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 the prescribed equipment maintenance, dress some j hooks on the vise, and break out the skis.