June 20th Fishing Report

It's a great time to own a boat, or better yet, know a friend with a boat!  The fishing over the last week has been incredible.  More and more fish keep flooding into our fishery.  There is one image seared into my mind from last Friday when I looked out and saw thousands of bluefish milling on the surface.  They were not feeding, they were simply cruising.  An hour later, 3 miles away I saw the same phenomenon.  I remembered quickly seeing the same thing on a charter last year and thought how cool to watch these fish enter our fishery.  These fish were coming in from offshore and getting adjusted, hence why they were not yet the typical aggressive bluefish.  I would take the visual anyday over the strong bite.     

While many loathe the entering of blues into our fishery as it means less bass on the line, I am the exact opposite.  I love a fishery that is alive.  A fishery that has bait and predators and birds and the whole gamut.  Two weeks ago the western edges, Old man, and most of the other edges around Nantucket were teeming with bass and squid and images of the nature channel everywhere you look.  Those fish are still in our fishery, they are just now settling into patterns.  There are still tons of bass around. Now we just have to fish a little more and look for signs of fish, but when we find the signs, the fish reward.  On top of strong numbers we are also seeing much bigger fish.   The 2015 year class, which is all the talk, is certainly in our waters as we have plenty of fish in the 30-35 inch range. We have been lucky as well to see many of the 2017/18 year classes which are the 25-30 inch fish.

As for what these fish are eating, they are definitely eating swimmers and soft plastics, but have been crushing pencil poppers like the Island X Hellfire and the Cotton Cordell.  We way prefer the surface bite if we can as it is scream inspiring.  I’ve seen cart-wheeling bass tens of thousands of time in my life and I still get giddy like a schoolboy.  Surface lures are just that much fun.  If you are fishing in the open water and not on the edges, we’d recommend a small cordell or a Jumping Minnow or if targeting blues a simple deadly dick or ballistic missle.

While we are super focused on bass and its fun to see blues, it is worth noting that a bonito was caught today west of Muskeget by Zander Strange.  We certainly don’t think this is an indication of more bonito, but we do think its awesome and good on Zander!  Live the mantra of go fish and see what happens! 

What’s also worth pointing out is that with the number of fish in the fishery, many have been throwing fly rods.  We brought into the shop this year the new Sage R8 and it is without a doubt the best rod I have ever thrown.  In fact the reason we brought it in is I was sent a demo by our rep for a trip I took this Spring and melted once I threw it.  We still have Thomas and Thomas, but if you are interested in Fly and are interested in a new rod, the R8 is an absolute must.

As for where to go, All the major edges around the island have fish.  Old man is mostly bass still while Great point is a healthy mix.  The western edges have both bass and blues but they are mostly pocketed with like species.  Monomoy has been producing incredible numbers of fish with size, but you’ll have to navigate the traffic over there, and the eastern edges are starting to turn on.

As good as the boat fishing has been, unfortunately the beach reports are a bit slim in the last week.  This is not to say there are not fishing being caught from the beach, but with access limited in many places and mung weed still clinging to the south and east side, the shore anglers have struggled.  This is a shame as there are lots of fish in our water.  We are hoping that when the bait in the open waters start to dissipate the shore bite will turn back on.

We hope that this report encourages those who can get on the water to do so in the next two weeks while the bass are still here and the bluefish are fresh.  This is the best time of year to be on the water as the likelihood of bending a rod is great. If the beach is your only option, don’t give up hope, soon these fish will be tight to our shorelines again.  Very soon!

