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Columnists

Varieties of fish all over

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank Hewitt

Sat, Sep 3

Category:

Fishing Report

This week’s shore fishing report shows a slow pack of stripers coming up on the east side sand beaches. At the beginning of this week, however, an offshore swell had big waves pounding the east and south sides of the island. Keeper bass have been taken at night on the east beaches just outside the...
Standby

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr

Fri, Sep 2

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Morning, I’d like to go on standby, what are my chances?” says the smiling customer. If you’re the guy or gal asking that question — in the summertime — you are speaking to Dave Martin, Bill Shepard, or me. It’s a loaded question filled with hope, anticipation, and veiled defeat. It’s a question...
Hat on a Hydrant

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 2

Category:

Island Notes

There was a gentle breeze this morning, the east wind that blows harsh and heavy in the winter bringing a welcome cooling change in late August. The sun has come around, I realized a few days ago when my house was unseasonably warm, more than it had been, when I came home as afternoon wound to...
Monster blues

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Aug 27

Category:

Fishing Report

Late summer fishing on Block Island is a time for changes. Striped bass fishing begins its lull before the fall and we start looking out for other species to show up. When our waters reach their warmest, the bigger stripers typically stay in deeper waters until the temperature drops near the shore...
Tipping

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 26

Category:

Island Notes

Yesterday, Monday, was not a good day on “my” corner in town. I went out the door of the gallery I tend just after noon, absolutely sure of the time as I was running close to the edge of being two hours parked in the little lot below the church, the green spot named not for the great-great...
Last week, this week

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

Island Notes

It is August hot on Block Island, the weather cycle everyone seems to forget exists. I forgot, until several years ago, going back through August columns, I found a recurring thread of hot, muggy, foggy, damp, doors swollen by the moisture in the air, coming back from the morning beach dripping wet...
No bones about it

By

Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

Fishing Report

Starting off this week’s fishing report: the stripers are seen daily by bathers from Mansion Beach all the way into town, as far south as the Beachead Restaurant. Catching them during the day is quite tricky, but the best bet is with a fly rod and crab patterns — fished behind the breaking waves...
Royal Weed

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 12

Category:

Island Notes

Today the sun shone and people thronged to the beach. There are but a few days a year traffic is so crazily busy on the Mansion Road, and the upper and lower lots are almost impassable for all the cars parked in whatever way they can fit. This was one of those days, I realized when part way to Corn...
The search for little tuna has begun

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Aug 12

Category:

Fishing Report

In the next few weeks, Block Island will see its highest water temperatures for the whole season. The warm water is definitely primed for baitfish, which in turn keeps the big fish around. Already, for the beginning of August, we are seeing great catches from both boat and shore. One thing to keep...
Fishing Report: It’s All Happening

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

Fishing Report

The shore report this week stays strong with many of the surfcasters reporting stripers being caught around the island from dawn to dusk. The North Light, Scotch to Mansion Beach, Southeast Light, and Black Rock have all been producing fish. The Coast Guard Station still has large scup and small...
Day Is Done

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

News, Island Notes

There is but a band of pink above a line of white clouds in the blue sky to the east, a remnant of the sunset, but it is after eight and it is August. The big high speed flies by, seeming to move faster than in full light, as though there is nothing left for it to do but zip back to the mainland...
Peaks and valleys

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Jul 30

Category:

Fishing Report

Mid-summer is when we see fishing around Block Island go into a peak and valley pattern. Certain days it’s red hot and everyone is catching, other days very few fish are caught. The upside is that more bait seem to be around from last year, so the fish are here. Shore fishing has been very good...
Summer Weekend

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 29

Category:

Island Notes

The week preceding the fourth Saturday of July, the long-standing date of the Harbor Church Fair and Auction, is always one of conflicting schedules and heated humidity and time racing even faster than its usual summer pace. Friday night I was hot and tired and, knowing I had to be up especially...
Docks Redux, ramping up for the future

