Artificial Lure here with your Martha’s Vineyard fishing report for Monday, October 20, 2025.

We’re deep into fall, and the change is electric—Vineyard waters are brimming with fish and stories from the just-wrapped 80th annual Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. Let’s dig into conditions and what’s biting right now.

**Tide and Weather:**
Today’s tide at Oak Bluffs brings a high at 4:14 am, low at 9:03 am, next high at 4:44 pm, and the second low at 11:17 pm, following local forecasts from Tide-Forecast.com. Sunrise hit at 6:51 am, with sunset at 6:05 pm, giving you that classic crisp fall light. Weather is classic Indian summer—expect highs topping out in the low 60s, a steady coastal breeze, and patchy sunshine, prime for moving those schools of bait and feeding up everything from albies to blues, per recent reports from US Harbors and Weather-Forecast.com.

**Fish Activity and Recent Catches:**
The Derby finished with a splash—over 3,300 anglers weighed in 1,825 fish, with some monsters in the mix. Notably, Sam Bell cleaned up with an 18.66-pound false albacore near the break of the contest, and Junior and Mini Junior categories produced bonito over 8 pounds and bluefish topping 19 pounds, as covered by the Martha’s Vineyard Times. This week, you’ll still find:
- False albacore in good numbers, especially near East and West Chop and into the rips off Edgartown Light.
- Bonito scattered tighter to Menemsha and off Lobsterville Beach.
- Bluefish moving through Vineyard Sound, especially in Cape Poge and Wasque channels.
- Schoolie striped bass staging in the surf and among the boulders off Squibnocket and Menemsha.

**Best Lures and Baits:**
False albacore and bonito are still hunting fast-moving presentations—a 3/4-ounce metal like a Deadly Dick or an Albie Snax, whipped through the rips, is a proven winner. Epoxy jigs in olive, pink, and white have been the tickets for blitzing albies around the ferry slips and jetties at Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven. For surface feeds, small resin baits or white zoom flukes can fool even Derby winners. Stripers and blues are crashing soft plastics, especially in the early morning hours. The classic white bucktail jig or a soft-bodied paddle tail in bunker or sand eel colors is money at dawn or dusk. If the wind’s up, try popping plugs or metal lip swimmers.

For bait soakers, fresh chunked menhaden or mackerel is ideal for blues and stripers, drifted into deep holes at Wasque Point or off the East Beach. Live eels after sunset are tempting those bigger bass in rocky stretches.

**Hot Spots:**
- The rips off Cape Poge and Wasque Point are loaded with albies and bluefish, especially near tide changes.
- Lobsterville to Menemsha, prospect around the jetties and creek mouths at first and last light for bonito and stripers.
- The ferry slips and university pier in Oak Bluffs, particularly during falling tide for blitzing albies and the occasional keeper blue.
- Surfcasters should stalk the boulder fields of Squibnocket or Dogfish Bar for schoolie stripers as the sun sets.

**Local Flavor:**
October on the Vineyard is the angler’s month. The Derby stories are still buzzing, from old hands landing double-digit blues to first-timers nailing their first-ever albies. There was even a report of a shore-bound junior hauling in a 10-plus-pound false albacore on a pink epoxy jig at Menemsha last week.

Thanks for tuning in to today’s Martha’s Vineyard fishing report with Artificial Lure—if you’re planning to wet a line, grab your metals, tie on something bright, and chase those last shots of hardtail gold before they vanish south. Don’t forget to subscribe for your daily intel and keep up with everything biting around the Island.

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