NUMENON |
PONDERING CORE ESSENCE
NUMENON |
Saturday, May 22, 2021 offered a bit of a roller coaster experience. I expected good fishing, but things got off to a surprisingly slow start. My pick of inshore fish were small, and I left these only to find vast emptiness. Despite the persistent wind, I resorted to exploring choppy Vineyard Sound to find some quality stripers. I did, too, by focusing on subtle observations and interpreting the huge amount of information available to me via the Garmin GPS/Sonar unit. The fish were on the up-current side of an incipient rip, and my first pass through the sweet spot with my Rapala deep diver connected with a solid drag-puller! It wasn't the 25-pounder I'd hoped for, but at a chunky 25 inches, this was my biggest striper of the year! On my first pass with a new-to-me-here technique! I promptly knocked the bass off the lure with the net; there would be no pictures of this one. And when I looked up, a guide boat had slid into the sweet spot, and now sat there, stemming the tide. Over the next half hour or so, I saw his fly-rodding clients land a half dozen or more fish. I recognized the onset of sea sickness. Instead of fighting it, I yielded to it; got it over and done with (or so I hoped.) Mung now made trolling virtually impossible (I was lucky to have gotten that first pass in), and attempting to stem the tide while casting worsened my illness. It robbed me of my sea legs, too. I was ineffective and downright feeble; I knew I had to retreat inshore. But first, there was that business of being sick again! Returning via the main Waquoit outlet, I hit a few spots to see if any bass were home. I continued my inshore struggles. I finally returned to where I'd started at least six hours before. The tide had literally turned, and a small seam had formed with the ebb. My first cast with a small swim-bait was lightly touched. The next was confidently eaten. For the next hour or so, I entertained myself with these small (18 inches and less) bass. On what I thought would be my last drift, I switched baits to a pink fluke, if only to show any remaining bass something different and to gain some experience/confidence with this color. My first and only bite on the pink fluke was my best striper of this young season, a very respectable inshore fish of 28 inches! Against the odds on this pretty tough day, I'd caught my first "Keeper" of the season; my earliest ever (calendar-wise) and inshore, to boot. I stayed a bit longer and caught another bass or two after switching back to a white fluke. A tough bite had been countered by landing 17 stripers. Sickness made my offshore find that much sweeter. Persevering through some slow times yielded a surprisingly nice fish. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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Based on the day's sunny and warm forecast, I expected them to arrive in the afternoon, but some scout herring were already in Mill Brook's Cooke's Hollow run on the morning of May 9, 2021. I expected to find more later that afternoon; conditions were sunny and approaching 70 degrees. I was surprised to find just a handful, including a couple of groups of active spawners, when I returned with Ollie. After a few days of absence, about a dozen were viewed in the upper reaches of this stretch on the afternoon of May 12. The big influx I anticipated with the New Moon didn't materialize here. Regardless of what I know or don't know about River Herring, I am glad to see them and welcome them to their home waters. I'll continue to keep tabs on them, and I may even check to see if their presence has attracted any striped bass. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways May 7, 2021 12:30 PM Waquoit Bay, Falmouth/Mashpee Massachusetts Here's my earliest-ever saltwater striper, a 16-incher that I fooled with a small swimbait in about seven feet of water: I had to work hard for this fish. I'll maintain that size doesn't matter for the first of the season. Still, this guy and two others of similar stature were fun enough on my light tackle, and three small (No, tiny!) stripers really can make for a fine, successful day! There's plenty of season ahead in which to catch some slightly bigger ones! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways |
Steve LachanceVia Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Michigan and now, back to New England! Archives
June 2024
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