Despite a stiff east wind Gail and I headed out looking for some good sized bass. We had to use spin rods to get the distance that we needed. It was a quick start with fish between 20 & 30 lbs. After a handful of fish each we called it a morning.

Today brought Chris down from the wilds of New Hampshire for a morning on the briney. We left early and found a few small bass that didn’t want to cooperate so we kept going. We came across a few small pods of albies that didn’t want to play. Finally we headed back to the dock with the promise that we would stop if we found them. You know that we found them.Had a few near misses so we continued on.Even closer to home we found several pods in shallow water. Chris dropped a fly right in the middle of a big boil and it was off to the races. When you are in seven feet of water they can only go one way. Chris’s new reel was up to the task and we ended the trip on a happy note.

It all started before last weeks nor’easter we decided to pull the boats out ahead of the storm. That went smoothly and when the water started to calm down a bit it was time for us to go to my reunion down in Alabama. It had been 60 years since I had gone to helicopter maintenance school there. That was also where most of my pilots got their start. We arrived home at 0300 on Monday morning.Later that day we put the boat back in only to find the batteries had passed away while we were gone. The next day brought two new ones and we were ready to go back to work. Wednesday morning brought Mark and Todd across the close but ever dangerous CT/RI border. We left early and started our quest for the ever elusive Albie. After a long but fruitless ride we decided to wait for a tide change and a luck change. In the meantime the guys kept sharp by catching numerous Black Sea bass.Eventually a few albies started to show and Mark picked up a few along with a nice Bonito.Sometimes it pays to be patient.

Monday morning brought Liz and her son Jeffery down for their first try at spin fishing. I had warned them about the wind but they wanted to go anyway. We started off pretty close in a lee and they got a feel for casting. We moved out in search of fishable water and had to settle for second choice. After a bit of traveling we found some reasonably calm water that held a few fish. They weren’t interested in what we were throwing so we went smaller. Soon after Jeff landed a mighty snapper bluefish. At this point I wasn’t complaining. As the morning wore on the guys casting improved significantly and as a reward the albies arrived. The casting lessons ended and the hooking,fighting and landing lessons began. Being the great students that they were we soon had some picture worthy fish in the boat followed by a couple more. Lots of fun on the briney.

We’ve been busy for the past two weeks having fun with the elusive bonito. Some days we had to work pretty hard and other days it was pretty easy. Well, we went out this morning and all that changed.For the 27 th year in a row Gail put the first Albie in the boat for this year. They were eating flies pretty well but when the wind and boats showed up we switched over to spin rods. Those fish sure do like an albi snax.

I f you know me this photo needs no explanation. We headed out this morning at a fairly reasonable hour. Found some fish pretty quickly and got rid of the skunk. There were good schools of these guys spread out over a ten mile area. We had to run and gun a bit but there weren’t any boats around to aggravate so it worked out for us. We ended the day in double figures so there were no complaints about that.

We are still alive and fishing although we were laid up with a sick motor. A problem that is intermittent is a royal pain to figure out. Luckily for us Gary kept at it and fixed the problem. We put the boat in last night and took a shakedown cruise today. I brought a couple spin rods just in case we stumbled on something fun. Twenty minutes in we saw some familiar splashes. We stayed and played and put three bonito and a renegade bluefish in the boat. We marked tons of bait so that should keep things interesting. Stay tuned.

Julian brought his parents and good buddy Wes all the way from the west coast today. We started off with a bunch of sand sharks for everyone. They were followed by a half dozen porgys and a few fluke and one lonesome sea bass. We tried but could not find the elusive sea robin. The Noyes had some fun and the Captain did too.

Paul came across the RI border to find some stripers that were willing to play. We left near the end of the flood tide and stopped at almost every place that I’ve caught a bass and with the exception of one half hearted strike we pretty much struck out. Luckily the tide changed and when it started the fish showed up along with their appetites. We finished the day with a few in the boat after way too many casts.