Sixty-year-old Kenny Metell of Edgartown has never caught a winning fish in all his years as a participant in the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, but on Sunday he hit the ground running. Mr. Metell weighed in the first fish of the derby.
The start of the 59th annual Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby may be only two days away, but the planning and preparation go back a year. This Sunday at 12:01 a.m. the first wave of avid anglers will head for their boats and the shore in pursuit of fish. It is the start of the annual pilgrimage to the water. No matter what their vocation, as many as 3,000 fishermen will share a common avocation, competing for daily, weekly and grand overall prizes for the biggest striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and bonito.
The mood was jovial at derby headquarters in Edgartown Sunday morning. More than a dozen committee members of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby came together to prepare for the fall contest that begins next week.
A few carried cups of coffee. Derby committee member Don Eber of Chilmark stepped into the old fish shack carrying a Makita power drill. For the next few minutes, Mr. Eber put screws into wood to hold two vertical two-by-fours.
With six days left to catch the winning fish, a new name was
scrawled in chalk atop the leaderboard, capturing the hearts and minds
of all in the waning moments of the 60th annual Martha's Vineyard
Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
When Thomas Ronan started fishing the Martha's Vineyard
Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby in the late 1980s, he never thought much
about catching anything other than striped bass.
If you ask Thomas Ronan, he'll tell you it was a great week of
fishing around the Island during the second week of the Martha's
Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
But that is to be expected from someone who lands a 39.48-pound
striped bass that puts him atop the leader board and into the running
for a new truck.
For a weekend anticipated to be a washout for fishermen, it was an
active three days at Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish
Derby headquarters in Edgartown.
Six stripers over 30 pounds each were weighed in in the first 36 hours of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, and if the early catch is any indication it is going to be an exciting 35 days of fishing.
The water is swirling in the narrow channel connecting Cape Pogue Pond to the Edgartown outer harbor. Minutes before the tide hit bottom, the pond was as low as gets, and now the waters of the ocean are running back in.
Striped Bass Derby at Mid-Term: Fish Scarce, Competition Light
By MAX HART
As the 61st annual Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish
Derby rounds the corner into the second half of the tournament, the big
story this week has been - well, that there is no big story.
"There's been a whole lot of standing around,
waiting," derby headquarters volunteer Martha Smith said yesterday
morning. "We're all waiting for the conditions to change,
waiting for the big ones to arrive."
