There are far worse things than coming back from a tuna fishing trip having been skunked. Certainly having it happen a second consecutive time meets all the criteria for being labeled as such. Even so, novelty cheapens at a slow rate when what is new involves heading 30 miles East of Nantucket on a perfectly calm morning in late June. As a result, I didn’t hesitate for a moment when Spongey asked me to have a third go at getting some big fish. Now, I will say that the whole let’s-get-up-2-hours-before-we-go-to-sleep part is a little bit lost on me because I feel fairly certain that people catch tuna at all times of the day and night, but hey, not my boat, so meet at 3:30am it is cap.

We met out on the west end at Madaket Marine at the turbid tail of hither creek and I swear I came very close to trying to get Jon to call the whole thing off because Striped Bass were flopping all over the place in the pre-dawn dark. When Jon pulled up in his truck and I saw his face there was no way that I could have brought myself to make the case for staying. He was just lit up with excitement, anticipating heading off East to the deep waters. It would have been like talking a small child out of going to the Magic Kingdom when you’re already in the parking lot at Disneyland 30 minutes before closing, so that you could go to the taco truck that you’d seen on the street outside to get some carnitas. You knew full well that no matter how hungry you were, those tacos weren’t going anywhere and if they did, you would probably pass about five more taco trucks on the way home. (more…)