On Saturday, June 4th board members from CCA NH and the bigs and littles of Big Brother Big Sisters of New Hampshire boarded the Atlantic Queen for their annual fishing trip. Each year, CCA NH hosts a mackerel fishing trip out of Rye Harbor which is made possible by the incredibly generous donation by Little Harbor Charitable Foundation.
Within 30 minutes of notifying bigs and littles of the event, it had filled up and there was already a waiting list. This was a special trip this year because it marked the 15th year that CCA has hosted the trip, and it is also the 50th anniversary of the Big Brother Big Sisters program in New Hampshire. Everyone arrived around 8:30 AM and boarded the boat. After a quick safety briefing by the captain, we were underway into the foggy morning.
About 15 minutes into our trip we saw harbor porpoises through the fog playing in old boat wakes, but they were a bit shy and didn’t let us get too close. We traveled another 30 minutes down the coast until we found a good drift over a school of mackerel. No sooner did the captain say “Okay, send ‘em over,” than we were pulling fish back into the boat.
These mackerel were huge with the biggest one around a foot and a half long! When the sun came around 10:30, the mackerel had pushed into deeper water. We fished the same drift for about 15 more minutes and then headed back toward Hampton. We stacked up on Breaking Rocks and could literally see the mackerel swirling in the water below. After fishing for another 30 minutes, we headed back toward the dock with six full fish totes. Every little caught a fish, and when back at the dock, received a fishing rod of their own courtesy of a donation by Bass Pro Shops.
CCA NH would like to thank: Little Harbor Charitable Foundation for their donation that keeps this program running; The bigs for bringing the littles on this trip and for all that they do for the program; Big Brother Big Sisters for promoting the event and making it such a success; Board member John and his wife Kelly Habig for their generous donation; Christian Stallkamp for his generous donation; and board members President Don Swanson, Ritchie White, and Amy Broman for coming on the trip. 15th Annual Big Brother Big Sister Fishing Trip