Halfway through the upswing of my cast, I heard a snap and watched my silvery popper fly lazily overhead and plop in the fast-moving water a few dozen yards in […]
ON THE BEACH
The Enduring Teachings of a Childhood Pond
Nature provides places to heal, but now it asks for our protection
We called it Spectacle Pond, but maybe that’s just a name we neighborhood kids made up. All I can find now on maps of Lexington is a tiny, roundish pond […]
ON THE BEACH
Why in Autumn an Explorer Returns to His Familiar Haunts
It’s not always the fishing an angler remembers most
A good friend of mine is convinced that humankind is composed of three distinct personalities: farmers, explorers, and seekers. According to her theory, exploration is part of each one’s purpose, […]
ON THE BEACH
The Secret of Tasty Blues
The art of the quick kill and bleeding brings out the best in bluefish and bonito
Everybody who owns a rod and reel enjoys catching bluefish. They are aggressive, hard-fighting, love to come close to shore, and will eagerly hit just about any lure cast their […]
ON THE BEACH
Learning to Read the Chop
On the back shore, a father’s lessons reveal the bounty under the ocean’s surface
On Father’s Day I pick the meat off a big lobster in honor of my father, who spent his winters dreaming about getting back to Provincetown and eating freshly cooked […]
ON THE BEACH
A Fisherman’s Luck
Skill is one thing, but how to explain the hits and hookups that happen on the very last cast?
Knowing a backshore beach’s structures — the deeps, shallows, and river-like troughs between the shore and the first sandbar — is as important to catching fish as knowing the tides, […]
ON THE BEACH
The Striper Fisherman’s Dilemma
Wrestling with joy and guilt as bass suffer a precipitous decline
It was the kind of afternoon a fisherman dreams about all winter — one spent wading in the spectacular beauty of the Herring River, casting surface lures into receding waters […]
ON THE BEACH
A New Old Favorite Fishing Spot
A tiny fly pattern reveals the bounty in a Wellfleet kettle pond
You would think that after 50 years of obsessive globe-trotting in search of new and better places to fish, the last place I’d find would be a pond in my […]
ON THE BEACH
A New Old Favorite Fishing Spot
A tiny fly pattern reveals the bounty in a Wellfleet kettle pond
You would think that after 50 years of obsessive globe-trotting in search of new and better places to fish, the last place I’d find would be a pond in my […]
ON THE MARSH
Of Settlers and Silt
How the invasive earthworm came to shape the Outer Cape’s landscape
The measured opening of the 115-year-old Herring River dike is front and center in a decades-long restoration project aimed at bringing back some of the Wellfleet estuary’s original tidal flow. […]
ON THE BEACH
What It Means to Have Oyster Eyes
The hunt for a bivalve that’s not as sedentary as you might think
At no time of the year is oystering more challenging for those who farm them than now, when we’re on the verge of colder weather and the possibility of sea […]
ON THE BEACH
Bearing Witness to Climate Change on Cape Cod
A theory teaches us how to see more than what our own eyes tell us
If you scrunch your eyes enough to blur your vision slightly, it’s easy to imagine what Wellfleet or Provincetown looked like 50 or even 100 years ago, when horse-drawn buggies […]
ON THE BEACH
Fishing for Solace in the Cold Months
With the sun fading, a fisherman winterizes his psyche
The semiannual changing of the clocks couldn’t come at a worse time — just after the fishing has slowed to a near stop, when the days are getting colder and […]
ON THE BEACH
Before the Bluefins Were Big Game
Where the weirs were worked, the promise of a new fishery comes into view
When we were kids hanging out at the West End Racing Club in Provincetown or walking the flats in front of our summer digs on Capt. Jack’s Wharf, our ears […]
ON THE BEACH
The Day I Became an Ancestor
Fishing sometimes yields unforgettable familial joys
Fishing is mostly a solitary pursuit. Apart from those momentary accolades heard when you arrive home with a nice striper, in fishing there are rarely commentators watching from the sidelines. […]
