OSTERVILLE – While fishing lines were in the water and hope sprung eternal, buckets and coolers remained empty.
A bystander captured the scene in a phrase: “Everybody’s here but the fish.”
As the sun sunk lower and lower into the horizon on a recent mild spring evening, fishermen kept driving up in their pick-up trucks to try their luck at Dowses Beach in Osterville. Some lined up on the jetty, others positioned themselves on the platform.
There was no action, but fishermen continued to arrive with coolers in hand, ready for the catch. Children played in the sand as parents worked to get the night’s dinner.
One fisherwoman on the Dowses fishing platform was using squid in hopes of catching pogies and sea bass. She said she fries the pogies for sandwiches. But so far, no catch this night.
Just last week, another fisherman said, he took an off-shore charter trip and caught 23 scup. “They were in rare form,” he said.
But not today.
The fisherwoman pointed to the waters out far beyond the platform. She said she saw the blues running, too far away for her cast, but she thought the fishermen out on the jetty might pull some in.
But no such luck. Not this night.
