Fishing on the island hasn’t changed much in the past week or so. There are still plenty of bass around, although the summer pattern is certainly beginning to emerge. The east side shoal water is still productive, but many of the bass populating these rips in past weeks have been replaced by hungry blues. Early missions and persistence have been the keys to scoring bass on fly and spin down island.
The west end continues to hold a lot of fish in the 28-34 inch range, with most of the usual spots holding. Bigger fish are in the mix up island as they always are. A few in the 20 – 30 pound range on fly have been put on the board by Fishing the Vineyard’s clients in the past week.
On the flats scene north and west end flats are filled in quite nicely with summer resident stripes. Limited visibility and novice/instructional trips kept me off the push pole for much of the week, but I did manage to get a decent busman’s holiday in with Tom Rapone on Tuesday. Despite 25 knot afternoon winds we managed to eek out a couple up in the skinny, all over light bottom which is nice. The biggest over the rail that day was in the mid 30 inch range, weighing in the mid teens; a nice flats fish no doubt. We threw at a few that were considerably bigger but couldn’t entice a bite. Hot fly was the purple lady crab.
Not much news on the tuna front. In the face of $5 fuel it seems that less and less people are taking a poke south to find out what’s happening. Reports continue to filter in from the east, but no one on team FTV has ventured out that way in recent weeks. Prime days are still available, so if you’re headed to the island in the coming weeks/months give us a call! Also, be sure to check out Boyle’s new website, www.boylermaker.com , he did an outstanding job on it!
Capt. W. Brice Contessa
www.fishingthevineyard.com
Posts
