Two of the most popular recreational fish will soon be off limits to commercial fishermen. The commercial bluefish season ends tomorrow. The commercial striped bass season ends on Tuesday.
This is the first time Massachusetts fisheries managers are closing the commercial season on bluefish. Using landing data, the state estimates the 516,619-pound quota for bluefish in the state will be taken by tomorrow. Fish markets may carry the fish beyond the date, but it won’t be for long.
The most stressed-out fish of the sea, the false albacore, made an appearance a week ago. They scared the bonito away and now it seems as though both are absentee.
False albacore and bonito are among the fastest swimming fish of these waters from late August to October. They are a finicky warmer weather fish. It is hard to write a sentence about one without mentioning the other in the same paragraph.
But the prevailing northeast winds of the last few days have cut down on a lot of the boat fishing.
The worldwide oil price crisis is hitting Island commercial fishermen hard. Already struggling with more restrictive regulations and declining landings, Vineyard small-boat fishermen now face fuel prices that have doubled in a year.
Capt. Wayne Iacono of Chilmark is a commercial lobsterman who fishes out of Menemsha. With the decline in lobsters in Vineyard waters, he already had taken a second job as a plumber.
Mark Alan Lovewell will present Fish Stories: Tales and Songs of Vineyard Fishermen, on Tuesday, August 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
Mr. Lovewell, who works as reporter and photographer at the Vineyard Gazette, has been writing and singing songs about the Vineyard’s maritime history for many years.
On this evening, he will shift his attention to the commercial and recreational fishermen of the Island community. What makes a lobster pot work? Who are these fishermen and where do they go? What makes them laugh?
Recreational freshwater fishing got a boost on the Vineyard on Tuesday when state officials delivered more than 1,100 healthy, hearty trout, all of them over a foot in length, to four Island ponds.
Using a special hauling truck that holds a lot of bubbling water, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife delivered 600 rainbow trout, 300 brook trout and 200 brown trout. They also delivered 40 tiger trout measuring more than 14 inches in length.
Recreational anglers are seeing the best fishing for early summer. Water temperatures remain on the cool side, so stripers and bluefish are still within reach for shoreside angling. Doug Asselin at Dick’s Bait and Tackle Shop, a store in Oak Bluffs, said bluefish were caught during the day at the beach at Right Fork in Katama. This creates a little bit of a challenge, since the swimming season has started.
August can be a tough month for catching striped bass. It isn’t that the fish have gone south or disappeared, but they are certainly into their warm water August state of mind.
Memorial Day weekend on the waterfront comes early this year and the fish seem to know it. Bluefish, striped bass and all the right fish already are here and even more fish are arriving.
The prevailing word on the waterfront is that the best is yet to come. The seasonal migration below the surface that began well over a month ago is still underway.
The ninth annual fluke derby run by the Veterans of Foreign War Post in Oak Bluffs 9261 may be Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13, just over a week away, but anglers are already out there harvesting the fish. July is fluke season for most anglers.
While there has been plenty of attention in the last month on striped bass and bluefish swimming around the Island, the fluke (summer flounder) fishery is alive and well in Menemsha and in parts east and west.
This has not been a good blue crab season on the Vineyard. The Edgartown Great Pond is doing poorly compared with last year and there are lackluster reports from the Island’s other coastal ponds.
But that is the story with blue crabs. Some years the fishing is great and some years it is bad. Feast or famine and nothing much between.
Blue crabs and the state of the fishery, which is largely unregulated, is the subject of a public hearing in Tisbury next month.
