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There is however a down side to this. American anglers demand deck scivvies and tip well for the
privilege. Brits on the other hand, once we know the script, usually like to do things for ourselves.
So if you want that to be the case, to keep the deck crew from going OTT working to earn their tip,
either tip them right at the onset on the understanding that they only come back out on deck when called,
or tell them that unless they leave you to get on with it, there will be no tip at the end.
Usually this works, though not always, as trying to do everything other than wind the fish in for you
has become so endemic in their culture that they can't seem to stop themselves. Something you need to
decide upon and deal with immediately if, like me, you don't want third party interference ruining your
day.
CAPE COD
Even amongst anglers with no interest in or intention of ever setting foot outside of their home patch,
Cape Cod and its adjacent east coast venues has an importance and relevance that transcends
international borders.
The striped bass fishery there has become an example; a
beacon; an object lesson even, in what can be achieved in
turning an ailing situation around from the very brink of
extinction into a world class fishery.
Of even greater importance still, the Americans did it in a
relatively short time, and with a species so similar in
appearance, life style, and under a similar level of threat to
a fish British and Irish anglers hold so dear to their hearts,
that the parallels are so uncanny as to look contrived. But
they are not.
The lessons are there to be noted and taken forward. Least
ways they could be were it not for the one dissimilarity in
all of this - political will. The ability to take hard and
binding decisions without the requirement that other
member states participate and agree with you, which is why
America has succeeded, and where the UK and the
European Union ultimately will not, at the cost of the
European bass.
The Cape Cod area also has other noticeable parallels to
Ian Gaskell, 22 pound Striped Bass
our home patch, and to England in particular. It shares
many of its place names, which tend to be small quaint little
seaside towns completely out of keeping with the more
traditional US wide highway model, with its sprawling malls, and an ever repeating sequence of
MacDonald's, KFC and the rest of the junk food regulars as far as the eye can see.
A venue that is so easy to feel at home in. As if walking back through a time portal, not only in terms
of location, but also what that location has to offer the visiting bass angler.
Okay, so we are talking striped bass here. But other than having a few darker longitudinal lines on their
flanks, they look, feed, and act like any European bass you will catch back home, the only other
difference being that they grow much bigger and there are so many more of them, both from the beaches
and from the boat.
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