Labor Day Transition

The end of summer is a bittersweet time of year.  But as the years go by without having to wait for a school bus, the end of summer is less bitter and more sweet.  The burning sun of summer is lowering and the days are shorter, the air has the potential to actually be comfortable, the beaches are clear and the water will be nice for at least a month and a half.  There are hurricane swells to look forward to in September and October before fall fishing in November and December.  Most people feel a twinge of remorse on Labor Day Monday, but I don't like doing what most people do.  This is the beginning of the best third of the year, the best four months, the climax.  The only people who are sad, I imagine, are the ones who leave too early and miss it.

BIG sand sharks ended the season under the second August full moon.  Though they are not 'real' sharks, they still put a bend in the rod.  Photos: Olivia Frawley.

While I was learning a lessson about the importance of cooking food thoroughly, Will and Olivia fished hard Thursday and Friday under the second August full moon.  In spite of their efforts, giant sand sharks dominated the bite and there were no 'real' sharks.  There was talk of a hit that bent the rod and zzzziipped the drag, but the hook up was missed leaving only speculation.  A more concrete report of a shark came from Dave Arnold who told me he had a hit that took everything.  "You know I always hold the rod in my hand, I never dead stick," he told me.  "So I finally put the rod in the spike [I have never once seen him do that] and a minute later I get a hit that rips everything off."  The irony feels playfully scripted sometimes.  What I expected to be an epic weekend of sharking turned out not to be.  Thankfully, after all this time there is still more to know.

Tropical Cyclone Leslie will likely dominate the ocean through the middle of next week.  Groundswell began to fill in on Tuesday.  Put the rods away it's time to surf!

Under a somber gray sky with drizzle and a cool east wind on Labor Day, I cleaned up the shark gear and put it in the shed for next year.  With a surf alert, there was no time to mourn the end of summer fishing.  Slow moving Tropical Storm Leslie is poised to develop into a hurricane, possibly a Category 2 hurricane, north of Bermuda.  The initial slow movement of the storm is great for generating a swell since the more time wind blows over the same water the more formed the swell will be.  An often overlooked factor is the swell shadow cast by Bermuda.  It's a small island, but it's surrounded by reefs that can redirect and cut apart the swells well beyond the shoreline.  Even if the right side of the storm is behind Bermuda, once the system is north of Bermuda the ocean is clear and the groundswell will reach the coast unimpeded.

Someone who is very reactionary and less of a thinker will hear 'hurricane offshore' and think 'epic, I'll surf until my arms fall off'.  Fortunately, life is more interesting than that.  What are you going to do with an 8ft wave that is three blocks long?  And then it gets more interesting.  I am here right now, and in a few days I see myself riding a wave so long that it makes my legs cramp up.  It's a great process to get from where I am now to riding a wave so long I don't even paddle the whole way outside to ride another one.  But it's not a soccer field or a basketball court.  I may work and work and not even be able to play.  It's up to Leslie.