The Martha’s Vineyard striped bass derby wound up in a blaze of glory at noon on Tuesday, when the last fish were entered for weighing, and the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club held open house for all entrants, with dinner served in the club rooms in the evening before the prizes were awarded.
The first Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass Derby, the most ambitious event of its kind to be arranged for this coast, will begin at 12 noon on Sunday, Sept. 15, and will continue until 12 noon on Oct. 15. The grand prize of the derby is $1,000, and among the contestants so far are salt water fishermen from Toronto, others from Canada, four from Virginia, two from Philadelphia, and hundreds from the New England states and New York.
Derby president Ed Jerome thought he had seen just about everything. Until Sunday’s award ceremony, when Miles Whyte of Edgartown took the microphone and proposed to his girlfriend.
The 70th annual Martha’s Vineyard Bass and Bluefish Derby is in the books. A chilly but enthusiastic crowd gathered at derby headquarters Saturday night for the final weigh-in of the tournament. The awards ceremony is Sunday.
The Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, which is heading into its final stretch, is a multi-generational affair, with parents and kids casting lines together and some of the youngest anglers catching big fish.
The Island fishing scene is still buzzing as the 2015 Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby heads into the final week. As veteran anglers know, the grand leader board can change up until the final bell.
All along Lobsterville Beach one morning this week, about a dozen anglers stood in waders, casting into the surf. On any given day during the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, Lobsterville and neighboring Menemsha are hotspots for surfcasters and fly fishermen of all ages.
The weekend weather demonstrated a tried and true maxim for competitors in the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby: east is least, west is best. Plenty of fish were weighed in Saturday, but there was a drop off Sunday and Monday.
Early Sunday morning, Hannah Gibb was the first to arrive at the Oak Bluffs ferry gate, ready to cast off the Steamship Authority wharf as part of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby’s annual kids’ day, which kicked off at 6 a.m.
At the stroke of 12:01 a.m. Sunday, no one turned into a pumpkin, but a whole lot of people turned into obsessive, superstitious and sometimes secretive competitors in the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
