Campfire

LESSONS AND STORIES FROM THE EXPERTS

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DIRTY POT! THIS IS GONNA BE the one!”

Capt. Eric Kerber shouted the predication over the humming outboards as he eased his Debra K II toward the lobster pot marker bobbing 100 feet off the bow. The red flag on its tall highflier was wind-tattered. The float at its base and its trailing orange poly ball were brown with algae growth. That meant it hadn’t been hauled in a while. It also meant that, unlike the 10 scum-free markers we’d already hit without a bite, there was a better chance we’d find what we were looking for around this grungy loner. Kerber shifted into neutral so we’d drift in, then climbed up on the gunwale to get a higher vantage point. I sent a popper whizzing past the marker and started to chug. Three sweeps in, and two dolphin— zigzagging streaks of electric green, aqua, and gold—materialized out of nowhere.

“Here they come! Big ones!” Kerber yelled. “Keep twitching! Don’t stop!”

They were in competition, both bent on a feed, but the slightly larger fish won, opening a hole in the flat Atlantic as it railed the bait. After the initial twisting air show, it ripped 80 feet of line in an unbroken stream as it sped west. Had it kept going for 40 miles, it would have plowed right into the New Jersey coast, where this summer dolphin chase began.

MADE IN THE SHADE