Tuna fishing south of the Vineyard has been a highlight of the fishing season this year.
It’s a specialized pursuit, a bit more involved than hopping in your skiff and scouting for bird action.
Kevin Blinkoff of On The Waterwent on a fishing expedition south of the Vineyard this week, and he joins us to share the experience. Here's our conversation.
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Steve Junker So you were out there this week. I'm jealous. Explain where it is you're headed when you go out for tuna south of the Vineyard.
Kevin Blinkoff Well, we've been hearing some hot reports of the fishing south of the Vineyard. We had some folks from our office get out in the past few days and catch some great fish. So we decided to put a group together and head out. The area that we call south of the Vineyard, it's really the continental shelf; it extends south probably about 30 to 50 miles before it drops off into what we call the canyons. So it's a huge area, and it's not just really south of the Vineyard. It stretches all the way to south of Block Island and really all the way over toward Montauk.
Steve Junker I mentioned it's a specialized pursuit. Talk a little bit about what goes into a trip like this. This is different than just going fishing along the coastline here.
Kevin Blinkoff Right. You're making a pretty big commitment. We went out of Buzzards Bay, so the total trip offshore was around 50 to 55 miles to reach the grounds. And so you need a boat that can handle being out in open water like that. You need to be able to hold enough fuel for it. And then as far as fishing gear goes, because it's such a giant area and there's so many places where the fish could be, a lot of times you're covering water. So for the fishing gear, a lot of boats go down there to trawl. And so they're bringing special setups, things like spreader bars and daisy chains and these other lures that you trawl along the surface at a pretty good clip to cover water and try to find fish. But for the most part, unlike the Canyons, where it's often an overnight trip, this is usually a day trip for most boats.
Steve Junker So tell us a little bit about what happened when you went out there.
Kevin Blinkoff So we had one of those trips that was kind of a ‘should have been here yesterday’ trip. We went to the first spot that had had fish the day before and found it kind of devoid of life. And so we kept moving around. We didn't find much luck yesterday. We saw a lot of boats out there kind of all doing the same thing: trolling around, shrugging their shoulders. It's just one of the things that happens out there. The water kind of moves, the fish move, and who knows?—tomorrow could be a different story, they could be back in the area. Still, really an amazing experience to go out there, just to see so many whales and see so much life out there and know that you have the potential to catch anything from from a yellowfin tuna up to a giant bluefin tuna. It's just a cool experience.
Steve Junker Completely. Fishing is always different from day to day. And always, one of the best things about it is being out on the water, no matter what.
Kevin Blinkoff Right. And that feeling that at any moment your luck can turn, which I guess is I guess the way fishermen and anglers think, is that at any moment it could be that time that the big fish bites.
Steve Junker Hey, let's round up the fishing action. What are you hearing inshore what you would be looking for?
Kevin Blinkoff So right now we're at that kind of peak water temperature period of summer, which means the striper fishing in warmer water can be a little slow this time of year, especially in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. Luckily, there's been quite a few bluefish around, and bluefish have been picking up the slack. The tuna fishing, like I mentioned, has been very good in that area south of the Vineyard. It may have slowed in recent days, but it could easily pick back up. And then finally, it's really a good time of year for any shore fishing where you really want to go out and just have some action. There's a lot of stuff around like scup and fluke that can be caught from shore. So if you are looking to get out, just to have some action on a slow summer day, fishing bait from shore is a fun way to do that.
