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Date: May 20, 2019 Body of Water: Waquoit Bay, Falmouth, Massachusetts Boat: Maritime 1480 With: Alone Target: Striped Bass Time: 6 AM - 9 AM Conditions: Overcast but clearing; building tide, southerly wind well in excess of 15 mph; another Small Craft Advisory. I launched into the slack, low tide, and returned to my little area where the Childs River enters Eel Pond. The bite was pretty slow to start; after a brief flurry at about 6:30 AM, it was a slow grind until 8:30 AM or so, at which point I'd landed "just" 6 stripers to 23 inches for the morning. As the growing tide increased in velocity, the fishing picked up, and an additional six fish fell for the jig and fluke before 9 AM. At that point, conditions were clear and bright, and it was time to pick up my visitor for the day. K was visiting from Boston! We'd not fished together in nearly a year, and she was looking forward to catching some fish! Date: May 20, 2019 Body of Water: Waquoit Bay, Falmouth, Massachusetts Boat: Maritime 1480 With: K! Target: Striped Bass Time: 11:30 AM - 3:30 PM Conditions: Clear and bright; building tide until 1 PM or so, and then falling; southerly wind well in excess of 15 mph; another Small Craft Advisory. We were both in a great mood as we made our way down the Childs River. We don't see each other enough, we hadn't fished together in about a year, it was a bright and sunny day, and I knew there were some stripers to catch! K opted to use the jig and fluke in a bid to optimize her bites and chances at catching a few stripers. I chose to complement her presentation and "go big" with the popper. I missed a nice one almost immediately, and K totally outfished me for the session. The stripers were shy about eating the topwater (although we enjoyed several splashy misses), but seemed willing to take her slowly-presented jig. I also caught a single bass on a smallish Hogy paddle tail swim-bait. While these mid-day bass were on the small side, we were having fun! When we lost the tide and the bite slowed, we decided to explore a little bit. As we neared Eel Pond Outlet, we noticed a few birds working over some bait on a sandbar. K threw out her jig and connected with a 20-inch striper in a new spot! The wind-driven tide was really piling super-clear water into the outlet at this point, and we carefully worked visible current seams and eddies to no avail. I switched to a heavier, bottom-oriented presentation (1-ounce Crippled Herring tin) and got touched on my first cast. I failed to hook up, but my next cast got thanked hard as I swung the lure along bottom with the current. This turned out to be a hard-fighting, beautifully bright 21-incher. What a cap to a nice day! What do I have to say about this? The day's fishing had been a bit of a grind, but this will be the day from this trip that I will remember. K's presence and our care-free afternoon were gifts. The day also brought a couple of goals into focus; with a half-day of fishing still available to me, I'd caught 97 stripers, of which 93 had been captured from my new boat. Clearly, the next demanded that I catch at least 3 stripers (100 for the trip) and preferably at least 7 (100 for the new Maritime.) While truly meaningless, goals such as these provide some fun motivation for me; I formed and accepted these challenges willingly. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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