First thoughts and prayers to John's family.
I met John probably 15 years , as many did, fishing Quonny Breachway. I remember one particuliarly miserable night about 12 years ago with the wind blowing straight in at 25+ mph and the waves breaking up and over the hard side of Quonny keeping us 30-40 ft back on the jetty. Everyone had left as fishing was near impossible and it was only John and myself. We were talking about how bad the conditions were and I told him I was going to jig the end of the breachway because you couldn't cast anything else he decided to put on a bomber! I laughed at him and asked how he was going to cast that thing and then climbed down on the rocks to make a cast. I turned to see John make his first cast which went all of 20 ft out and come straight back at him and drop at his feet barely in the water. He puts 3 cranks on the reel and the rod doubles over and he's on! He managed to work the fish around to the inside and I jumped down and retrieved his fish, which turned out to be 45" 35+ lbs., we just stood there and laughed. He thanked me for helping him landed the fish and invited me back to his car where he gave me two prototype squid poppers that still hang in my basement unfished. Everytime I saw him I would just say I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
- Rest in peace John.
|