Update on Striped Bass Regulations

It is also worth mentioning that the ASMFC last week took Emergency Action in regards to Striped Bass Regulation.  Due to a large 2022 harvest and fear of not rebuilding the fishery by  the goal of 2029, the ASMFC mandated states north of the Chesapeake that the slot had to be adjusted from the old regulations of 28”-35” to the new regulation of 28”-31”. The thought is this smaller slot will protect the strong year class of 2015. There is a lot of debate out there whether this new slot is appropriate to protect the age classes that need protecting.  There is debate if the new regs are too hard on the charter boats and lenient on Commercial fishing. There is debate whether the counting methods (MIRP) are accurate, whether the assumptions are accurate, whether we should have a moratorium, whether we should adjust the slot to a smaller size saving the 2015-18 year classes (my vote) but I hope we can all agree, conversation/debate is good and thinking about the future of the fishery is paramount.   Most importantly though, the ASMFC did not put its head in the sand and made an adjustment. They also put themselves in a position next year to adjust again, depending on how this year goes.

We say all this not to be negative, but to educate. We want anglers to fish, but we want anglers to abide by the regulations and to do their part in helping to make sure our fishery continues to improve.  Please also consider always crimping your barbs and moving towards single hooks. Unfortunately we do sell lures with treble hooks at the shop, largely because the manufacturers/industry has not moved away from this, but if consumers pay attention we are heavily supporting island X, Rapala X rap and the many other lure companies that are making the inline/single hook an option.

May 9th 2023 Fishing Report

Fish are here! Fish are Here! They are not thick yet, but getting thicker by the day and most importantly, they are here! Most anglers, including us(till yesterday!), have yet to catch a fish, but many have. Our dear friend Andy Boynton got to the Island on Sunday at noon, by 5 pm he’d caught 2 and lost one. Right place, right time, and … he’s a good angler. Why do I tell this story, even though we are not “loaded” with fish yet, they are around and you don’t need to be an expert to catch one, you just need to have your line in the water. In fact, most anglers on the island know Steve Tuna, and if he had caught the first fish, it wouldn’t have been a surprise, even better, his wife Beth caught the first fish. Again, fishing surprises us, go fish!

So in short, fish are here, but they are not thick... yet. We fully expect it to get “relatively” good this week with the good weather and the explosion of fish on the mainland. What’s fun though is there have been a few larger fish caught already. Usually early we get just the micros, but we have been blessed with mostly fish in the 20’s (this aligns with the conversations about weak and strong recruitment years). In fact the first recorded “Keeper” of the season was caught by Greg Chotnowski Sunday night. He landed a 28 inch fish from the Surf. Great work Greg! Cam followed this up with another 28” on Monday and other bigger fish were seen.

So where should you start looking for fish? Obviously find the bait…we have heard of fish caught at Nobadeer, Cisco, Madaket and a few in the harbor. We have seen bait pushing up the east side and we have seen bait in the boat basin. Nothing overly concentrated yet! It is important to remember though that fish are here now to warm up, rest and feed. The south shore typically provides ample opportunity for food as the first ocean run bait will be pushed against the shoreline. Remember, one stretch of beach can hold fish as well as the next. Don’t get too caught up having “to go here,” these fish can be anywhere along the south shore, you just need to find a good hole, near a high spot, ie a spot fish can hide and ambush. And some scouting tells us the water looks GREAT along the south shore.

As for where to look in the harbor, there is not yet a ton of “ocean run” bait yet, so expect fish to look for food at fresh water inlets where food is not coming from the ocean but growing locally. If you see birds on the south shore or open water, look for fish as well. 

What to fish with: This time of year, small rods, small baits. Fish are shallow now and you don’t need a 9’ surf rod. Focus on a 7’ rod and small twitch baits/soft baits if you like subsurface. If you want to see the action try a popper in still water or a jumping minnow if there is some chop.

A final note of optimism, we tried to send this note out over the weekend, but every moment we went to hit the send button some new change happened with fish caught in new areas....This is an AWESOME problem, so we are confident when this hits the interweb there will be more fish caught in new places, go be the one catching the fish!

Go wet a line, create a memory and get your blood pumping for what’s sure to be an awesome 2023 fishing season.

