GEOGRAPHY AND STRIPED BASS

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

When considering the current state of the striped bass fishery, it is interesting to note that geography plays an important role in assessing how much trouble the species is in. While Massachusetts and Maine have experienced subpar bass fishing for several years, states to the south of us have enjoyed exactly the opposite.

Winter Break

If you are the parent of a Vineyard school child, chances are you won’t be reading this because you are gone.

Jobless Island

How many Islanders are out of work? No one knows for certain, but we know the numbers are rising to near record levels, mirroring the rest of the country and now apparently the world. The New York Times reported last weekend that fifty million people are forecast to be out of work by the end of this year, as unemployment spreads around the globe like wildfire.

And the year has just begun.

About 15 years ago Fred Golofaro (longtime publisher of a popular East Coast fishing weekly) and I stood ankle deep at North Bar, a striper hot spot on Montauk’s rocky north side. We watched as medium sized stripers exploded under pencil poppers that were being cast out into the rip by a line of surf men. Neither of us thought we would ever witness this startling recovery of striper fishing. Rods were bowed, fishermen were crazed, drags were hissing, birds were screaming and bass were blasting through shoals of silversides. It was a classic, late fall Montauk blitz.

Shelter in a Storm

By 5:30 p.m. on a midwinter evening, the traffic into and out of Vineyard Haven had thinned; there wasn’t much anyway, the whole day had been blustery, with snow squalls off and on. No strollers and not many shoppers. The stores got ready to close, and people hurried about their business, finishing errands, getting to their cars and leaving town. It was dusk, and snowy, with just a tiny bit of pink sunset showing through the black clouds in the west. Red sky at night sailor’s delight; maybe the weather would be clearing tomorrow.