Fishing

In baseball parlance, the fishing season is now formally in the bottom of the ninth inning. There are two outs and two strikes on the batter at the plate, or in this case a fisherman with a rod and reel in hand. For my part, I did not want to strike out by not fishing one last time before the end of the year.

The other night, I came across my first fishing logbook, started back in 1978, in which I began to inscribe my saltwater exploits when I was 15 years old. Back then I considered it a chore to take time to make notations of success or failure in my fishing excursions and wondered how it would ultimately serve me. But now I finally know.

With my boat prematurely out of the water for the season with various and costly engine issues, I have to find other vessels to fish on. Many friends have already hauled out their crafts, so I’m resigned to fishing on open boats, and that’s just fine with me. Two weeks ago, I took passage on the Peconic Star 3 out of Greenport for blackfish. It is skippered by the ever-youthful Capt. Speedy Hubert, he of the age of 84. Spry and energetic as ever, he anchored us up on a wreck off Horton’s Point in Long Island Sound. I had not fished that area in probably over 35 years. It was nice to be back.

Rick Pickering, the owner of Ship Ashore Marina in Sag Harbor, broke the bad news: “The turbocharger on the engine of your boat needs to be rebuilt, or we can get you a new one.”

After a few weeks of incessant gusty winds, the weather gods who rule from the clouds high above finally provided anglers with a much-welcomed reprieve for several extended days of very fishable conditions, a rare occurrence by November marine weather standards.

I was determined to find out for myself if the dire prediction of another terrible scallop season was in fact true.

Saturday’s marine forecast looked promising for a change. The bushel of green crabs that I bought two weeks ago would finally be put to good use for a few hours of blackfishing in and around the Plum Island area.

As the gusty east winds finally abated last week after a four-day blow, the opening of blackfish season was eagerly welcomed by a multitude of anglers.

A three-day blow over the holiday weekend put a severe damper on things for those intent to wet a line.

Sadly, I’ve not been fishing on my boat in well over a month, and my 30-foot Nova Scotia-built craft is high and dry on land while it receives a new stern deck.

“Oysters are incredibly hardy,” said Kim Tetrault, who oversees the Cornell Cooperative operations in Southold. “They can withstand a lot of what Mother Nature throws at them.”

Owning a boat certainly has its ups and downs. Lately, it’s been more of the latter.

We are getting close to August and it's clear that the fishing scene has shifted into full summer mode. The summer menu of fish includes everything from wahoo to swordfish, codfish to red hake, as well as dozens of other fish in between.

Last week, I was mugged. Someone pulled my lobster traps, whatever lobsters they may have contained, and three dozen oysters I had placed in the traps and left the rope tangled in knots. "Some people really suck," said my companion, who helps me on deck.

Kim Tetrault, the longtime chief oyster guru at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Center in Southold, tends oysters hatched in late March and scallops still too tiny to be seen without a microscope.

The South Fork is forecast to experience the worst of Tropical Storm Elsa’s gusty winds, heavy rain, tidal flooding, and rough surf between 6 a.m. and noon on Friday. Elsa, which made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, is expected to move through Mid-Atlantic states and into New England through Friday.

Walking along the weathered docks of Montauk Harbor on Saturday morning, it was nice to see that a great many boats, both of a commercial and charter/open craft nature, were out to sea on a warm, breezy day. Fishing is a tough business in good times, but it was an even greater challenge during the pandemic to secure much-needed income. Thankfully, that seems to have changed.

The lead character playing the part of Ahab these days is a commercial lobster diver from Provincetown, Mass., named Michael Packard, and in this updated adventure on the high seas, Packard, while diving near his hometown last week, said he was inhaled by a whale.

The three-day Memorial Day weekend northeaster that brought about rough seas and winds up to 40 miles per hour was nasty on many fronts. 

Strong northeast winds, combined with a cold rain, that started on Friday and unfortunately hung on until Memorial Day on Monday meant the weekend was a washout for those looking to wet a line, but the action should improve in the coming days.

Just as there are rules of the road, there are rules of the waterways, and National Boating Safety Week this week is a good time to remember that.

When dealing with bluefish, especially the larger specimens that have shown up en masse in our local waters in the past two weeks, it's important to avoid their powerful jaws that are equipped by the blessing of nature with razor-sharp teeth.

It was a bit of a surprise that I was stopped on the water last Tuesday morning by the Coast Guard for a safety inspection, but it felt good to know they had checked to see that I had all I need to be safe on the water. 

It's a drop in the fishing bucket, but New York has begun to distribute $6.7 million in relief aid to the state's seafood, marine commercial, and for-hire fishing industries after excessive business losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the coming weeks, award recipients will receive a letter accompanied by a check, based on reported economic loss experienced in 2020 compared to the previous five years.

Before taking early retirement a few years ago, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel extensively in my job. When time allowed, especially on weekends, I often tried to visit any nearby tackle shops or fish markets to better understand and appreciate the wares and tastes of the locals.

Hidden within a subset of LTV's video collection, are recordings of local fishermen, bygone and not, reminiscing about simpler times from the 1980s onward. Over 100 shows in the LTV archives document this moment of change, when the State Department of Environmental Conservation began imposing strict sanctions, in the form of quotas, on what had been a relatively unfettered way of life.

The pandemic has seriously impacted many who fish or work on the water for a living. With restaurants and the food service industry taking a big hit, the demand for various seafood products, including oysters, has been severely curtailed. A new partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts is offering help for oyster farmers whose oysters have grown too big to market.

On the fishing scene many remain thankful for the great action. While striped bass can still be had from the ocean beaches (Sunday afternoon saw a classic bass blitz from Bridgehampton to Southampton), Montauk continues to be the main port of call for fishing activities, especially for blackfish, sea bass, porgies, and cod.

Marine fishing industries that have experienced significant economic losses because of the pandemic can apply for federal grants through New York State's fisheries relief program starting on Tuesday. The application period ends on Dec. 31.

It was an unusual season on the water by all accounts. When the boat was first launched in mid-March, the pandemic was already beginning to have a firm grip on New York and Long Island. It was a scary and uncertain time. In many ways, it still is.