Several new moons ago, Ron McKee from Striper Maine-iac introduced me to “Caught” by Jeff Nichols. I finally got a chance to read it last month (during the hours that I should have been sleeping).
I found Jeff Nichols‘ writing easy to read and full of creative spellings, which I too am found of doing. His story is brutally honest. He communicates the real costs and tragic implications of becoming a striper addict. There is nothing romantic or glamorous about being a striper addict.
In addition to the threads, near death escapes, and sabotage, Jeff Nichols also shares some fishing tips. For example, he believes that large predatory striped bass feed during a 30 minute window and spend the rest of the tide digesting. And, according to him, the following tip is worth the cost of his book:
I generally like it when they predict thunderstorms. They tend to spook some percentage of the googan flotilla off the water. The trick is that a ‘slight chance’ of roughly 10% won’t cut it. What you want to hear is 30% chance of thunderstorms. Keeps people at the docks, and most of the time, if they crop up, the storms skirt well to the north of Montauk or Block Island.
Striped bass are a protected species. Each state on the East coast has it’s own regulations. Whether or not the current regulations, which vary from state to state, are effective is being vigorously debated. But, according the Jeff Nichols, the vast quantities of striped bass flooding the black market is the most significant threat to a sustainable striped bass fishery:
One thing’s for sure: if we do not stop recklessly slaughtering the striped bass solely in the name of commerce and ego, they will go the way of the buffalo.
I enjoyed reading Jeff Nichols‘ story. His story illustrates that fishing as a hobby, a competitive sport, or passion, has reward. But, fishing addition has no reward, only exponential costs to one self and the fishery.
