Martha's Vineyard Fishing Report, Newtonville, MA, 9-04-10

[Saltwater Fishing]

It’s 2:00 PM on September 3, 2010 and all of the Cape and Islands are sitting and worrying about what Hurricane Earl will bring as it approaches the region for an expected arrival time of 8:00 PM. I’ve done all I can to prepare and even went out for emergency provisions this morning; meatball pizza and a six pack of beer. I hate to say it, but I really think the storm is going to improve fishing after it clears and the waters clean up and cool down. On the one hand I hope a tree doesn’t end up on my boat and on the other I’m kind of glad we’re getting a storm. Let’s hope there is not much damage and everyone stays safe.

The pre-Earl period of the last 10 days has been pretty spotty on the water. The bonito remain picky and the early arrival albies have thinned out a bit. A lot of anglers are complaining about not being able to catch the bones even when throwing into numerous pods of thrashing fish. Some experienced fishermen I know have even claimed they are going to give up on chasing them if the situation doesn’t improve. My feeling is that when these conditions of extremely finicky fish exist, it’s time to change the usual tactics. With the fly rod we have been experimenting with slower, more deliberate retrieves. The same holds true with the spinning rod although our success rate with hook-ups on the spinning rod is far less. Various small jigs seem to work better than medals. On the long pole, the epoxy silverside “Scotty” fly still does the trick.




One of the more successful tactics for catching these picky predators has been a very early departure from the dock and getting set up and ready to throw the first fly just after sunup. The first pods of thrashers seem much more agreeable to eating our offerings. As the day wares on and the sun continues higher in the sky, these fish become impossible. The advice here is to get up and out early for the old adage of “the early bird catches the worm” holds true when bonito fishing.




When the bonito fishing slows down late in the morning we are still able to hunt down some crocodile bluefish. I expect that bluefish fishing will really start to improve as the water temps cool a bit and they start blitzing on the surface again. We’ve run across some schools of impressive sized crocs in numerous locations.




The Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby gets underway on September 12 and runs through October 16. It’s a great time to fish the Island from shore or boat. If you haven’t done it yet you should add it to your “bucket list”.

Tight lines and singing drags,

Capawock Charters of Martha’s Vineyard
Captain Phil Cronin
Cell: 617-448-2030
www.capawock.com