by Tim “The Fishman” Coulson

It’s that time of year when you need to be prepared for whatever mother nature has ready to throw at you. Recently, I was going out to fish the bay and figured I would invite a friend along that normally doesn’t get out to fish much. I told him that the bass have been “on the chew” and I could put him on some nice fish. He was very excited to tangle with some big striped bass, so I told him to meet at the marina at 6am.

The next morning at 6am sharp Chris pulls in and gets out of the car with cooler in hand loaded with sandwiches, a few cold drinks and some snacks. In the other hand he has a few rods and a tackle box. He was ready to go…that is if we were going in the summer. I asked if he had rain gear and some warmer clothes only to be laughed at and called a girlie man that couldn’t handle the cold.

I’m not one to tell people what to do but I am one that continues to fish even though the weather gets a bit snotty. The weather had been calling for passing showers and temperatures in the mid 50′s. This is usually some of the best bass weather you could hope for. If it’s foggy with a little drizzle the bass will usually cooperate. I figured I better be ready for the worst so I grabbed “The Guest” pair of rain gear and stashed it under the center console. We headed out to the bay and we weren’t past the Highlands Bridge before Chris looked a little blue with a T-shirt and a windbreaker. I also packed an extra sweatshirt so he put that on and started feeling much better. We fished for about an hour without much luck and then the rain started.

I reached into the console and pulled out my raingear while my friend sat and wondered what he was going to do. I then refreshed his memory about the girlie man comment and gave him the guest rain gear.

Ha! “The Guest” rain gear… is a Tyvex environmental suit with the feet. This is what they wear to do toxic cleanups, and had been given to me by another friend, who promised they were new. The person who wears this is guaranteed to look like the Michelin man going down the river at 50 mph. It looked as though the rain was here to stay so we headed back in. Though Chris was looking like a giant wet marshmallow, he was at least warm and dry inside. I did get a good laugh the whole way in and I think the next time my friend will be better prepared. I did tell him that I have a pair of guest waders if he wants to go to the surf…

I don’t think he’s interested. When the weather turns for the worse and there are high winds with driving rain I don’t try to fight Mother Nature, instead I change locations to somewhere a little more comfortable and safe. As a dedicated fisherman you need to be able to fish whenever the fish are biting. I remember one year when the wind was howling out of the north at 25 mph and my brother and I decided to drive around and check out some of our usual spots to see if they were fishable from land. We stopped at one of the dead-end streets along the Shrewsbury River and watched the tide ripping out against the wind as we sipped our hot coffee. I told brother “hey, we’re here I am gonna give it a shot”.

I put on my raingear and attempted to launch a bomber lure into the river. I think it went about 20 ft in front of me and BAM! I turned around and yelled for brother to get the gaff and landed a nice 22-pound bass. My brother thought it was a fluke and went back into the warmth of the car only to be interrupted again by a 19-pound bass on the next cast.

At this point brother figured he better give it a try but it was over – hey, at least he enjoyed his coffee.