I remembered that I had to finish a report on my Rhode Island trip last fall.
That trip was made possible due to involvement by Jeremy Cameron of Flies and Fins. 

October 1st. 

My destination for my vacation would have been Florida but the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico made be change my plans. 
At work my boss once again tried to block my time off with as reason that I would be “indispensable“, off course complete nonsense otherwise I would have had better pay ages ago. 

Two weeks was the maximum time I could get for a trip in October, too short but it had to do. 
So I pondered about an alternative destination and the Caribbean was the first thing on my mind, further exploration of that part of the world made it clear that it would be too expensive in my book. 

Stripers came to mind, my first Striper trip went pretty well and I always had the urge to try it again. 
I turned to one of my friends and asked him if he had some tips for an affordable trip. 
Well it turned out he had, his parents had an apartment for rent in a coastal Rhode Island town. 
The place was located near the beach and a saltwater pond, freshwater opportunities where available. 

I contacted the parents and arranged that I could rent the apartment for the first two weeks of October. 
Next I completed my travel arrangements, with Iceland air I would travel from Amsterdam to Reykjavik  where I would change planes to finally arrive in Boston, Massachusetts. 
From Boston I would take the Amtrak train to Rhode Island. 

The whole planning and arranging went pretty well until I received a mail from my landlords that they would not be present at the apartment when I would arrive since they had to travel out of state. 
I immediately replied back with the question who would be available at the apartment to open the door but I got no reply. 

It seemed like my plans where about to be derailed so just in case I wrote down addresses of hotels in the area for the worst case scenario. 
At the stopover in Iceland I tried to get some clarity about my lodging in the US so I send a text message to my acquaintance for instructions. 
I was happy when I got a message back that the doors of the apartment would be unlocked. 
My travel could continue unhindered after this message. 

In Boston I got through Immigration and customs quickly and got a cab to Boston South Station. 
Train tickets where pulled out of the ticket machine at the station and off it was on the northeastern regional to Rhode island. 
90 minutes later I arrived close to midnight at Westerly train station on the RI/CT border. 

The next hurdle would be to get a cab in this little town late in the evening. 
To my surprise it did not take long before a cab arrived, what made me wonder was that the cab had no navigation fitted. 
I had planned for this and had printed a map of the area where my apartment would be located. 
The road to the beach was easy and known to the driver but that side road was obscured by the darkness. 
After driving around with no clues for a while the cabby produced his own navigation system.

We finally found the street where my rental would be at but we could not find the house number.
I had seen the house two years prior but that was in broad daylight.
After running the street a few times up and down I spotted a boat in one of the yards that looked familiar.

I told the cabby to stop and said that the door should be open so I had to check it out.
I walked towards the door and indeed it was unlocked. 
The last thing I wanted to do was to surprise a gun toting homeowner or get a welcome by a Pitbull .
I rang the doorbell but nothing happened.

I had ordered fishing gear and had it send to this place and I was told I could find it on the kitchen table. The only way to find out if this was the right house would be to locate my gear.
I yelled ” hello” just in case and entered the building. 
Luckily I found my fishing gear and not the Pitbull or an armed homeowner. 
By now I was 20 hours on the road, the only energy I had left was for a quick shower and went to sleep . 

Oktober 2nd. 

After a long sleep the first thing I did was to check out the apartment, I was not disappointed. 
After some shopping I at the convenience store of the nearby garage store I checked out the beach. 
A stalled tropical wave in advance of my travel had messed it up, with wave heights predicted to be “shoulder high” I knew that flyfishing the beach would probably not be possible. 

My best chance would probably be the saltwater pond but first I had to find my way to it. 
Two years ago I fished the pond but than I was the southern end so this area I was new to me. 
I figured walking westward on the beach would get me to the breachway and then to the pond.

I noticed a path between the big houses on the beach I figured that it was a public access.
I followed the path and finally ended up on a road that looked familiar to me. 
The road was the same I took two years ago on the way to the boat ramp at the pond. 

I followed the road and ended up at the pond, a large sandy flat that looked ideal for wading.
The water was very clear, a small channel than ran along the flats was clearly visible. 
I fished the channel at high tide and waded quite a bit into the pond, no fish though. 
There where a few other fisherman around on kayak, ideal for getting around in the pond. 

At sunset I called it a day, as I walked to shore I came across the guys that had fished from the kayaks. 
They had indeed gotten into fish, a kayak was a nice thing to own. 
At sunset I headed back to the apartment. 
There where no telltale signs of fish at the beach, I only encountered a dead bluefish laying on the sand. 

At the house I noticed that the felt soles of my wading shoes where about to part with the rest of the shoes, I had an idea they would not last that long anymore. The first fishing day … fishless.

October 3rd. 

The weather forecast was not something that got me excited with the wave height listed as “head high”. 
The strong westerly winds made flyfishing impossible so I decided to stay in and get the apartment sorted and organize some food. 
The gas station up the road boasted it’s own deli which provided me with some good sandwiches. 
With a campground nearby all the basic canned foods and assorted items where available. 
Stocked up with supplies and headed back for that o so important cup of coffee. 

October 4th.

Another day with weather that was not for my liking, lots of rain and strong westerly winds made flyfishing impossible. 
Now I regretted leaving the spinning rod at home, that was the punishment for being a purist.
Since I did not came all the way over the big pond to stare at the water I headed to the beach anyway to see that the ocean was in washing machine mode again, foam and waves and no anglers to be seen. 

There was however always the breachway and the channel that connected the ocean with the saltwater pond in the interior. 
I did manage to chuck a white deceiver in the main channel, at least I was fishing. 
After half an hour I finally got a hit on the fly and could hook and land a small Striper of about 50cm. 
If there was one Striper than there had to be more but unfortunately I did not get into any other fish. 
As the wind grew stronger and the temperature started to plummet I decided to call it a day. 

October 5th. 

The bad weather continued so I headed right for the pond. 
Since floating line and streamers did not yield anything I decided to switch to a fast sinker and fished a floating crease fly. 

The change helped as I did get something, to bad it where just bluecrabs. 
Stripers and Bluefish remained an illusion and so I had another skunk day. 

October 6th. 

Pounded by rain I headed to the beach, waves where now low enough for fishing the beach. 
In the boulder area at the beach I spotted baitfish in the wash so hopes where up. 

At one spot the show really started as I got a hit on the fly at every cast. 
After a few hours I had hooked and landed twelve Stripers. 
One of my felt soles had suddenly departed from the wading boot.
This meant I could no longer safely traverse rocks. 

I had to cut my trip short in order to get new wading boots asap. 
Back at the house I texted my Orvis dealer in Maine “Need wading boots , tomorrow here in RI”. 
Quite soon I got a message back “Boots in stock, delivery tomorrow” – that was what I call service.