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