Despite a few not far short of gorgeous days during the week just past, there isn’t much for the weekender to look forward to. A fell forecast offers little reason to even go down to the boat and even less to do anything that might be considered angling.

Not that there aren’t a few fish out there. Commercial trollers have managed a few wahoo here and there and, while it would be hard to justify committing a day to dragging baits along the edge of the drop-off, some effort may result in justification.

That could prove to be a lot of work and might well be an expensive undertaking if the bites come few and far between and then have a tendency to come unstuck.

Bottom bouncing is the safest bet but with poor offshore conditions forecast for the weekend, there won’t be many venturing off their moorings. Fishing in sloppy conditions is nasty at best, but fishing in the rain brings everything to a whole new low.

No, thanks! A handful of coneys and hinds with maybe a token amber or bonita is never going to cover a day of wet misery. Staying home warm and dry is the solution.

Now, there must be a few useful things that can be done during the dead of winter that will make the season more productive.

One of the best things that can be done actually involves fishing — at least a type of fishing. This means collecting bait to stash up for the season that may well come sooner rather than later.

Probably the simplest method of finding bait is to cruise through the islands of the Great Sound and Little Sound, and in and out of the coves and inlets that are dotted about the Island. Slowly meander your way along, all the while keenly observing the water along the shore for signs of bait aggregations.

One of the biggest helps can be the birds: a heron standing in puddles on a rocky coastline probably is not doing this for its health. It knows that, at certain times or tidal states, a school of bait fish will turn up. Once you know that, then you will know when to come back with your bait net.

Most likely, this will consist of fry, a bait that was anything but plentiful last year but which is a virtual necessity for any form of chumming. Looking for large beds of fry is usually wishful thinking and probably the prerogative of the professional. Little knots of fry that can easily be caught with a cast net may not seem like a lot, but will result in a bag or two of fresh frozen bait that will be welcome in a couple of months’ time.

If luck is really on your side, you may encounter the blue haze that is a school of anchovies. Never particularly numerous and infrequently available in any sort of quantity, these creatures are probably the ultimate hook bait. Smaller individuals that are too small for use on a hook make for thick oily chum virtually guaranteed to get results. The winter months of January through March are often the best time to locate ’chobies and any that are properly salted and frozen will not only last a long time but will maintain quality throughout that time.

Another baitfish best caught out of the cooler winter water is the garfish. The way to get these is to use a dip net from a skiff or other outboard boat that can pursue the fish as they lie just below the surface on those stock-oil calm winter evenings. Spotting them with a flashlight or spotlight and then coming up on them, quickly using the dip net to flick them into the boat is how it is done.

While this may seem inefficient, it is amazing how many can be accumulated in a couple of hours’ work. If you think about it, you don’t really need a whole lot of troll baits. Local garfish tend to be of the larger variety and an average spread will require only one or two at any given time. Any day that more than a half-dozen are required must either translate into a bumper haul or the worst day ever, if you wind up with nothing to show for them. Just put a few dozen in the freezer — you will appreciate them come May — and don’t forget that large garfish make excellent marlin rigs.

Time can be passed in worse ways than tying monofilament leaders to chumming hooks or cutting wire leaders and twisting the hooks or eyes into place. Use a selection of wire gauges, you might be surprised to know just how many you get through when the trolling action is fast. On lighter gauge wire leaders, it takes only a single kink to render it useless and it is always wise to replace one that has just caught a wahoo. A quick cut of the used leader, even if it is still attached to the fish, allows the lure to be slipped off and on to a fresh leader. Twist in an eye and there is a rig ready to go. The hook can be got out of the fish later, which is probably safer anyway.

A real throwback to the dark days will have you actually rigging baits and then freezing them for use in the future. No one does that any more, although a mind snapshot of a freezer stocked with ready- to-use hooked baits, all rigged up with feathers and lures, must conjure up visions of Tight Lines!