In the early 2000's the pollution in the western end of the Long Island Sound had been reduced. The hypoxia (lack of air in the water) that drives the fish out of the area had been reduced and report of the quality of the fishing are encouraging. Should we go round trip 204 miles to Silly Lilly or maybe forty miles to the Long Island Sound in Mamaroneck. Easy answer and I'd not looked back since.
Sometime in late June of this year, the girls complain that I haven't taken them fishing. I always wanted a
I set the trip to Silly Lilly's for Wednesday the 15th of July. I checked the tides and they look right (Always want to be fishing a moving tide). A few days later I recheck the tides and realize the tides are better for Wednesday the 22nd so I switch to the 22nd.
Of course on Wednesday the 15th, the weather is gorgeously perfect. The Sky is a big beautiful blue with just the occasional puffy cloud passing over head. It feels like I made a mistake especially when the following Wednesday is calling for thunder showers.
On the 22nd I get up at six and wake the girls up. To their credit they don't grumble. Their
COVID-19 bedtimes have usually been after one in the morning and they only get up to go to work at about ten AM for Nastia and noon for Elena. We pack my car. Nastia's having been in an accident a few days earlier.
Teri asks me what is wrong. I have been nervous about this trip since Friday. I have learned over the years mostly since I started working at The Crystal Spoon to compartmentalize things and focus on just the top of the pile. Sometimes it works, but today it was not working and I told her I was nervous about the trip. It'd been over twenty years since I was out there and I was nervous about having to run the boat and be responsible for two other lives on the water. I get sympathy and questions of why I'm nervous. I take the above picture and as you can see getting up at six really doesn't work for us.
We get on the road after stopping at the gas station for ice and the girls get some snacks. Nastia get chocolate covered pretzels.
I glance at the route on the GPS. It says to go over the Tappan Zee bridge, so I head for it. I don't know where I'm going until I get to the turn I need to make. My memories of past trips guide me and as we turn onto I 95 from the Cross Westchester I get a blast from the past. Not a twenty odd year old blast, more like a pre COVID-19 blast. We hit one of the first traffic jams I've been in since COVID-19 struck New York. It's mild by past standards, we slow, but don't stop and it ends without much ado. Traffic is heavy the whole trip to Long Island. We take the Throgs Neck bridge which is under re-construction. It was under re-construction while I was crossing it twenty years ago. We take the Cross Island to the Long Island Expressway. I remember it seemed like we were on the L.I.E. for ever back then. I don't remember the exit number so I pick up my GPS for the first time since Congers and get off at the exit for Center Moriches. A short drive through downtown Moriches, a turn at the School, I remember and suddenly we're there. We park,walk around a little and then go in to rent the skiff.
The fishing station has changed since the last time I was here. The parking lot that once was
spacious has been reduced to about half of it's size. The former parking lot has a food truck and sail boats on it. The cleaning tables near the docks are gone, moved to the docks where we will find our boat in a little while. The staff is friendly and helpful. There is no sign of Gary, and I ask the guy behind the counter if he still works there. He says Gary occasionally comes into work. I think I would too if I lived in the area. Seems like a fun job. Talking with the customers, selling them bait and telling them where the fishing is hot. The guy behind the counter says fishing is best in the morning around buoys 23-26 and in the afternoon around an island near buoys 17 and 18.
We get on the road after stopping at the gas station for ice and the girls get some snacks. Nastia get chocolate covered pretzels.
I glance at the route on the GPS. It says to go over the Tappan Zee bridge, so I head for it. I don't know where I'm going until I get to the turn I need to make. My memories of past trips guide me and as we turn onto I 95 from the Cross Westchester I get a blast from the past. Not a twenty odd year old blast, more like a pre COVID-19 blast. We hit one of the first traffic jams I've been in since COVID-19 struck New York. It's mild by past standards, we slow, but don't stop and it ends without much ado. Traffic is heavy the whole trip to Long Island. We take the Throgs Neck bridge which is under re-construction. It was under re-construction while I was crossing it twenty years ago. We take the Cross Island to the Long Island Expressway. I remember it seemed like we were on the L.I.E. for ever back then. I don't remember the exit number so I pick up my GPS for the first time since Congers and get off at the exit for Center Moriches. A short drive through downtown Moriches, a turn at the School, I remember and suddenly we're there. We park,walk around a little and then go in to rent the skiff.