July 1st Fishing Report

Dear Fishermen and Friends,

Bait, bait and more bait has been the theme of the year. We started with a crazy number of herring in May. The smaller squid in our waters then seemed to explode. We’ve had more mackerel than many remember and now it seems as if we can walk on Sand Lances. They are large and everywhere!

What does bait mean, bait means fish. You find bait, you find the fish. The easiest way to look for bait is to look for birds. Birds can see everything and love a good feast. The bigger the bait, the bigger the birds. When we had herring, we had big gulls and Gannets everywhere. As our bait has become smaller, we now have more terns and shearwaters in the mix.

So, why so much bait? The real answer is I don’t know, but we have a theory. Our regional waters have had almost two years of no pressure from the commercial fishery. Simply, there wasn’t a market in our Covid economy. Whenever you let a natural environment reset itself, its amazing what can happen! We’ve seen it with the resurgence of Striped Bass in the 1990’s, we’ve seen it with wolves in Yellowstone and its my opinion that we are seeing it first hand in our fishery now.

A lot of people have asked me about the boats you see off the south shore. These are all commercial boats targeting squid. They sit in federal waters, three miles off our coast and are towing nets for squid. There are between 30-40 boats down there and they have been there for close to a month. I’ll be curious of their catch rates; they should be very high! And what that means for the future of the bait. I’m writing this paragraph not from a position of opposition of commercial fishery generally, nor in opposition of that fishery specifically, but I sure hope we are managing an incredible resource responsibly. For several years there have been groups advocating to push the fleet further offshore, to allow more bait into our local waters. It has been shown that we are a prime reproductive habitat for squid. Let’s hope that the bait levels stay high in future years and we can all work together on fishing our local fishery.

So, more bait means more fish and fishing has been awesome. It’s highlighted by bluefish as it should be headed into the Fourth of July! We are seeing a lot of fish and some really big fish as well. These fish are super active on the surface and put on a show. The best part is that we are seeing bluefish and bass feed together in many locations and below there are even Black Sea Bass in the mix. If you see birds being active on the water, you are likely to find fish under it. Normally this time of year, we are seeing fish set up around structure, and they are, but we are seeing a lot of fish in open water.

The west end of the Island continues to hold bass in all the edges. We saw this continue through the season last year, so I see no reason why we won’t have this continue. There are a lot of bluefish mixed in as well, so you’ll see plenty of action. The rips at Old Man and Pochick are now almost exclusively holding bluefish, but they are huge. There are many in the 10 lb category! The South Shore has also filled in for the boaters and is loaded with bluefish on the surface.

The bigger bass have moved into the cooler waters out east and the those rips are very active. Also in those rips is incredible bottom fishing, so while we normally base our fishing experience on the tides, there is a good reason to stay out during the slack and fish the bottom. There are plenty of Fluke to keep you entertained.

From the beach, we saw our fifth year in a row with a Bonito being caught. Noah Karberg was fishing the beach at Coatue, when bam! A fast toothy critter knocked his plug. You never know what’s going to happen, so be prepared and Noah was!

The beach continues to fish well. We are not seeing many bass caught during the daylight hours, so if you are bass focused, you had better start fishing later or earlier in the day. The bass fishing is still extremely good at sunset and into the night, all the way to daybreak. This includes the harbor which has seen a lot of steady action! The south shore also has plenty of fish for the night owls. Those fish are generally more active with some surf and action.

Go enjoy this amazing and diverse fishery. Remember, find the bait and you’ll find the fish! Tight Lines.

June 22nd Fishing Report

We are surrounded by water and have access to incredibly diverse fisheries in our back yard.  In any given day we could be fishing the flats, we could be fishing big water rips, we could be bottom fishing, beach fishing or even pond fishing. In any other location, you generally have access to one fishery and if you are lucky maybe two, but no one has what we have.  What’s crazier is that it never more than a few minutes to an hour away.

