“I must go down to the sea again,” wrote the poet John Masefield, “to the lonely sea and the sky.” The title of that poem is Sea-Fever, and we remember it at this season each year, when a similar affliction strikes Island residents and visitors.
All eyes are on the weigh station at the foot of Main street on the Edgartown harbor. Each morning and evening from 8 to 10, the fish are brought to the scales. Stories of the big one caught and the ones that got away carry on throughout the day and night.
Gone fishing is the rallying cry for the Island in the second week of the derby. And as always the competition signals that time in the Vineyard year between the waning days of summer and the arrival of autumn.
For two hours starting at 6 a.m. on Sunday, kids fished from the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority pier before the first ferry of the day arrived, thanks to the annual Kids Derby event.
Each year, as part of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, a special morning returns to the Oak Bluffs Steamship pier. Before the first ferry slides in, kids ages four to 14 are given free reign of the wharf to try their luck during Kids Derby Day.
No registration is needed, just an ability to wake up early — and convince a parent to do the driving.
Steve Amaral rang the opening bell for the 77th Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby and Lisa Belcastro answered with a 10.64-pound albie.
The Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish derby returns for its 77th year, hooking anglers from near and far in the hunt for the largest bluefish, bonito and false albacore.
It's the time of year when everyone want to get the blues — bluefish, that is, along with false albacore and bonito. The seventy-seventh annual Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby starts at 12:01 a.m. this Sunday and will not conclude until mid-October, by which time any number of Islanders and visitors will be puffy-eyed and zombie-like, conditions brought on by a passion for the fishing competition that overwhelms lesser human endeavors such as sleep.
