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.
is it a tax or a fee? its it right? would you want to keep paying it?
this piece originally ran in the Narragansett Times back in March. Fishing today can be frustrating and it’s not what it used to be. There are hundreds of rules and regulations, there are trucks parked where you always parked to sneak into your secret spot that’s...
DEM reg redo, some truth stretching and PBR’s on the horizon
Lions Club meetings begin with the awesome toast of water: "Not Above You Not Beneath You But With You". Fantastic. Right now ospreys and blackbirds are all of those, circling above, building nests and attracting mates while bass perch and buckies are swimming...
opening day, brown trout on a stamp & a cool fishing app
Spring’s greatest day is next Saturday and after a fresh coat of snow a few nights back, there’s a good chance some ponds will still be frozen. This could make the expected jockeying for spots that much more tricky this year, unless you can find a quiet corner to...
on the verge of spring, an apology and very few fancy Latin words
Spring has been a hard sell so far. The poet Robert Hunter gave us, “Well the first days are the hardest days” and man was he right. Winter and now spring weather, among other factors, has caused construction of the Post Road dam fish ladder in Wakefield to be...
A RISAA symposium, scientists and how recreational fishermen are part of the equation
Reprinted from the Narragansett Times, Wednesday, April 1st. no, it's not a joke... The Rhode Island Salt Water Anglers Association held their 2nd Southern New England Recreational Fishing Symposium with a goal to bring together scientists, environmentalists,...
Stand Up To Dams
Stand Up To Dams is a walk through local dams choking on sediment, impeding waters, choking and ending river herring migrations. Read how some dams, even ones we loved back in the day, are now useless reminders of Colonial progress with little regard for fishes or fishers.
spring cleanups, boat ramps and a spring line of camo
There is a lot happening in preparation for spring and her greatest day: the opening of trout season. 6 am on the second Saturday in April marks the beginning of everything we have waited for this winter, while we shoveled, watched the plow truck drive by and...
nothing beats a good argument about fish
Hopefully by now, fishermen who target striped bass or any other local species will have sent an email to the RIDEM about proposed regulations for this year’s striper season. We have an amazing and rare opportunity to get out ahead of a fishery in trouble, trouble...
brookies, road salt, didymo, salamanders. huh.
After a several long, strong snow storms, our roads are again blotched black and dirty, roads are getting narrow, salt cakes everything. For those well-traveled paths, this is a ragged time of year. As snows continue to cycle through our region, legions of...
so cold but there’s plenty of time to warm up at a meeting
A thousand clear acres of wind have been tearing though the seams and zippers of ice fisherman on South Kingstown’s Worden Pond. Huddled atop fast freezing holes, cold, still, heads down, parkas stuffed with fleece until they look like sausages, they have braved...
feng shui for bait, on worden pond, the sweet sound of guns
Keeping shiners in the bathtub can put a quiet but significant strain on a relationship. While logical for the average New England ice fisherman, some significant others apparently find such live storage to be unusual, unnecessary and kind of gross. The bucket...
wind on frozen water, the coming of forage fishes and a big camo hat salute
Before the rains winds and big snows rolled in, local ice had been clear and smooth, like rolled steel, like the finest glass. In the old days, young kids old enough to know better would have spun old style straight body pickup’s in wicked fun circles all around...
a year in review part tiew
To look back at the second half of 2014, we revisit some people, spirits and few criminals who passed through this column. Revisiting the words with images of a year now past has made me realize how fortunate we all are to be where we are, and know that someone...
a quick year in review for fish wrap’s first year
thank you all for such a wonderful first year of fish and words... Quite a year to be a fisherman, it was. This was the first year for Fish Wrap and as is often a writer’s tradition, a few caps were twisted off during a few quiet hours of reflection. This...
solstice, overwintering, fish shows and those damned kids
Sunday brings us the winter solstice, significant in that it brings the years shortest day and conversely, its longest night. After this sunrise, our amount of day light slowly increases and we get to start back into gearing up for spring fishing. Since...
ladders, eels, herring and impending success. that’s alot
Narragansett Dock Works has lowered an excavator onto the rocky tow of the Main Street dam in Wakefield. This is the first step in the process to reconstruct the Denil-style fish ladder system, originally built it the early 1970’s. The reconstruction will...
Ice Fishing Supports Parenting
A freezing cold November day is nature’s way of reminding us that ice fishing season is almost here. It’s time to get out the buckets, tip-ups, hand warmers, augers, and camo coolie cups. Ice fishing in South County is a peaceful experience, one that gets us out of...
Hauling Cod on the Bonnie S.
Back in the day, John Swienton would turn the F/V Bonnie S north out of Block Island's Old Harbor, then steam less than twenty minutes at eight knots to find his mark off Clay Head. Refilling his Thermos cup, he watched a high cliff line for one green mansard roof,...
buckies, ladders, eels & unemployment
Construction at two fish ladders on the Saugatucket River has begun at last. In Peacedale, Narragansett Dock Works has started changing the sluiceway floor height and the pitch in the lift system, which will reduce the occasionally volatile flow of water. As the...
regulations, attendance and stealing green crabs. cool stuff.
Starting January 1, 2015, necessary changes to the recreational and commercial striper fishery will begin. Coastal recreational anglers will be limited to a bag limit of one striped bass per day with a minimum size of twenty-eight inches. While the Atlantic States...