A few weeks back, I had fun doing a podcast for Peter Jenkins over at Saltwater Edge. As you can imagine it covers a lot of information about fly fishing in salt water here in the Northeast. Here’s a link to the podcast: https://saltwateredge.com/blogs/saltwater-edge/a-student-of-the-saltwater-fly-rod-ed-mitchell
Lucky me. Caught a day fishing Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Watch Hill’s rips and reefs are justly famous for their fishing. Striped bass, Bluefish, Atlantic Bonito and False Albacore all appear here in season. My baptism on these water began some thirty years ago. And resulted in one of my earliest articles, a story entitled Speedsters on a Fly for Saltwater Sportsman Magazine back in 1992.
Chip Bates with a Watch Hill Striper
On this recent visit, I was aboard The Lauren B. with Captain Steve Burnett. Steve is a widely known and highly respected fly & light tackle guide hailing out of Stonington, Connecticut. He has decades of experience here and it shows. So if you’re jonesing for a day at Watch Hill, give Steve a call.
Lauren B Charters 1114 Flanders Rd.
Mystic, CT 06355 Phone: (860) 572-9896
https://www.fishwatchhill.com/captain-steve/
Email: captsteveburnett@yahoo.com
Recently a hammerhead shark put in quite show on Nantucket. While not unheard of, hammerheads sharks are rare on Nantucket Island. Their normal range is in Tropical waters, from 37 degrees south to 40 degree north. Nantucket Island is 41 degrees north. Another sign of global warming you say? Perhaps.
This hammerhead shark popped up on Ladies Beach on the southside of Nantucket Island. Ladies Beach is a popular surfing location between Cisco and Miacomet beaches. The hammerhead shark was feeding on bluefish right in the wash as the video will show.
Hammerheads sharks are not extremely aggressive toward humans, but fatalities have occurred. Around the same time this hammerhead paid a visit to Nantucket Island, three big sharks were spotted on Martha’s Vineyard’s South Beach. With the waters warm, this is the height of the shark season in New England. Anglers, swimmers, kayakers, and surfers take care.
My son organized a Father’s Day camping trip to Martha’s Vineyard. We had a blast although the fishing and the weather were not in our favor.
After being home bound much of this spring with foot injuries, I was pumped to be out and about, especially to be on the island with a fly rod in hand. Yeah we did find a few schoolies mixed in with a lot of hickory shad, but the angling from shore was largely a bust. Drat. Perhaps most of the stripers were offshore feeding on the squid runs. If so, you can be sure the boat guys were hooking up big time.
The weather was a factor too. Cold fronts kept rolling through, driven by north winds that weeded up the beaches. Ugh. I hate that red mung. And rain showed up at times as well. Never good news on a camping trip, believe me. The picture above should give you some idea of what daytime conditions were like.
We traveled around mightily, hoping to comp upon a good bite. Fished over half-a-dozen different beaches spanning nearly the entire north shore – from Dogbar to Edgartown. Never saw any real action. Hey, sometimes fishing is wishing!
As you may have noticed I’m not doing much posting. Truth is I’ve been out of action for over a month. First off I reinjured my right foot. This injury originally happened twenty year ago. Some kind of problem with the bones in my foot. The orthopedic guy told me to take it easy and hope it didn’t come back. Well, it popped up again. Damn.
Back When I had Two Good Feet!
That got me putting all my weight on my left foot in an effort to protect my right. Made sense? After three weeks of that, I sprained my left ankle! At that point I was pretty much immobile. Spending a lot of time on the couch, my friend, watching fishing videos on YouTube. Yeah things are slowly getting better, but it has been a tough spring for this old guy.
