This past September, I was able to take a lovely vacation with my sister, my parents and a group of friends in Cape Cod, MA. We used to spend two weeks out of every August up there when my sister and I were young, and I had not been back since I was eighteen and a freshman in college, so this was a trip down memory lane of sorts.

My parents have a strong knit group of friends from high school, and eight families that have known each other for years and years would rent houses close by to one another around Bucks Pond in Harwich. We were quite a gang, and we still treat each other as one very big family.

Favorite past times were taking the Sunfish boat out for a sail around the lake, swimming all day until our fingers pruned, and fishing for small mouth fresh water bass in the pond. When we went up there this year, of course we partook in all these activities; however, we got more serious about fishing this time around.

My father hired a charter boat and we went fishing twelve miles out off the coast of the Cape, just south of the Boston channel. We left at dawn, and I was the first time I had seen the sun rise in a very long time. It was so beautiful:

It was cold and windy out there on the sea, the waves were choppy and I was very nauseous for most of the trip. However, we saw dolphins, whales and.. almost caught a tuna. A fish hooked and ran with the line, and we shouted and cheered as we tried to reel in, but the fish was too strong and broke off. The line could support a 200 pound fish, so the tuna that got away must have weighed more than that! However, tunas are overfished and it’s probably best he got away.

But on our way back in to shore, we hit a school of striped bass and managed to catch 8 huge ones! That’s a lot of fish, but we didn’t over the allowed quota, their population is healthy and robust, and that’s what freezer storage for.

That night we dined on grilled striped bass, and the next evening, a citrus ceviche. The rest we froze and took home for later.

The night before Thanksgiving this year, the bass was removed from the freezer, and my father prepared a delicious chowder with the fish we caught on our family vacation, using potatoes and leeks his garden. It was a great way to look back on the fun times out at sea in September, and the all the special meals we had as a family over the years up in the Cape.

I can’t wait for this September to wake up bright and early, and go fishing.

For information on sustainable fishing and buying, check out the Marine Stewardship Council.