"This is as good a spot as any," says Goldstein as he idles the boat in 3-foot swells. His bait is a foot-long sand eel, which doesn't surprise me because he has a large collection of antique eel forks, a metal implement used to capture the slimy suckers.
A flip of the wrist and the writhing eel is thrown some 40 feet, close to the large boulders on the shoreline. Goldstein reels it in and then casts again and again. The boat's rocking, the wind's blowing, and the normally mild-mannered Goldstein is like an addict who can't stop. He's in search of striped bass, one preferably the weight of my 9-year-old daughter, like the keeper that hangs from the back wall of his restaurant, Zephrus. These silver and black-lined beauties stir the passions of fishermen, and, as Goldstein knows well, can be found along the Massachusetts coastline.
When most folks envision a Vineyard vacation, they yearn for a powdery sand beach, a good seafood dinner, and shopping for a T-shirt with a black dog on it. Yet, the island is large enough to accommodate another type of visitor, one like me who wants to snag a fish, pedal up and down the backcountry roads and bike trails, and sea kayak in protected marshes. One who craves all the physical adventure offered by an island in the Atlantic, seven miles off the mainland.
After about an hour, Goldstein grows tired of casting for stripers (no luck that day), so we head back to the calmer waters off Gay Head cliffs and start chasing bluefish. All you have to do is search for seagulls swarming and diving into the water and you find blues. The gulls are looking for leftover pieces of fish flesh, the result of a bluefish feeding frenzy. You can actually see the fish on the surface, splashing around in their quest to fill their stomachs. Within moments of motoring over to the seagulls, we hook three blues.
