First day settling in and a little fishing. Left New Jersey at 11pm and drove through the night getting to Woods Hole at 530 am. 95 through Connecticut just sucks no matter what time of day you are on it. Sat in stand-by for the 6am ferry but got over on the 7 which was my original reservation. Once on the island it was a coffee and a donut at Black Dog and I was off looking for fish. The other guys had
later ferries so I was on my own till the late afternoon. I stopped at the small bridge and jumped out on a flat for a bit but didn't find anything. Let me say this as I write, there is a lot of "not finding anything going on" so far. I parked my truck at the house we'll call home for the next week and took my bike around looking for those first fish.
I went out to Dogfish and then Lobsterville before taking the bike-against-wind Lance-Armstrong-testing wind along Losbterville Road. The reason I was kind of desperate was because it looked like it would be the only day with hight bright sun and less wind. After not seeing anything for fish I
decided to head back so I could meet the guys and help emptying the trucks and getting set up. As I peddled with the wind back to out house I could feel the moisture and water on my legs and feet.....yep, Encounter waders at it again. Luckily I had yet another pair to break in and these will hopefully last through the week. Sucks being far from anywhere and your waders go bad.
It was great to see the guys, Bob, Joe, Dick, Steve and Gerry. The amount of fly tying and fly fishing experience between these guys is impressive. They think outside the box, creating new boxes that others try to emulate and learn. I don't think like that. Maybe its adult onset ADHD or stupidity or laziness, but whatever it is talk about steps and process and gear and knots and lines and I check out. Give me some stuff, usually banged up, some flies, ugly ones if I tied them, and point me to the water to fish.
The house is perfect. Close. Big enough, AC. And most importantly it comes with a permit to park in resident only beach access parking on this end of the island. After getting settled I headed back out
and did the tour. I hit the "Brickyard" and worked my way around the Menemsha before jumping back over to West Basin side. All week it looks like S and SW wind which doesn't help me in the pond especially when its overcast. It does help with Lobsterville as the wind blows from behind over the dunes. I walked around and up Lobsterville and fished those floating sand eels flies on a dead
drift before landing one micro bass. It was nice to break the seal with a fish. I was ready to call it a night when a couple told me "we think we heard them" in a non-spot-burn location and sure enough they were there and I landed a trio of same sized fish. I am the Master of 12-20" fish in New Jersey, but I'm not looking to win that title here. I left 30's, 40's, and 50's in the New York Bight I just hope some fish in between 24"-26" are around this week.
