35 Days of the Derby
| Below is
my day by day account of fishing 35 days of the Martha's Vineyard
Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. It was an experience that I will
never forget. I hope you get a sense of what I experienced when reading
the account below.
Note that it is best to read this from the bottom (day 1) up. -John
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| Day 35
[10/14/06]: The last day of the Derby. I made it!
And finished off nicely, fish-wise, fishing with Peter S and geeting 2
bass and 1 bluefish.
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| Day 34
[10/13/06]: Fished Chappy today with Peter Fyler.
Saw: Peregrine Falcon attacking a small bird at the jetty, turkeys strutting their stuff on Vickers Way, many Swans in Edgartown Pond, Oyster Catchers on Chappy, Harrier Hawk at Wasque, Ring Neck Pheasant in Katama. Caught: 1 small bluefish, 2 schoolie bass and one nice 32" bass on light tackle (great fight!). In the evening, a 31" bass (too small to weigh in). |
These fellows were regular visitors to Vicker's Way...
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| Day 33 [10/12/06]: Fished Chappy during the day without much luck - got a late start and the tides were "wrong". Fished at night with Peter S and on my first cast (seriously!), I landed this 34" beauty. He wrapped himself around some rocks and gave me a tough battle. I'll weigh him in in the morning. Now all I need is a shore Bonito for a Grand Slam (very tough this year). |
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| Here's how
the Edgartown Great Pond opening looks. Tons of people are
fishing this and there are fish along South Beach around this opening.
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| There are
a lot of people fishing the opening, which is just past the clump of
cars in the distant in this photo below. Of course, events like
this bring out all types, including the driver of this Ford, which
almost ended up in the water. It took 6 of us and 2 pickup
trucks to save his car...
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| October
sunset at the Edgartown Great Pond opening.
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| Day 32 [10/11/06]: Fished Chappy today without much luck. Fished South Beach, last few hours of the falling tide, and hooked into several bluefish! Including this 4.4lb blue which I weighed in. |
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| Day 31
[10/10/06]:
Arrived
at north neck/gut at the start of the incoming tide and realized
that I had forgotten my waders.
Doh! Albies
periodically were busting in the channel, but no one was having much
luck. After 3 hours of
blind casting, I saw some nice Albies rising at the boathouse dock.
A guy on the dock hooked up on the fly, but lost him.
10 minutes later, they came through again and I cast into the
pod and, BAM!, with an explosion of bait, I was on.
The fish took off like a rocket and I had to jump in the
water (wader-less).
I
climbed on the dock and noticed that I was well into my
mono-backing. My braid
line was out and I was dangerously close to being spooled.
I tightened my drag and looked at the water on the other side
of the dock. In
order to land this fish I was going to have to jump off the dock and
continue down the shore. The
nice fly fisherman on the dock with me checked the depth of the
water with his rod and told me that it “would not be above my
waist”. So I sat on the dock, still maintaining pressure on the
fish, and pushed off. I
landed feet first, and then suddenly my feet slipped out from under
me and I was sitting on my butt, water up to my neck.
I
looked up at the guy on the dock and he said “Well, at least you
still have your fish on – and I saw him and I think he’s a big
one.” It felt like a
big one and my line was still tight. In fact, as I fought this
certain "Derby winning" fish, I was already pondering what
I would name the boat I won (the Derby grand prize).
Soaking
wet, I got up and worked my way down the shoreline.
By now the fish was about 200
yards into the middle of Poge Pond and was holding in the
current. I could not
budge him. My line was
tight but I could not feel the fish moving.
I thought the fish might have swam around something, an
underwater rock perhaps. Certainly
not a boat or anchor line, like what happened to my friend Peter the
day before, as
It
got dicey when I started to enter the tidal current, but at that
point, the fish popped up and free.
I slowly backed up to shore and beached him.
It turns out that I had foul hooked him in the rear dorsal
area, and was never able to turn him, he was able to swim full
speed, until he expended himself.
I’ll be weighing him in tonight… [the verdict:
7.6lbs
and certainly no Derby winner, but I am leading the weekly!!!!]
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| Day 30 [10/9/06]: Fished Chappy today with my friend Peter Sliwkowski. I landed a nice Albie and Peter hooked into a nice Albie only to be broken off by an inconsiderate boater just 100 yards off shore. |
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| Day 29 [10/8/06]: Fished from a boat today with my friend Scott and his brother Colin. The water was flat and beautiful and we found some rising 6lb bluefish in a slack tide. Sight casting brought these babies in! |
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The catch (and worst quality photo yet)! Colin, Scott and John, in Edgartown.
