Coincident with the end of August the attention of those addicts of the pastime of rod and reel turned toward the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass Derby, which ought to be called merely a fishing derby because the blues have crowded the bass in number and popularity for the past several years.
The eleventh annual fishing derby of the Island will open on the 15th of this month and it might be well to glance back along the line of history of this event and to take what old timers would have called “a severe look” at what it constitutes as of today.
With a week more to go it looks as if history will be made in this year’s fishing derby, History which may see a woman take the grand prize for non-residents, for one thing, and a general increase in the sizes of prize-winning fish for another.
This week’s sensation, up to Wednesday night, was the landing of the 45 pound 9 ounce striper by Louise deSomov of Hampton Bays, Long Island, which not only gained for her the lead among women striper fishers, but put her out in the lead among all of the non-resident class.
In all the tumult of a savage easterly gale accompanied by lashing rain, the 10th annual fishing derby came to a close on Saturday, with contestants fishing, or certainly attempting to fish up to the final hour.
Mrs. Albion A. Alley Jr. reeled in a fifty pound bass Monday night, fishing at Squibnocket, and this fish may well be a record for woman‘s shore striper fishing. The best last year’s derby could produce in this department was a twenty-one pound plus bass. In fact the resident grand prize winner, Wallace Pinkham’s fifty-five pound plus fish, was the only one in the whole derby bigger than Mrs. Alley’s.
The annual fall fishing derby offers the scientific community an ideal platform for monitoring the health of fish and for doing marine research. Gregory P. Skomal, a regional division of marine fisheries biologist, is involved in several key studies with the help of derby organizers.
Derby fishermen provide the perfect mechanism for monitoring fish. Four species of fish are weighed in almost daily, and all a researcher has to do is take his pick. And since the fish are all brought to the same spot for weighing in, it is easy to standardize.
When fly fishing guide Abbie Schuster thinks back to her first fishing memories, two stand out. The first was around age four when she won a trout competition in Connecticut.
The three year joint federal-state study of the striped bass populations in Massachusetts waters will start later this month, according to Francis W. Sargent of Orleans, Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries, Department of Natural Resources. The announcement was made at the annual winter meeting of the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association, held Monday evening at American Legion Hall, Wollaston, where Mr. Sargent was the principle speaker.
Prospects are good that the annual striped derby will become a regular feature of the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club, and that none save members of the club will participate in the contest. This will mean that, for those who pay the club dues, there will be no further fee for membership in the derby contest or any other tournament which the club may arrange. Action taken at the club on Wednesday night indicates the favorable attitude of the club in making the change, the motion under which it was voted containing the provision that it be subject to legal approval.
After a moment of remembrance in honor of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Roy Langley opened the weigh station Sunday morning and the 71st Martha’s Vineyard Bass and Bluefish Derby got underway.
At 12:01 a.m., the first minute of Sunday morning, the lines will zip off reels and lures will plop softly in the water. The 71st Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby begins.