Fishing continues to be very, very good but is starting to evolve.  The water around the Island is warming up quickly and that is changing some of the patterns of the fish.  Striped Bass are less comfortable in the shallow warmer water and are pushing into deeper holes.  They need cooler and more oxygen rich water.  In the harbor or on the north shore, you should be fishing at first light or just before sunset or at night to see activity.  Fish these plugs quite slowly and be very gentle with the rod. 

With the warmer water, we are seeing huge schools of Bluefish migrate into our inshore water.  40th Pole and Dionis are covered in Bluefish which have been very aggressive.  These fish are accessible by the boat and the beach.  The south shore has also seen acres of bluefish fill the water.  There are big slicks on the surface and these fish are very actively feeding.  I’ve not heard many reports of Bluefish from the beach on the south shore, but that will happen any day now.   We are also seeing bluefish push into the rips and feeding with the Bass.

On the west end of the Island, the Striped Bass fishing continues to be remarkable.  We don’t have the same size fish as we had a week ago, but there are plenty of keepers in the mix.  We are finding these fish in the open water as well as in the edges.  Friends have been fishing the beach at Smith’s Point and have had tremendous luck in the evenings. 

Great Point is fishing well.  You can catch Bass from the beach or the rip and they are there in pretty good numbers. These fish don’t have a lot of size but there are certainly keepers mixed in.  There are also a handful of Bluefish in the mix at the point and this will fill in, in the next few days to give anglers stead action.

Bottom fishing is also extremely productive. Bigger Black Sea Bass have moved into our waters and are anywhere where there is structure.  As I alluded to earlier though, our amazing Fluke fishery is fishing extremely well. These fish sit in deep water of the East of the Island and love cold nutrient rich water. We generally target these fish in 60-80 feet of water with gear specific for Fluke. 

Go enjoy our amazing fishery. It is very special right now!  Tight lines.

June 13th Fishing Report

Whether it is through chartering or fun fishing, we’ve taken every opportunity in the past week to be on the water as much as we can. I say we collectively, because all four owners of the shop and all our employees have used every free minute of time this week to be on the water.  We have fished the flats, bottom fished, targeted stripers from the boat on the east side of the Island and the west side of the Island.  We have fished the harbor from the boat and beaches and have logged a lot of time on the south shore.  I think the only major fishery we missed was Great Point, but that is probably because it is one of the few fisheries that has not been producing!

We fished the west end of the Island by boat and it did not disappoint.  We fished the edges north, south and west of Tuckernuck and Muskeget and caught fish in every location we stopped. We had fish up to 35 inches and a lot of slot sized fish.  (we let them all swim!). We did see a good influx of bluefish, which is a welcome sight but probably caught 80% bass.  At one point, I sat back and watched four avid fisherman not even casting a rod.  We all simply sat back and watched the show.  It felt like were in a magical paradise interrupting a spectacle that shouldn’t be witnessed by man.  There were fish rolling and slashing across the surface.  We saw squid pop clear out of the water and sand eels spray like a hose nozzle.  Since we were releasing our fish anyway, we decided to sit back and simply enjoy the show.  As I grow older, its something I am doing more and more and it allows me to enjoy the experience that much more!

Striped Bass are certainly around the Island in abundance.  From the boat, most of the edges are holding fish. There are times when you need to work the edges to find the pockets of productive water, but they are there. There are also a lot of fish in the flat water.  The east side of the Island is fishing really well right now. Old Man and Pochick have plenty of fish.  There have also been bass up the east side of the Island on pods of bait.  In shore, the harbor continues to be really productive.  The water temps have crept up, so you are better to fish in lower light or in deeper water in the harbor. I had an experience earlier the week when I fish at first light and witnessed hundreds of finning fish in the bends. Yes, I stopped and watched!  Similarly, the North shore has been holding several fish. Most of these fish are caught around sunset.  These fish are generally mellow, so don’t fish them too sporadically, but approach these fish thoughtfully.

