Fishing the Vineyard Report 6/30/09

Sight casting is predominantly a fly game. A couple of times a season however a savvy spin caster shows up and wants to try it in the skinny. Pictured here is Bruce from Jersey. Bruce had never done any traditional push pole fishing before, but he took to it quick and caught about 10 bass in various locales on a range of live bait and artificial lures. Beautiful day with mid morning low tide and the best visibility we've had in a long spell. Nice work Bruce! Sorry about the dumpy photos today, I'm having exposure problems that I need to address ASAP.

Hakuna Matata,

Captain W. Brice Contessa

By request

Fishing the Vineyard Report 6/26/09

A couple of Pigs!!

Fishing the Vineyard Report: Late June

Well, the wind has finally stopped blowing for at least a little while. Hopefully the content on the blog here will follow suit. In my last report I said that the team was gonna be out there getting rods bent in the wind and rain. I was wrong. It was worse than we thought it was gonna be, and everybody bagged the beginning of the week. When we pulled out to the digits mid week everybody's thinking the same thing you always think when you get back out after a sustained blow; 'are they still gonna be here?'. The answer is this case was yes. Pictured here are David from DC and Jeff from Buffalo (red jacket). These guys are both talented anglers and made my job the last few days easy.
The fishing on our little isle has been all good for the last 3 days. Same deal as we've been reporting all spring/early summer: gray days, open water, rolling fish, hi-fives and orange gloves. And all this on nice cookie cutter size pajama fish (2 foot average give or take) with some big studs in the mix for those willing to cull. The water temps are still well below where they usually are at this point in the season, and the fish are still covered in bugs, so it seems intuitive that the action we are experiencing currently will sustain into the foreseeable future. That brings me to my next point; we still have prime dates available, especially in July. If the sun ever does come back out I'll be sure post up with a sight fishing report. Whether or not that ever happens is the subject of much great debate as we speak.

RIP Michael...

Captain W. Brice Contessa
www.contessaflyfishing.com

Fishing the Vineyard Report 6/25/09

Cloudy Crabbing

This is Wally from NYC. He doesn't even need sun to make them think it's a crab(pink Skok lady in this case). The visibility was just bad enough to make it good over white sand at low tide. Went 6 off 11 and left a stud wearing one. We experienced a lot of tailing fish which is always spectacular. Bass don’t tail as much as some other species of flats fish (bonefish/redfish etc.) but it occurs at certain places during certain phases of the tide and if you know where and when to look it can produce some of the most knee knocking shots you’ll throw all season. Looks like a steaming pile of northeast winds and rain coming our way, but team Fishing the Vineyard is gonna try our best to work through it and bend the poles in the face of dire adversity. As Robby always says "the fish are already wet." Stay tuned...

"Float with the flock"

Captain W. Brice Contessa
www.contessaflyfishing.com

Sun's Out, Crab's Out

This is Dave from Winthrop. Dave has a sight casting problem. Blue bird conditions and mid-day low tides were the recipe for an amazing day of flats fishing yesterday; many stripes fell to various different crab typologies including red crab, green crab and mole crab. It's gray this morning and looks like it will remain so for the next couple of days; Bassachusetts has been a veritable cloud machine this spring. Hopefully the summer season will bring with it more blue skies and hungry fish on the flats. Stay tuned.

Walk in Light...

Capt. W. Brice Contessa
www.contessaflyfishing.com

Fishing the Vineyard Report 06/15/09

This is Jason from Little Rhody. He's a bad mofo.

Keep on Keepin' on...

Captain W. Brice Contessa
www.contessaflyfishing.com

Fishing the Vineyard Report 06/14/09

The fishing out on the rock has remained relatively consistent since my last post. Still lots of bass on sandeels and sometimes squid. Pictured in this spread are Drew and Michael, proud members of the Bronxville High School Alumni Association. I fished these 2 on Friday afternoon and we found a lot of striped fish aggressively pounding squid and eagerly eating artificials and flies. I fished this same bite in the morning with Mitchell and Steve from Delaware, but it rained so hard that I was never able to get the camera out of its case. On Saturday I fished Earl from West Chop. We came out of the box slow with minimal bites in the first couple of hours of the trip. Calm conditions and Saturday crowds were the main factors leading to our lack of productivity. Eventually however we were able to get located on some decent fish and although they were not being terribly aggressive, we were able to hook a few and land the one pictured above. Nice job Earl! I'm holding today for maintenance which frankly I should be attending to instead of blogging. Gotta go...Brice

The Italian Job

Boyz in the Hood

Drew from NY hoists a nice stripe on Friday afternoon.