By

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Jul 29

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

After the cables and hook were attached to the boom, the crane lifted the gray slab of diamond plate steel. Then, the usual suspects, Josh Linda, John Tally, Gary Champlin, and Joel and Liam Kenneway guided the mass to the place where they could begin working. After the crane left, out came the...
Walk the Walls

Wed, Jul 27

Category:

Columnists

Come experience the topography of the agricultural fields that almost completely covered Block Island from the late 1600’s to the early 20th century. Meet at the corner of West Side Road and Old Mill Road. Co-sponsored by Block Island Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy.
Quality over quantity

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank

Fri, Jul 22

Category:

Fishing Report

This week’s fishing report sees the catching remaining good. From the beach, striped bass have filled in with both numbers and to a good size. For the heavy-duty surf caster, and wet suiter, the south and southeast sides of the island are producing numbers of teen class weight fish, with reports of...
Green Light Still Gone

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 22

Category:

Island Notes

It is a lovely night, cool and still; the only sound when I lean out the open window is of crickets in the tall grass. The moon is big and round and white after climbing up from behind layers of clouds in the east. Autumn will surely arise, as she has been doing the past few nights, and rouse me...
School's out for summer!

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Jul 15

Category:

Fishing Report

It's a great time to be on Block Island! This week has seen some really successful numbers from both shore and boat. The mild temperatures have kept the water temperature at an even level, which has kept production at a good rate. A few days of strong east winds have dirtied up the waters a little...
Back in the 60s

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 15

Category:

Island Notes

Sunday morning, listening to the latest terrible news, it seemed years since July 4th, then not even a full seven days past. This time the sensationalist headlines did not need padding to scream; it had been a week of bloodshed. I thought in passing it was feeling more and more like the 1960s. A...
Time to catch

By

Capt. Chris Willi & Capt. Hank Hewitt

Fri, Jul 8

Category:

Fishing Report

Starting off this week’s beach and surf report, we are pleased to say the bite on good-sized stripers is solid with good numbers as well. The venerable needlefish lure design, a legendary staple for Block Island surfcasters, has been the best producer over the latter part of last week. Some of the...
On the Other Side

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 8

Category:

Island Notes

We’ve come out on the other side of another Fourth of July holiday, fallen on a Monday by coincidence this year. We became a Fourth of July “destination” long ago. The harbors begin filling with largely white boats jockeying for position days before the holiday. I watch the Salt Pond from the Neck...
Ladybugs & moths: A double hitter

By

Kim Gaffett

Fri, Jul 1

Category:

Ocean Views

Join Ocean View Foundation and Rhode Island Natural History Survey for two unique programs on Thursday, July 7 at 1 p.m., and again at 9 p.m., on Corn Neck Road near the trail to the Labyrinth. The Lost Ladybug The Rhode Island Natural History Survey wants help looking for ladybugs on Block Island...
Boomers and Bikes

By

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Jul 1

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

In 1972, I spent a summer in Arlington, Virginia and worked at National Airport ― I was a cook. I was staying near the Pentagon and would ride my Schwinn Varsity 10-speed to work at 6 a.m. It was a downhill scoot to the airport. After an eight-hour trick, I’d pedal home, play my guitar, take a...
Fishing report: Fish have arrived!

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Jul 1

Category:

Fishing Report

Happy summer, everyone! The good news along with the arrival of the summer is that the fish are here, as well. All of the common species of fish and bait have found their seasonal home and the boaters, as well as shore fishermen, are catching them up. From boat, eels are already being used for the...
Miles to go

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 1

Category:

Island Notes

There are many more miles to go before anyone involved in the Deepwater Wind project sleeps, but major milestones have been reached. A week ago I was watching the progress of Big Max , the cable laying barge, creeping offshore, from the gap south of Clay Head to disappear behind the low...
A beach report

By

Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Jun 24

Category:

Fishing Report

Steady and consistent striped bass action highlights this week’s beach and shore report. The past week, strong northwest winds made it pretty hard fishing, but those who put their time in at the surf zone found fish — most over 30 inches. Monday evening offered up solid bites of keeper-sized fish...
Solstice

