Dear Fishermen and Friends,

This past week I asked the question of a group of good friends to name their four favorite months of the year in sequential order. I don’t know what inspired this question but everyone gave some combination of May-October. Upon seeing a dozen responses I responded with “not to get sappy, but how awesome these 6 months lie ahead of us.” With all the chaos in the world, the best six months lie ahead. THE BEST!

And with sappiness out of the way, the long-awaited first fish was caught Tuesday evening and not surprisingly more were caught Wednesday morning, Thursday evening, and so forth. Good stuff. Nothing hot and heavy yet and in fact a lot of tiny! (10-13 inch) fish, although there were a few in the 20+ inch range. All the fish were caught in the west end of the island although we have had a lot of bait all over the island and rumor has it Hulbert had fish as well. Big birds were diving on big bait (herring?) off of Sconset, and the main harbor has birds working the jetties and inside of Coatue. We are in the middle of a blow right now, that will trail off early this week and we should have a bunch of nice days at the end of this week. We know there are a lot of people on this island, get out and fish. As for what to use, small is better than big right now. Soft plastics work, small poppers, lead heads. Most importantly is get out there and be a part of it and remember, try and fish with a single hook and bend the barb back!

As for the (ONLINE) Store

Over the last week, we have continued to build the online store. While we obviously don’t have everything you need, we have a lot up there and if its not there, its in the shop. St. Croix rods are here, we are stocked up on Grey Lady Lures, which are awesome and have been producing, we have Hogy and more are coming in this week, we are stocked up on Albie Snax and we have plenty of rods/reels at a bunch of different price points. We created the online store to make your access to fishing gear easier. We are happy to deliver or have you do curbside pick-up. We know many have been turning to Amazon/the interweb, which is why we created our online option, so you could get what you need right here on the island. We have worked to lower our prices as we know people are tight on cash and we really want to get people out fishing and make all of our inventory accessible. We even finally sourced a $7 bluefish plug through Grey Lady Tackle. It is sweet, and something we have long wanted to bring to the island, an inexpensive bluefish plug! (I have also thrown an extra hook on there and thrown as a pencil popper….sweet!)

And for those who need to see our full breadth, please come by the store and we are open daily from 12-2. We ask that you stay outside, but you can see everything and we can show off all.

Also, remember to change your line on your spool. (we have a spool drop outside the shop) Also, this is an awesome time to “clean” your tackle box, clean up the rust and re-hook old lures and see what you need to refill your tackle box. In terms of what you should be using for the early season bass, small Jigs and small soft baits will be the most productive. Honestly though, these early fish are not that picky and one of the most important items is to get the lure to/in front of the fish.

Grey Lady Tackle

We also wanted to plug the Grey Lady Tackle guys. We are all about supporting local, which is why we got excited when these guys came out with their lures. Nick and Scott worked hard over the last nine months to create some awesome lures. Their paint jobs are awesome, everything is epoxy coated and finally, a lure that has single hooks out of the package! They have a nice balance of swimmers/sliders and surface plugs and these guys are committed to putting great products out there at a reasonable price. We have their stuff up on our website and in the shop.

Striper Sea Run Tourney

This is arguably the best tournament of the year. ALL proceeds go to charity and it is run by Raf Osana, who is a great Nantucket angler and who, as a person, is all about giving back. Here is the registration, and here is the website describing the tournament.

This tournament is all about getting back outside and enjoying the best of what Nantucket has to offer while raising money for a local nonprofit organization. Prizes will be awarded to participants for a variety of different catch types including first landed sea run striper, smallest striper in length, first keeper bass 28″ or larger and the largest striped bass of the tournament. The first ten anglers to register a catch will also be awarded a locally donated prize package. Any participant that registers a catch will also be eligible to receive one of a variety of prizes drawn at random, including the grand prize in which he or she will be able to select the island charity that will receive the proceeds of the tournament!