned that I built a 20 foot Alaskan Skiff with a semi V-hull. Anyways the deck is ready to be glassed and I figure I’ll work on that next week. I really want my own boat. I’ve taken the lobster boat out a few times on my own this summer, but its not enough. I need something that can do at least 20 knots so I can reach different fishing areas.

I’ve been working on my traps all week long. They need a ton of work. My traps are really old but that’s what I have to do, old traps are cheap. I just make sure they fish. I have to patch up all the holes. It’s a tedious process and sometimes a single trap can take me 1 hour to fix. Luckily I’m not working alone and my brother fixes pots right with me. It makes everything go quicker. The boat is going in on Tuesday most likely, so long as the weather holds up. The wind is SW so it looks like the coming week should be good. I’ll be fishing in a week at the pace I’m going right now. Fish on!

If you ask anyone in Green Harbor who the best fisherman is, nobody would hesitate to say, Fred Habel. He’s my grandfather and he has been fishing for over 65 years and he’s still going. When I was a kid I didn’t really understand why he’s such a great fisherman and why everyone has such a high opinion of him. As I’ve grown older I’ve come to understand that it’s only half about fishing. His likability and strong moral character makes him a living legend.

One time I witnessed a fellow fisherman cross my grandpa’s path in his boat. He was probably 200 yards away and the fisherman was so scared that he crossed Fred’s path and upset him that the fisherman drove his boat right beside him and apologized profusely. The thing was that the fisherman wasn’t even close to my grandpa’s boat at all, he was just worried that he was. After the apology we finished the rest of our work for the day and again the fisherman who “crossed” our path approached my grandpa’s truck. The fisherman explained that he didn’t mean to cross my grandpa’s path, to which my grandfather responded, “don’t worry about it, you didn’t bother me at all.” The fisherman said he was just concerned because there isn’t anyone in the harbor who he respects more and he didn’t want to my grandfather to think less of him.

I’ve heard things like this time and time again. One quote was, “Fred? He’s king in Green Harbor.” The truth is that he is king, but you know what, my grandpa doesn’t even know it and he doesn’t care. My grandfather never sought to be king of the harbor. My grandfather just sought to catch lobsters and nothing else. He stuck to his morals, he was friendly with everyone, he loved his family and everyone respected him for it. He also became one hell of a fisherman.

I respect my grandfather more than anyone in the world. I never heard a real complaint come out of his mouth. He’s happy and there’s nothing else to say. This is what everyone wants in life. I would like to be a living legend too, but I think that’s something you can’t seek to become. It’s something that just happens through pursuing your passion and plus you shouldn’t even know you’re legend. You can’t know…

I’m almost through the last week of my junior year at college. Things just seem to fly by now like they never have before. This week has been packed with work and I’m looking forward to the weekend to relax a bit. I need to go fishing soon and feed the addiction and I’m hoping I can go on Thursday. As far as working on the charter boat, that still remains to be seen. I have to call the guy up after finals so we’ll see what happens. He wants me to work for him, but he already has a guy. I guess this guy isn’t too great on boats though so if he screws up in the next two weeks I’ll be in. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

This summer I’ll be lobstering once again, nothing new there, but I need a second job because I split the work with my brother and we’re still helping my grandfather fish. Yes, my grandfather is now 79 years old and still lobstering, amazing. Recently I found out there might be an opportunity to work on a charter boat out of the same harbor I’m in. Of course I was pumped to hear about this and I am going to pursue this. I could potentially do both lobstering and another commercial job because my brother and I can switch off days. There’s no real loss in productivity on either side since my brother and I are virtually the same workers with the same knowledge. Hopefully we can land this job because this is something I’ve always dreamed of doing.

The semester is winding down, each day it gets a little bit warmer and each day I get a little more excited for summer. My org theory class has been absolutely crazy, especially for me since I let it take over my life. We’re making progress towards making an impact on the registration system here at PC. I still have a lot of thinking and work to do before any change happens, but I have a good feeling about it and I know we can succeed. Everyone in the class has put time and effort into the cause and everyone is willing to do work. It’s just mind boggling that there isn’t a true slacker in this class now. We created this enviroment where everyone does the work. It’s not just 90/10.

Too much work no time…