. . . because I forgot my waders . Luckily, the fishing was pretty cool too!
Just after I got on the Mass Pike I realized that I had forgotten my waders and wading boots. I considered going back for them, but it would have delayed my arrival time by almost two hours. I decided that I'd just fish the jetties and I'd be ok. Well, there were no fish to be found at Weekapaug, Quonnie or Charlestown so I headed to Watch Hill and planned to fish from the rocks behind the cabanas.
As soon as I reached the top of the dune I saw loads of birds working the surf. I chased them down the beach and plunged into the water in my jeans and sneakers to try to get a cast, but they were moving fast and I couldn't keep up. Then I started seeing fish breaking along the shore. I spent the next hour running up and down the beach in my soggy jeans, but the fish always seemed to move away before I got to them. I finally hooked up with a small blue, which promptly took my fly. I was kind of bummed since I was soaked to the waist and hadn't caught any fish. There were albies, blues and stripers running along the beach and I just could not get anything. I finally made my way down to a group of flycasters who were hooking up repeatedly, even though the fish weren't showing any more. I soon hooked into another small blue and had a couple more brief hook-ups and LDRs before the action stopped.
Cold and hungry, I headed back towards the car. When I got near the jetty I could see boats in close along the beach between the jetty and the lighthouse, and fish were breaking close to shore. I was already soaked so I decided I might as well give it a shot. I hooked up immediately and was bitten off by a blue. Then, for the next hour and a half I had steady action with stripers and a couple more hits from blues. Most of the stripers were small but a couple were in the high 20s. At around 4:00 the action moved back over along Napatree Beach, but I really needed to change into some dry clothes and get some food so I called it quits for the day. Aside from the snafu with the waders it was my best day of fishing since June.
Q
Just after I got on the Mass Pike I realized that I had forgotten my waders and wading boots. I considered going back for them, but it would have delayed my arrival time by almost two hours. I decided that I'd just fish the jetties and I'd be ok. Well, there were no fish to be found at Weekapaug, Quonnie or Charlestown so I headed to Watch Hill and planned to fish from the rocks behind the cabanas.
As soon as I reached the top of the dune I saw loads of birds working the surf. I chased them down the beach and plunged into the water in my jeans and sneakers to try to get a cast, but they were moving fast and I couldn't keep up. Then I started seeing fish breaking along the shore. I spent the next hour running up and down the beach in my soggy jeans, but the fish always seemed to move away before I got to them. I finally hooked up with a small blue, which promptly took my fly. I was kind of bummed since I was soaked to the waist and hadn't caught any fish. There were albies, blues and stripers running along the beach and I just could not get anything. I finally made my way down to a group of flycasters who were hooking up repeatedly, even though the fish weren't showing any more. I soon hooked into another small blue and had a couple more brief hook-ups and LDRs before the action stopped.
Cold and hungry, I headed back towards the car. When I got near the jetty I could see boats in close along the beach between the jetty and the lighthouse, and fish were breaking close to shore. I was already soaked so I decided I might as well give it a shot. I hooked up immediately and was bitten off by a blue. Then, for the next hour and a half I had steady action with stripers and a couple more hits from blues. Most of the stripers were small but a couple were in the high 20s. At around 4:00 the action moved back over along Napatree Beach, but I really needed to change into some dry clothes and get some food so I called it quits for the day. Aside from the snafu with the waders it was my best day of fishing since June.
Q