TIGHT LINES
SOMETIMES YOU FEEL LIKE A NUT, SOMETIMES YOU DON'T
with Andrew Spencer
In case any of you are looking for the single coldest location on this island, I'm here to help you out. Go down to the Nantucket High School lacrosse field to watch a game. Mind you, it has to be during a game. It's right balmy ordinarily. But come lacrosse game days, the temperature plummets and the wind howls. It can be eighty and flat calm at Surfside, but there's some kind of thermocline over there at the field. It's charming in an Arctic Circle kind of way.

A bit of waistline enhancement for Mr. Spencer?

So anyway, I was at a recent game, bundled up like I was trying for the summit of Everest, and decided that I needed a little internal fortification. I headed for the concession stand to get a hot chocolate. (And just as a little sidebar here, the dollar you pay for that hot chocolate is quite possibly the biggest bargain on this island.) As an added bonus, if you're really lucky, you might even get it served to you by charter fisherman extraordinaire Bobby DeCosta. And sure enough, when I needed him, Bobby was there, getting me a nice cup of hot chocolate. Then he asked me what is, for many chocolate connoisseurs, the question: whipped cream or no?

I decided to skip the whipped cream.

Bobby, in some kind of middle age fit of bitterness brought on by too much Irish oatmeal, suggested that perhaps it was because I was watching my waistline that I didn't want whipped cream. People throwing rocks from their glass living rooms aside, Bobby's point was well taken and I'm trying to shed some excess pounds, but that's beside the point. What is pertinent here is the fact that I was offered a choice in how I wanted my hot chocolate accessorized, and I made the choice. It's all about personal preference and, truth be told, that personal preference can change at a moment's notice.

So I sat there, thinking not so much about losing weight or extracting revenge from the geriatric Mr. DeCosta, but rather about the choices we all make in our everyday eating. Fries or not? Creamand sugar or just black? Medium-rare or well done? The list goes on. And it was about that time that the inevitable came to pass. That's right, kids. It hit me.

In that moment of perfect clarity, I realized that we're just like fish, because fish also make choices in their eating habits.

I'd like a triple-deep-fried Pants Splitter with a side of heavy cream and some cholesterol sauce. And can I get a segue to go with that?

Friends and neighbors, it's the truth. Striped bass are notoriously finicky eaters. When you start talking artificials, you've got to be ready to offer the right combination of size, color and shape. And in the case of the little schoolies we're catching now, throwing a plug that's too big is futile. There's a theory held by some out there that only big fish can take big plugs, and that's all well and good when there are big fish in the area to be caught. However, right now we're looking at fish

that are still too small to eat something much bigger than a little jig or a small-sized swimming plug. But the time is getting closer when we'll be going after the big ones. Rumor has it that legalsized stripers are the norm over in Buzzard's Bay, which bodes well for our near future here.

It's almost time to switch to the bigger plugs, and that means you've got some tough choices to make. Conventional wisdom tells us that we should match the plug to the sky - light sky, light-colored plug; dark sky, dark-colored plug. Again, this is all well and good when you're talking black and white. But when do you use green? And what about red? And let's don't get started on that God-awful pink thing.

But the truth is, that hideously ugly bubble gum Slug-Go (the manufacturer actually assigned the name "bubble gum" to these poor things, and I'm nothing if not a pawn for corporate American tackle manufacturers) can actually be pretty effective. It can be effective, that is, if it's what the fish are in the mood for when you're out there casting. It's not like you'll know to use the bubble gum-colored one because you see some striper at Second Point chomping on gum and talking on a cell phone, twisting his hair around a finger and saying "like" a whole bunch. But if your favorite color isn't working, give it a shot. You might just be surprised.

So when you're stocking up for the day's trip, don't be shy. Get a variety of colors and shapes and sizes. And while you're at it, get some of the pink ones, too. You never know what the magic combination is going to be on a given day, and it

always pays to be ready for anything.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a few miles to run. There's a lacrosse game coming up, and I don't need any more editorial comments about my waistline from the peanut gallery.

Tight lines. I