The South Shore continues to produce.  While you can catch fish at all times of the day if there are waves, it is becoming more important to fish during the low light hours.  Fish your plugs slowly and deliberately.  You don’t need to cast out, simply cast at a 45 degree angle and work the troughs closest to the beach.  There are pods of fish that will move down the beach and you’ll go in spurts of catching several fish at a time and then slow periods.  Use a larger profile swimmer or a big soft bait.

Bottom fishing is just kicking into gear. Fluke have showed up in our waters in mass and have been eating a ton.  Jay Starr on Starfish Charters caught some huge fish including a 10 lb fish this weekend.  Most of these bigger fish are being caught on the southeast side of the Island.  We also have Black Sea Bass migrating into our fishery.  Most of these fish are smaller right now, but the big girls will be here any day. This is amazing table fare and simply a great time.  Focus on fishing structure using bait and a braid set up. 

Lastly, it seems as though the flats are setting up well. The fishing in the skinny water still has room to improve, but in time it will. The fish on the west end are so focused on the bait that they are not yet sliding in big numbers into the sound.

Go enjoy our fishery, it continues to be special.

June 5th Fishing Report

In short… Our fishery has been nothing short of magical for the past two weeks. I have talked to many and few can remember it being so good so early. While the early emphasis was on incredible beach fishing, that has slowed down, but the fishing from the boats continues to improve. It is important to remember, in regards to the beach, that we have had very little wind for the last week plus which can often stall out beach fishing. We have a good blow coming through mid-week and we are confident that this will re-launch our beach fishing.

As for what is being caught, Stripers are always the goal this time of year but there have been lots of bluefish around and most of the blues have had a lot of size. Those targeting bottom fish have had great success, the seabass bite has been excellent and the Fluke bite is turning on. So in short, if you are on a boat, pick your target and with a little planning and execution, you should be able to deliver.

As mentioned above the beach fishing, with the calm days has stalled a bit, but that just means you have to work a bit. Fish were consistently being caught during the day time, but now focus on the night time. Also adjust from your favorite south shore beach to a piece of shoreline with more structure…think eel point, Miacomet rip, low beach, or a number of areas in the main harbor. When wind isn’t blowing bait in, you need to find the structure that the bait is holding onto. Simply said, this is why the rips are fishing so well, as it is structure that the fish are holding onto and can ambush the bait at.

Speaking of bait, boy it is plentiful… Sitting on one shallow edge today to the west I saw big schools of sandeels, squid being pushed out of the water, herring in different sizes and a few scup on the run. The water is alive…. Which is explains why these fish are aggressive and feeding.

From the boat just about everywhere is producing…old man, the western shoals, monomoy/hankerchief, the northern shoreline… frankly the only spot we still have not heard much about yet is great point.

It is also important to remind everyone of regulations on bass. The legal limit is 28-34”, one fish per person per day. I say this as we are lucky to have lots of legal fish in our ecosystem right now. We are not here to tell people what they should keep or not, if legal, but it is important to remind everyone how fragile our fishery is and while we are in boom times at the moment, the only way we are going to have years like this to come is to have these fish reproduce.

At the very least, do try and fish with single hooks as often as possible for the fish and the anglers sake and please also think about pressing the barbs back. I was incredibly thankful today as I got a hook in my index finger that the barb was crushed and the hook came easily out. Phew….

We also recognize that we are enthusiastic about our fishery right now, but that does not guarantee a fish on the first cast. If you have questions or are getting stumped, come in and see us, we are here to help you out. Our goal as a tackle shop is to help anglers catch fish and to create memories that hooked us on fishing in the first place. Go get involved and come in and ask questions and tell us stories.

