Stripers Forever, the conservation group seeking game fish status for wild striped bass on the Atlantic Coast, is seeking input into their 2013 stripers survey. Please take a moment to complete the survey by clicking here.
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The Fly Fishing Film Tour (f3t) 2014 is coming to the Bear’s Den fly shop on February 22nd. Well, close — it’s being hosted by the Bear’s Den at the Taunton Inn and Conference Center. The info is not yet on the Bear’s Den website, but follow the link below to buy a ticket today and to watch a bunch of trailers.
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This is the last weekend to visit James Prosek’s beautiful and eclectic art show at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. Go while you can — James’s paintings are truly beautiful. Below are some samples from the exhibit. Below that art some more details. With the Marlborough show a few weeks away, and large drifts of snow on the ground, you’re not going fishing this weekend. So go see James’s art.
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the Marlborough Fly Fishing show — New England’s premier winter fly fishing show — is fast approaching. It’s time to put it on the calendar and buy tickets.
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In 2013 I was fortunate to have some great days on the water — including one of my best ever. But all of this was marred by persistent bad news about the continued decline of striped bass (more on that later). What follows is a short summary of some key trends, trips, and events from 2013.
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It feels like months ago that I washed down my salt water fly rod for the last time. The leaves fell, the gras was white with the first frost, and I put away my equipment, thinking I wouldn’t see it until the spring. Now, a video has me thinking I was wrong.
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This is the Margaree: a beautiful river, with tremendous character. But unlike other salmon rivers, where the water is private and, as a consequence, often eye-wateringly expensive, the Margaree is accessible – at least in price. Getting there is another matter. Situated in a heart of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, trip is an epic one; 12 hours from Boston, according to Google maps. And that’s without pitstops.
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Last week, I had the pleasure of fly fishing for false albacore ofd Cape Cod with two good friends, Eoin and Bob. We hired Tom Rapone, a long-standing fishing guide cum lawyer who, this fall, experienced a relapse into guiding — and to our great benefit. Tom is one of the finest guides I’ve ever fished with, and is a great guy to boot. While I understand the lure of the law, I do hope he continued to experience relapses for years to come.
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We had been chasing tarpon — a giant fish constructed of silver dollar scales, dark eyes the size of plums, and a mouth that could swallow a basketball — in the warm, blue waters off Boca Grande. The pass at Boca is renowned tarpon water, and the coast nearly so: it’s here that Americans, who can’t be bothered (or afford) to fly south to South America or elsewhere, go to chase tarpon. All morning, we had been doing just that: driving with our guide up and down the coast in his 18′ center console boat, searching for schools of tarpon. We blazed past islands and boats and fishy looking sections, stopping here and there, with not a single fish in sight.
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First, there were birds. And then, there were stripers. Lots of stripers. With the sun rising, we set out from a small harbor through a narrow channel with our guide. Safe from the harbor, we brought the boat onto plane and motored into Cape Cod Bay. The air was cold, the wind calm, and the boats sparse. It looked like a good day. But the recent news wasn’t great. Fish had been sparse. The Vineyard side wasn’t producing. Striper population levels have been down in recent years. If you followed the logic of the conversation, it was going to be a beautiful day for a skunking. And then we saw birds, and fish.
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