The fishing station has changed since the last time I was here. The parking lot that once was spacious has been reduced to about half of it's size. The former parking lot has a food truck and sail boats on it. The cleaning tables near the docks are gone, moved to the docks where we will find our boat in a little while. The staff is friendly and helpful. There is no sign of Gary, and I ask the guy behind the counter if he still works there. He says Gary occasionally comes into work. I think I would too if I lived in the area. Seems like a fun job. Talking with the customers, selling them bait and telling them where the fishing is hot. The guy behind the counter says fishing is best in the morning around buoys 23-26 and in the afternoon around an island near buoys 17 and 18.
We load the Skiff with our possessions and I step down into the boat. My legs are starting not to bend like they used to and it feels like the whole boat will tip and send me flipping back toward the dock. I don't like getting old.
I'm given a quick course on how to start, run and stop the engine. I'm told to stay on the outside of
some tall poles on my left. I remember those poles, it's very shallow there. I always freaked out some going out and coming in to Silly Lilly's for years until I got myself to understand I was hitting sand, not rocks and if I used my head there was a way in and out of Silly Lilly's where I wouldn't run a ground. I just needed to look for big boats docked and to head toward the Coast Guard Station going out and coming in.
some tall poles on my left. I remember those poles, it's very shallow there. I always freaked out some going out and coming in to Silly Lilly's for years until I got myself to understand I was hitting sand, not rocks and if I used my head there was a way in and out of Silly Lilly's where I wouldn't run a ground. I just needed to look for big boats docked and to head toward the Coast Guard Station going out and coming in.
We start slow and as I feel more comfortable we speed up some. Buoy 23 come into view near the Coast Guard Station. We head to the port (left, landlubber) for buoy 26. We stop, I give out the bait, frozen spearing and force Nastia to bait her own hook(hook them through the eyes), which she does all day long. It's not long before someone, I think Nastia hooks a fish. It's small, but it's some action. Most of the day it will be good action with only one fish near keeper size, a fifteen inch Fluke Nastia also caught. After our first drift I start the engine and head back toward the start of the drift, but I'm heading in the wrong direction. I thought we were drifting to the west, so I head east. After a while I don't see the
Coast Guard station and I begin to think I've made a mistake. We fish some, but the water is shallow and full of sea weed. I see a buoy off in the distance and I also see some dark skies. I head for the buoy, it's buoy 30, east of where I wanted to be. The storm clouds are west of were we are. I head west, it gets humid, the sky gets lower and I'm thinking it might start raining. We reach buoy 26 and start fishing again. I'm keeping an eye on the sky. To the western and southern horizon I think I see the sky turning blue, I hope it is not wishful thinking. After a while the sky does turn blue and the wonderful weather we'd hoped for returns. We fish here there and the action is good, but we keep picking up shorts. We stay near the Coast Guard Station because the fishing is good and it is comforting. We venture down to buoys 17 and 18. I try to head near the island and start kicking up some sand. So we return to the channel and fish around buoys 17 and 18. After a while I look at Elena's back. We put on suntan lotion. Elena did Nastia's back, but when I asked her if she wanted me to do her back, she said she'd done it. Now about four hours later her back is red and I think I see in the red white hand prints. I move closer to her with the sun screen and sure enough she did do her back, in three places, where the white hand prints are. I slather sun screen on her back to stop any further burning and we continue to fish until about three-thirty when it's time to bring the boat back. I start the engine a cruise back to the dock at Silly Lillys, remembering to stay outside of the sticks. It's been a great day and the 102 mile trip doesn't seem that long. Especially for the girls who sleep part of the way home.
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