May 28th fishing Report

It’s Happening! And boy did it happen quickly.  Wow! We are seeing lots of fish and we are seeing size.  40 inch fish, 39 inch fish, 36 inch fish and one gentleman landed 17 keepers in 20 casts….all from the beach.  This is not to say that all aspects of our fishery are electric, but If you have a desire to catch a bass from the beach, GO FISH!  We have also been experiencing excellent fishing from the boats in the harbors.  It sounds like the rips are ready to explode as there is bait and some fish, but likely it is a matter of days if not hours for the rips to turn on. So yes, this is fun!  And just to think 2 weeks ago most of us were still searching for our first fish and last week many were still muddling about.

So what happened…bait, bait, bait.  You all have heard us rant, if we have bait, we have fish. Anyone who has walked the south shore beaches has seen the massive Herring on the beach, many have seen the whales (eating bait…) as well as birds.  The ocean south of the island is alive and it is fun to watch and all that bait is filling in along our shoreline and filtering into the sound and our harbor.  We saw this bait filling in before the 7 day NE blow in early mid-may and before the fish got here.  Part of our guess is that this bait stalled offshore and a pile of fish found it and the SW wind last weekend put it right on our beaches with the bass chewing away.  And once fish find bait, they stay on it.

So where to fish… let the wind blow in your face.  If it is a south/west wind go fish the south shore. If it is a north wind…fish the north shore.  The 17 keepers I am talking about above came mid week, mid morning with high water and wind in the anglers face.  Our good friend caught a 40 incher (amongst other smaller fish) Thursday evening with his kids watching and helping.  Yup, this is May and we do not need yet to chasing twilight/night fishing.  It doesn’t mean that night won’t produce, but when bait is thick and the water is cold, these fish will feed whenever.

Beaches that have been producing in particular have been Cisco, Miacomet and Nobadeer. This does not mean it is just these three beaches, but the stretch from Cisco to Nobadeer tends to be producing with Miacomet rip being the center piece.   Remember when fishing, read the water.  Do not just cast at the first piece of water you see.  Read the current, recognize water flow and where the bars are and where the fish might be resting and setting up ambushes.  

As exciting as the beaches are, do not forget about our harbors… the shorelines in Madaket and in town are seeing lots of fish.  Many fish have settled into patterns so we are seeing small schools, but we are also still seeing large schools that are settling in. Super fun.  We have seen fish in all of the bends as well as the outside of coatue.  In Madaket, Warrens landing, eel point and the inside of Esther’s have been excellent.

Those with boats have been running to structure and finding big sea bass and actually a few cod mixed in our inshore waters.  Very cool! We have also seen a pile of tatoug in the boat basin and town docks as well over the last two weeks.  We have not heard reports in the last few days, but likely they are still lurking.  So cool to see different species and to see the growth of the population.  

As we hope you are sensing… this fishery is fun right now.  We know work is busy, we know it seems like the summer is long, but these conditions don’t last forever… Go Fish, and come in and tell us a story!

May 20th 2022 Fishing Report

I Love May because the fishery is always adapting and adjusting.  Any day you could get on the water and find a mass of fish.  This happened to me on Wednesday.  I was poking around the harbor and fished for 2 hours and saw one shadow that might have been a fish.  I wasn’t discouraged as I had found fish earlier that week, but I got to thinking, this is early season.  Well, I was rewarded at our next location as I found a nice school that was a touch selective but we were able to pull two nice 25” ers out of that school.  That is the way the day continued, when we found one, we found many, but stretches between with nothing. Fast forward to this morning, I found a couple of larger schools, but for the first time I started seeing singles.  I missed a few fish this morning and I expected a follow up, only to be left alone.  A good sign, honestly.  

What I just described is typical of the early season.  As fish show up they arrive in larger schools and they tend to stay in schools until they settle in and then they start to explore and find patterns as ones and twos and as smaller groups. When you see these early season masses it's mesmerizing as they darken up the water and feed together, but often they are tough to get a bite out of until they have settled.  It usually doesn’t take them but a couple of days to settle, and this is where we are at.  Daily more schools of fish are entering our fishery and daily those schools from a few days ago are starting to split into smaller groups. Its fun to see the patterns emerge.  

