I feel that way each year on the last trip to the Elizabeths. I catch myself looking back into the wake of the boat as Cuttyhunk, Nashawena, Pasque and the western end of Naushon sink into the horizon. I know I won't see those shores again til' May and I am also aware I might never see them again if the good Lord chooses. As we follow the bass north in the spring we follow them likewise south in the late fall. Each area has it's own long goodbyes. Late October on the outer cape, The Falmouth shore in early November then the Elizabeths and occasionally Fisher's Island the day after Thanksgiving if the weather holds. Finally you can go no farther and can only look out to sea and wish them well and pray you survive to feel that pulse come April that signals the renewal of the odyssey. In my column in OTW I wrote of that this past fall. I was with my good friend Dave LaPorte on Nauset in November a couple years ago and we were still catching them albeit they were getting samller each night. The week before Thanksgiving, which was unusual to say the least, we were still catching them and had seen no one for a week or better on the beach. The fish were thick and feeding in the light of a November halfmoon. Suddenly we both stopped casting and I walked over to Dave and I told him I was done for the year. He replied he was too and that we should leave them to themselves, there at that moment under the November Moon. While they were still breaking in the first wave we turned and left and walked up to the truck and put the rods on the rack and called it a year. I know what you mean.
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