I wasn’t really in the market for a new out-of-doors obsession, but I ended up with one. It began innocently enough when I picked up a cheap fishing rod for my son’s 7th birthday in February. He’s not really sold on the birding thing, and doesn’t seem too into sports, so I was looking for other ways we could bond. Then a local outfitter held a kid’s fishing event at Nickerson State Park in April, my son reeled in a huge yellow perch on the first cast, and we were hooked, as it were. They even gave the kids a free rod and reel each. Fast forward to today, and I have 5 fishing rods and a bag of tackle boxes in my car at all times, ready to fish for largemouth bass or scup. Armed with the flimsy expertise of a dilettante who just watched a bunch of YouTube videos, I now sort of know how to tie various knots I hadn’t heard of just a few months ago and can discuss the appropriate situational uses of dozens of plugs and baits.
Part of the allure of this new obsession – my son and I are both reel-y obsessed, always plotting to get away and do more fishing – is that it dovetails so perfectly with my other natural history obsessions, like birding and entomology. Even snorkeling, something I almost always do wherever we swim, salt or fresh, now allows me to scout out the locations of fish to catch. On a good fishing outing with the kids we might see some nice birds, puzzle out some interesting bugs, see some rare coastal pond shore plants, catch a musk turtle, see the sinuous wake of a water snake crossing the pond– you get the idea. If a place has good fishing, it probably offers good birding, too.
Case in point - on a recent kettle pond fishing and swimming day, my son had just caught a huge Yellow Perch, the biggest we had ever seen. After we released it, an Osprey came out of nowhere and snatched it out of the water. As it wheeled over the nearby woods, it dropped the fish, which seemed puzzling – holding onto a fish is the main job of an Osprey and they’re generally pretty good at it. Turning back towards the pond, we saw why – an adult Bald Eagle had also come out of nowhere and scared the fish right out of that Osprey’s talons. We had been there for hours and had no idea those big birds were even around.
Other pond shore fishing might bring close encounters with various nesting birds, like towhees feeding recent fledglings, or Eastern Kingbirds, rulers of the pond shores, incubating eggs on a downed pine leaning over the water. A good fishing spot will often produce Great and Snowy Egrets, kingfishers, and Great Blue Herons, and evening fishing might have you sharing the shoreline with a night heron.
Lots of folks come here itching to get offshore for striper and other saltwater fishing or at least a whale watch. Both provide an opportunity to see some interesting birds, especially the fish-chasing terns and shearwaters, both of whom bode well for the fishing and whale-spotting chances. Last week I talked about the first North Atlantic record for a Juan Fernandez Petrel seen from a North Shore whale watch, and a couple of birders fishing off Truro a couple of weeks back were buzzed by two breeding plumaged Atlantic Puffins. Several years ago a Canadian visitor photographed an albatross from one of the whale boats, and the offshore canyon fishing boat the Helen H has documented some nice Caribbean seabirds on their tuna and marlin trips out of Hyannis.
As for my new obsession, I’m sorry to report that as of this writing, it’s taken a turn for the worse. I’m in reel deep – I’ve started watching fly fishing videos and even bought a few flies yesterday. If you listen right now, you can hear the faint but unmistakable cackling of the fishing industrial complex as they reel in another victim. If you ever see me hocking my binoculars to pay for fishing gear, you have my permission to stage an intervention.
