Martha's Vineyard Early March: Holdover Stripers in the Backwaters

This is Artificial Lure with your Martha’s Vineyard fishing report. We’re waking up to a chilly early‑March mix: air in the mid 30s to low 40s, a stiff northwest breeze 10–20 knots, and seas 3–5 feet off Aquinnah, according to the Aquinnah marine forecast from US Harbors. Skies are partly to mostly cloudy with a few bright breaks – classic shoulder‑season weather, more for diehards than beach strollers. Sunrise is right around 6:05 a.m., with sunset near 5:35 p.m. on the Island this week. That gives you a nice low‑light window on both ends of the day, which is about the only real “bite window” we’ve got right now. For tides, the closest matched station today is Nantucket on Tide‑Forecast. They’re calling for a pre‑dawn high just after 2:30 a.m. and a morning low around 8:30 a.m. Martha’s Vineyard will run a little different, but you can expect falling water at first light, bottoming mid‑morning, then a slow afternoon flood. In other words: work the last of the drop and first push of the flood if you’re going to bother. We’re still in deep winter mode for stripers; the migratory fish are well south and the local holdovers are few and scattered. No fresh reports of bass or blues on Vineyard beaches from the Martha’s Vineyard Times fishing notes this week – most of the local chatter is about shellfish and winter projects, not bent rods. Your realistic targets right now are: - Holdover schoolie stripers in the warmest backwaters. - Cod and haddock offshore if you can find a ride. - White perch and maybe a stray winter flounder in protected ponds. A couple of the sharper Island regulars have been poking around the brackish stretches of Lagoon Pond and Sengekontacket in the late afternoon. A few undersized schoolies have come to hand on small soft‑plastics – nothing crazy, but enough to keep a rod honest. Think one or two fish in a tide if you put in the time. Best lures and bait in this cold water: - For holdover stripers: - 3–4 inch soft‑plastic paddletails or straight tails on 1/8–1/4 oz jigheads, fished painfully slow along the bottom. - Small suspending jerkbaits in bone or silver if the water’s not too weeded up. - For bait, fresh or salted sandworms or clams on a simple fish‑finder rig in the back ponds. - For perch and odds‑and‑ends: - Tiny marabou jigs or shad darts tipped with a bit of worm. - Grass shrimp or pieces of seaworm under a float around creek mouths on a flooding tide. If you’re thinking offshore, the winter cod bite south of the Islands has been quietly steady whenever the weather lets boats sneak out. Reports from charter skippers in Buzzards Bay and south of the Vineyard have been of mixed‑size cod, with a pick of keepers on clams and heavy diamond jigs bounced tight to structure. Just remember regulations and depth – this is not a casual run. A few hotspots to consider, if you’re stir‑crazy enough to fish: - The Lagoon Pond Bridge: fish the edges of the current on the last of the outgoing and first of the This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.