Could those of you with some knowledge of surf fishing the Vineyard help me out?

I'm going to be out there all next week. I've never fished there before, I'm a Cape and RI guy. I have a couple of serious constraints. One, I will not have access to a car. I will have a bike, which will be my primary method of transportation. Two, it's an anniversary trip. With us going to dinner at night and stuff, my fishing time will be limited. Probably will only get two nights on the water, along with some daytime and first/last light fishing here and there.

Final piece of data...I'm staying in Edgartown. I'm definitely willing to bike for up to an hour to get to a good spot.

Now for the questions? Can I get to Wasque on a bike from Edgartown? Are there any other easily bikable places you'd suggest I try to fish? I'll only be able to carry a smaller bunch of plugs since I'll be biking rather than my usual giant surf bag in a truck. What plugs should I focus on? Is the area near Edgartown Light worth fishing?(looks good on a map and is right down the street from our hotel)

The places I've heard of near Edgartown are Wasque, South(Katama) Beach and some beach that has a couple of bridges north of town. Any information on the relative merits of these places would be useful. Can I get to all these places(or near enough to walk) on a bike?

I'll probably try to get over to Gay Head to fish one day as well on the bus.

All advice appreciated...thanks. I know August isn't the best month, but I plan to make the best of it.

YES!!!

Final piece of data...I'm staying in Edgartown. I'm definitely willing to bike for up to an hour to get to a good spot.

Now for the questions? Can I get to Wasque on a bike from Edgartown? Are there any other easily bikable places you'd suggest I try to fish? I'll only be able to carry a smaller bunch of plugs since I'll be biking rather than my usual giant surf bag in a truck. What plugs should I focus on? Is the area near Edgartown Light worth fishing?(looks good on a map and is right down the street from our hotel)

The places I've heard of near Edgartown are Wasque, South(Katama) Beach and some beach that has a couple of bridges north of town. Any information on the relative merits of these places would be useful. Can I get to all these places(or near enough to walk) on a bike?
First off, you can take the ferry from Edgartown to Chappy - runs from 7am to 11pm (or something along those lines). With a vehicle, you can get on Chappy any time from Katama Rd/South Beach but wouldn't be doable on a bike or to walk. For bass, easy bike spots would be the inside of the Cape Pouge gut where there is a little park just past the golf course, I think on Tom's Neck or North Neck Rd ( I know it when I drive it). Forget the name for sure but if you look at a Chappy map, it's opposite of where Cape Pouge wraps around and almost joins Chappy again. That's a good spot on the outgoing. There are two trails from the parking lot that go down to the beach. On the east trail, there is several bars just to the right that you can work before you wade, eels, danny swimmers, needlefish and teasers (fly or redgill) work well in there. The west trail (which ends up about 400' further down the beach) will bring you closer to the mouth of the gut, you'll be closer to the fast/deep water. You'll see the beach getting rocky with several boulders mixed in. This can be a good spot for bass (keep in mind, I'm only there in the spring and last year was my first fall trip).

Further down Chappy Road to Wasque, there is a fisherman's park where you can leave the bike up top and head down to the point for bass/blues/albies when available - bucktails for bass, rangers/tins for blues, tins , Murderous Richards, Megabaits for albies... I don't know if albies do their sunrise dance of Wasque this early but they're in pretty thick in September...

Chappy Beach, just after the ferry is another good spot for albies and there are some nice bass on the Edgartown side at the fishing pier. One fellow last year got a 40 inch or so bass at that pier, wieghed it in at the Derby shop, and was able to released it alive...

South Beach can be worked at night with eels walking if your up to it... Check with some of locals as there are several holes and bars along that beach that can be walked too - not easy walking sand though...

Next spots, down long beach between E-town & Oaks Bluff little bridge(north) and big bridge (south) are ok on the incoming and drop and you can get into bass, blues, and albies there - the big bridge is better

There is also a point on the Edgartown side at the light and a bit north of the light but I don't know about access to it...

Hope this helps....

