Dear Fishermen and Friends,
 
I was in two different pools about when the first fish would be caught, and the short summary in both pools, everyone guessed earlier than May 4th! Congrats to Matt Aguiar for his perseverance and finally getting Nantucket on the board, and to add to the fun, another fish was caught at Cisco this AM! To those paying attention, Boston and Maine got there first fish before we did, why you might ask? We are not entirely sure as our waters are LOADED with bait. We know we are always later than the cape and vineyard, but to lose to Maine is ridiculous! Our guess is the fish likely held tighter to the shoreline, or stayed offshore longer, who knows, but what we do know is the first fish is here, more WILL follow and we are jam packed with big bait, and small bait will be in here shortly.  

As the wind turned yesterday to the North, the North side of the island got a sweet smell to it, my guess is this is mostly mackerel. I have not heard many reports of people going out and catching, but considering the marks on a buddies depth-sounder yesterday and their typical pattern, we are confident the Mackerel are out front. As for the south shore, if you want to see a show, go spend 20 minutes on the beach. There are lots of gannets and gulls crashing from Tom Nevers to Madaket. These Gannets are mostly likely crashing on Herring, Squid, Mackerel and Sand Eels. The birds are big and the bait is big. Remember, spring time is when most fish begin the reproduction process, with herring laying eggs between March and May and Squid typically reproduce late Spring into early Summer. These larger bait fish not only fuel our epic June “Spring Run,” but the juveniles feed the baby blues, schoolie stripers, bonito, and Albies for most of the summer. We will likely start seeing the first offspring in the next week or two in the harbors.

As to where to fish, typically we would say go West to Madaket, but we are pretty confident with the late start and large amounts of bait, that the fish will be filling into the main harbor, north shore and south shore very quickly here. I would suggest to not make fishing an expedition, but follow the lead of many locals and keep a rod in your car and fish whenever the opportunity presents itself. Honestly, if you find yourself with an hour to kill, go to the closest beach, inside of the West Jetty, Cisco and Madaket harbor should all be producing numbers by weeks end. And what to fish with. In the shallow waters something smaller like a Hogy or a Storm rubber swimmer and in the surf, something shiny like a small hopkins or an EXO or a deadly dick.


Lastly, but certainly not least, please sign up for the Striper Sea Run Opener. 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.
The Shop is now open 7 days a week!

While hours are a bit limited Tuesday-Thursday we will be there 7 days a week for the next 6 months! We have 80% of our inventory for the season (which has been a monumental effort!) and hats arrive in the next day or two and t-shirts arrive next week. As for our Staff, Dave is Back! as is Jeremy, Chris, and David. These guys are awesome and fish hard.
What size rod should you be fishing with?

I would HIGHLY suggest fishing with a smaller 7’ rod over the next 6 weeks. The fish are smaller, the bait is smaller and the experience will be so much better. We have high quality 7’ Fierce and BG combos at the shop for $150 and $200. We also have a ton of Shimano Teramar in stock and St Croix has some SWEET 7’ rods as well. But for less than $200 you can have your “spring” set-up, that frankly most people who have a 7’ rod end up turning to for over 40% of the season.

Most of those who fish hard on island have 3-4 rods that they go between, but will fish primarily most of the season with 7 or 8 foot rods when they are fishing early season and are targeting stripers. This might seem silly to have so many rods, but fishing a 9 foot rod in the creeks in the spring is akin to taking your 34 boat into the shallows of the harbor, it just isn't the same experience.

It is also important to remember that you want to maximize the fun of the experience and it is more fun to hook-up on with a lighter rod and those rods nicely toss the .5 oz-1.5 oz lures that tend to work best in our fishery. As Mid June hits and the fish increase in size, you will want to think about getting into an 8' to fish harder in the surf. An 8' rod like the Teramar or St. Corix Mojo inshore will allow you to fish the swimmer and pencil poppers loved by island fishermen. So why do so many people have the long 9' rods you might ask? Answer is simple, the mighty bluefish is the fish that carries our fishery through July and August and its nice to be able to cast as far as you can if you don't see fish. My guess is the shore angler will fish a 7' rod 40% of the summer, their 8' 40% of the summer and their 9' 20% of the season. Like golfers and woodworkers... every tool has its purpose. Most importantly, get out there and fish!
Tides of Nantucket: An amazing short film from a few years back

This is an amazing video that we took 6 years ago now. It is amazing how just watching this still gets us revved up. We truly are the luckiest guys in the world.
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Book a Charter!

Many customers are getting trips on the books. May and June are starting to get pretty busy, if you know you are planning on being on island, be in touch!
Thanks, as always, for being so supportive of Bill Fisher Tackle. If there is anything we can help you with, please let us know!

Sincerely,

Capt. Corey Gammill: 203-962-8867
Capt. Cam Gammill: 508-332-9149
Capt Mike Ruby 508-221-7144
Capt. Nat Reeder