So where should you be going and what should you be looking for?  These fish are not in patterns yet, so tough to answer where, just be willing to look around and try a few areas.  But what you should be looking for is bait, and if you don’t see bait look for where bait should be, fresh water run offs, by structure, think the jetties and brant point as well as the mooring field in town.  In fact as I came in this morning I saw a pile of bass explode by the boat basin.  Boy did this make me laugh.  Thank goodness we caught fish or I would have thought I was being laughed at, instead I enjoyed the irony.  That said it is not surprising as the structure of the basin provides protection and warmth for bait and the bass figure that out and can have an easy feed.  Many know that during the summer bass are all over our docks at night. This time of year, they are there during the day… fun.  

It is also important to remember while our fishery is slowly filling up with fish, the same is true for bait as well.  We have a percentage of the bait we will have in another week or two’s time.  It will come and it will come soon. 

It is hard to talk about specific locations as these fish are moving, but generally Madaket has been more productive than town, although town is starting to get productive.  Not to say town hasn’t been good, but Madaket’s water has been warmer and closer access to the south shore means that fish are often coming through there before getting to town. Definitely think about fishing the inside of smiths point, eel point or Warrens landing.  We have not heard much from the beaches on the south shore, but it should be anyday, so do not hesitate to go that way.

As for what to use, we stay committed to our early season stance of fish small baits on small rods.  One fish and you won’t regret the purchase.  I have been mixing between soft plastics and twitchbaits… both have been incredibly productive.  I have fished a few poppers/jumping minnows and while they can be incredibly productive, I have yet to have the expositions from them.  I tend to say subsurface this time of year, but many like to stay up top.  All will work, just make sure you are staying active and connected in your retrieve.

May 5th Fishing Report

I was in two different pools about when the first fish would be caught, and the short summary in both pools, everyone guessed earlier than May 4th! Congrats to Matt Aguiar for his perseverance and finally getting Nantucket on the board. To those paying attention, Boston and Maine got there first fish before we did, why you might ask? We are not entirely sure as our waters are LOADED with bait. We know we are always later than the cape and vineyard, but to lose to Maine is ridiculous! Our guess is the fish likely held tighter to the shoreline, or stayed offshore longer, who knows, but what we do know is the first fish is here, more WILL follow and we are jam packed with big bait, and small bait will be in here shortly.

As the wind turned yesterday to the North, the North side of the island got a sweet smell to it, my guess is this is mostly mackerel. I have not heard many reports of people going out and catching, but considering the marks on a buddies depth-sounder yesterday and their typical pattern, we are confident the Mackerel are out front. As for the south shore, if you want to see a show, go spend 20 minutes on the beach. There are lots of gannets and gulls crashing from Tom Nevers to Madaket. These Gannets are mostly likely crashing on Herring, Squid, Mackerel and Sand Eels. The birds are big and the bait is big. Remember, spring time is when most fish begin the reproduction process, with herring laying eggs between March and May and Squid typically reproduce late Spring into early Summer. These larger bait fish not only fuel our epic June “Spring Run,” but the juveniles feed the baby blues, schoolie stripers, bonito, and Albies for most of the summer. We will likely start seeing the first offspring in the next week or two in the harbors.

As to where to fish, typically we would say go West to Madaket, but we are pretty confident with the late start and large amounts of bait, that the fish will be filling into the main harbor, north shore and south shore very quickly here. I would suggest to not make fishing an expedition, but follow the lead of many locals and keep a rod in your car and fish whenever the opportunity presents itself. Honestly, if you find yourself with an hour to kill, go to the closest beach, inside of the West Jetty, Cisco and Madaket harbor should all be producing numbers by weeks end. And what to fish with. In the shallow waters something smaller like a Hogy or a Storm rubber swimmer and in the surf, something shiny like a small hopkins or an EXO or a deadly dick.