If you have acces to a car, got to Squibby - it's like Weekapaug Point, Central Beach, Narr Pier all wrapped up into one ;D

Hope that helps - good luck... Here's a little map for ya....

here (http://www.mapblast.com/myblast/map.mb?&MA=2&grp=m&DU=MI&W=600&H=600&IC=41.397396%3A-70.469433%3A8%3Ainside%20of%20Capre%20Pouge%20Gut% 3A41.373109%3A-70.453141%3A8%3ADike%27s%20Bridge%3A41.34787%3A-70.450813%3A8%3AWasque%3A41.415651%3A-70.535239%3A206%3ABig/Little%20Bridges%3A41.347235%3A-70.512598%3A8%3ASouth%20Beach%3A41.388665%3A-70.507097%3A8%3AChappy%20Beach%20%26%20Ferry&noPrefs=1&CMD=LFILL&CT=41.392158:-70.473031:50000&GAD3=Edgartown%2c+MA&GAD4=USA&AD3=edgartown%2c+ma&AD4=USA&Zip=02539)

John R,

At this moment, having just completed reading your incredibly helpful post, I am quite convinced you are the greatest man alive.

I'll give some of these spots my best shot. Many, many thanks.

No Problem, Blitz... The thing to remember about the above is that they are the best spots I've fished before that are still at least somewhat accessible by bike. Another note, there are, I'm told 2 golf courses on Chappy (how is that possible?) but I've only seen one.

If you can sneak 2 rods over there be sure to bring one 7-8 footer for throwing light stuff 1/2-1&1/2 ounce metal for Albies. Truly great fishing when you can get on them albies.

If Fisherwoman was online, she could give you some more as she spends far more of the summer over there than I do and Swimmer lived there for a while (Frank- I got your e-mail but it blew up - I hope to hit the Vineyard at least for a loonnnggg weekend - we'll fish Squibby)

Blitz,
The road to the Gut that John is talking about is North Neck Rd, when you get off the ferry on Chappy and head east you'll notice a transformer box on the right, that's where you turn left.
I't a good spot on the drop like John said.

The Vineyard is tough without a car, but John has listed some good spots witihin your range with the bike. ALso right in Edgartown is a place called eel pond, and although I've never fished it I understand its a good spot, maybe ask around and check it out too.

Also when heading down state beach towards OB from Edgartown at the bend in the road there are parking spaces along the road, park your Schwinn there and walk to the right towards the cabanas on the beach and fish there with bombers and red gills (ive done well there in the spring but never fished that spot in the fall so who knows).
Good Luck,
MZ

That's it - North Neck Rd. Beware, the Clintons will be vactioning and the paper said playing golf at North Neck, hehehe... Maybe you can get the non-Vineyard Bubba into some fish. The Vineyard Bubba ain't on the Vineyard right now...

"Vineyard Bubba" on these boards is not the same as the Bubba married (at the moment) to the Senator from New York....

No worries---Bubba won't be playing at North Neck. He'll be either at the deluxe course on Beach Road near the little bridge in OB, or maybe at Mink Meadows. The course at North Neck is too low rent, they don't even have carts.

Edgartown has pretty good public access--all of the town beaches are open to the public. You could probably chain your bike to something at the end of Water Street, and from there, access plenty of shoreline between the Lighthouse and Eel Pond. I'm kind of hazy on the place, I haven't been there in about 11 years. If I was there, I could find it, but I can't picture it in my head.

I'm not sure whether the beach alongside the Chappy side of the ferry dock is public or is owned by a beach club down the road a piece. But you shouldn't have any problems fishing there at night.

I think the last ferry from Chappy is at midnight, but they'll probably run it until all the cars/people in line at midnight are off. If you miss it, it's a loooooooooong walk off the beach. Despite what your Senator would have you believe, the current is too fast to make a swim for it ;) Speaking of which, if you head farther down the Chappy road from North Neck, and go straight down a dirt road at the point where the main paved road hangs a sharp 90 degree turn to the right, in another 3/4 mile you'll come to Dike Bridge. They have bike racks there, and East Beach on the other side of the dunes might have some action with blues, bones and albies---maybe even some Spanish macks.

Great guys, thanks. I'm off right now to go home and pack.

I'll check back in with my results once I get back.

What a great board....you've improved my vacation greatly. I don't mind prospecting for spots, but when you have limited time in a new area it's nice to try out places that at least have some hope of being productive.

Thanks again......

hmmm...anniversary trip???? limited fishing time??? ok....my crusade to get more "chicks" out there continues! HA!HA! How about sneeking her out there for a night (hey,extra fishin time) and ooh the romance in it all! the stars, salt air, moonlight and that "quality time" we nag you guys so much for :* ......possible anniversary points there! hee, hee, hee.....