Island Fall Fishing Classic Begins with Thirteen-Pound Striped Bass
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
Vying to be the first to weigh in a fish in the 61st annual
Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, a sleepy Jim
Cornwell arrived at the downtown Edgartown weigh station at 4 a.m.
Sunday. Armed with a striped bass caught on East Beach on
Chappaquiddick, Mr. Cornwell - a 69-year-old retired chemist from
Edgartown - proceeded to wait for the opening at 8 o'clock.
Want some plot lines from a typical Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby fish tale?
How about the salty old fisherman who landed the winning fish on a dark beach in Edgartown in the waning hours of the tournament?
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.
Grand Slam Tests Mettle of Derby Anglers
By MAX HART
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.
In the end, it was a 12.48-pound false albacore hooked in the
shallows off Memorial Wharf in Edgartown, and a 10.13-pound bonito
snagged in 60-foot seas off Noman's Land that proved to be the
grandest catches of all as the 59th Annual Martha's Vineyard
Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby came to a close on Sunday.
With two days to go before the close of the 59th Martha's
Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, tournament officials are
already calling this year's event one of the most successful in
the history of the competition.
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.