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 24

Category:

News, Island Notes

Today the summer solstice and the full moon coincide, the headlines declare, an event that has not occurred since 1948. Or 1967. Or 1986. It is one of those black holes of Man v. Nature into which I too easily and too often tumble. It is like the calendar, an attempt by man to define...
A case of gender identity

By

Zoe Estrin-Grele

Fri, Jun 17

Category:

Loose ends

Transgender. It's like a dirty word to a lot of people these days. With all the hullabaloo in South Carolina about who's allowed in what bathroom, the issue has suddenly jumped to the front of popular consciousness. Unfortunately, it seems that education and understanding about the issue is pretty...
On the good ship Currituck

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 17

Category:

Island Notes

There is something good about hitting one of those “big” birthdays. When the glimmer of an opportunity to go out on the Currituck , the funky dredge with the familiar profile, that has been clearing our harbor channels for years, hit my peripheral vision, I leapt at it. I was at the dock...
Small bass with every cast

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Jun 11

Category:

Fishing Report

The fish are definitely here. The last two weeks we have seen a huge increase in bait around the island, which in turn has brought in the fish. Squid are in New Harbor, but for the most part they are still fairly small. The warming temperatures are most likely the cause for the recent upswing, and...
Green leaves and wavy glass

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 10

Category:

Island Notes

The season has peaked. The lilacs have turned brown and sere, their glory gone for another year, and tall grass hiding one side of the ever-narrowing lane behind my house is bending under the weight of seed. It is worse, even, at the gate, the turn off Mansion onto my road, a near tunnel these days...
Sports banquet honors student athletes

By

Cassius Shuman

Fri, Jun 3

Category:

News, School Scoop

Student athletes, coaches, and family members packed into Winfield’s Restaurant on Tuesday night, May 31, for the Block Island School’s Annual Sports Banquet. Athletic Director Rob Closter told the crowd of 50 that coaches provide teachable moments that will be remembered by the student athletes...
Fishing Report

Get your fluke on!

By

Christopher Willi

Fri, Jun 3

Category:

Fishing Report

This week’s report sees the season heating up from the shore, with schoolies to low end-keeper sized bass making things fun for the surf casters. The west and southwest sides of the island are producing most consistently, both for me personally, and from reports we are receiving from night owl...
Words to Remember

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 3

Category:

Opinion, Island Notes

It is Memorial Day on Block Island, a gray Monday, rainy then foggy then hopeful and back to some form of dampness in the air. It is only by the surfaces of the puddles that I can be certain if there is real precipitation falling from the sky or only the heavy mist that feels like rain on the skin...
The Garden Report: The value of a rain garden

By

Renée Meyer

Fri, May 27

Category:

Gardening Report

You may have heard the term, but what exactly is a rain garden? After a presentation by Lorraine Joubert of the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension Service on storm water runoff, my takeaway was that it is a glorified name for a ditch. Storm water runoff was the subject of a joint...
Trips Abroad: Lathrop Insurance

By

Michael Schroeder

Fri, May 27

Category:

Trips Abroad

“We love Block Island.” John Lathrop, the owner of Lathrop Insurance Agency in Westerly, is effusive in his praise after years of dealing with island residents and business owners. It all started back in the early ‘70s, when Adrian “Tiny” Sprague and his wife, Barbara, called John’s father about a...
We are all stakeholders

By

Martha Ball

Fri, May 27

Category:

Island Notes

This coming Saturday, May 28, the newly refurbished 1876 Captain Noah Dodge House, more commonly known since the 1950s as the Doctor’s House, will be open to the public for two hours, from 2 to 4 p.m. It stands as more than a mere renovation of an historic building. The word “murmuration” seems...
Time to fish!

