I thought I’d finish up this evening with something a bit on the lighter side as I prepare to head out on vacation. (So if you don’t see my byline around here until the first Saturday in August, you’ll know why.) As is my usual habit, I’ll be spending some time out on the water being embarrassed by some fish that generally wind up being considerably more clever than I am. But hey… a bad day fishing is still better than a good day watching cable news, amirite?

With that as our theme, I thought you might enjoy this brief fishing video taken from WBZ News Channel 4, the local CBS outlet in Boston. Some vacationing fisherman were out off the shore of Cape Cod this week fishing for striped bass. They hooked a nice one, but before it could be brought into the boat a twelve-foot great white decided that it needed dinner more urgently than the guys in the boat did. There’s not much for them to do aside from saying, “I think we need a bigger boat.”

I was rather shocked that they still wound up getting roughly 2/3 of the bass into the boat. The shark disappeared without suffering any apparent injuries.

Needless to say, I’m not anticipating any of that kind of action myself. I stick strictly to fresh water during the summer and the biggest danger we generally encounter is a bald eagle stealing one of your fish on the way in. (That’s actually happened and it’s a pretty incredible sight.) Still, it’s not the size of the fish you catch, but how much you enjoy the trip. Even coming up empty is okay when you’re out far away from any light pollution and the night sky shows you more stars than you’ll ever see closer to a city.

In any event, I hope you all find some time for relaxation as well and I’m confident the place won’t fall apart here while I’m gone. Try to be good to each other and I’ll try to check in on the comment section at least a couple times while I’m out. Fair winds and following seas, dear readers.