Good to be home and new video

Nice to be back to the land of milk and honey although I have to admit, walking out through customs at JFK last night and being greeted by constant honking of the cabs was maddening. Slightly easier to take than having to spend few weeks in places where deodorant is a foreign substance but still maddening. My props to crew at Lufthansa who always seem to exceed my expectations. They couldn’t pay me enough to sit on a plane for nine hours at the time. But its all good, nice to get back to “normal” things although my hands keep reaching for gear box on the floor of my truck. Better than straddling a donkey like old days I suppose.

What did I miss? Did my beloved stripers made a resurgence and now you guys are catching them on every cast? I sure hope so. Would love to be wrong on this one. Looking forward to making a cast after few weeks of inactivity but first I will need to shed these pounds that I put on in a hurry. Drinking beer for breakfast came easy, strangely enough. Too easy. Back to flavored water and treadmill.

If you never been to Europe, you really would not understand what life there is all about. The whole population sits in outdoor cafés all day and chugs down machiatto and liquors and engages in the art of people watching. But the cost, even for us Americans is kind of insane. When you consider that they on average make about one quarter of what we do, you have to scratch your head and ask, how do they survive?

And fishing?

Oh man, what have they done to once thriving fisheries. All I have seen was farm raised cookie cutter sized fish and stuff imported frozen and then sold as fresh and local. A few large shrimp scampi (or crawfish) will cost you almost a $100 a plate in restaurant and you’ll go home hungry. I watched my brother put traps and even snorkel with a spear gun and the biggest fish he came up with in three weeks was smaller then average bunker. Heck, about half the size of bunker. You look around those crystal clear waters of Adriatic and you see almost no life other then fish the size of a business card. And they get eaten every day. Nothing ever gets tossed back, ever.

I even got to sample some dog fish salad (which was by the way delicious) and brined anchovies which is a specialty of the region where I am from. The cured meats were plentiful, the fabled cheese from the island of Pag not so much but then again at $30 a pound, I can see why not. Of course, the olive oil (to me) is unlike any other olive oil I have ever tried (and I tried many). Thankfully the custom officers let us bring in few years worth of it without a question.

If you think that we are not as proactive when it comes to protecting natural resources, you would change your mind after an hour snorkeling some of the clearest waters you have even seen only to see it barren of any life. Its kind of sad but it has progressively gotten worse over the years. You have to wonder what did they looked like fifty years ago before overpopulation, over fishing and pollution.

Then again, I’d be curios to see what our local waters looked like before industrial revolution. Wish we could have a time machine to go back and take a look. Don’t you wish You Tube was around then?

Here is a new video I shot few weeks ago in early spring while learning how to operate my newest toy.

Cedar Beach, NY adjacent to Fire Island inlet NY. Home of one of the most glorious spots in the history of surf fishing, Sore Thumb. Unfortunately its been many years since the Thumb was on fire but those who know it well, keep it honest. Its features some of the fishiest water you can find anywhere when current is running

enjoy

[youtube]http://youtu.be/qZ4gzlWTEUY[/youtube]