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, May 27

Category:

Fishing Report

Hello everyone! The time of year is upon us when we’ve put away the snow shovels and bring out the fishing gear. Some of the more dedicated fishermen have already been at it for weeks, but if you’re just getting back into it, you haven’t missed too much yet. It’s important to have your gear working...
It's go time

By

Capt. Chris Willi & Capt. Hank Hewitt

Fri, May 20

Category:

Fishing Report

We are extremely pleased to finally report striped bass being caught from the island shores. Once the east winds subsided and the south and west winds arrived, so too did the stripers. The ‘first fish’ honors go to Ricky ‘The Phantom’ Hall who landed the first reported striped bass last Wednesday...
Amazon on the Neck

By

Martha Ball

Fri, May 20

Category:

Island Notes

Nature in May is dauntless. Spring has waited too long, it is not going to be off-put by cool days and cooler nights. The maple outside the kitchen window, grown from a wind-tossed seed, has unfurled new leaves, red-tinged green. “Amazon on the Neck,” I think, and wonder how many places there are...
Foundations in the brush

By

Martha Ball

Fri, May 13

Category:

Island Notes

The sun is shining. There are Canada geese to the east, sitting in the beaten grass of the pond lot behind my house. Their goslings have grown, already the size of small ducks, their baby feathers a fluffy gold, backlit by the new morning spreading across the land. I have not yet seen them down the...
The fluke are back

By

Hank Hewitt

Fri, May 6

Category:

Fishing Report

To start off this week's fishing report, The Great Salt Pond is beginning to produce. The winter flounder are becoming active. I had decent action fishing over them last week. More and more bait is filtering into the pond, and while putting in some evening fishing time looking for striped bass, I...
Guitar Man

By

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, May 6

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Is the ferry going? It seems kind of windy,” said a guy carrying a soft guitar case slung over his shoulder. He looked very concerned as he stood at the end of the State Pier waiting for the M/V Manitou to be loaded. He was with a group of musicians who were going to play a gig on the island. Ken...
Bridges to nowhere

By

Martha Ball

Fri, May 6

Category:

Island Notes

Last week we had a Primary in Rhode Island. Block Island almost running out of ballots, having an additional batch sent over on the last boat — which the Captain held until the packet arrived — was a story that got picked up by the national press. It was, in some cases, turned a bit on its side, a...
Highland Farm

By

Michael Schroeder

Fri, Apr 29

Category:

Trips Abroad

Back in 1996, there was only a single greenhouse “to grow some flowers and make a little money” for his sister, who had recently retired from Electric Boat. Now, Highland Farm, run by Jack Sumner and his sister Martha, is a 30-acre complex with seven greenhouses — and that’s only part of the...
Ambling Muskrat

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 29

Category:

Island Notes

There is snow in northern Rhode Island, they are saying — in the dead spaces between the swooning over a Presidential candidate who made a whistle-stop in Rhode Island yesterday and confusion about “usual” polling places being closed, and insistence “no one has said anything” when it has been a...
Dewinterization

By

Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

Fishing Report

Spring is definitely in the air and the itch to get on the water is becoming unbearable. We talked about getting fishing gear ready in the last article, so let’s move on to getting the boat ready to hit the water. ‘Dewinterization’ is the term used for the spring preparation of a boat. This, of...
Green Haze

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

Island Notes

Viewing the forecast, so often at odds with the world beyond my door, was my objective, but I am easily distracted today by an “Active Advisory Special Statement” issued by the National Weather Service, mirroring a “No Beach Fires” announcement issued by the local Fire Department. It would be a...
Passover or die trying

By

Zoe Estrin-Grele

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

Loose ends

It’s April of 2012 and I am a junior in college. It’s approximately 5 p.m. and I’ve just stepped into the school dining hall, which looks like a slightly classier high school lunch room (there’s carpeting and the chairs are made out of wood instead of plastic.) Something is bothering me. Something...
Green Haze

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Apr 22

Category:

Island Notes

Viewing the forecast, so often at odds with the world beyond my door, was my objective, but I am easily distracted today by an “Active Advisory Special Statement” issued by the National Weather Service, mirroring a “No Beach Fires” announcement issued by the local Fire Department. It would be a...

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