catching up

Man have I been busy! Being a dad is the hardest job I've ever had, but the most rewarding. Getting time to hit the water has been tough, most of my fishing these days is done before I come to work so we're talking 4am and I only get about an hour to fish so I have been checking tide charts closely to come up with a game plan for the week. These early morning outings start to kick my ass though. After I fish I come to work for 8 hours then I go home and tend to the offspring, I'm usually in bed right after I get her to go to sleep. But what can I do, got to get out and get me some stripers while there here cause it's a long ass winter here in New England, and whats better than having striper stink on my hands all day at work, I love the looks I get from my co-workers when I'm sitting there smelling my hands all day. "Plenty of time to sleep when you're dead."

And so it begins

The following dialogue takes place on the walk back from the river after being skunked.
Man #1 - the informative dog walker.
"You guys get any?"
"nope"
"Awww man you should have been here yesterday they were pulling keepers out of there left and right, and missed a bunch too!"
"huh." walked away with bullshit detector on high alert seeing it's May.

Man#2 - The lazy eyed townie
"You guys look like you're practicing for an up north country river."
I said nothing to this, just a dumbfounded look and continued to break down my fly rod.

So here I was yesterday thinking I'm all slick busting out of work early and heading to the river to try and find some of the first schoolie action of the year on a beautiful Monday afternoon only to get there and find the shore lined with sand spikes and folding chairs. Masterbaiters!!! 6 or 7 of them staked out in prime water. I moved up river and fished some good water through the tide but found nothing, didn't see any action with the bait guys either. Never been a big fan of those high noon tides, to bright out for me, and usually crowded but figured what the hell. I'll have to do some pre work fishing this week with the tides being all nice and what not. The search continues....