With all of the schoolie striped bass around in mid June, the fly fishing in the rips of Vineyard Sound can be fantastic. In this video, we fished with Abbie Schuster of Kismet Outfitters on the Everglades to film some of the action.
Marthas Vineyard
Middle Ground is getting plenty of attention and the fishing has been OK on bass up to the low to occasional mid-30-inch class fish, but there has been a ton of weed in the water at times making fishing very difficult. Shore fishing down around Wasque has been hit-or-miss on bluefish; they had some good action for about three days last week, but then it died off to the point where it became a pick.
Capt. Dave Peros and Capt. Mike head out for a quick pre-work mission for striped bass bite at Middle Ground, a long shoal just off the northern coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Tips include how to cast into a rip for topwater striped bass and how to rig a weedless Hogy Original.
The shore folks are having a blast with all of the striper in the 24 to low 30-inch class, from the harbors to the bridges to the ponds. The boat crowd is also finding a fair amount of 28 to 32-inch fish on the rips.
Capt. Mike Hogan circumnavigates the Vineyard to investigate the usual haunts on the south side on Salty Cape’s new Everglades 24 Center Console. Spoiler: Woods Hole, Halfway Shoal, Quick’s and Robinson’s Hole, Wasque, and Squibnocket were all loaded with striped bass on this Wednesday morning in late May. (2:46)
Taylor Trudel at Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Edgartown said that bass fishing on the island has ranged from mainly schoolies inside the salt ponds and the beaches along State Road, with the Big Bridge popular because it’s easy to access.
Some folks might be saying that all they are hearing from the island is snoring after the Derby ended last…
There have been some albies and bonito around, especially in the Edgartown/Cape Poge area, as well as the funny fish hotspot that is known as Menemsha, for shore folks while Steve suggested that boat anglers have most likely been fishing the Squibnocket area for bonito.
After fishing all night off the Elizabeth Islands, Steve Hansel of Buzzards Bay Outfitters weighed in a 51.05 pound striped bass into the 2017 Martha’s Vineyard Bass & Bluefish Derby to take the #1 spot in the striper boat category.
While bonito have disappeared from around Nantucket, there were still a good number of boat and shore fish weighed in this week during the Derby, including a 10.19-pound fish caught on Sunday that is in third place in the boat division.