| Chappaquidick Island Surf Report
Martha's Vineyard,
Maryland
August 5th-8th, 2004
Report by 'SurfRat' |
This would be my second fishing trip to Martha's Vineyard this year,
targeting Sandbar Sharks from the surf, on Chappaquidick Island (Chappy).
The Browns (as we call them up here in New England), typically show up along
the south facing beaches of Cape Cod and the Islands, when the water temperatures
get to around 70 degrees, usually around early to mid July and they usually
hang around through mid to late Sept.
This trip, I would be participating in a (beach only) Shark
Tournament, C&R highly encouraged, which would run for one week, starting
Sat. 7/31 at 6:00 pm and run through Sun. 8/8 6:00 am, there would be an
Awards Ceremony and picnic late afternoon on Sun. The State Marine Biologist,
Greg Skomal (one of the Northeast's foremost Shark authorities), had been
contacted and data sheets were circulated to all participants for data
collection, later to be submitted to Mr. Skomal.
The parameters of the tournament would be on the beaches of
Chappaquidick Island (the southeastern corner of Martha's Vineyard), from
the northern most tip of Cape Pogue (The Gut), to Lelands (the beach on the
east facing side of the legendary Wasque Rip, which forms at the point were
Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds collide).
On the first night, there were several hookups, missed fish
and cutoffs, with one Shark landed around the 5' mark. The activity would
be slow until Tuesday night at which point my buddy Steve Purcel, would land
a nice 5' 6" female Sandbar taking the lead in the tournament. That night
there were once again several additional hookups and cutoffs, with one
participant chasing a decent fish about 1/4 mile up the beach only to be
almost spooled and then cut off. The general consensus was that, it might
very well have been a big Ray, but more than likely a Shark.
The action would subside (again) until late Fri., night. On
Thurs. afternoon me and three buddies (Eddie, Ralph and Wynn), set up camp
and fished hard landing many small (rat) Bluefish, several Scup and a few
good sized Dogfish, although I had an ample supply of live Eels, Mackeral
and freshly caught Scup, I was excited to be stocking up on the freshly caught
small Bluefish. From all reports, there seemed to be some kind of pattern
forming here, the Sharks would show up in good numbers on a particular night,
and then dissappear only to reappear exactly three nights later, I found
this to be pretty interesting and Fri., night would prove to be consistent
with this theory as a 5' 1" Shark was landed up the beach from me and shortly
after my buddy Eddie hooked up with 56.6" female Sandbar, that I managed
to tag, with someone's last tag.
Although a gorgeous day on Sat., afternoon, it cooled off and
the wind picked up out of the NW. All afternoon, we had not one hit, not
even a Scup, Bluefish or Doggie. We headed back into town in the evening
for some food and got back out on the beach around 8:30 pm, it was a bright,
beautiful starlit night and the wind seemed to settle down, the seas were
calm, I put out two rods, the 1st, my 10' St. Croix with a live Eel (as a
backup in case a Striper swam by) and the 2nd, my 12' Shark Rod with a fresh
dripping bloody Bluefish head on. Things were slow and I heard of only one
Dog being landed thus far. Around 10:45 pm, the tip on my 1st rod slightly
bounced, I ran over and picked it up, the fish had picked up the Eel and
gently started to move out, I gave him line (it was acting like a Striper),
then it dropped the bait, I waited for several minutes and it came back and
picked up the Eel again and started to move, I set the hook, nice fish and
this was not a Striper, unless of course one that was pushing 60 or 70 plus
pounds, after several impressive runs, and 35 plus minutes later, we finally
saw the fish, nice Sandy. On the beach, a 6' 1" female Sandbar, with a 36"
girth.
Once again my trusty little 10' St. Croix (Ben Doerr) with
my Penn SS7500 would prove to impress me, I can't believe the action this
little unit has seen, over the last several years, always standing up to
whatever the challenge. The current leader, my buddy Steve Purcell drove
up, to congratulate me, with only a few hours left, I would hold the lead
and finish in 1st Place.
Sun., afternoon Marine Biologist, Greg Skomal made a guest
appearance at the Awards picnic and collected all of the data that had been
assembled over the week.
Here are a few pics (taken by Gary Mirando).
-Surfrat
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