Jake Collins

I had my first fishing excursion of the year last week on Thursday May 5th, onboard our boat the Miss Loretta.

I still get very excited before a fishing trip, even though I have been boating and fishing for the past 55 years.

My family got our first boat in 1960. That special vessel was an 18 foot Lyman, and was also named the Miss Loretta after my mother, Loretta Collins.

The first Miss Loretta was a wooden boat. This meant my two brothers (Bob and Gip) and I, would have to work on it for hours, painting and sanding the boat each season. 

The maintenance on our current Miss Loretta is of course much easier. With a fiberglass hull there is no more chipping and painting. All we have to do nowadays is wash the boat down, bleach her and throw on a coat of wax.

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Back in 1960, once school got out for the summer, it was finally time to start using the boat. I can still recall the eagerness and excitement I would feel before our first trip.​ ​

The night before the inaugural voyage felt like Christmas Eve, and I would not get any sleep at all. Fast forward 55 years later and I experienced the same thing the night before this first boat trip of the 2016 season.

Wednesday night I got about three hours of very restless sleep. I jumped out of bed at 4AM, crazy enough to take an outdoor shower, despite the howling 30mph northeast wind, pelting rain and 40 degree air temperature.

But that is what I do in the morning to wake up, and on this morning I had great anticipation. ​It's funny how the "call of the salt" just doesn't leave you once it has you, and I hope to be able to do this for many more years to come.

By 5AM Ryan and I got going, despite the 30mph breeze out of the north. We had to be very careful, and we knew we would be restricted to fishing protected coves, bays and harbors.

​It was very, very raw out. We could see our breath and our fingers were soon going numb. The cold cut through me right to the bone. Yet it is always nice to splash the Miss Loretta, no matter the conditions. ​

Ryan and I fished and explored throughout Buzzard's Bay for more than 4 hours without registering a single bite. ​

We cruised in and out of coves, doing our best to stay out of the wind.

Nevertheless the Bay was very choppy. The tide was flooding, running directly into the teeth of the NE wind.

When wind and current collide, the waves in Buzzard's Bay stack up, creating dangerous conditions no matter the size of the boat you are in. ​

It rained on us but it didn't torrentially pour, thank God.​ I let Ryan do most of the casting while I remained at the helm under the protection of the boat's canvas. 

As mentioned in our latest podcast, Ryan had already received word of 36+ inch fish being caught in the Cape Cod Canal. We figured that if there were larger fish in the Canal, then there ought to be larger fish out in Buzzard's Bay.

The question of course was where.

We continued to motor from cove to cove, and Ryan continued casting small Guppy pencils in against the boulders and rocky points.

We kept our eyes peeled for any swirls or signs of life. Ryan might of spotted some pogies but it was difficult to know for sure due to the wind and chop.

Cruising south through Buzzard's Ryan suddenly stopped and spun the boat around. He had marked a fairly decent school of fish in 38 feet of water which he wanted to investigate.

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