Capawock Charters

Another week of predominantly cool, windy weather didn’t bring the best out of the Vineyard’s early spring start. Stripers began to circle the islands shoreline and not just the warmer south side waters. Some solid action took place in the middle of the week and even a few keepers were in the mix. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long as the unpredictable May weather took a turn for the worse. Surprisingly enough, one of the "hot spots" was the Big Bridge along state beach. It’s not the most scenic place to lasso a linesider but it has been among the more productive ones. Big Bridge is not exactly a secret spot!

Speaking of "hot spots" I would like to give a little explanation about how I divulge locations in my current and future reports. Spot burning is a term that refers to giving out information that will cause a location to be ruined by an onslaught of anxious anglers hoping to get in on some good fishing action. On the Vineyard, we closely guard some information that will cause this spot burning. It’s unfortunate but necessary. My reports will be somewhat general and I will not spot burn either boat or shore locations. I will give general area locations. Half the excitement of fishing is finding your own "secret spot". Enough said.

Bluefish have arrived as confirmed by several fishermen who tangled with them on the North Shore. Usually we start looking for them around Mother’s Day and last year I got my first one of the season around now in Menemsha Channel. I fished the channel on Mother’s Day this year and got skunked! Oh well, I’ll be wrestling with them from the boat soon enough as they begin to populate one of my favorite locations along the Cape’s south shore.

Squid is starting to show in the harbors. Not a great many yet but at least we are seeing them. In Edgartown reports are that the squid are abnormally small. In Vineyard Haven reports are that it’s not worth any effort yet. Many of us look forward to harvesting fresh squid to use as fluke bait when the doormats show up. Last year I had a fantastic fluke year and regularly caught keeper and doormat fluke during the shortened season.

One of the best run, most widely participated Vineyard fishing tournaments was held this past Saturday. It was the annual MV Rod & Gun Club’s Kid’s Fishing Tournament held at Duarte’s Pond in West Tisbury. Hundreds of Island kids from toddler to teen showed up before sunrise to angle for one of many trophies and prizes. The pond was stocked with trout on the days preceding the contest to make sure the kids would have steady action. Any fish caught in the pond qualified for a wide array of prizes including bikes, fishing gear, and trophies. I really look forward each year to helping out at this wonderful event and kudos go out to all those on the event committee that make it so special.

 Summary: Not a great week. Weather is still holding back the flood gates. My boat sat on the trailer all week as there were only a couple of days fishable from it and my schedule didn’t permit me to launch on those few days. Bluefish are showing up. Bass are getting bigger. Squid are in the harbors. We are still waiting for things to bust wide open! Patience is a virtue. We need a few days of warm SW wind.

Tight Lines and Singing Drags,

Captain Phil Cronin

Not having spent any real time fishing this past week means I have to depend a lot on second hand reports, rumors, and island gossip. Here’s what I found out without divulging any confidences:

With ocean water temps in the high 40’s brought on by the raw weather of this past week, fishing has been slow all over. Surfcasting the south shore has been spotty with only a few spots producing with any regularity. Wasque and the beaches close to the great ponds seem to be the spots to go. Lice laden schoolies are being caught inside the island estuaries and tidal ponds and there have been some rumors of fresh keepers being caught at Big Bridge. Fly fishers are not scoring well and most I know have been fishing light spinning gear. The word I get from other island anglers is they are willing to put in only minimum effort until more fish show up. That’s not going to happen until the water temps remain consistently in the low to mid 50’s. My thinking is that the end of this coming week is when things will start to bust loose. One of my cooperating charter captains took out a family on Saturday. His after action report was basically that it was nice to be on the water but not so nice to return to the dock without catching any fish. He is an excellent guide with many accolades under his experienced belt so you be the judge as to how the boat fishing was last week.

Strong reports of mackerel have come in from waters off of the west end of the island. Some guys I know are filling their bait coolers in short order. I hope to do the same soon. There have also been reports of bunker in close proximity to the island. This will be very helpful in bringing the big bass back to our waters. A variety of bait in very large quantities seems to be surrounding the island and some say they are seeing more than last year. This is welcome news and means we are in for another banner year – knock on wood. The only thing missing so far is the squid. Last week I reported seeing some squid boats moving in to Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds but apparently they were scouting and decided not to make a serious effort yet. I’ll be glad when I see them leave the docks again in pursuit of these cephalopods. Let’s just hope they leave some for the bass. Some more news of note is the bluefish reports coming from New Jersey. Anglers are reporting the best bluefish season ever around the Jersey coast. Much of these schools of bruisers will filter into our waters in the next few weeks. In past years, mother’s day was the hallmark for migrating blues so if this holds true this year we may be in for a better-than-average, bigger-than-average bluefish season.

SUMMARY: Not a good week on the catching front. Cool temps have slowed the early season pace to a stand still. Fresh lice laden bass are showing up in more and more places but they have yet to completely surround the island and inhabit the tidal ponds. Strong reports of a variety of bait including mackerel and bunker. Boat and shore fishing has been challenging this past week. If you didn’t fish you didn’t miss anything. I’m optimistic about the tale end of this coming week with higher air temperatures and clear, calm skies.

Tight lines & screaming drags,

It was another fabulous week on the vineyard; at least weather wise. Sun and fair winds each day with air temps ranging from the low 50’s to the high 60’s. Water temps off South Beach reached 50 and inside the Logon Pond my sounder registered 57.8’! The big news was that the fresh migrating micros or "munchkins" as I call them have finally started to show up in better numbers off south facing beaches. The rip at Wasque Point seems to be the hot spot right now with some consistency in catching these harbingers of the new fishing season. Both new cuts into Katama Bay are producing fresh fish and the forks (left and right) at Katama Beach have fish running by daily. As far as the other shorelines around the island, it normally takes several days for the fresh fish to find their ways into the ponds and tributaries such as Sengy, the Lagon, Tashmoo, and Menemsha. These locations should be showing good numbers of small schoolies quite soon. Things are starting to look as bright as the backs of migrating munchkins. It’s definitely starting to happen!

I have been watching for worm spawns in the usual early season spots and found quite an active hatch the other day. Although there were no swirling bass on the worms, there were thousands of worms. The weather forecasts call for cooling temperatures and rainy days so things may slow down on the worm front and then pick up considerably in the first or second week in May. Fishing a full blown worm hatch (it’s actually a spawn) is one of my favorite fly fishing opportunities and produces both small and large stripers on light rods.

There’s very little boat fishing going on so I have no real news to report. One thing I have noticed though is some squid boats moving into both Nantucket and Vineyard Sound. They were working Vineyard Sound on Friday night. Once the squid move in to our waters, the larger bass follow right behind. There was some talk of mackerel off of Gay Head but I haven’t had any confirmed reports yet. My guess is that within the next 2 weeks we will be talking about keeper bass instead of munchkins.

SUMMARY: More great weather but a late arrival for the bass. Grab your rod and head to the beach when you can as they are arriving in better numbers each day. Spend some time getting the boat ready for before you know it, the squid hounds will be in.

Tight lines & screaming drags,