Fishing The Vineyard Report 5/30

Stripers forever....

Today I fished with Don Hampton, who was the winning bidder of a guided trip I donated to Stripers Forever.  Well, Don was rewarded for his generosity - with bass!  We got on schools of stripers for most of the day that were chasing 5” sandeels and small (3") ocean herring. The fog and cloud cover helped keep the action going until Don’s arm gave out!  The 7” amber and chartreuse Hogys were the hot lures and the fish ranged mostly from 24- 36”.  Good stuff.

Workin' on a Night Moves

Snapped this photo of myself the other night out on the beach. I've been trying to get better with the timer feature on the Nikon for solo missions, but as you can see I still get scared of the flash. Anyhow, got like 1/2 a dozen on a white slider in foggy overcast conditions on a rise tide. Heard a lot of fish slapping and gulping on top, which is indicative of the presence of small bait, probably sandeels, and a positive sign of things to come...Brice

Boylermaker's Memorial Day Weekend report.

Memorial Day has come and gone, but it still feels like early spring here on the island.   I fished both boats (24' Silverhawk and 16' Hewes) over the weekend and found fish in all locations.  Off the beach some, we found schools of bass on top chasing big sandeels and tan/white Clousers seemed to be the ticket.  Most of the fish were 26"-30”, but if  you moved from school to school you could locate larger fish.  We're still waiting for the big push of spring blues - maybe with some warmer weather they'll finally show.

05/26/09 Report: Robby on the Bow

I had a chance yesterday to get out on the skiff with Fishing the Vineyard’s own Rob Morrison (pictured in this spread). I first met Rob on a dock in Edgartown in the late 80’s. We had both caught some bonito, and Rob offered to take me with him to his dad’s restaurant down the road so we could get some ice for our catch. We’ve been fishing together hard ever since, and yesterday was no exception. Flats were loaded, and Rob’s a wizard when it comes to slamming them in the skinny. The one pictured above was taken on his first cast of the season on the flats. We did like half a dozen fish in a couple of hours and then the clouds were back on us and we wrapped it up. All in all it was another beautiful day of spring skiff fishing on the Vineyard. The rest of this week looks pretty poor weather wise, but be sure to stay tuned for a fresh report as soon as it becomes available. Plenty of prime time slots are still open on the calendar, but they’re going fast and I highly recommend getting them while they’re hot.

Namaste,

Captain W. Brice Contessa
(508)962-7959

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

The common thread that wound through this holiday weekend was good anglers, battling less than ideal conditions and grinding out a few nice fish. Pictured above is Steve with whom I fished on Sunday. Steve is a Massachusetts native who has fished extensively for bass and blues. Our goal was to sight cast, but the sun never shone down upon us leaving us with dreary, gray, and windy blind casting (if you were outside or I suppose even near a window on Sunday you probably noticed that it was not a pleasant day for striper fishing). In the face of this adversity, Steve positioned him self stalwart in the bow and gave it hell. He only caught a few, but this guy’s been around the block, so he knows the drill. Nice work Steve, hope to have you back someday real soon.

Pictured here are Mike and Ed. These guys are from Edgartown and long time friends of Fishing the Vineyard nation; to say they bring the A game would most certainly be an understatement. Again wanted to sight cast, again got shunned by Helios. Such is the breaks I guess. We came upon a nice surface blitz in the morning. At first I thought it was blues. But upon closer inspection/a little R & D with a popper, realized what I was dealing with was a was a ravenous school of fish busting on small bait that was essentially unidentifiable (I’m callin’ tiny sandeels on that) and going up and down really quick; they looked just like blues, only smaller. We bailed out of what essentially amounted to a pseudo-program and went to look for bass. We found a some. Not necessarily the mind blower I was hoping for when I got out of bed today, but as far as Monday mornings go I’d give it a rating of pretty darn sweet.

So when I got home after work the sun finally came out for the first time in well north of 36 hours. Regrettably, by this point I had the boat all torn up (washing things, fixing things etc.) and could not attend what obviously would have been the best 4 hour window all weekend to push the skiff. I’m sure some of you think that’s funny. I think it’s a real drag. Anyway I pounded my fists on my desk (console) for a while and then was over it. The Yankee bats waking up down in Texas most certainly helped my state of mind.

That’s going to about wrap it up for today. Please allow me end today's report by thanking all current and former members of the United States Armed Forces and remember those who have paid the ultimate price in service to our great nation. You have our devoted honor and respect, today and everyday. Stay tuned next week for up to date reports. Hoping to get some sunny days and resume trying to convince a fish that a fly is a crab, when in fact, it is not. We still have some prime days available going forward, so please be sure to book plenty of trips.

Happy Memorial Day,

Captain W. Brice Contessa

I got my Eye-ball on ya

I snapped this candid of a nice bass that came aboard and visited on
Saturday. He seemed harmless, so I let him go....Brice

Johnny the Sightcaster

Pictured in this spread is John Rapone, another proud member of the Backwater squad (http://www.vineyardbackwater.com/index.html). John and I haven't had the chance to fish together much in the past couple of years, but today we both had an afternoon off and decided to go play on the flats. Needless to say, Johnny's handy with the stick...this sucka was big and he thought it was a crab! Nice work John! Ladies, did I mention he's single?

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend and gets out there and enjoys some of the finest fishing of the entire year up here in our world. The sight casting and various other casting typologies are cranking at full bore on the rock right now...be sure to call us up to fish, prime slots are still available. I'll post up with a full recap after the holiday, so stay tuned.

Peace...

Captain W. Brice Contessa

May 20th

Bass, Bass and more bass today with a few blues mixed in.

2009 Sightfishing Kickoff Part II

Pat Courtney from team Backwater with his first bass of the year.

2009 Sightfishing Kickoff

5/19/2009

Another great day on the water.

Hello all, and welcome back for another action packed season at www.fishingthevineyard.com!! This winter was a bit different for the Fishing the Vineyard kids; it found Jaime out in Cleveland chasing steelhead, Tommy in the library in Boston chasing legal texts, and Rob and myself out here on the island, chasing various landscaping and carpentry projects. Anyway, we all survived the cold months, and now the band’s back together and we're ready to fish!

The fishing situation on the Vineyard right now is pretty darn good for this time of year. The late April run of school sized stripes that we've come to count on for entertainment in years past wasn't as strong as it was 5 + years ago, but it was better than it was last year which I optimistically interpret as a positive sign of things to come in the future. At the current juncture some considerably bigger fish have started to fill in, with 30 - 40 inch bass consistently starting to come on to the beach on the north and south shores of the Vineyard. The ponds have begun to fish well also, with double digit fish days the norm blind casting over dark bottom and sight casting when the sun comes out, which hasn't been often.

Pretty soon it's going to be giant bass and tons of blues; book now, prime slots still available! See you soon, and thanks as always to our friends, families, clients and readers for your continued love and support. With out you, none of this would be possible. That’s all for now, stay tuned here for up to the minute reports on all the action on the rock this summer; I predict it's gonna be Hot, Hot, Hot!

Tight Lines….

Brice

May 9-11

Pictures from May 9th. All the Vineyard ponds are fishing well and the bluefish have arrived.