Rambling on my first season from a boat

[JFigliuolo]

Yeah... it's long.

Well, all I can say is, what a great season. Did I catch a lot of bass? no, actually the worst striper season I have ever had. By all past measurements this should have been the worst season of my life. I was a solid, died in the wool striperman. I never fished for anything else except a cod trip or two in the winter months. I really couldn’t imagine wanting to fish for anything else. But like everything else in life, your perspective changes. Last fall I had the opportunity to get a used 21 ft CC and decided to take the jump.

A little background.
I grew up on and around boats. We were by no means well off, my mother was a school teacher, my father worked wherever he could find a niche. From early in their lives together they had purchased old boats that needed a lot of work. My dad would fix them up over the cold upstate NY winters, use them a few years, then sell them to move up in size. There was an occasional new boat in the mix (just so my father could remember what depreciation was...), but mostly used fixer uppers. As long as I can remember, we would spend every summer weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day on Lake George NY, at first in a run about camping on the islands, then later in a cabin cruiser. They had their friends up there, all with children who also became friends. All summer was a spent trying to get through Monday – Thursday waiting not so patiently for Thursday night when we would go to the boat. I can’t really imagine a better way to grow up. I spent countless days swimming, fishing, and just being with my huge extended family. So many of my best memories come from that time, the older I get the more fortunate I realize I was. In my younger fresh out of college years I always had dreams of getting a boat of my own, but starting off with little money and trying to get by ( I remember my girlfriend and I taking a calculator to the market to make sure we had enough money for groceries) pay off student loans as well as save a bit, it never quite made it out of the dream stage. A few years late we moved down to Raleigh NC for better work, and cheaper living. The focus while there was saving for a house, which we soon found ourselves in, then the expenses that home ownership entails.
Six or so years later, we decided to move back up to New England to be closer to family. I got a job in RI, we settled in Woonsocket, close to where I got a job, in big old Victorian that needed quite a bit of work. I was married to that house for a year. It was second job. I am glad I did it. I would not do it again. It was then that I met a friend who rekindled my love of fishing. I had moved to New England in 1990 for work at Electric Boat, for a couple of years I chased fish at sunset from Nappa Tree to the Hill. It was then I was initially hooked. It wasn’t until moving back to RI that I started striper fishing in earnest. It became an obsession and something that gave me a lot of pleasure. I fished fairly hard for a few years, learning more and enjoying the abundance of the fishery. They were good years, but tough on my wife who knew me before I became crazed chasing fish, until, she started fishing herself. The next couple of years were some of the best. The fishing was good, the company was better. Life was good.
By this point the house in Woonsocket was ready to sell, the market was at it’s peak and we wanted out. We sold the house, and moved to NE CT, not exactly a fishing hot bed, but close enough to decent fishing. A year into the house it happened, June 2003, something the size of a pepper flake changed our lives forever. My wife developed Lyme disease, and to this day has not recovered, in fact, her health has been a slow decline. Surf fishing together became impossible. After a few years we decided to buy a tandem Hobie Kayak to fish from, as we both missed our time fishing together. We used it a lot that first year, it was great seeing her have fun again. As time passed though, the kayak became more than my wife could manage. It seemed like her fishing days were over. A few years passed, I fished less and less as the days wandered on. Then one day while fishing, I decided that we should move back to RI, to be closer to work and fish, and try to buy a boat so we could again spend time together. We discussed it and put a plan in place. Within almost no time I found a boat in NJ, that looked like it would be great for us. It had a decent price, nice layout and was in good enough condition. Within a year, we bought the boat, sold our house and moved once again, back to RI.
If you’re still with me, that pretty much brings us up to June of this year. The first few months of the boat was a lot to learn. I soon realized how much I forgotten about boating. I was quite intimidated my first few times out. The difference between surf and boat was much more than I had anticipated. The biggest difference was the world of opportunities that the boat opened up.
This year I was able to fish for fluke, sea bass and tautog spent some beautiful mornings on the water watching the sun come up, and fished with friends more often than before. My wife made it out a few times also, not as often as I would have liked, but at least she made it out. I can’t believe the possibilities that boat ownership has opened up and I’m grateful we were able to make it happen. This year was a year of new experiences and one of learning. I still have a ton to learn, but I think next year will be significantly more productive as I made a pretty good dent in the learning curve.
Winter is long, but the memories from this summer will keep me warm for sometime.