Well they're getting a little bigger. We had low expectations this morning with dense fog, E wind, and possible rain in the forecast. We didn't run out the door but we were on a mission.
Now for this part of the story some might want to scroll through. Before I left Theresa picked me, well us, a package of Aussie Bites from Costco. If you don't know them they're a bite sized snack that could have crack-like effects on your body. They taste good, are small and are filling, AND, are really good for the digestive tract as they are made with whole grain oats, unsalted butter,
sugar, raisins, honey, apricots, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, shredded coconut, expeller-pressed canola oil, baking soda, and salt. If you put all those ingredients together and in the gut of normal eaters you could be in for danger. In fact, the FDA should have a warning that impending bowel evacuations could arrive at a moments notice. If you don't know where this story is going then you really are a bad reader. And, couple these bites with a stiff half a pot of Joe C's prepared Pete's Dark Roast.....
We had taken two cars Up-Island. It was the two Joe's and me trailing behind. As I rounded the corner and passed The Chilmark General Store I felt that slight pain, a little intestinal percolation, and then some lower rectal cramping. Mmmm. What to do. This was 20 Aussie Bites about to get even. I passed by Abe's place and looked to see if he was up and at em' but he wasn't yet so I drove on. Will this be a roadside hazards flashing dash into the tick infested woods? Then I remembered The Orange Peel Bakery had a Port-a-John next to the shop. I quickly pulled in, gave a quick nod and a "Morning" to the owner who was outside, and sat down and thanked Jesus for me remembering this place. Aussie Bites, great, but be careful, they are closest things to Ex-Lax out there and made with all natural ingredients.
Big Joe (above) made his way up the beach first and he stopped about halfway to where I, who is dialed into that beach and surely know where to fish, I'm joking, usually go. I followed with a ladder in one hand and my fly rod in the other. As I passed him I thought, "I've never really caught down here", and I trudged on.
Conditions to sight fish were of course terrible. Hight tide, stiff E wind, heavy cloud cover, with some fog mixed in. Just as I just got up on the rungs of the ladder a real solid fish made its way past me with me having no shot at taking a shot.
I moved the ladder around the flat trying to find the brightest bottoms to at least see something more then the teamed-up horseshoe crabs. At one point I was on the edge of the sand flat and the deeper drop off where the vegetation was. I thought I saw some movement and made a cast and stripped in and went nice and tight with the below fish.
It was so nice I decided to shoot some video of the release. You see, I know where the fish are, again joking. I watched down from me as Little Joe moved around but Big Joe stayed planted like he was wearing concrete shoes. Doesn't he know you have to have a ladder and move all around to catch these fish? C'mon Joe.
I watched as the tinier of the two Joe's hurriedly made his way for the parking lot. He's usually the first to take a break to grab a bite of a sandwich so I wasn't surprised. Big Joe slowly made his way and I had conquered the beast, again joking, of the pond so I started back as well. As I got close I watched Little Joe make his way out of the woods and over the dunes....yet another victim of Instant-Aussie-Bites-Colitis.
And as far as Big Joe's method of fishing Red Beach, which is far different then mine and surely can't be as productive, well he caught four fish, two just under 30 inches and two over 30. He didn't move for hours. He just casted, and caught. Very similar to Leif's fishing style, and both of them out fish me.
The two Joe's headed back to the house and I split off to check out the south side of the island. The south side, well faces south, which is the ocean side. If you went due south the first thing you'd hit would be Puerto Rico, to the west you'd hit Block Island and Montauk, to the north you'd hit the United States, and to the east you'd hit Spain. Just southeast of Martha's Vineyard, +/- 25 miles away is the island of Nantucket. After 12 years I'm finally getting my bearings down and have figured out what wind conditions do at certain spots, well at least the few spots I know.
After a quick nap it was time to have dinner which was prepared by the loveliest of wives Theresa. That was after we had a shouting match on the phone with me trying to explain how she should play the lottery tickets we play every Monday and Thursday. It's one of the biggest stressors when I go away. When I was away with Leif last week she missed a day, and a small payout.
After dinner it was game on for the evening and night fishing. Blowing pretty steady and gusty from the east we got some intel from Stephen the store manager at Kismet and headed, wait, yes west to Menemsha.
It was there Stephen had terns working over sand eels on the dropping tide.
While there was still light and standing on the rocks I could see bass patrolling and the flashes of hickory shad on the large clouds of sand eels, something I haven't seen in a bunch of days. When it got dark it was game on, well more like a shad fest, and it was shad after shad, with bass in-between.
I was using a two-fly set-up. The larger one I first had one was black in color but at one point I checked it and it had no material left on it so I swapped out for the one on the bottom, just to offer them something else is they didn't just want to eat grains of rice, or tiny sand eels.
We fished for hours and covered spots, yes even spots for Big Joe as well, all within 100 feet of each other. Some inside and some outside. The shad and bass were busting but not easy to catch. Along the beach I landed 8 shad and two bass, the below being the better of the two.
Big Joe was the pool winner, yet again, getting the biggest bass on a cinder worm fly. Cinder worm fly? That's a violation. You're only supposed to use tiny sand eels fly Joe. Little Joe, I have to come up with better handles for these guys, okay, Flatwing Joe, landed some shad but the bass was elusive. By midnight we were heading to bed with a tough forecast predicated for today.
