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.

A total of 2,771 fish including 1,039 striped bass and 1,732 bluefish were weighed in by 1804 contestants coming from 26 states, Canada and Mexico, 191 different cities, and with winners of prizes from 14 states, Canada and Mexico.
 
The participant from the most northern and western city was Douglas Severino of Seattle, and from the southern and most western point, James Stephens of Mexico city.
 
The prize Winners who took the $500 bonds made their marks early in the contest. Serge de Somov, of Hampton Bays, L.I., whom Islanders call the Mad Russian, took the grand prize for the largest shore bass for the third time. The Schaefer trophy for the greates poundage was won by Alfred H. Doyle of Edgartown, to whom some forty-odd fish were credited.
 
Richard Hathaway, also of Edgartown, tool the largest bluefish; John Bondorew, of Providence, the largest boated bass; and George Manter Jr., 10 years old, of West Tisbury, the junior prize for shore bass. This boy held the lead for resident shore bass until crowded off the board by his father.
 

From Fishing Clubs

 
Sergei de Somov and Kib Bramhall, 1966
Courtesy Kib Bramhall
The derby this year drew representation from various fishing clubs including the Plum Island Surf-castings, Hartford Surf Fishing Club, East End Surf Club of Long Island, Sandpipers Club of Newark, Marchantville Club of New Jersey, and the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association of Quincy.
 
Good nature, sportsmanship, quiet and seemly behavior, and cooperation marked this derby. The large proportion of mainland participants have finished in the Island derbies before, some have finished in all twenty, and many accompanied by their wives, have become acquainted with the Island and its people, and developed a fondness for both.
 
These contestants are responsible to a high degree for the reputation of the derby as the best run all-round fishing contest on the eastern coast. The derby committee has acknowledged indebtedness to dozens of persons on the Island who helped to make the derby a success. Donors of prizes, sportswriters, weighing-in personnel, clerks, truckers, sign painters, land owners, and the donor of the quarters for weighing-in, and many others are included.