Current Waters: Nantucket Fishing Report

Stripers are a roller coaster right now. The colder waters and big tides will help us out a little bit and improve things moving forward.

We’re picking up with black sea bass. I’m hoping fluke picks up with this latest flush of tides. Right now there have been lots of undersized fish and very few keepers.

Seems like this moon definitely brought some more bluefish for us. Not sure how abundant they’ll be, but there are definitely more than there were – just in time for the August Blues tournament.

We’re all having fun on our tuna trips lately. They are of the larger size class still. Those of us doing tuna charters are having success so it’s a great time to go.

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As we slide into the end of July, it’s Shark Week once again. A number of beaches have recently been closed here and there around the island for confirmed fin sightings. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a great white was around, but the protocol is that when a fin is seen (regardless of species) there is a mandatory two-hour closure for safety. The lifeguards fly double red flags and alert local media to help spread the word quickly. And those are for the lifeguarded beaches. Remember, when you see the fin, you know where it is. When you don’t see the fin, you don’t know where it is, but it’s still in the ocean.

There has been some buzz recently about “new” sharks being seen off the Cape. This past week, a juvenile tiger shark was caught off of Falmouth. The young shark was only about five feet long, but adults can grow to around 1,200 pounds and more than 10 feet long. In addition to the tiger shark, a species typically found in warmer waters, spinner and smooth hammerhead sharks have also been spotted either by research teams or by members of the public off the coast. These three are unusual because they are all cold-blooded animals more typically found in warm waters south of the Cape. They have to follow the temperatures that suit them. And while these sightings have been unusual and sporadic, they are becoming more common than in previous decades.

I’ve previously talked about some of our local resident sharks like the porbeagle, which can maintain its own body temperature and so stays in our waters year-round. There is plenty of food (baitfish and marine mammals) for all the predators. It’ll be interesting to see if those warm-water shark species become more regular since the temps and the food are here.

In honor of Shark Week, we participated in some near-shore shark fishing. It’s not something we do all the time, but the opportunity presented itself. We all know it’s been windy frequently, and this kind of fishing allowed us to hide from the wind a bit. We were successful with a few brown sharks on a charter which made for a memorable trip.

When a kid gets to see an amazing creature from the ocean like a brown shark – it’s an amazing opportunity to get to give that experience to them.

Brown sharks are also known as sandbar sharks or sand sharks, Carcharhinus plumbeus. Brown sharks are large coastal sharks that visit Massachusetts waters during the summer. They grow up to eight feet long, weigh 100 to 200 pounds, and use the shallow shores of Cape Cod and the islands as seasonal feeding grounds and nurseries.

The sandbar shark is one of the biggest coastal sharks in the world and is more similar to a dusky or sand tiger shark. A warm-water species, the sandbar shark is at its northern limit in Massachusetts waters. This is one of the species researcher Caroline Collatos has been studying here on Nantucket. She has been tagging and tracking these sharks, looking at their populations around the island (mainly Great Point), how, when, and where they go.

Recreational fishing for brown sharks is strictly catch-and-release here. Anglers must unhook and release them quickly. There are strict shark fishing regulations in Massachusetts, so know before you go.

This Saturday, August 1st, is the “Cast Off” party for the August Blues tournament. Head out to Cisco Brewery from 3-7 p.m. to help kick off this great tournament and say happy birthday to tournament namesake and inspiration, Augie. You can register online and check out the tournament rules or just sign up when you go to the Brewery.

Lastly, good luck and be safe to all the anglers in the Big Game Battle. This catch-and-release tournament raises a lot of money for various charities. It’s a big battle for big fish offshore. You might not get to see any of their catch, but you can check out the boats down in the boat basin now through August 2^nd.

Until next tide…