East Coast

With a work flight booked for Maine, I tucked in a 6 wt switch rod, a box of flies, my flats boots and my stripping basket.  Just in case.

I made a call to Steve at 12wt located in Portland and we made arrangements for me to stop by and say hello.  It's kind of a long story but it was due in large part to some information that Steve gave me back a number of years ago that put me on my first striper.  Since then I've typically given him a call when I make it out to Maine and he does I nice job of given me intel on the stripers.  It just so happens that Steve also runs a fly fishing clothing company that specializes in sun protection.  Partly in exchange for the good karma that he has passed along to me and partly because I need sun protection from time to time, I've bought a few items from 12wt and I gotta tell you, it' some good gear.  All that aside, I've talked to him on the phone, emailed him, exchanged text messages but I'd never actually met him.  So I stopped and he was kind enough to stay late and let me in.  It was good to finally put a face to the man.  He gave me the tour and showed me what they were working on for the 2015 line and it looks like they are going to continue to do good things.  I filled a shopping bag with a couple items that I wanted, bid him farewell and headed out to the falling tide.

I'd like to say that I stepped into a blitz and line burned my fingers with hard pulling stripers....But that didn't happen.  What happened is that I worked out the kinks in my switch rod casting, followed the tide as it receded and then stood in the dark Atlantic, wet wading, wishing I'd brought waders.  The sun dipped low, I trudged the soggy sand past the skeleton ribs of an old wooden ship, peeled off my wet clothes in the dark parking lot and turned my car north for the next days work.

Sometimes just getting time on the water has to be enough.