Archive for November, 2009

Birds, Rip, Expectations

Posted on November 30th, 2009

Nothing like coming up on it and having it all laid out in front of you. The representative Northeast scene on a November day, with bait popping and birds busting. Only minor detail is, no one told the game fish. So unless I get a call about the herring run, and the coinciding means to be spontaneous, it ends with a whimper. There are some things on the horizon: The chance to try for my first chrome upstate around Christmas, the Bay Bridge and Tunnel prospect, the proposed  clown knife fish junket, and plans to push into the Florida back country. But it’s all nebulous at the moment. Until something is set in concrete, it’s time to learn some new knots, get underway with…

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You're Only As Faithful As Your Options*

Posted on November 25th, 2009

    In the piscatorial sense, we are all whores. No one does right by any one place or species. We experience long stints of faithful behavior to certain waters, or intense periods of focus in pursuit of a single fish, and sometimes we believe in our hearts that we are true. We are not. “I wish it would never end, this thing between me and you,” we tell the stripers all fall. “Forget about those albies that came rolling through in September. It was a lusty drunken physical thing.” And then winter comes and the striped bass go scarce and as Hank Williams Jr.** sings it, “But sometimes Lord, she just ain’t always around.”   There will be plenty of time for longing,…

You’re Only As Faithful As Your Options*

Posted on November 25th, 2009

    In the piscatorial sense, we are all whores. No one does right by any one place or species. We experience long stints of faithful behavior to certain waters, or intense periods of focus in pursuit of a single fish, and sometimes we believe in our hearts that we are true. We are not. “I wish it would never end, this thing between me and you,” we tell the stripers all fall. “Forget about those albies that came rolling through in September. It was a lusty drunken physical thing.” And then winter comes and the striped bass go scarce and as Hank Williams Jr.** sings it, “But sometimes Lord, she just ain’t always around.”   There will be plenty of time for longing,…

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A Shoeless Salvation

Posted on November 20th, 2009

At the moment I’ve got three goals in life: To play an acoustic set in a dive bar, catch a 100-pound tarpon on fly, and live somewhere where I never have to wear shoes again. Ted Williams (the hitter, fighter pilot and fisher) 0nce boasted that he would never have to wear a tie. Good on that, but his time came before business casual. Put me in a place where I don’t have to wear anything more cumbersome than flops and it’ll be alright. New York’s good for a lot of things but come November it’s time again to feel the restrictions of protective footwear. In a few weeks the stripers that I never seem to have time to fish for will be gone…

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Common Threads in Fishing Cinema

Posted on November 11th, 2009

The two movies that fishermen gravitate to are Jaws and A River Runs Through It. Other than some crazy big fish action the movies are disparate in countless ways. Yet they are quoted by the same anglers, often on the same trip, and sometimes to the point where you want to punch the quoter in the sternum in hopes of jarring some original material. But there is one common unifying thread to both movies: That song. It takes on a major role in the shark flick, but you could blink and miss it in River, when Norman walks in to bail Paul out of the drunk tank and the little old man is singing it. So any future fishing movie better have this song somewhere…

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So There's This Docklight…

Posted on November 4th, 2009

I’m not supposed to go there anymore but nobody’s usually around and nobody would say anything if they were, and it gets dark now at around 5pm with Daylight Savings and, what have you, and sometimes if you need to find fish there are actions to be taken.

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