Hey, shit happens. While I'm disappointed that I had to cancel my trip to Martha's Vineyard maybe things happen for a reason. And while the no-lights on the truck issue were the final nail in the coffin realistically looking around I've got to many things going on to have been able to relax and enjoy the trip.
Amazon spit the bit on the delivery that was due yesterday and I was holding out hope I could get out of the hospital at 7 pm, fix the lights, kiss the wife, and head north. That plan might have called for a slumber party at Levi's house in Connecticut before leaving real early to catch today's 815 ferry from Woods Hole. But a quick check this morning showed they're arriving today.
Luckily I called the Steamship Authority and was able to move my reservation, which cost about $285, to a "Pending" status so I don't lose out by cancelling. If you ever make ferry
reservations and need to change them don't cancel, put them into pending and you have about two years to use them. I can use my above reservation for next June's trip to the Vineyard. There's no way I'm missing that one. If I have no lights I'll walk.
While I was on the Steamship Authority website I saw a warning that ferries today may be cancelled due to the weather up and around New England. There's two storms
out in the Atlantic which are going to help bring some changing conditions to the East Coast. Both Hurricane Humberto and Imelda will add to winds from the NE,
an approaching October Hunter's Moon on October 6th, and high tides at 6 and 6 will make it look and feel like fall this week. Bass and predator fish love the slop and it looks like we may see it. The temps will drop as well moving from an Indian summer to a true fall.
And while I wasn't going up there to fish the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby I would have been there to sign up and give it a shot. This is the derby's 80th year and things have changed since it started shortly after the end of World War II. I have only heard things about The Derby but it is an event on the Island each fall.
The Derby was more than a ton of anglers out to catch the biggest fish, win the money prizes, and claim bragging rights. It was, and maybe still be, a total Island thing. As with everything else that ever existed things were just better back then.
What started as a striped bass, and then bluefish, tournament morphed into a migratory predator competition somewhere in the 1980's when striped bass weren't caught or weighed in.
I caught this old picture from the Angler's Journal which showed two guys from the 1975 Derby weighing in a 39 and a 45 pound shore caught striped bass. The last year striped bass were part of The Derby was 2019 and now false albacore, bonito, and bluefish are the targeted species. For a few years weakfish were a category as well. When bass were part of it part of the chase was to win the Grand Slam, weighing in one of each of types of fish. Now it's the Triple Crown people aim for- am albie, a bonito, and a bluefish. Just an aside, if you think about it over the years, like each year, how many striped bass were wasted for kill tournaments
up and down the East Coast? Fish harvested for bragging rights with many only to find their final resting place in the dumpsters of the marinas were the weigh-ins took place. Thank God we have evolved a little bit over time. I've been roasted for my anti-tournament stance, especially for pre-spawn striped bass, which kind of follows my early suggestion that clubs, like the Asbury Park Fishing Club, switch over to catch and release tournaments.
In preparation of my trip I dug through my books related to all things striped bass and found The Big One, penned by David Kinney, which tells things about The Derby. In Chapter 4 he talks about Dave Skok and his obsession with fly fishing and the pursuit of albies and completing the Derby Grand Slam. Skok did so in 2001, also winning the largest shore based albie, on the fly of course.
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| Skok 2001 |
The title of that chapter is "Sleep when you die", which is probably the mantra of many of the anglers, fly, spin, shore, and boat who make their way across the Vineyard Sound each fall.
At this writing I checked into daily leader board for The Derby. Bonito are the most weighed in fish at 433, followed by bluefish at 385. False albacore came in third at 236. I hate to be a tree
hugger but what do they do with a pile of 236 + albies over the course of the tournament? They're like shad, "Cook them on a wooden plank and through away the fish and eat the plank". Yes, I know, some will say that those and the bluefish can be used for shark, tuna, or lobster bait, but is it good to kill all those fish for a shot a prize? There are several organizations who are beginning to study and learn about albies so they don't end up on the endangered list. I know, you just can't win, pull the striped bass out to do the right thing and now what, cancel The Derby? Of course not, but there may have to be a better way, like optional catch and release divisions.
So that's it. Not going and staying home. I WILL be fishing somewhere along the Jersey Shore as a consolation prize for life getting in the way. I'll miss the hang with Abe, but June is only nine months away.
