DEC. 20, 2022: Just a few days back, the fat lady sang her end-of-striped-bass-season song. She took the stage in New Jersey, far from the Montauk rips where the Fishing Faithful and I usually pursue our surfcasting adventures. The sand eel bait that never set up on Long Island’s East End surf, settled in as a two week long buffet for slot-sized bass off the beach in Seaside Heights. Jersey googs’ and sharpies alike binged on them with every cast. We, on the other hand, witnessed with envy this season’s curtain call the same way we spent so much of the last three years–we viewed it all on YouTube.
The full season had its share memorable moments on the East End. A Springtime bumper-crop of big bad bluefish from sheltered East Hampton coves and harbors; a summer filled with fat schoolie stripers on the sandy shores of Amagansett beaches; a few Autumn days of textbook bass blitzes on Montauk’s north and south sides. I caught and released a personal best in October; Doc Catalano of the Red Hill Gang scored a Santiago-worthy catch in a raging nor’easter.
Any day–or night–fishing in the surf is better than any alternative, no matter the outcome. But as surfcasting seasons go, 2022 was a lean and random harvest. It’s little wonder then, that Big Brother Frank and I present our annual Fishmas Card in honor of the Fat lady singing the blues. Jingle, jingle y’all!
And this year, thanks to a little help from Dear Daughter Diane and Rebecca up in Maine, the Fishmas Card is a music video! So click on the photo below to sing along!
BLUE FISHMAS
(To the tune of Blue Christmas)
I’l have a blue Fishmas without you
I’ll be so blue surfcasting without you
Pencil poppers of red on a foam-crested sea
Won’t catch a bass dear, if you don’t fish with me
And when those big keepers start biting
I’ll be so blue while they are fighting
There’ll be weakfish at night
On Mag Darters so bright
But I’ll have a blue, blue, bluefish Fishmas
Lyrics by Fred & Frank Abatemarco with apologies to Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson; Graphic design by Chaweenee; Photo by Bucktailin’ Billy Black.