News and Events for Nantucket Island
Nantucket Island is as beautiful during the Quiet Season as it is during the heyday of summer. Share your autumn, holiday, and winter photos by entering our 2024 Nantucket Photo Contest. To participate, email your high resolution photos of Nantucket that depict our island and island life to ackphotocontest@gmail.com. Enter […]
It’s been almost a month since the awesome August Blues tournament ended, and my butt is still sore from getting beat out on the Gator Blue prize for the biggest bluefish. A fine young fisher named Gray Malitsky knocked me to the canvas and stood over me like a young Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) did to Sonny Liston, beating me with his 36.5 inch monster blue. In the weeks since my humiliating, soulcrushing, “…to the death! No, to the pain” style defeat, I have learned some things about Gray, this mysterious young champion. And what I’ve learned is far too great to not share with you all, so here goes.
Unsinkability. Is that a real term? Well, I’m going to say yes, seeing how my spellcheck feature didn’t draw a red line under the word. But what does it really mean to be unsinkable? It’s not always a positive term, of course. The Titanic was said to be unsinkable, and that didn’t go so well. But in my lexicon, if I feel that someone is considered unsinkable, it’s high praise.
This summer Egan Maritime Institute is offering free daily family programs at the Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum Monday through Friday outside on the Museum’s grounds from 10 am to 3 pm. In addition to tried-and-true favorites, like rope making and knot tying, they have added new and updated activities for different ages and learning styles. These activities include a focus on art and design, as well as opportunities to learn about traditional boat building.
Be prepared! Ah, yes, the old Boy Scout motto. No better time to be prepared than when you’re out on some remote beach, far from what passes for civilization on this little island of ours. It’s important to remember the 6 P’s: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance! Here’s a couple entries from my fishing log that illustrates the importance of preparedness.
Have you noticed seals lying around on the beach? Do you know what to do if you see one? Are they ok? Should I pour water on him? Shoo him back into the ocean? Get up close and see if he’s breathing? Take a selfie with him because I can? None of the above! The answer is stay back 150 feet and call the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket Hotline (833-667-6626). Their trained volunteers will advise you, ask for observations and then send a teammate out to check.
“If you’re not real smart, you need smart friends.” I think this quote comes from Albert Einstein. Or maybe Yogi Berra. Who knows—maybe I said it. Regardless, there’s a lot of truth to this, right? Expert advice is a really great way to go when you want to get a question answered. And I am fortunate enough to have a bunch of smart friends, particularly when the questions involve fishing for striped bass. So it seemed like exactly the right time to ask them a bass fishing question. The question was as follows…
The text from my buddy Greg said, “The morning bite has been hot at Point O’ Breakers. Let’s hit it tomorrow.” Greg is a hard charger who puts in his beach time fishing for striped bass. I knew that his information was solid, so we agreed to meet around 4:00 a.m. and fish until we had to leave for work. This was in early June a couple of years ago and the striper fishing had been sporadic. Greg and I fished hard that next morning, with each of us picking up some short fish (less than the 28 inch minimum) in the darkness.
With FIGAWI in the rearview mirror, it really feels like summer is upon us on the island. As we all start to spend more time outdoors on our conservation trails, we come into contact more frequently with one of the few hazards we have on Nantucket. We don’t have skunks, bear, coyotes, or venomous snakes. We do, however, have ticks. Late spring/early summer is a boon time for ticks, but with a mild winter and temperatures rarely going below freezing, ticks on island have been active all year round.
