Day 1 is really not a day one but a day of transit and anticipation. This trip will be a nine day stay on the Vineyard with days 1-3 staying up-island with my friend Abe and then days 4-9 with the two Joe's down in Edgartown. I have little expectations, am not focusing on weather forecasts, and am just going to take it all in and enjoy it. There will be a fish, well hopefully a few.
I left home around 730 and and while traveling on 195 I noticed the clouds in the sky. They looked like clouds, but with a little extra something around them. A day or two ago I read a post by John McMurray, a charter Captain and fly fishing guide, who stated he had near pea soup conditions in and around J-Bay thanks to the Canadian wildfire smoke, which season has started off with a bang this year.
I am here for sight fishing for striped bass. I like to catch them the way I like to, and if that means catching none I'm okay with that. It's similar to what I experienced last week on the Upper Delaware. I wanted to hunt for rising fish, pick one out, and work them, and then either blow it and spook them, or hook them and bring them to hand. So for sight fishing you need high bright sun, zero wind, good tides, and of course willing participants, the fish. Things like the wildfires can add to the haze which can impede the sun lighting up the flats and making seeing the bass cruising around impossible, or worse, late. Catching fish by your eye at the last minute before they blow out is frustrating, and less then perfect conditions add to that.
The forecast for the Canadian smoke seems more intense today than yesterday. Can't do much about it so we'll see if it's a factor today. Otherwise travel up north was good, until you got
to the ferry. The Steamship Authority is doing a major wharf/terminal construction project and they have shut down any stand-by like they used to. If you don't have a reservation forget it. I had a 630 ferry over from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven and was lucky enough to get it moved up an hour. I arrived at Wood's Hole at 3 pm and some time to kill so I took a ride over to Turtle River Park and walked the beaches there trying to get my eyes adjusted to searching for cruising fish.
I had the open ferry which is reserved for the big trucks, tow behinds, and hangers-offers, like the Double Wide (pontoon) I had hanging off the back of my truck. I couldn't help but to not get
excited thinking of the possibilities of the week, and of the memories of weeks past over the years. After pulling off the ferry I made my way west to Aquinnah which is the first stop of my trip. I ran over to Lobsterville (always hated it there) to check things and maybe catch one of those sunsets. I think it was there I could tell that the smoke from Canada is surely up in the sky. Hopefully the sun can burn through it, at least for a day or two over the next week.
