July 22nd Nantucket Fishing Report

 

Our fishing report last week came about as negative, because compared to the weeks before, the fish were scattered and the Striped Bass catch rates had fallen.  Amazing what a week will do.  The fishing in no way is electric, but bluefishing has improved, some bass still linger, bottom fishing is excellent and the offshore game has gotten exciting.

 

Our biggest concern last week and earlier this week was the lack of concentration of bluefish, but a new LARGE school of fish have come in off the east side and filled in great point nicely.  The South Shore fish, which tend to be an automatic, has also been spotty until yesterday when they turned on! Let’s hope they are here to stay. In the last few days though, Old man has filled in with fish and these fish tend to fill in the south shore, so we believe we are getting our bluefish back on track.

 

As far as excitement, three really exciting things happened this week…

 

1) some of our best island fishermen who are diehards at nighttime have reported hooking 40+ inch bass from the beach.  We have heard of broken lines, bent hooks, landed fish and all other sorts of excitement.  Some thought maybe this was a push of brown sharks, but all these reports are on artificial lures so no chance they are sharks… And the few fish that have been landed have been huge.  These fish have been caught on a variety of BIG lures including, but not limited to Super Strikes and weighted sluggos, and Salt Cod.

 

2) Tuna are now being caught south.  It has been an incredibly poor tuna year to date, but the first wave of fish have come in in the last few days.  These fish are in the 50-70# range. The tuna have been thickening by the day and the bait is thick so the hope is that these fish stick around.

 

3) White Marlin have been spotted south of the island.  We have yet to hear of any being hooked yet, but many have reported sunning on the surface.  So make sure when you go south you are prepared to pitch to the whites.

 

Long and Short, as soon as our fishery starts to stall out, cool things happen, which is why we fish!  The moment you stop fishing, you hear of others catching the cool stuff…  Speaking of cool fish, the first bonito should be caught any day… If you have free time on an east tide go explore the bonito bar… if you get bored push west and try fishing the edges, who knows maybe a bluefish or even a striped bass will end up on your line.  If you have a free day, spool up appropriately and go South!

 

Tight Lines,