A Sampling From...                           NIGHT TIDES The Striper Fishing Legend of Billy theGreek

"A strong wind was blowing from the northwest. The tide raced in from the sea, accelerated by the constrictions of Jones Inlet. The bridge was deserted. There was no longer any reason for cars to be rushing by, and none distrubed the stillness of this night. A lone figure surveyed the water from atop the southwest corner of the desolate structure. He, and perhaps only he, still expected signs of life in the flowing chiaroscuro below him. He was not disapppointed. Late arriving herring were clearly visible struggling against the powerful current in the illuminated semicircles of intense bridge lighting. Billy knew that the season's swan song had begun and that it would be ended all too soon, all too abruptly... Of the several huge stripers that positioned themselves strategically along the shadowline that very cold night, only one fish would be the object of Billy's focus. Using familiar reference points, he estimated her length at something over fifty-five inches; experience told him that he was dealing with a bass of equal, perhaps even greater actual weight. This fish could be a sixty... A first cast... The three-quarter ounce white bucktail plunked head-down into the blackness beyond the lighted perimeter of incandescence. Billy knew that these fish staged just below the surface, lying in wait for pods of fat-laden herring drawn to the surface glow of the bridge's lighting..."                                    from..."Dreams Under A New Moon In November"  pp.75-76

As well as I thought I knew Billy, I had to accept a possibility that I never really considered before: Billy is sometimes left with no choice but to put fish before friends. This is not to say that The Greek was ever  incapable of being a true-blue, to-the-death comrade -- but that he is fully capable of drawing a line with friendship when it comes to very big fish with stripes... Billy lives to catch big striped bass -- and I truly believe he must continue to do so in order to live. Anyone who knows Billy well knows that this is true and should never be offended by things that might get lost in the translation whenever he chooses to "share" his knowledge with you. If you are anything less than a fanatic-in-arms, or even if you are touched in the same protion of the brain as The Greek, there will always be a very good chance that "incoming" might really mean "outgoing," that "southwest" might really mean "northeast," and that "it sucks" might really mean that huge fish have never been so hungry in their lives...                                                                           from..."The Beach Is Really A Labor of Love" pp.89-90

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