Like most “fishermen” I am a glutton for punishment. Hoping to catch one of the first striped bass, I stopped on the way home from work last week to make a few casts at a couple of my favorite places. They are my favorites largely because they are easy to get to.

At Falmouth Harbor, the Land of No-Squid (at least as of last week), I stood facing south-southwest, into a pretty good blow. I ripped off a mighty cast, the kind of heave necessary in such a wind to get the darn lure anywhere beyond the rocks. The cast was indeed magnificent, and the soft plastic went way out there. Unfortunately, it was also the kind of cast that you get when the lure is unencumbered by the trailing line.

This is what comes from being cheap with the gear. Out of laziness, I had not removed a steel leader left over from last fall’s attempts at bluefish. Out of laziness, I had not rinsed the thing off with fresh water since, and so, presto, it snapped off on the first cast this spring. I could see that I had impressed the less doughty fishermen sitting warm in their vehicles, drinking coffee and watching me. Time to try somewhere else.

Next, I tried the jetty at Megansett Harbor, walking carefully atop thirty yards of slick rock. Brand new lure. No steel leader. With the wind mostly behind me this time, the first cast sailed off nicely into the harbor. Starting about the fourth crank of the reel, I began to see green stuff hanging on my line at about two foot intervals. Small globs, large globs, one after another, bobbing along. Now, if there is anything I can catch with the best, it is seaweed, and I know the characteristics of seaweed. Most of the time, this stuff just falls off. But this stuff clung there, dangling like a series of wet underwear hung out to dry on a clothesline, until it eventually all jammed up on the rod tip. Some globs even went through the rod tip and down a couple of more guides before they finally came off off. I gave up after about three casts and started staggering along the rocks back to the beach, where a curious old man was waiting, metal detector in hand

“Catch anything?” he asked.

“Nothing to brag about,” I said, then pointed at his metal detector. “You?”

“Naw,” he said. “Too early to find anything yet. Just out here to see if this thing still works.”