Fank Diagnault - Eastern Tides: A Surfcasters Life

Twenty Years on the Cape: My Time as a Surfcaster

Striper Surf

Striper Hot Spots: The 100 Top Surfcasting Locations from New Jersey to Maine

The Trophy Striper

Copyright 2002 by Frank Daignault

Unless otherwise credited all photos by Joyce Daignault, Dick Daignault, or the author.

Map by Sarah Burford.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in cases of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles. All inquiries should be addressed to: Burford Books, Inc., PO Box 388, Short Hills, NJ 07078.

Printed in the United States of America.

10987654321

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Daignault, Frank, 1936

Eastern tides / Frank Daignault.

p.cm.

ISBN 1-58080-104-8 (hardcover)

1. Striped bass fishingNortheastern StatesAnecdotes.

2. Surf fishingNortheastern StatesAnecdotes.

3. Daignault, Frank, 1936-I. Title.

SH691.S7 D34 2002

799.177320974dc21

2002009222

PaperbackISBN: 1-58080-123-4

OF FOUR PREVIOUS books Ive written on the striper surf, among the most popular subjects is the better surf fishing of the past. It was made up of a number of factors: There were more fish; there was more access; and there were fewer sport fishers. Commercial fishing thirty or so years ago was a noble venture both inspired and heightened by our poverty. The law allowed it, while the ethics of carting fish in huge numbers to market were still in transition. Access to New England beaches, while threatened, was less restrictive. For the early years in the period, striper fishing was good enough to be profitable. However, the greatest motivation lay in the sport of seeking out this great gamefish, which added the forces of enigma to the mix. As rod-and-reel commercials, we were never able to separate fishing for the marketand its resultant remunerationand the inspiration of sport that beckoned us. Lastly, never forget the influence of time in the formulation of Eastern Tides. We did our best fishing, made our most noble efforts, while we were both young enough to do it and hungry enough to dedicate ourselves to the mission.

One purpose of this book is to document the stormy period of striper management during a less enlightened moment in history. Indeed, the rise, fall, and subsequent recovery of the species plays out through its entire range twice, which shows how conditional are our planets animals. Nevertheless, the most profound, most entertaining aspect of our fishing here is the stripers themselves, and how their presence and absence pulled the strings of surfcastings puppets while still stoking the fires of an adventuresome spirit. Though oblivious to it all the while, just about everything we did was done to accommodate fishing the high surf.

Life is a continuous ribbon of frames that shape our movements, decisions, results, and end. These images spring from those around us, who inspire, advise, cajole, trick, delude, and misinform us to influence our passage. What is life and its experiences but an endless line of accidents? These misadventures, while providing some entertainment, are told here because they testify to the universal flaws in all of us.

In order to spare those described in this book, I have changed names and events to protect them. Literary license, some of the tools of fiction, and composite characters are in full play here for the same reasons. Ive changed some names and places withoutI hopehurting the story. Time is compressed in places while stretched out in others. Keep in mind that life does not dole out adventures evenly spaced, nor does memory do them all justice. Everything is all still true.

Above all this is a fishing book about a difficult and demanding activitysurfcasting. Indeed, I hasten to distinguish fishing from boats and fishing from the shore, especially for money. Understand that if you want to catch a lot of fish, you should seek your quarry from boats. If youre serious in the pursuit of such fish, be wise enough to imitate biblical Peter, the fisherman, and use nets. Those people about whom you will read largely did neither. Rather, they juggled the demands of marriage, family, education, monetary survival, and fishing; but they forgot about time, our most overlooked resource.

After striped bass, the most influential character in this play is the family. Note the interplay between the children, their career choices, and the consequences of their chosen directions playing out while their parents stand byalmost powerless, it seems, to do much about it.

Read this in oilskins and waders, because these are the memoirs of a rod-and-reel commercial, the life-and-times book that I always wanted to write. If you dont occasionally want to stop to gaze into the pastels fading from an evening sun, I will have failed. And if after loaning this book to another surfcaster, you never see it again, it is a clear sign that I have succeeded; it has happened before.

IN MY LIFE on the Striper Coast, I can now look back and clearly see how each person with whom I was acquainted influenced me in ways that I could never have anticipated. Life on the beach exerted some force upon my directions; striper numbers and the resultant fishing I experienced moved me from one beach to another, but the lead characters here are love and the striper surf.

Among those with true identities who must be acknowledged are: John Ashcroft for his advice; surfcasters Muff Briere, Red Hudson, Butch Calkins, George Carlezon, the late Moose Dobwado, Joe Croteau, and Nel Marquis for priceless surfcasting camaraderie, which was a joy to experience. The LaForest brothers, Joe, Richie, and Bob, for teaching me about surf cod. In -Town Kenny at Seafood Packers for the accommodations he provided. Race Point Charley, USCG (Retired), who knew how to dance a runabout in the waves there. Evelyn Talvy for her sensitive remembrances of life in a buggy when I am sure we passed like ships in the night.

For his emergence twenty years after we had long forgotten him, Arno Groot with his moving and prayerful address to Union Congregational Church. We are fundamentally related, arent we, Arno? Rear Admiral James P. Stewart, Commander First Coast Guard District, for his inspiring comments. The mid-1970s Coast Guard command of Woods Hole Group with the staff of Race Point Station. Coast Guard enlisted men David Kelley, Ned Rogean, and William Beardall of whom, through their heroics, fortified our faith in humanity. My daughter, Commander Susan Daignault, USCG (Reserve), for her poignant insights on life as a swab at the academy and the CG cadet adventures at the Pensacola Naval Air Station dunk tank. Semper paratus.

Please acknowledge, and I hope you can identify him, Rhode Islands Ray Jobin as the most profoundly gifted striperman on our coast. We hardly knew you, Ray. My brother, the late Norman Daignault, is remembered each and every day over a joke, a drink, or an errant cast. You bet.

I had to change the names of those who are now Squid Beaumont, PWB, Buck Henderson, Joe Crow, and Disco Danny. It breaks my heart to deny them their true identities but that is the world in which we live. Similarly, all the attorneys were given made-up names. I couldnt remember them anyway. But dont for a minute think that there were not such people in Joyces and my lives. Your existence has cheated you if you have never known a Squid Beaumont or a PWB.