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| Day 28 [10/7/06]: Albies! |
10.04lber taken from the shore! |
| Day 27 [10/6/06]: Wind, Weeds, and many Seals plagued me on Chappy today. I used to think these seals were cute, now I am in competition with them for the fish! |
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Leave my beach, you seals!!!
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| Day 26 [10/5/06]: Hellacious (30+mph) wind today made fishing (casting) very tough. Needless to say, no fish, though we did see birds and fish in the rough surf on Chappy. |
When the wind is up, some are happy...
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Found another special place on Martha's Vineyard: Quansoo. Here are some photos:
Quansoo Beach (spectacular):
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| Day 25 [10/4/06]: Fished Chappy today with my friend Peter - we did pretty good, getting 4 schoolie bass and 3 bluefish, though nothing big enough to weigh in. It was close to 80 degrees today! |
Wasque not fishing well these days...
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Mr. Peter "GQ" Fyler with his new St. Croix surf rod...
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| Day 24 [10/3/06]: Fished Squibnocket today with my friend Bob and charter captain Charlie Ashmun. We found bass. |
| Fish on! |
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I threw this guy back...
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A 9.7lb Bluefish and a 14.4lb Striped Bass weighed in...
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Destined for the smoker...
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| Day 23 [10/2/06]: Caught a nice 20" bluefish at Arruda's Point on Chappy today. Very windy (north west). Here's a westerly view of Pocha Pond on Chappaquiddick. Caught a bass in Pocha at night under the moon - peaceful/beautiful spot... |
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Ever wonder what happens if your car breaks down while driving over sand on the remote beach of Chappy? I saw it happen today, to Chappy-regular Jack Livingstone. His Mitsubishi failed to start while at the Windmill House. The Trustees of the Reservation rangers gave him a tether tow out. He got another tether tow to the chappy ferry, photo below. He did thankfully catch a striped bass, however, before his car broke down! |
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| Day 22 [10/1/06]: Stormy, windy and rainy today. Fished Chappy late today and landed a nice bluefish! |
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| Day 21 [9/30/06]: Fished Menemsha today and saw some Albies, but did not see Albies caught. Visited Stonewall Beach (photo below), a special place on the Vineyard... |
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| Day 20
[9/29/06]: Today seemed to be "animal day" vs
"fish day": woke up and was greeted by 3 deer (1 baby) in my
backyard, saw a seal at poge light as well as 2 different types of
hawks, came home to see 10 turkeys running down my road and finally
was sitting on the porch and a rabbit meandered down my driveway and
sat there 10' in front of me completely unaware that I was sitting
there.
Fished in the pouring rain with Jack on Chappy - seemed like we were alone on the beach, not many others fishing there today... Here is my commuting vehicle - I am getting to be a regular on the Chappy "On Time" ferry... |
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| Day 19 [9/28/06]: My friend Jack scores a 7lb bluefish at "the gut" today! Just barely missing 4th place for the day. |
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"Always keep a rod in the car..." Coop told me this several years ago. Every time I take my jeep out, I toss a rod on the roof racks. Well tonight, on the way to dinner, we were rewarded! On the way to OB this evening, just before dusk, we saw a flock of birds on the edge of Sengekontaket Pond. We got out and casted and quickly landed 5 striped bass! Amazing! Fog rolled in on Chappy this afternoon...
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| Day 18 [9/27/06]: Another beautiful day on Chappy... Caught several small cigar-like fish, and tiny bluefish, as well as this giant! Striped bass at night as well. All in all, another beautiful day on Martha's Vineyard. |
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| Day 17 [9/26/06]: Beautiful day but quiet day on Chappy. There seem to be more Monarch Butterflies on the Island this week than fish! |
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| Monarch Butterfly out near Poge Light. There were dozens fluttering around today... |
| Day 16 [9/25/06]: Beautiful day on the beach today - t-shirt weather. Possibly the best morning yet, weather-wise. And fish wise: 2 bluefish (but not big enough to weigh in) as well as a nice Spanish Mackerel, which I plan on smoking (taste fantastic!). In the evening, a nice schoolie bass. Good fishing day all around. |
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| Self-portrait
w/remote. 6lb Spanish Mackerel.
