Battle of the Islands

Which island is better? In the interest of unbiased reporting, we’ll let the fish do the talking.

This weekend the Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters soundly defeated the Nantucket Anglers’ Club in the fifth annual Island Cup fishing contest, held June 22 through 24 on Martha’s Vineyard. The catch and release surf casting contest is designed to build friendships and foster friendly competition between the islands. (And what’s better than friendly competition when you win?)

Martha’s Vineyard scored 132.4 pounds, versus Nantucket’s 71.1 pounds in this year’s contest.

The high scorers were Jon Cornwell of Edgartown and Rhode Island, who landed a 9.5 pound bluefish, and Jason Graves of Edgartown, who beached a 29 pound bass. In this catch and release contest, each angler counts only the largest bass and bluefish toward the team total.

Fishing for the Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters Association team were captain Victor Colantonio, Jon Cornwell, Jim Cornwell, Jason Graves, John Piekos, Joel Graves, Jim Fraser, Jim Mullen, Janet Messineo, Peter Sliwkowski, Steve Tirrell, Jim Fraser and Bob (Hawkeye) Jacobs.

The Nantucket team consisted of captain Scott Whitlock, William M. Pollock, Sylvia Lussier, Campbell Sutton, Harry Ostrander, Peter Krogh, Jay Fitzgibbons, David Dauphinee, Bob Virta, Tre Wullschleger, Peter Farrell and George Williams.

Participants reported good blue fishing conditons along East Beach on Chappaquiddick throughout the weekend, as well as good bass fishing along the north shore. Jim and Denise Fraser hosted a mid-day Saturday cookout for all the anglers and their spouses, scheduled so as to have minimum impact on ideal fishing tides.