Dear Fishermen and Friends,

It’s this time of year that we all start to get antsy to catch some saltwater fish. Pond fishing is a hidden gem on Nantucket, but getting fresh schoolie stripers in the surf after a long winter is akin to seeing the first daffodil pop. Spring is here and summer is on the way. It brings hope and excitement! Boy do we need that! We’ve always been told that those first fish coincide with Forsythia coming out in full bloom. Well after early buds and a cool down, the forsythia are ripe to pop soon. The other optimistic note is we have strong winds from the South and West coming over the next week. This helps migrating fish and pushes even more bait inshore. If you have looked out from the south shore already, you will see birds looking for bait, surely the early season Herring and Mackerel are close if not here.

The last two years we did not catch fish until May, which was frustrating beyond belief, its like delaying Christmas for a young kid. The earliest I’ve caught a fresh bass, with sea lice, is on April 12th, 2009. Yes, I keep a journal. It just so happens that April 12th fell on Easter that year. Maybe we’ll follow suit eleven years later! We all know we need a good pick me up! The best part was that this was not a fish on its own. Over the next week, we caught at least a hundred fish. They were littered on the south shore. The weather was perfect, high sun and not a breath of wind, so you could stand on the dunes and see the big schools push onto the beach and push off shore. Cross your fingers. We should have sun…

There are currently people catching fish in Long Island Sound and on the south side of Long Island, so geographically these fish are not far. For better or worse, these are not the fish we usually catch first. The first push of fish that come to Nantucket generally comes from offshore, so this wind is good. This is a different biomass than what we see coming up the coast. These fish are sitting in warmer offshore waters and eating herring and other bait out there. This is why, when we get fish in mid April, we see such a frenzy for 4-5 days then fishing slows right down until the biomass that is coming up the coast hits us. Whereas, the last couple of years, the biomass that comes up the coast is likely what hit us first. The first fish were caught days after fish were caught on the Vineyard and the Cape and we saw more fish caught on the North Shore than the South Shore.

We don’t know what will happen, but we are currently in a period of realistic hope! With the awesome action in the ponds people should be focusing their attention there, but have one eye on the ocean and bring both rods when you head out for a few hours on the water.

In other news, we are going to be making ourselves available to customers in the next few weeks. We are not going to have our store open for browsing, but we are going to be there from 12-2 T,Th,S. We also have set up a spool drop off box outside if you have spools you want wound up. Drop the spools in a plastic bag with your name, phone number, the line you want on there and we will call you when they are spooled. Also never hesitate to e-mail of text us. happy to deliver lures/rods/whatever you need to get you on the water. We are motivated to do our part to getting people outside and active.