Each year, life gets increasingly busier. Each year, I manage to get to Cuttyhunk to fish with friends. This year, the day before my June trip, I got a text saying that my friend was in the hospital and that he was not going to make the trip. Each year, I try to pack in advance. This year, like every other year before, I packed everything the night before. When I was nine minutes away from the Cuttyhunk Ferry Company, I looked into the rear view mirror and noticed my plug cargo bag was not in the back of my Suburban. As the adrenaline accelerated through my bloodstream at Olympic speeds, I remembered that I had packed all my Redfins and GRS metal lips into my plug bags, which thankfully were in my travel bins with sticker tattoos.

The CSA members that I was staying with at Pete’s Place Rentals were very generous and lent me a Super Strike bottle popper and a Super Strike darter. While deep wading to a remote rock during a tatog trip on the North side of the island, I found a yellow Super Strike darter! I replaced the rusty belly hook and returned the Super Strike darter that I borrowed. I’m curious if the angler who lost the plug read my book because the plug has a custom-tied flag tail!

While visiting the new Cuttyhunk Fuel and Supply (which has fresh produce, a wide selection of essential products, and the most commonly forgotten items), I bought an Al’s Salwater Gold Fish— a great casting and swimming metal. I just learned that the Cuttyhunk Fuel and Supply is now stocked up with Feinwood Lures plugs!

While quietly walking through the cemetery, I learned about a new tree species native to Cuttyhunk: it grows plugs. Thankfully, by this time, I had a selection of plugs to fish the water column.

On this trip, one of the CSA members rented a golf cart. I felt like Miss Daisy! LOL. Using a golf cart to get around the island allowed us to fish multiple spots during a single tide. We arrived at each spot with our energy tanks full and ready to cast like commandos. The golf cart also saved us a considerable amount of time. Time is fish!

In terms of fishing and catching, the trip was very successful. I learned several new things: 23+ lessons learned in my journal! I also explored spots that I knew of, but had never really fished. For example, “G-Spot”, “C-Spot”, and “K-Spot”. I did not fish Heart Break Rocks. My P.T.S.D. was at full throttle.

On previous trips, I would fish for a few hours around sunset; I would then sleep for a few hours; and go fishing again for a few hours around sunrise. On this trip, I tried something new. If went on fewer trips, but fished longer. Having longer and continuous sleep helped me to fully recover before the next trip.

I used several of my new baitfish fly teasers. They all worked well. But, the one that worked best on this trip was my sandeel fly teaser, particularly on the spots with sandy bottoms. During my seminars, I am often asked: “Do the fish eat the teaser or the plug more?” On this trip, it was literally 50:50.

However, at the spots with sandy bottoms, 100% of the fish hit the teaser, and at spots with rocky or sandy/rocky bottoms, 100% of the fish hit the plug. This pattern suggests that teasers work at some spots because of the “predator-prey / competition” theory, while at other spots they work because of the “match the hatch” theory.

Pedatory fish do not have hands; they react instinctively to objects floating and moving in their environment that resemble food in shape, color, sound, smell, or action. Personally, my theory is that fish hit what resembles what they are feeding on at the respective spot. Regardless of what fish theory you subscribe to, in practice, teasers catch fish (directly and indirectly).

I went to Cuttyhunk this past June with the least amount of plugs, and caught the most fish. I went to Cuttyhunk with strangers and came back with friends. I went to Cuttyhunk in search of Her, who gave me P.T.S.D, and one of my new friends found her. She returned his 24/7 Needlefish, with interest.

We caught fish. We lost fish. We saw a falling meteoroid while fishing on the South end of the island. We ate omelets with wild strawberries (and lived). We saw Highland cows licking salt off the rocks surrounding Nashawena. We told stories and made new memories. We unplugged from the demands of life and recharged. I cannot wait to return to Cuttyhunk with my new friends and my old friend who got evicted from the hospital.

Since my book (Plugging the Water Column: for fishing fanatics) was published, Al Gags move into a new shop.  Today, I had the opportunity to visit his shop and get a view of his improved internal operations.

The new shop is still at the same historical mill in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts—- just in a different section. As you walk through the shop, the space seems to expand.  The walls are decorated with all things fishy from the past 48 years!  If the walls could speak, they would tell countless stories through the pictures, lures, awards, and memorabilia.  I may be biased because I graduated from Saint Anselm College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, but I think that Al’s new Lure Laboratory is amazing!

During my visit, Al got pulled to attend to a production issue.  As I walked around the room, waiting for Al to rerun, I saw something familiar, but new somehow.

OMG! The Mambo minnow is swimming back into production!  The late Tony Stetzko landed more striped bass on the mambo minnow than a fishmonger can sell during a single tide.

When Al returned, he mentioned a new fishing show that he is going to host for wood-only plug builders.  This unique one-day show will be sometime in April 2026 and will have 50 of the top wood plug builders and their fish-catching creations.  I fish plastic, metal, and wood presentations.  But, I have a soft spot for hardwood plugs.

Al Gags is the real deal.  He had forgotten more about stripped bass than I have learned.  I really enjoyed visiting Al’s new shop and taking fish, family, friends, and plugs.  Be sure to follow Al Gags to be in the know.

On October 1, 2021 I lost the fish of a lifetime while fishing the rock-studded shoreline of Cuttyhunk with the MSBA crew.

On June 8, 2024 I lost the fish of a lifetime for the second time along the same section of shoreline on Cuttyhunk Island while fishing with the CSA crew.

These two life-changing events had two things in common. First, each time, the fish used natural structures to unhook itself. Yes. I think it’s the same fish! Second, each time I had a witness. These two experiences have left me with Post Traumatic Striper Disorder. Unfortunately, there is no cure. Thankfully, fishing relieves the suffering. I am returning to the crime scenes this June with an arsenal of plugs from 3 inches to 15 inches that are capable of fishing the entire water column. If that fish is there, she shall see terra firma!

Today I lost a friend: Larry Craig (May 8, 1942 – March 6, 2025).  I got to know Larry while I was President of the Plum Island Surfcasters (2012 – 2015).  During my four-year tenure, Larry was my right-hand man.  He shared my vision for the club, and like me, he suffered from Yankee Determination (more commonly known as “stubbornness”).  As the Programs Director of the club, he reached out to members of the recreational fishing community to come to our club meetings and talk fish.  He had a unique ability to find new speakers and fishy topics of interest for our members.  He also did outreach for the club by running our booth at the Topsfield Fair and hanging out at Surfland Bait and Tackle.  The Plum Island Surfcasters membership is now six times the size from my first club board meeting.

I am going to miss receiving random text messages letting me know life-changing things like: “The 30-pounders are towing the kayaks on Joppa Flats” and “OMG…the blues beaching herring on the ocean front.”  I am going to miss his make-no-excuses, get-stuff-done outlook on life.  I am going to miss the ice fishing trips to the smelt camps in Maine.  But, most of all, I am going to miss his friendship.