Fishing the Vineyard Report 06/11/09

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Tom from Aspen (pictured in this spread). Tom and I have fished together for the past couple of seasons; he seems to bring cloudy weather and good fishing. Today was no exception. The fishing scenario was basically identical to what we found yesterday; open water, sandeels and a generous helping of hefty healthy striped fish on the long rod. There were some teeth in the mix today as well, but we didn't loose any flies and some of them were of robust size (see pic), so I was actually pleased with their presence. Bluefish are weird. Sometimes they're a nuisance. Sometimes they save the day. Sometimes they bite you and you have to go to the Emergency Room. Either way, I think that they're pretty cool. I've been really pleased with what I've been seeing out there in the past few days and my fingers are crossed that it'll hold up.

"Keep what's important and know who's your friend"...

Captain W. Brice Contessa
www.contessaflyfishing

Fishing the Vineyard Report 06/10/09

Hey ladies and gents; I'm home from my vacation (Camden was the highlight for sure) and I've been fishing since my return to the Vineyard. That's been a good choice on my part, because it's been extremely strong. This morning I fished with Palo Alto California's own Dr. Andy whose pictured in this spread. Dr. Andy is predominantly a trout fisherman, but you could have fooled me and he definitely fooled the stripers. Today we encountered a load of fish on top rolling and crashing while eating sandeels. They didn't seem to be localized to a particular area or keyed in on a certain phase of the tide; just up and down at a medhodical rhythmic pace in most of the spots we checked for the entire morning. Not the most or the biggest that I've ever seen, but a lot of nice big fat ones for sure. Hot flies were sparse half and half's and decivers. The heavy cloud cover contributed to these fish's willingness to eat flies and stay high in the water column late into the day. The clouds are also the main factor in my inability to offer you a sight fishing report at the current juncture. Lucky for me the sun and the sharpies are on the way so I should have more for you on that front in the not so distant future.

Shine On,

W. Brice Contessa

www.contessaflyfishing.com

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/9/09

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/8/09

Finally some sunshine!

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/6

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/5

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/4

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/3

A Note to the Striped Fish

This is what happens when you mess with the Fishing the Vineyard kids. Lime, butter, cilantro, minced garlic, salt, a wee bit of red pepper and a quick stint on the grill...heaven. Granted, we are a conservation minded organization, but every now and then a man must hoist the spatula and show you what he's made of. Fed a bunch of hungry fisherman and friends with a fish in the low 30 inch range, which reaffirms how ridiculous the 2 fish per angler per day regulation in Massachusetts really is. I'm gonna be off the grid for a while; going off island on a little vacation with my brother whom I rarely get to see any more so I'm really excited about that. If everybody's on their best behavior while I'm gone I may even post a couple of pics from the trip. I'll be back next week commin' at ya with fresh content so stay tuned here. The books are starting to look pretty inky for the rest of June, but the rips should be too; give us a call, we'll work you in!

Love, Peace and Bluefish Grease....

Captain W. Brice Contessa
www.contessaflyfishing.com
(508)962-7959

Fishing The Vineyard Report 6/2

Fishing The Vineyard Report 5/31-6/1

Fishing The Vineyard Report 06/01/09

Hello friends, welcome back to another action packed edition of the Fishing the Vinny blog. The story of the weekend was open water, sandeels, fly rods and plus sized striped fish. I've gotten away from this style of fishing considerably in the past few years, but the fact remains, when it's good it's good and when the weather allows, you need to be there. Pictured in this spread are Jim and Phil. These guys are native New Englanders and first rate fly fisherman. We found fish in a wide range of depths and locales. Hot flies were sparse decivers and tan over white half and halfs fished on 300 -400 grain sinking lines. The fish ranged from 24-32 inch with a healthy alotment of 3 foot plus individuals in the mix. The fishing is solid right now and I hope it keeps up. The end of June is filling fast, but we've still got prime dates available then and plenty in the first half of the month.

See you on the Water,

Capt. W. Brice Contessa