East End Eddie Doherty is ready to help you catch big striped bass

With winter in full force, ponds frozen, snow mounds filling intersection and only the heartiest of ice fishermen catching pike and perch, the rest of us may need to go virtual this week. East End Eddie Doherty will take us Cape Cod Canal surfcasting with a Zoom seminar then you can help RIDEM understand how much we love and use conservation lands and management areas.

Eddie Dougherty Teaches Cape Cod Canal Surfcasting

On February 27, surfcaster and celebrated author/speaker Eddie Doherty will help us learn all about fishing the Cape Cod Canal, with the benefit of pictures from world-renowned photographer John Doble. John has earned countless accolades for capturing fish and fishermen along the Canal, where Eddy has earned his own reputation as a high hook angler.

Eddy is the author of “Seven Miles to Sundown”, his ode to the Big Ditch. It has earned the honor of placement on Amazon as the Number One New Release in Fishing and was selected as an Award Winning Finalist for American Bookfest in the Sports Category at the 2019 International Book Awards in Los Angeles. If you know Eddie Doherty, you know his focus is not solely on catching fish, surfcasting in the Cape Cod Canal or selling books but on sharing tips and tactics to help the rest of us find some of those thirty-pound class bass everyone else brags about on social media, which has not helped the social scene there at all. This is your golden opportunity with Eddie teaching you about surfcasting for striped bass in the Cape Cod Canal.

“I wrote ‘Seven Miles After Sundown’ to share my surfcasting experiences and love of the world famous Cape Cod Canal. Every day on the Big Ditch is an exciting adventure in a wonderland of rip rap stone bank and swift current,” Eddie said. That alone should be enough to get you to turn on, tune in and drop out of your winter funk to take notes and make plans to drive east to the canal.

“I enjoyed doing several dozen book signings and author talks after my book was published, but have been doing seminars on Zoom due to the pandemic. I am grateful that they have been well received as I use a PowerPoint presentation featuring beautiful color photos by world-renowned professional photographer and legendary surfcaster John Doble. John, a retired Bourne Police Detective, also took most of the photos in my book. I will be speaking about technique, lures and other equipment so register soon as nothing helps to take the chill off of winter like a conversation about breaking fish!” Eddie added. Surfcasting the Cape Cod Canal can be daunting for new folks, given the terrain and heavy fishing pressure when the bite is on.

Surfcasting the Cape Cod Canal for Striped Bass will be presented with Power Point slides powered by Doble’s amazing photography in cooperation with the Norfolk Public Library via Zoom on February 27, 2021 at 2:00PM. The free event is open to the public, but attendance is limited, so reserve a spot at https://norfolkpl.org/events/ then click on Surfcasting the Cape Cod Canal for registration. A link will be sent by Library Director Libby O’Neill the day before the event.

Help RIDEM Understand Your Love of Public Lands

Back in Little Rhody, RIDEM is asking for help understanding how much we use and love public lands. If ever there was a time to speak up in their defense, considering how the prior federal administration pitched them away like playing cards for short-sighted fossil fuel drilling, timber removal and road building, this is when we should all wage in to protect open space.

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself,” wrote the great outdoorsman Edward Abbey in his classic “Desert Solitaire”. Ponder that for a few moments. While the Ocean State might not enjoy vast expanses of wilderness, we are blessed with many state lands to hunt, fish, camp and explore.

“We encourage Rhode Islanders to participate in this important survey and share information about their involvement in activities such as fishing, hunting, boating, hiking, and bird-watching on state conservation lands,” said DEM Director Janet Coit. “Their valuable feedback will help us create better outdoor opportunities for all Rhode Islanders and visitors. Providing people with places to get outdoors and enjoy nature is part of DEM’s core mission, is good for health, and fosters our next generation of environmental stewards.”

The survey takes approximately fifteen minutes and can be found here. Remember that REDEM repeatedly used the word “values” as they asked for our help with state lands which includes boat ramps, forests, campsites and access points. If you feel any of these are important and you want to let the State know how you felt about them, log on and complete the survey, then you can read “Desert Solitaire” and fall asleep dreaming of catching Spring trout in still-icy streams and watching for first reports of migrating striped bass.

Hal Borland wrote, “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” Indeed, March may come in like a lion but we’ll all be better prepared to fish the Big Ditch, thanks to East End Eddie Doherty.

John Fallow, aka John Duxbury, casts in peace for striped bass