Thank God for friends in north places. I think coming a few days before the rental begins on Saturday gave me the only shot I'll have at near perfect conditions for sight fishing the flats. I said I wasn't going to look at the weather for the week but I couldn't help myself.
The truth is is it doesn't look good. I'm not looking to blind cast as I just came off two months of doing that. Again, it's not about catching fish, it's more about catching fish how I want to catch fish. But somehow, I'll bring one to hand after I feed them, hopefully.
The early morning started out great. I grabbed the ladder and my gear and was off to Red Beach, which is probably one of my favorite places to fish for striped bass. Are there more and bigger fish in places in and and around the island? No doubt. But there's something about this place that is like a magnet to my feet, and my soul. If I had one day to live and one last place to fish it would be here, then the Delaware, and the Jetty Country where it all started for me.
As I set up the ladder and tied on a fly I saw my first bass. I would wind up seeing 30 bass on Day 2, less than I normally do but these fish were bigger, like perfect bigger fish, probably in the 30-35 inch class.
During the walk out and around the flat things looked promising. While not high bright sun just yet, it was setting up to be perfect. Wind was a mild SW and I started adjusting my eyes to sight fishing. I walked and walked and walked seeing fish every 10-15 minutes or so. The problem was the lighting wasn't good. The sun struggled to get through the Canadian wildfire haze so the sky would go white which made visibility tough to see the fish. I would see them late and wouldn't have time to lead them, or let them pass.
I casted to fish first using a crab fly and then going to a small baitfish pattern which got more attention. Again, these were good fish. At one point I had a pair of 34's coming from right to left but angled to me. It wasn't perfect. I let a 20 foot cast go and watched the fish bite the fly. He was coming to me so I pretty much trout set hooked the fish and he was off to the races and nearly into my backing. Just as I put the screws to him the line went limp. I felt nauseous thinking I broke it off but thankfully during the retrieve back in I could see my fly waking behind my leader. That's one thing about fishing 1/0 barbless hooks, you have to keep the tension on that fly or else the fish will turn or spit it out and become unglued, and that's what happened. The good one that got away.
The wind was weird. When it died the bugs would come out. When the SW built through the morning the wall of the smoke haze would get backed up and become like a wall on the other side of the pond. Soon the ebb tide became the flood which meant wind against tide. I knew then the morning was about done but it was an about three hours of fun, just not perfect conditions.
I packed in it when the white caps started and thought it was time for a move. But where to? It was interested because Menemsha Pond seemed to be the demarcation line of the wind, haze, and fog. So as I made my way up Lobsterville Road I thought it looked promising with the skinny water on the incoming protected by the SW winds. So off to Dogfish I went.
It's neat the way that Dogfish/ Lobsterville is on a flood tide. The rollers start on the west side of dogfish along the beach and then slowly make their way east down to Lobsterville. So on one side of a point you'll have small waves crashing the stones and then on the other it's flat, until the building tide carries the water in and down.
There was enough bright sand on the beach ends of the bars to keep me interested. Interested enough to cast to several fast moving couples of mating horshoe crabs. I kept my eye on the deeper parts of the bowls to see if any bass were patrolling and that's when I saw an absolute tank emerge
heading up current onto the flat I was standing in front of. It was the biggest fish I have ever seen while on the island. A 25 pound fish that was in casting range. So I laid out two good 35 foot casts, even leading him perfectly, but I think it was the wrong fly choice. My baitfish was just below the surface and she was down cruising along the bottom and looking down, a crab fly would have given me a better chance.
I figured this was the time to leave and regroup for the evening's outing. I stopped by The Orange Peel Bakery in Aguinnah to get myself a treat. The reason I like this place, besides having good food, is the opportunity to take part in what should more common than a surprise. An honor system. This is not your side of the road lock box for a fresh dozen eggs you found on a lazy back country drive.
This is an open basket of singles, fives, tens, and twenties there to make change, or make a run for it. It's just nice to see that that can exist in the world, especially the one we exist in these days. Back at the ranch I sat down and reflected of the day and had a nice Guinness.
For the evening stint I decided to stay west and fish some different kind of water. There'll be no sight fishing here which I was okay with, kinda. These aren't the Delaware River boulder fields that I'm used to these are boulder boulder fields. Under the Aquinnah Lighthouse are cliffs which are
filled with clay like red clay you see above. I remember back in 1993 when I first visited this area was known as Gay Head Cliffs and nude sunbathers would cover themselves in the clay and sit it warm saltwater filled pits created in the sides of the cliffs. While not specifically a nude beach these days, you can still go in the buff, but the clay is off limits due to it being sacred ground to the resident Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah.
I made my way around the ankle-busing combination of round rocks, big boulders, and mats of mung that covered the rocks and open sand beaches alike. It wasn't everywhere but where it was made fly fishing very difficult.
Mung are rafts of brown, red, and green drift seaweeds that accumulate in certain spots depending on the tides and wind. If your nose still works you know you're in mung land because it has a very distinctive smell. I poked around and fished the top of the tide without a bite but was glad I put in the left-ventricle testing walk to see some varied landscape while here on the island.
I found a gator bluefish head during my walk so I know they get them up here like we do down in New Jersey. These oil-rich food sources must keep the seals filled and I saw a bunch of them popping up in and around the bars under the fog filled skies.
After hitting The Homeport Restaurant in Menemsha it was back for some hang time at Abe's place. One thing, coming to the Vineyard isn't cheap. Gas is around $4 a gallon and at The Homeport a 1.5 lobster and an ear of corn, and some butter, will set you back $68. A small Gatorade at The Chilmark General Store was $3.75. Two bacon, egg, and cheeses and two large coffees was $29 at 7a.
I watched Abe tie up some Dave Skok inspired flies which he used a batch of Squimpish material I bought up for him. He gave them to me to add to my quiver. While he tied I broke out the magnifiers to get the details off a tag he removed from a fish he caught this past week.
I knew by the color it was a US Fish and Wildlife service tag. I have seen them in Delaware River fish so I was interested in helping to see, just by chance, if it was a fish tagged down in New Jersey. I called the number and left a message providing the tag number and the location where it was caught. We'll see if they get back to Abe with the particulars and I'll post it up if they do.
One of the greatest gifts that Bob Popovic's gave me, well us all, is connecting good people of like minds together. Joe Carey, one of Bobby's best buds, always reminds me that Bob allowed us to become acquaintances and maybe even friends with people we would never had contact with if it weren't for him. And that is true. Bob has connected me with people I now hold near and dear to my heart, even if I don't talk them or see them on a regular basis. And Abe Pieciak is one of those guys. One of the nicest, and givingest, guys you'll ever meet. He opened up his space to me without hesitation or question. He gives more than he gets. And he always creates a space that is welcoming and
inspiring. While "The Shed" was the place where he created so many great pieces of art, for an artist like himself, he is the space, and his new set up is warm, welcoming, and a comfortable place to rest my head after a day where I swore I walked 30 miles and lost about 10 pounds.