In the back seat of his car parked at Jones Beach, a man slept with his arms wrapped around a big striped bass. A few hours earlier, I had seen him at sunrise sitting on the sand, telling passing anglers that he had caught the bass in the middle of the night. What a prize. It must have been 40 pounds. When he dragged it by the gill to his car, the fish left a fin trail in the sand all the way to the parking lot.

For those who enjoy fishing on Long Island, activity heats up in the spring. The winter flounder season opens April 1, but catching a winter flounder on Long Island in this day and age is rare. It’s a lot easier to catch a cold. I haven’t caught a winter flounder in about 10 years despite fishing both the South and North shores. There are still other fish in the waters — bluefish, fluke, porgies, kingfish, sea bass and others — when the season hits high gear by summer. For me, though, it all starts with the opening of striped bass season on April 15.

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