Every minute on the water counts as the last few days of the derby slip by. As the weather finally turns fair, those on the leader board will hope their fish will hold up until the weigh station door closes at 10 p.m. Saturday night.

Dawn broke pink over Menemsha harbor as the water rippled softly. Aboard the fishing boat Mary Sea, Captain Jonathan Boyd drove fisherman Brian Curry and veteran Tommy Elliot out to Quick’s Hole in search of bluefish.

Talk of the Derby has been as gloom and doom as the weather, but excitement picked up in a hurry when nine-year-old Westley Wlodyka dragged a striper almost bigger than he was up to the scale.

False albacore. Barely sounds like a fish. Tastes like an oily shop rag. Not even included in the official Derby name. Yet an albie is a prized possession at Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby headquarters.

Though fishing spots are a jealously guarded secret, fishermen are more than willing to divulge their recipes and, on occasion, share their fillets.

Fishing poles bobbed like reeds and voices were hushed early Sunday as children waited to claim their spots at the Oak Bluffs Steamship wharf for the annual kids derby day. Hannah Gibb, 13, was the overall winner with a 19.75-inch shark.

On Monday evening, the second night of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, the fillet tables at weigh-in headquarters were full with volunteers.

It’s time to get the future generations of Vineyard fishermen and women hooked on the derby.

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.

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.