The harsh autumn weather has had a big impact on participants in the 65th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, leading president Ed Jerome to cast a most tempting lure for fishermen in the final week of the contest. “All of the fish on the board are beatable,” he said. Sandy E. Fisher’s 15.88-pound bluefish may be a hard fish to beat, but Michael A. Paone’s 37.6-pound striped bass could be moved down a prize.

After days of bad weather, most of it wind, the fall derby busted open last weekend with great fishing from off Wasque to Devil’s Bridge in Aquinnah. This is the closing week of the 65th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. With more than 2,700 fishermen registered in the contest, a lot of fishermen were out on the water to make up for lost time. The contest ends at 10 p.m. tomorrow night. Columbus Day weekend was the last chance most anglers would have to devote high energy to the sport.

Well over 1,200 fishermen are registered in the first week of the 66th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. In the first five days of the contest, as much as 2,500 pounds of fish has been weighed in and, as in the past, the contest landings are leaning heavily towards the bluefish.

In its first enforcement of a new state fishing regulation, the Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby Committee voted Monday to disqualify two division-leading fish from the tournament because the anglers that caught them did not have a state permit prior to weighing in their catch.

During the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, everyone lining up in the mornings at the Island’s councils on aging has got to love a fisherman. Every weekday during the derby, the Island’s seniors receive free fresh striped bass and bluefish and only occasionally get fresh Atlantic bonito. The program is a derby win-win. A battalion of volunteers extending across the Island administers the program.

Churning seas over the weekend produced three new derby-leading fish including a 46.15-pound striped bass. The striper was reeled in from a boat by Richard A. Penney, of Carver, who weighed in Sunday at the Edgartown headquarters of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. Though the fishing competition continues for two more weeks, Penney’s fish would have won the category in either of the past two years.