The 48th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby begins tonight, a minute past midnight. The contest is long-awaited, one of the true signs of Vineyard life after the peak of summer.
This year’s month-long contest is the world series of saltwater contests, attracting fishermen from up and down the Atlantic coast. This is the first year since 1984 that the striped bass will be included in the derby that bears its name, along with competitions for bluefish, false albacore and the bonito.
On Monday evening, the second night of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, the fillet tables at weigh-in headquarters were full with volunteers.
In a sudden and dramatic shift of position, the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby dropped the threatened striper out of the fall tournament.
The announcement came yesterday in a formal statement released by the derby committee chairman Ed Jerome and puts to rest a running controversy that has plagued the derby for at least the last two years.
The striped bass, valued not only as a premier game fish but also as a commercial catch, is the subject of a three year, multi-million-dollar study by several federal agencies because of its apparently dwindling population.
Surfcasters were the stars for this 33rd year of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. The stripers were huge, and there were more big ones than anyone expected. In the pages of the daily derby records are entered 20 striped bass weighing more than 40 pounds each, and winning daily prizes. Seven of those fish weighed more than 50 pounds. In most past derbys, a 50-pound bass would be an easy winner. This year, a 52-pounder didn't finish in the top three. It is a derby of striper surprises.
The 27th Vineyard Derby is turning into a family fishing outing with the Tiltons and the Hancocks leading the way. Jean Hancock and her husband, Herb, still lead the boat bluefish division, topped by her record 23 lb. 4 1/2 oz. blue and Judy Tilton nearly knocked her husband out of the second spot in the resident shore bass category as she weighed in a 44 lb. 13 oz. striper, just 5 oz. less than her husband’s.
Tuesday, and continue through Oct. 15. Striped bass and bluefish are the game fish to be sought, and for which prizes are given. The derby, often called the outstanding one of its kind on the Atlantic Coast, is also the oldest, in terms of continuous operation.
The derby is known from coast to coast, and close to 2,000 entrants from 22 states attended a year ago. The present promise of good fishing is expected to bring a crowd that large or larger.
The nightly scene at the weighing-in station in Oak Bluffs, is an aspect of the annual bass derby that has never been adequately described.
The derby committee has invariably selected a place for weighing-in with ample space and the weighing-in station by night is a scene with an atmosphere of sociability and good nature. In the assembly there usually may be counted fifty to a hundred persons, young and old, fishers and non-fishers, all deeply interested and enjoying the companionship and procedure.
The curtain fell at 2 p.m. on Friday on the Island’s twentieth Consecutive fishing derby and without doubt its most successful. Up to the final hour, the fish arrived at the weighing-in station, and thus the derby ended on a high note, with sixteen bass and eleven bluefish weighed in at the final hour.
