Serendipity



The end of West Meadow Creek and Sand Street Beach just before sunrise

Serendipity is one of my favorite words in the English language.  It's basic meaning is to find something that was not sought out or a "happy accident."  Serendipitous discoveries are part of almost every experience that I have outdoors whether it's just hanging out in the backyard or going on a hiking or fishing trip.  This past Sunday was no exception.  I had decided that I was going to go after some striped bass with my 15' Hera rod.....Tenkara style.  I had rigged up my Hera rod with a 15' section of a 7wt floating fly line and about a 4' section of fluorocarbon leader material and found that I could cast some self tied blonde bucktails and clouser minnows pretty nicely.  I chose the mouth of West Meadow Creek (in Stony Brook Harbor leading out to the Long Island Sound) as a good place to try for some stripers.  West Meadow Creek is actually a tidal salt water marsh that is an ideal nursery for bait fish and therefore fish that feed on bait fish.  As the tide goes out and drains the creek, bass set up shop at the narrow entrance to the creek and pick off anything being swept out into the harbor, very much like trout in any small fresh water river, except that stripers tend to run just a wee bit bigger.



Late May-early June....When Love is in the air or at least the waterline.

While walking and wading out to my predetermined fishing location I noticed one of the typical seasonal markers along the beach.  Hundreds of horseshoe crab along the waterline getting feisty with one another.  It's a scene right out of the Cambrian.  These animals have been around for at least 300 million years and are more closely related to spiders than actual crabs.  But I digress.....I set up my rod and had made exactly 3 casts when my clouser had become snagged on the bottom.  As I tried to reach for my line to free it, I heard a sickening "snap."  So much for striper fishing!  The end of the rod tip snapped just below the lillian.  Now I had woken at 4:30am to catch a falling tide and I was going to damned that I didn't catch at least something today.



Mt Laurel in bloom

My only available option was to head over to the millpond for some fresh water cousins of the stripers....largemouth bass and some bluegills.  Fortunately, the pond was only a few minutes away.  That's one of the advantages to fishing on Long Island....salt water, fresh water or both fresh and salt fishing options can be found in close proximity to one another.



A 12" largemouth caught on a Kiwi's Killer

I wound up having a couple of peaceful hours catching bluegill and a couple of decent bass.  After releasing the guy pictured above I turned to my right to find these guys admiring my catch before deciding they didn't want to share the bridge with me.



A couple of White-tailed deer.

I had set out with the intention of catching a few stripers only to have fate deal me a disappointing blow.  But in the end, the sights and sounds of the millpond allowed me to experience a morning that was just as enjoyable if not more so.  Like I said.....I like serendipity.