The Fish Wrap Writer Blog
For more than 20 years, we have been learning from and writing about outdoorsmen and women who fish, hunt, hike, pause, and sometimes just look around. Fish Wrap has been published over 480 times. Here you will find articles, interviews, reports, laughs, a few stretched truths (that’s true), and an unfortunate number of obituaries from good folks we have lost.
Please search, enjoy, and let me know if you know someone who we should meet.
Albies have us surrounded and herring find some sanctuary
Albies. Albies. Albies. We wait and wait for them, we look to Captain Ray Stachelek to predict their arrival date, which he does with miraculous accuracy, we watch videos of Captain Rene Letourneau catching them on the fly and we stock up on supplies. We wonder if...
Tom Adams wins big and RIDEM Law Enforcement lands a big poacher
This week we’re all about pats on the back, hands behind the back and fishing some sweet backwaters. Congratulations first off to Tom Adams of the Ocean State Kayak Anglers Association who earned first place in the Why Knot Albie Shootout. Fishing was tough as a...
We're tight with bait fish; here's how to tell which is which
There's plenty of bait fish around but choosing the right imitation will make all the difference. This week we show you which is which with a few lures to match.
Go get 'em Gabe, we've totally got your back
In fuzzy world of printed newspapers and this new interweb thing, frequently there's a delay between when words are bound and when they go digital. That said, the following may seem a bit dated in our instant everything world but Gabe Littlefield's story is...
Trading For Maine Woods Time
Trading For Maine Woods Time means going north, being up there, taking in some quiet, keeping your balance in a very busy world.
With some help from all of us, Gabe’s got this
We’ve got a boat to build. Fishing surely is a top priority right now because this is our high season but it’s also the right time to meet ten year old Gabe Littlefield. Gabe’s a cool kid with a cool Dad who takes his kids and lots of people fishing. Gabe has...
Save Potter Pond
Save Potter Pond, a group created to stop a private businessman from leasing away another three acres of the pond, brought a little Barcelona swing to Segar Cove. Their goal was and is to raise awareness of how special the pond is and why it does not need Perry...
Casting a net for fish and wisdom
It’s a lot like tossing a pancake. You keep your arm straight, put some lead line in your mouth and swing your hips. Sounds like a lame country line dance number I know but in fact, it’s the short course on how to throw a cast net. Bait is a cost when fishing and...
Fishing’s been difficult & the Simpson’s are back
Bob Kolb and the Speedy McSkiff crew find the fish Fishing has been difficult. It’s been difficult to concentrate, paddle or steer. It’s been difficult to catch, land or even release. With so many distractions on waters fresh and salt, fishing’s been difficult...
The prodigal son returns to Ryan Valois
It’s hard to have a cell phone conversation when a fisherman on the other end won’t put down his surf rod. Then again, it’s harder to stand on some slippery rocks and cast for stripers while some annoying writer asks about a fish you caught. Considering a poor...
Ramping up, lighting up and meeting Aaron Flynn
RIDEM has completed boat ramp repairs at Charlestown’s Watchaug Pond and South Kingstown’s Indian Lake. Both projects improve access, parking and safety for small boats, kayaks and canoes with twelve foot wide concrete ramps and six foot by twenty-foot floating...
Some Salt Pond Words
Some salt pond words is a slow walk through a peaceful fishing spot and might be just what we need in a busy world.
Unicorns, rainbows and a trip to The Preserve
Elisa Conti Cahill awards a young angler a new rod and reel The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association once again made a fine June afternoon extra special with another successful Kids Free Fishing Derby. 60 young fishermen and women kids from aged six to...
Kayak fishermen help pay off a personal debt to The Jimmy Fund
It takes a lot of work to keep things simple. It was barely 3 a.m. when Ryan Dubay pulled into the deeply rutted West Island Town Beach parking lot in Fairhaven, Ma. His headlights turned the heads of a dozen guys already milling around their trucks or lightly dozing inside cabs. Bed lights lights sliced […]
Large then larger bass and a salt pond’s reflection of time
Just now, we take a look back at a piece written for the Southern RI Newspaper family which, due to reasons real and uninteresting, was lost for a while. Time passes quickly in this digital age but I say taking a few minutes to read about good friends catching fish...
“If ever you are stranded in these parts…”, there is such thing as a free lunch
There are folks among us who believe, “There ain’t no such a thing as a free lunch” but for fishermen in the know, we know that ain’t so. Between Scott Travers and Jessica Pena with their DEM programs and Steve Medeiros with his relentlessly generous Rhode Island...
Salt Ponds and Cinder Worms
Salt ponds and cinder worms are a great pair, as long as you pack plenty of patience in your fly box of tricks and patterns. Patience man, you need to be patient to catch stripers in a cinder worm circus. We offer you the goods on worms and a few tips on how to fool stripers gorging on them.
Resilience will save some fishermen just as the Fish Whisperer passes
This week we see the power of resilience as local commercial fishermen draw on their strengths to prepare for a solid future, then say goodbye to the Fish Whisperer whose passing came far too soon. Rodman Sykes stirred his giant pot of clam chowder as local...
A fisherman’s social, a bucket of eels & a sharp hook in the eye
It only took a few degrees of separation from cold and rain to warm up the shoreline and welcome back stripers. Squid have slowly appeared in the lower bay followed by a few tautog. From Jerusalem’s West Wall to the beaches of Jamestown and Newport, schoolies...
Freshwater bite is hot, pogies & people hit the beaches
Spring is getting busy on the lakes, rivers and rock walls. In the mist of all the rain and wind, Spring is for fishing and between the hot largemouth bite, emerging salt ponds stripers and shad trees ready to pop, a few more warm days and this state will be awash...