Everyone Knows It's Windy

Week of May 25th

I am pretty busy right now. The oyster business is in full swing and preparations for this year’s seed (young oysters) require daily attention. I have found opportunities to fish, but the weather has been poor during these times.

I went out three or four times this past week – some of these being very brief searches prior to working on the shellfish grant. On two occasions I had Joel Meunier and Dave Grossman along. If you read any of these reports you’ll know Joel. Dave is new to the Saquish Journal scene but not to Duxbury’s waterfront. His spectacular photography (he’s a photographer) is ubiquitous in town and rapidly growing (www.gurnetroad.com). Dave came aboard to shoot some fishing action for a change as he has now taken about six billion shots of gruff oyster guys and photogenic bivalves. I was quite excited to have some documentation of some of the fishing that Joel and I do out there; more times than not we score big on the bay. We took two trips over the course of about a week.


Day 1: The weather was not good for fishing and the fish weren’t really around. But Joel’s first cast into a school along the channel produced his first striper of the season (photo above). The flyrod was used for about five minutes before the winds suddenly picked up in front of a large squall that seemed to be threatening along the northwest. A few drifts along some favorite rips produced a few fish, no real size to them, but fun. After running into Skip behind the island we poked around the bay for another half hour before retiring the boat for the evening. That squall line did skirt by us, over Marshfield perhaps. It was amazing scenery: black, mottled low clouds rapidly sliced the brilliant blue sky in half. The sun beamed against the Powderpoint Bridge and, lastly, small rainbows appeared as the line moved east. All this kept Dave busy with his cameras.

Day 2: West wind at 20 knots. Kept along the western shore for a bit, but decided to move behind the island and then brave Saquish Flats. Found a large, tight school of menhaden – one attempt to net some with Joel’s cast net. Nil. One fish landed out along Saquish (by Joel) and another one lost. The menacing wind finally dropped a bit at sunset, but our thirst for the Winsor House ruled and there we went to plan future events. Lobster pots went in.

So there you have it. It was somewhat of an uneventful week on the water for me. My friends in town have all been reporting excellent fishing offshore using live mackerel to land big, fat bass. Others who have opted to fish inside have had similar reports to mine – wind and tides not in our favor. The spring tides next week should bring change.