Cape Poge Lighthouse was spectacular today:
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| Day 15 [9/24/06]: Stormy morning, gusty winds, which I thought might be good for the fishing. East Beach had a pod of Albies (first time I have seen them this year!) working the Jetty. I saw one caught (but not me). |
| Today's "Catch of the Day":
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| Day 14 [9/23/06]: Fished Chappy again today, lost another lure to a bluefish - time for wire leader? Leaders scare away the good fish (Albies, Bass, Bonito)... Wind and rain in the afternoon... | |
This deadly dick lure shows bluefish teeth marks. |
Rainy weather today - haven't lost this lure yet... |
| Day 13 [9/22/06]: Fished Chappy today, lost some lures to some spanish mackerel. Joined in the surf by 3 seals around Poge Light. |
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| Day 12 [9/21/06]: Fished Chappy and Menemsha today, once again, beautiful weather, and, of course, no fish. |
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The old shipwreck in Menemsha Harbor:
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| Day 11
[9/20/06]: Fished Chappy with my friend Peter
today. Beautiful weather, no fish. Calm/flat seas.
Rumor has it that an Albie was caught this morning on East Beach...
Here's Peter and I posing for the cover of Field & Stream... |
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| Day 10 [9/19/06]: Chappy at dawn (Jetties). A LARGE seal was there to greet me! 1st cast got me a small bluefish, 3rd cast got this nice Spanish Mackerel - not a derby fish, but a supposedly very tasty fish (dinner tonight!) | ||||||||||
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Went shell fishing for the first time today! Here's the recap:
Island Dinner - Here's how the Spanish Mackerel (pictured above) ended up:
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| Day 9 [9/18/06]: Chappy all day long. Had a striper on, and lost him 5' away. Caught a weird cigar-shaped eel-like fish. No idea what it is. Gorgeous weather, but where are the fish? There is talk all over the Island about the lack of fish... |
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| Day 8 [9/17/06]:
Chappy at dawn (Jetties) where some Spanish Mackerel were caught the
day before. Saw several leap from the water, but didn't catch
anything. No fish on Chappy, beaches are almost empty of
fishermen. Fished Makonikey at night on a wrong tide - No fish today! |
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| Day 7 [9/16/06]: Fished Chappy from shore, picking up 1 striped bass and 1 decent bluefish. |
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Sunset Cruise in Edgartown Harbor yielded this gem of a photo:
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| Day 6 [9/15/06]: Boat supposed to be fixed this morning, but they won't fix it in the pouring rain. |
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Check out this weather map. The rain clouds are centered over Martha's Vineyard. Unreal.
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| Day
5 [9/14/06]: Boat out of commission - oil pump/filter
issues. Should get fixed on Friday. Fished "The
Gut" on the incoming tide, caught one tiny bluefish.
Supposedly there was big action the day before at the same time.
Not repeated today, though. Listening to the scuttlebutt and
filtering out important info is an important, especially when it means
catching fish.
Smoked the 2 bluefish from yesterday. |
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| Day 4 [9/13/06]: No wind today, finally, but seas are churned up. Fished Nantucket area, and Hooter/Wasque, landed 1/2 dozen bluefish (saved to smoke them) and a small striped bass. Boat problems however... Weighed in a 3.6lb bluefish tonight, 1st weigh-in. | |
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| Day 3 [9/12/06]: More wind. Fished the shore at night, had a lot of luck, both good and bad (8 chances at decent bass, landed 2 - that is the bad luck). At one point, I was walking down the beach w/my lure box and I strolled over to a flat rock and put my lure box down on it and there, 3' in front of me is this nice cute kitty staring right at me. Ooops, what is a cat doing on the beach at night??? I slowly moved back and turned on my headlamp and saw a big skunk staring at me, curiously. | |
| Day 2 [9/11/06]: WIND! No boating. Fished Chappy from the shore, saw thousands of swallows. | |
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Fished the north shore at night - Bass on the first 2 casts! |
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Here is Bob with his 4th place (daily) 14lb Striped Bass.
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Day 1 [9/10/06]: Becca, my friend Bob's daughter, is on the leader board! She holds 1st place with a 7.41lb boat Bonito! |
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All photos/content copyright ©2006 by John Piekos-All Rights Reserved.
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