By the time you read this, I’d wager that the weeks of bass blitzes along the “Land’s End” portion of Aquidneck Island will be over. I stayed away from it, for the most part, because it had been over-publicized and competitive crowds of casters were making it “un-fun” for someone like me, who has fished that spot for more than 20 years and only seen crowds there over the last three seasons. But, it is my job to be in on the best bites, so I did go a couple of times and the results – at least on the days I went – didn’t quite live up to the hype. But that’s fishing.
The last day I went was at the start of the multi-day nor’easter during the third week of October, and by luck, the crowds weren’t bad, probably because the surf was insanely rough. But I have lots of experience fishing nasty water, and since there was no one on the massive piece of ledge I wanted to fish, I was able to set the safety standard and the few casters that came and went while I was there, respected the line I had set for us.
The bass and birds were going absolutely crazy out on the reef, ranging between a quarter-mile and 150 yards from where I stood. To my surprise, there were about five boats risking it all to catch a few bass. If you haven’t seen Brenton Reef in a heave, it’s a majestic display of the power of the sea. Waves often rise to twice their visible height when they encounter the reef. On this day, we had a heavy swell coming in from the southeast and the southwest, so the waves were crossing and if that intersection of waves encountered the reef a mountainous wave would erupt that I’m confident in my estimation resulted in massive 10- to 15-foot breaking waves.
I am not an expert boat handler, but I know enough to know that taking on these kinds of challenging seas while also trying to fish is not something that should be done solo. But there was an off-white Hydrasport out there with a single angler onboard, and he was recklessly charging into the waves and then rushing out from the helm to cast into these frays of birds. I have fished the reef many times, even in my kayak (on calm days) and I learned the hard way just how powerful the current is when it’s squeezed over that reef.
Mr. Hydrasport, forgot to take into account that the current was going to carry him sideways toward an isolated boulder in the system of reefs. I saw it coming together and my heart rushed into my throat, I prayed that a huge wave wouldn’t come… but it did.
It was one of those intersecting mountain waves, his boat went over it sideways, and I saw him stumble toward the gunnel, rod in hand, before the boat disappeared completely behind the wave! As the swell collapsed, I saw him at the wheel, desperately trying to turn the boat to face the sea. Two more crossing mountains followed! The first he climbed with the motor and seemed to cut the power just in time to slam down the other side, at the peak of that crossing, nearly his entire hull protruded above the wave. The second wave, he had to gun it, and he basically jumped a massive breaker that looked to be as tall as his boat was long, landing stern first, bogging down in a ‘wheelie’ position before somehow escaping.
I watched him intently after that. He motored out to calmer waters, and just sat there for like 10 minutes. I wondered if maybe he was hurt. Or chewing a handful of aspirins to stave off a heart attack (or perhaps changing his shorts.) As I stood there watching him build the confidence to charge back into the washing machine, I could hear the sarcastic words of my late friend Don Robertson in my head. Something he’d say any time he heard some ridiculous thing I did to catch a fish or when we’d observe someone taking on a massive risk with the hope of hooking up, “It’s worth it to break your leg if you catch a striper.”
Those words, often said with a wry smile and an eye-roll, stand as a perpetual reminder that there is a line in fishing that shouldn’t be crossed. I can’t say that I have never pushed the limits of what that line will allow without it taking something in return. But I say this with certainty, what I witnessed that day is the culmination of all of the things that can lead you to paying the heaviest price for a fish; he willingly went into a dangerous situation, he did it alone, he allowed himself to – ever-so briefly – (and flippantly) brush off the dangers mounding up around him and he very nearly became a percentage point in a TowBoat US press release on boating accidents in 2026.
This really is what it all boils down to, something that we all think always happens to someone else and hanging onto the fact that we’ve all been lucky enough to always find a way out of a sticky situation. That’s true of everyone, until it finally isn’t. One thing I know for sure, all of his buddies have already heard this story enough times to be annoyed by it.
And another thing I can say with certainty: his wife will NEVER hear it.
