Martha's Vineyard Early Summer Bite: Stripers, Blues, and Fluke in the Rips

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Martha’s Vineyard fishing report. We’re sitting on a building early‑summer bite around the Island. A cool ocean breeze overnight left the water with just a light chop and decent clarity. Air temps are running in the low 60s early, heading toward the low 70s this afternoon with a mix of sun and some high clouds. Winds are light southwest, picking up a bit by midday, just enough to put a nice ripple on the rips and beaches. Sunrise is right around quarter past five, with sunset just after eight‑twenty this evening, giving you a long window to work dawn and dusk – still the prime times for stripers on the sand. Tides around Vineyard Haven and Menemsha are running an early morning incoming, peaking mid‑morning, then dropping out through the afternoon, with the evening flood lining up nicely with sunset. That turning water has been the key; slack has been noticeably slower. Local shop talk from the Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs tackle counters has the **schoolie to slot striper** bite steady, with a few fish pushing over 35 inches mixed in. Night guys drifting eels along Wasque and off East Chop have tangled with some heavier bass this week, but it’s far from a blitz – more of a grind with rewards for patience. **Bluefish** are finally showing more consistently. Word from the boats working Middle Ground and Hedge Fence is of scattered pods of 3–8 pound choppers smashing topwater when the tide runs. Not wall‑to‑wall, but enough action to chew up a few plugs. There’ve been **fluke** taken south of the Island and inside Vineyard Sound, mostly shorts with some solid keepers for drifters bouncing bucktails tipped with squid strips. Scup and sea bass are still a good option around rock piles and wrecks, especially for filling a cooler when the bass sulk. For lures, keep it simple and local‑style: - On the beaches at first and last light, small **SP Minnows**, Yo‑Zuri style plugs, and 3/4–1 oz white bucktail jigs with pork rind or Fat Cow strips have been producing. - Around the rips and boulder fields, soft‑plastic paddletails on 3/4–1 oz jig heads in olive, bone, or bunker patterns are tough to beat. - For blues, anything that splashes: pencil poppers, metal spoons, and inexpensive poppers you don’t mind losing. Best bait right now: - Fresh or salted **squid strips** for fluke and sea bass. - **Sea worms** and clam for scup along the piers and rock edges. - Live eels after dark around structure for that one big bass. A couple of hot spots to circle on your chart: - **Wasque / Katama**: When that tide stands up, there’s still serious current and ambush points for bass and blues. Fish the edges with bucktails on the drop and be ready – it can go from dead to mayhem in minutes. - **East Chop to Vineyard Haven Harbor**: The evening flood has been pushing bait tight to shore. Walk‑and‑cast with small swimmers and soft plastics along the ferry lanes and rock edges; schoolies are common, with the occasional slot cruising through. If you’re shorebound, don’t overlook Menemsha jetty and the State Beach bridges after dark – eels and small jigs in the shadow lines have quietly put up some respectable stripers. That’s the word from around the Island. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn