Sometimes the best fishing days start with the worst conditions. Here's how we turned a foggy disaster into a stellar multi-species haul off Martha's Vineyard.
The Pre-Dawn Gamble
On July 3rd at 5 AM sharp, myself, my dad - also an MFCC member - Yi-Bin Chen, and my uncle David Vanderklish were loading up our 2013 Southport 27 CC named "Remission" (a fitting name given that both my parents work in bone marrow transplant at Mass General Hospital) with high hopes and heavy tackle boxes. Our target list was ambitious: stripers, blues, sea bass, and fluke. What we got instead was a wall of pea soup fog that would test our patience, navigation skills, and commitment.
The weather forecast had not exactly promised perfect conditions, but we've all learned that sometimes the fish bite best when the conditions are at their worst. Little did we know just how much this saying would prove true by the end of our nine-hour adventure.
My father Yi-Bin Chen and my Uncle David Vanderklish staring into the endless fog as we leave the marina.
Into the Soup: When Visibility Becomes Your Enemy
Leaving Hens Cove on Buzzards Bay, we could barely see more than 100 feet ahead of us. The fog was so thick it felt like we were driving through cotton, and the seas were building with persistent wind that showed no signs of letting up. At first, we tried a few black sea bass spots in Buzzards Bay that had produced knotheads in previous years.
We dropped lines with confidence, expecting the usual morning bite. Instead, we got nothing. Zero bites, zero fish marked, and zero visibility. The wind continued to howl, and if anything, the fog seemed to be getting thicker. This was shaping up to be one of those days where you question why you got up at 4:30 AM.
The seas were a bit choppy, and we found ourselves faced with our first major decision of the day: pack it in early or push through to find better conditions. Thank goodness we chose to keep going.
Pictured here we are right off West Falmouth barely able to see land.
Woods Hole: Birds, Boats, and Brave (or foolish) Fishermen
Threading through Woods Hole in thick fog is nerve-wracking to say the least. Our GPS and radar became our lifeline - without them, we would have been lost in the water navigating through one of the most challenging passages in New England waters.
What we found on the other side was both remarkable and slightly worrying: tons of birds working frantically over the water, boats everywhere - most without radar - and the ferry passing through. These anglers were fishing blind in patchy fog, which was both impressive and concerning. The dedication was admirable, but the safety factor had us shaking our heads.
Boats scattered across the Vineyard Sound side of Woods Hole, most barely visible through the thick fog - and most fishing without radar.
This ferry emerged from the fog like a ghost ship, blasting its horn to warn fishermen to clear the channel.
These fish turned out to be stripers, but they were being incredibly picky and finicky. We watched boat after boat struggle to connect with fish that were clearly feeding. Finally, we managed to fool one with a Hogy dogwalker in amber color. The striper wasn't huge, but it was our first fish of the day and gave us hope that things might turn around.
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Thank you Andrew.
Great write-up … thanks