The Mast-Head: Fishing on the Fourth

Eric seemed to have the magic touch that morning

Jul. 6, 2017

David E. Rattray

It wasn’t me who pulled the biggest porgy to ever come over Zygote’s gunnels out of the water. I was fishing off Fireplace with my friend Eric Firestone early on the Fourth of July, and it was he who hooked the relative monster.

Eric seemed to have the magic touch that morning. The bigger fish all tended to come to his bait, though perhaps the mojo wasn’t his alone; the rod he used was one another friend had given me following her father’s death. “Did I want some fishing stuff?” she had asked. It was quite a haul.

Among the custom-made bottom-fishing rods were fly rod setups and a green plastic suitcase containing a spinning rig perfect for sweeping along with her dad’s business luggage. Everything was in perfect condition. I felt a little sheepish about using the free gear, but she said her dad would have wanted it out there catching fish. A porgy outing on the Fourth of July might well have amused him, I hope.

Porgies have somewhat of an ignominious reputation. Small, iron-scaled, and bony, they are not so easily filleted. But, with whole fish in vogue, they have been rebranded, including as Montauk sea bream, and reportedly do well on restaurant menus.

No one much was on the water yet when we left the creek and headed out onto Three Mile Harbor. There were three guys fishing from a small boat when we reached Fireplace, and a couple of boats came by as we drifted on the falling tide, but not as many as you would think on such an agreeable morning.

Clouds passed overhead. A light rain fell at one point, no more than a dozen raindrops apiece hitting our T-shirts. By the time we decided we were done, with our large cooler half-filled, it had turned into a hot summer’s day. We jumped overboard and drifted a while with the boat on the tide.

Back aboard Zygote and on the way back to the harbor, Eric wondered about the porgy world record. His would not come close, I knew, but all the same, I did put it on the postal scale at the office. It barely broke two pounds, which didn’t matter at all.