Saltwater Flyfishing the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket offers plenty of shoreline opportunites as well as jumping off points for charter boats for white marlin, tunas and sharks. Access to the islands, is by ferry or small aicraft unless you are a boater. Martha's vineyard is within sight of the mainland of the Falmouth shoreline but Nantucket is twenty miles from the Hyannis ferry in Lewis Bay or Harwich or Chatham.

Of the two, perhaps the Vineyard is the more popular fishing locale. Flyfishing the shoreline of the Vineyard from Gay Head and Lobsterville beach on the west to Chappaquiddick (Chappy) and Cape Pogue on the east, and all the beaches in between offers ample opportunity to catch stripers, blues, bonito and albies from the shore. Sharks too and the occasional spanish mackerel are found along the Vineyard. Some of the most popular places are: Lobsterville beach and the dogfish bar close by; Menemsha bight and north along the beach from the pond opening; Squibnocket; Lambert's Cove; the island's pond entrances; West Chop; Cape Pogue Cut; Wasque Point and Cape Pogue.

Night fishing is popular and one way to avoid the crowded beaches during the day. The choice of fly is similar to the rest of the Cape, clouser's (though larger and sometimes darker than usual may work better here at times), deceivers in white and black, sand eel patterns, a cockroach pattern tumbled over the bars and "menemsha minnow" patterns as well, fished in current; finally a small #2 black slider can be very effective at night early in the season when fishing the breakers.

Flyfishing from a boat, charter or your own, allows you to take advantage of the near shore rocks and rips of the Vineyard. In addition, a further run offshore may reach sailfish and yellowfin tuna as was often the case in '98. some of the most popular places to boat are the rocks off Gay Head and the rips of Cape Pogue but all the visible rip and current lines of Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds produce as well.

More to come, as time allows . . .

Located further offshore than the Vineyard and less densely populated, nonetheless offers fine flyfishing fromshore and boat.
Fishing from shore, the popular locales are: the inner harbors shorelines; and Great Point (seen at the right); the rip off the southeast corner of the island near Sankaty Head Lighthouse and the shoreline near Tom Nevers Field,
Surfside beach on the south (seen right); the rips off Madaket and finally Jetties Beach at the mouth of the harbor.
Fishing from a boat allows more access to the offshore rips along Great Point, Sankaty, Madaket and Nantucket sound and nearby Monomoy Island. Even further offshore to the east and south, the fisherman can find white marlin, yellowfin and bluefin tuna.

Fly patterns remain consistent with the rest of the Cape: clousers, deceivers, sand eels (above), squids, bigger herring sized deceivers (seen below, actual size) and the bunny hair flies. Night fishing here is popular, and in the heat of summer, this may be the only time the bigger fish approach shore closely enough for the fly caster.

More to come . . .

Return to Cape Cod Outdoors ********** Return to Flyfishing on Cape Cod.