The First Fish
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
This last Thursday afternoon, the 17th of April, I stopped off at River Road in Orleans on Cape Cod and cast a lure out into The river coming from Little Pleasant Bay up into Meeting House Pond. The first two or three casts did not produce any action. On the next cast a hit, reeling a little further another hit and the fish is on. There are fish at River Road now. I'd heard that fish had been taken but had not actually seen it. My first fish of the season.
You know how every once in a while an old memory will flash into your head? Well, that happened when I lifted that small striper out of the water to release it. Years ago, when I moved down to the Cape after getting out of the service I got back into fishing in this area again. When I got my first bass I'd run down to tell Old Mack, who owned Mac Reed's Bait Shop. Back when I came to the Cape as a kid I would always get my bait from this kindly old gentleman who ran a funky old tackle shop. He was a well known and liked character in Orleans and a wealth of knowledge of where to fish in Pleasant Bay and other areas on the Lower cape.
It came to be a tradition every year from the early 70's on I'd Find Mr. Reed, Mack, and tell him of the fish I had just landed. He say he'd taken his first a few days before up in False Channel in Pleasant Bay. Some years he just smile and nod agreeing I'd taken the first fish. True or not it really didn't matter. Mack was a man of few words but everyone listened to what he did say.
This Thurday, while looking at that small striper I told Mack I landed my first fish...