“I gotta do something about it: Do I ice her? Do I marry her?”
September 4, 2011: The line is from Prizzi’s Honor, in case you don’t recognize it. Consider it an alternative to the severely overused “Good Night Irene” cliche with which we bade farewell to last week’s hurricane-turned-tropical-storm.
Cocktail Bluefish for Tenacious Billy at Sammy's Beach
Speaking of cliches, when the going gets tough, the tough….go fishing! Which is exactly what 2010 Surf Rookie of the Year Billy S. and his family did as soon as Irene left the East End.
Meanwhile, I’ve assessed Irene’s impact on the official post-Labor Day start of my fishing season ahead. For sure, navigating our south facing ocean beaches by truck will be trickier than usual, considering the pounding the shore took from Georgica, to Napeague to Gurney’s in Montauk and beyond.
Irene's Fury: Montauk town beach storm surf seen from atop the Surfside overlook
It remains to be seen if this year’s pummeling is as bad as the beach erosion left behind by tropical storm Earl, which struck our East End very hard last September, nearly a year ago to this day.
Indian Wells Beach: Gouged by high tides and storm winds
In Amagansett, beaches lost at least 5 feet of soft sand, washed down to hardpan. They are severely sloped and in some places narrowed to unpassable at high tide. Wind–the big culprit as the predicted 12-inch rains never materialized–and higher than normal tides that coincided with Irene’s arrival, August 27 and 28, gouged the primary dunes, which the sea breached on beaches to the west in East Hampton and Wainscott. Plenty of downed trees in the villages, but damage and chaos way below what was feared. Power in Amagansett and much of East Hampton was out for 4 to 5 days. In hindsight, we were luckier than most on the east coast. As a hurricane, Irene whacked tens of millions on the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to New Jersey before weakening. Then, the huge size and slow path of the storm wreaked havoc with flooding in upstate New York and Vermont.
My pre-Irene “Plan-A” was to ride out Irene in Amagansett. We had water, food and booze. How bad could things get? But on second thought, we went with “Plan-B”: Get out of Dodge. Without power, Irene would have gotten old as soon as we sobered up. Once we returned to the beach, we grilled up the dozen filet mignon medallions that defrosted in our unpowered freezer. Then I prepped four racks of baby back ribs for a weekend beach party.
All this meat has made me anxious to get into the surf and land some keeper bass. Suprisingly, a plump, pink striper filet, courtesy of John M.’s offshore Birthday-Bass fishing charter, landed in my fridge by surprise yesterday. Yum. Labor Day can’t get here soon enough. Tomorrow, it is fishing season for Fred.
Good Eats for Bass: Irene churned a potpurri of clams, mussels, crabs at the surfline
Filet? Ribs?
Plenty of booze!
Nice, Fred.
Next time I clear out the freezer I’ll be sure to call you too!
Let the season begin!!! Go Freddie.