The 2015 fishing season was still two days away from its Friday opening, but for Paul Vitale the dawning of the new season didn't seem all that different than the way the desultory 2014 fishing season closed. Deja vu. All over again.

Tied up at the end of the pier behind Rose Marine, the decks of Vitale's Angela + Rose on Wednesday afternoon looked like something a retreating army had left behind. Gear, nets and rope were strewn across every inch of the deck from the net wheel in the stern to the pilot house, and a blue plastic tarp stretched tent-like at the middle of the deck.

Beneath the tarp, out of sight from the dock, Vitale worked, the crack and sizzle of his welding torch providing the soundtrack for the task at hand.

"I've got a couple of holes that I just found a couple of days ago," Vitale said during a very short break from welding new patching plates onto the deck. "There's no way I can see me going out on Friday. Maybe Monday."

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