We always see crazy things happen in early August as our waters warm up, but never this crazy! We’ve had so much south wind in the last two weeks, we’ve seen our water temps shoot straight into the low 70’s and even hitting 75 in the harbor. With this, we’ve seen flying fish in shore, more sand eels than you can remember and huge push of Bluefish.

 

In the world of crazy things, Great Point was at the center of it all. Our friend James Hatton, who runs Nantucket Surfcasting, fishes from the Point almost every day. He was fishing this week and caught what he thought was a huge Spanish Mackeral and then noticed the lateral line on the side. Realizing that Spanish Mackeral lack that distinctive line and he’s never seen one this size, he quickly realized that he had caught a King Mackerel. While that is a cool story, we do get King Mackeral every once in a while, but this story blew my mind!

 

Mike O’Neill was fishing from the point on Saturday morning and cast his plug on the inside and after two cranks had something extremely heavy on his line. He then saw a 4-5 ft Tarpon break the water and do a full jump. There was no mistaking the Silver King! The fish promptly broke off, but man oh man- that is crazy! Every year you here of a tarpon caught in a net somewhere or a sailfish was caught in the Canal a few years back, but I’ve never heard of an angler hooking into a Tarpon on Nantucket.

 

Now, back to reality. Bluefish are here. From the boat, I caught them in Dionis, at Eel Point, at Great Point, on the East side of the Island, down on the south shore and at the Bonita Bar. Yes! Everywhere. We have been waiting for this and are enjoying their presence. From the beach, blues have been caught on the east side, at Great Point, off Coatue, down in Dionis and at Eel Point. Most anglers have had success using metals on these guys and don’t forget a leader.

 

Bonita have also made their inshore presence known. After initially being caught a month a go, we have finally had these speedsters set up on the Bonita Bar. It’s not red hot, but if you hit the tide right, you’ll get fish. We still have a bunch of blues on the bar as well, so be prepared. Also, I was out there yesterday and caught a Bass in the mix as well. 

 

Bass continue to hold in our western rips. These fish are on the smaller side, but a very fun and treat in August with 70 degree water. We also continue to have Bass holding in the eastern rips. These fish are pushing further and further, but are there in good numbers and decent size. Monomoy is also still holding Bass and continues to be a mainstay for a lot of the Cape boats. So, if you are heading up there, be aware that you’ll have company. 

 

Go enjoy these crazy days of August, wet a line and bring us a story!