A bachelor party fish tale

Before our wedding a couple of years ago, my husband did not want the emblematic last hurrah for his bachelor party – featuring unlimited libations and limited clothing on a dancer springing out of a giant cake. So one of his groomsmen chartered a fishing vessel out of Menemsha for an afternoon.

Clearly the Island is a wedding hot spot. Perhaps less obvious are the myriad possibilities for personalized bachelor and bachelorette parties, which could include sailing, windsurfing, and fishing – whether from the shore or, in this case, at sea.

Captain Jeff Lynch, in his mid-twenties, was born on Martha’s Vineyard and has fishing in his blood – he inherited the thirty-two-foot commercial fishing boat The Magan and Haley from his grandfather, who named it after two granddaughters. Captain Lynch fishes primarily for striped bass, but for the last couple of years he’s also been fishing for fluke, which he says are abundant here and can be fished relatively close to shore. “With oil prices, I just think it’s a good idea to encourage a lot less fuel usage,” he says.

Captain Lynch says he can charge less than some of the other Island charters by using less fuel. “We can go out for four or five hours, catch some fluke, then go out and troll Gay Head for bass. It’s the best of both worlds.” Fishing for two kinds of fish varies the tone of the day. “Especially on a one-time trip like a bachelor party,” Captain Lynch says. “Fluke are a lot of fun, just constant action.”

Plus, you can be surrounded by the brilliant blues and greens of the sea while looking at that timeless, striking image of the Gay Head Lighthouse from the boat. “You get to see the Cliffs from the water,” he says. “You get to kind of step back from the Vineyard and look at it – it’s pretty cool.”

My groom-to-be was the only one who caught anything – two striped bass and a fluke, which we enjoyed at a cookout for the bridal party the next day. “It was a great day on the water,” my husband recalls now, “and instead of a hangover, we came back with something for dinner.”

One of our groomsmen had packed a cooler of cold beverages and picked up some hearty sandwiches from the Scottish Bakehouse in Tisbury for the bachelor party outing. It’s not just about fishing, Captain Lynch agrees: “You’re out with your buddies having some fun.” K –linda black

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