Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Change in the Weather


Mon/Tues, June 3rd and 4th

Note: I am in a rush. Abbreviated version:

It is Monday, June 3rd. My 23 year-old nephew is due to arrive in town in the early afternoon. I am delayed getting out on the water but that’s OK because there are a few places I know that might hold a fish or two and having one for dinner would make Pete (my nephew) happy.

The weather is quite fair and calm. I decide to move quickly and get outside the bay for some mackerel. I am thinking that if I can land even a few of these, get back into the bay on the outgoing, I’d hit some big fish for sure. But it doesn’t pan out this way. Lots of guys out there jigging for macs but none to be found. It is calm after the NE wind dies. Then the SE wind takes over and I decide to bolt after 1.5 hours of wrist exercises.

Inside the bay it is still somewhat calm. A few boats line the Saquish rips and a few birds are popping down into the water. But I don’t produce anything there. I decide to head elsewhere.

The next rip is just forming as the tide brings the water down to the point were standing waves begin to form. First drift through: a 23 inch striper. This is hooked on a Yo-Zuri swimming mackerel (front hook removed). Next drift: total explosion – a 29 incher gobbles down a double hooked Meunier Sluggo. Excellent fighting fish that I draw into the net which is now handy on board. Next drift – big explosion on the surface Sluggo and a 34 incher is kept. I need a bigger net.

Subsequent drifts: three additional keeper stripers and a couple of mid 20s are landed.

The phone rings. It is my nephew Pete. He’s driving down Harrison St. Time to speed in. We meet at the dock and quickly head back out to harvest a few oysters, work on cleaning some bay scallop boxes, then retrieve some additional bagged oysters. Alex M. meets us at the ramp. We unload, hook the boat, wipe our hands, then ease on over to the Winsor House for some refreshments. After some time Pete and I head back to our house to grill some striper (with modified pear lime salsa), discuss life, then we head to Plymouth to see what that is all about; and discuss life further. We watch and listen to odd cover duos play 90s mullet rock at one venue and breath in Marlboro smoke from the young women who stare at their men’s tattoos. Throughout these distractions we attempt to catch up after years of not really seeing each other much. He’s an adult now – and I work on learning to adjust to this, to treat him with the even level of respect he deserves. I wish he’d been an hour earlier to town – he’d have seen a good shit show of big fish.

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Time moves forward to June 4th. Pete leaves for CT. I work on some science experiment stuff with colleagues in the AM, then out to the water. Too deep to drag up oysters very effectively so I head in for some water (dehydrated from my night out) and head back out to some of my favorite rips to fish.

First cast – a huge one. Biggest of the season so far. It peels out meters of line, I then make some progress on it, but then it loses the hook and swims freely away. This one was in the upper 30s for sure. Several more drifts and a few follows and swipes, but nothing worth mentioning.

To the next rip. First drift – nothing. Feeling frustrated I run the boat back around for another drift. First cast of the Meunier Special Sluggo along the margin of the rip results in a massive explosion and a hard fight. The fish is landed and my excitement is way up. On the next drift I am about to cast but first notice a quick eruption of fish in the rip, with one very large fish speeding through the breaking water at an extreme speed. I cast there and find seven or eight big stripers chasing my Meunier Special through the waves. Finally a big one lurches forth, its mouth wide open, and “Gschlurp” – fish on. This one goes deep and stays there for about five minutes. Finally landed in my net (need a bigger net).

Then about three more 30 inchers and a few smaller fish are taken (and released) at this rip and the former one.

Then I am back to work on oyster for a couple hours and then finally home. Frank T. notices me cleaning the fish in my yard, walks over and seems interested. I bring him a fillet and he offers me a glass of wine which I willingly drink. He and his friend Tad share fishing stories as he dresses the fish for the grill. I eventually leave and head home.

A nice couple of days.

Gut contents:

Monday's - 7 inch squid. Lots of them.
Tuesday's - A whole herring or pogie (see gruesome photo) and some green crabs.

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