We are still very much experiencing the EARLY days of Nantucket Fishing.  It is during this time of year that we expect the big fish to consistently show up and fill our waters, but for better or worse, we have become used to the longer early season wait… I will discuss this more later, but where we are at right now is a good number of Striped Bass schoolies filtered around the island.  A few hours in either Nantucket or Madaket Harbor should yield you a few Stripers (12-20 inches) and a shot at something bigger.  The good news about the smaller striped Bass is that it means the future is bright… There was a long period where we were not seeing juvenile fish, so to now see them is really exciting.

As for bait, There are pockets of bait (not think yet,) the crab mating season is still happening, and the mackerel have finally moved out.  This means that we should start seeing a bigger push of fish coming in any day now.  What we all really want to see is the squid moving in and that will quickly bring us the bigger bass.  But before the squid move in, we need water temps to inch up, which will increase bait masses and again once we have thick bait, the Striped Bass find the bait…

Remember, being an island 30 miles out at seas, it takes a different group of fish to fill our waters than the group filling Cape Cod Bay…. These fish tend to migrate from the souther reaches of Long Island, South of the vineyard and finally found our oasis.  Striped Bass fishing will improve as resports keep getting better and better. And as much as he hate windy days, it actually can be a real positive for helping to push fish into safe havens.  Keep your eyes open as Striped Bass will in the next week or so suddenly fill our waters.

As for reports of bluefish, they are here, but again, not thick.  These fish are incredible as all it takes is one tide turn and the south shore of Nantucket turns from a desert into a farm of fish.  Incredibly cool if you ever get a chance to witness these fish coming in!