The days this summer for eating locally caught fluke on the Vineyard are coming to a close.
Fluke, also called summer flounder, are a flat fish. Their fillets are white and tasty, and most come from Vineyard Sound. Since the start of the summer, fluke have been the catch of the day.
On Tuesday, the state closed the commercial season for landing fluke, based on projected estimates that the state quota had been met.
A painting of a well-known Menemsha-based trawler by Heather Neill has been given to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum by an anonymous donor. The eight by four-foot painting, titled Strider’s Surrender, evokes the decline the local fishing industry.
The Quitsa Strider II is owned by respected Island fishermen Jonathan Mayhew. In a move symbolic of the dire state of the local fishing industry, Mr. Mayhew sold his federal permits last year, giving up his license and putting up the vessel itself for sale.
A fly-fishing class for beginning and experienced fishermen will be held Saturday, June 21, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club in Edgartown.
Sandra Demel and John Kollett will provide individualized casting instruction. Participants also will learn about basic knots, flies, building a leader, and putting gear together. Equipment will be provided or participants may bring their own.
Freshwater fishermen on the Vineyard who are interested in learning the mercury content of their catch are asked to call Alanna Purdy at 914-400-9241 to arrange for pickup and free analysis. The project is being sponsored by the Natural Resources Department of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
Fish, Fish, Fish will be the topic of Louis Larsen’s talk at the next Friends of the Library speakers bureau at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, at the Vineyard Haven library. Mr. Larsen is the owner of the Net Result. Refreshments will be served following the talk.
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.