Fins,
Grins and Derby Pins
Martha's Vineyard Memories
In
October, six members of the DVWFFA returned from participating in the 60th
annual “Martha’s Vineyard Fishing Derby.” Flora Soto, Donna Trexler,
Robbi Friesem, Susan Eggert, Lisa Doricchi, and Betsy Miraglia all
converged on a rental house in Edgartown, located in close relation to
several well-known fishing haunts. Although
(or perhaps, because) the weather was postcard perfect the entire week,
the fishing was slow for us shoreline casters.
But the boats were catching many good sized fish between the
vineyard and Nantucket, mostly offshore and well beyond our casting range.
Undaunted, we broke into small scouting groups and did a lot of
island hopping, where we discovered many unique places to wet a line.
I quickly decided that I would need to change to a spinning rod and
reel and resort to bait tactics if I were to have any promise of a fish.
I met up with a local guide (Ron Domurat) who took us out to South Beach on the ocean side for some False Albacore casting at 5:30 a.m. Using spinning gear and “Deadly Dicks Lures” we managed 3 “little tunny’s” in approximately 700 casts! These are beautiful fish that make powerful runs. Susan and I also met up with Ron another night at 2:30 in the morning to cast eels into a raging surf in the fog of a very dark night. And for those who people say that it’s always darkest right before dawn, let me tell you, it was dark all damn night with a new moon. No lights were allowed to prevent spooking the fish, so you had to adjust your other senses to compensate for having limited sight. Then along comes the TAP of the striped bass who smacks the eel before making the decision to chomp on it. And while the fish is contemplating its next move, the blind angler with a keen sense of sound and feel has to immediately lower the rod tip and open the bail for 4 seconds so that the bass can make the run. After those 4 seconds, you crank the reel to set the circle hook kindly in place. We were rewarded with two fat 26" stripers that made some nice runs and released them back out to sea, where, we suspect, they immediately informed the other fish to wait 6 seconds before swallowing the eel to prevent hook-in-mouth disease. No giant stripers tonight.
We
also met up with Cooper Gilkes, owner of Coop’s Bait and Tackle shop and
known as the best guide on the island.
Cooper took a bunch of the members out on some surf fishing grounds
and Donna reeled in a nice striper on one of those nights.
Cooper also showed us how to go squidding at night.
(At this point, you’re probably wondering if we did anything
during the daylight hours…)
We learned how to catch and clean the squid for some fresh calamari
and had plenty left over to use as bait. These
creatures are caught on a baby squid lure and you jig them quickly out of
the water and into a bucket, while trying to avoid being sprayed with
"squid ink," the squid’s way of telling you it was much
happier in the water.
All of the ladies pitched in and assisted in the squid-catching
fun. Donna
cleaned and filleted the squid and made fresh calamari rings in tempura
batter with an outer crust of Panko japanese rice crumbs.
We also took the 'on-time' 3-minute ferry (it has no schedule so it’s always on time) to Chappaquiddick. We drove over the infamous 'bridge' and also drove out to a place called "Cape Pogue Gut" better known as THE GUT. The first time I laid eyes on this place I thought to myself…this is where Assateague Island meets Montana. All saltwater fish species run through here and it is a very remote place that requires a 4WD vehicle to access one side, but can be reached by a brave passenger car on the other side. Visitors to the GUT will always find highly skilled flyfishers here, and it is beautiful to see their lines being cast. The tenacity of these ladies from DVWFFA to fish this place for so many hours was very impressive. Flora was rewarded with a False Albie on one trip and in my opinion - - they all deserved that fish!
While we waited for the low tide to turn into an incoming tide, we went clamming in the West Tisbury area. Clamming was nothing short of phenomenal. Pat borrowed a clam rake and a basket with float, waded out through the bays and ponds and caught over 100 clams in a short 2-hour period. Flora, Lisa and Susan helped out. Every clam was a prize, but Susan got the biggest clam for the day and was rewarded with the daily clam pin. We came home and made clams in a wine and garlic broth, then the next day steamed clams with melted butter and salvaged the bigger ones for clams casino. A culinary triumph!
The next day we returned to South Beach and baited an 11-foot surf rod with our freshly caught squid. Again, the weather was beautiful, and there was not a fish in sight. A welcome surprise came along about an hour later when I reeled in a 20" bluefish. Then I looked to my left and the water exploded with a thrashing of tails and blues blitzing within casting distance. Unfortunately I didn’t have my fly rod with me and my spinning rods were rigged for False Albies and only had 10-lb test line. I cast both rods into the fray and both lines emerged—how else?—frayed. Augh! Nobody else was on the entire beach except for Pat and I - - and the blitz started swimming south. I ran back to my spot on the beach - - grabbed my 11-foot pole and sliced the line in half and tied on a metal kastmaster lure to 30 lb test line, left the bait on the sand, and took off down the beach.
Now although it was actually daytime and I could see, running in sand that’s 2 feet deep is very difficult. About a mile down the beach I finally caught up with the fish and cast my lure into the savagery, and blam, my rod bends over and the line starts zinging. Then out of nowhere comes this lovely couple hand in hand walking down the beach watching me. He turns to her and screams "SHE'S GOT ONE ON" - - OH MY GOD" and then I thought about Karma and its effect on your life. Now let me see, if I do something good for someone, perhaps I'll get rewarded (or at least will be forgiven for some of the bad things I’ve done in the past). I handed the screaming rod to the novice fisherman, and he turns the rod upside down, falls in the water and looses his shoe. He’s still fighting the fish with a big grin and then he backs up, gives the rod a big jerk and NOT ONLY LOSES THE FISH BUT MY LURE BREAKS OFF AS WELL. All my other lures were a mile down the beach. I almost cried, but thought Karma does not respect crybabies. As the man is swimming out to sea after his shoe, his girlfriend suddenly points and screams what's that? I looked in the water - - a frazzled line in the surf wash! I ran over and at the end of the line was my lure! My hands were shaking and the line was frayed (there’s a lot to be frayed of when fishing for blues) and I retied the lure on while cutting the frayed part away. My hands were unable to tie the knot quickly because I had one eye on the blitz which was moving south quickly and my mind was in a chaotic state of frenzy (which, if you’ve read this far, you will realize is really nothing unusual).
Finally after what seemed like an hour, but was only 5 minutes, I re-tied the lure, checked the knot, and ran another 20 minutes to get to the blitz. I cast out as far as I could, and ZING…rod bends over and Mr. Blue is on. After a few minutes, he greets the wash, flips up in the air and spits the hook. One more cast gets me a nice keeper and after that, I reeled in five more nice sized fish. I threw one on the beach and was reeling in another one. The rest I released. That Karma sure is something.
Even though I knew my fish wasn’t anywhere near as big as the current winner, Donna Trexler talked me into taking my fish to the weigh-in. The next morning, we got a call that my bluefish weighed-in and placed in the daily all tackle record books!! I received a beautiful gold pin along with a small check and a nice certificate. Nothing compared to Betsy Miraglia’s win of last year with that big Bonita - - but it shows that the women of the DVWVFFA are getting a little respect up there on that cozy little island with the big fishing problem. Latest update saw the Derby competition ending with over 3,000 competitors and a 12 year old girl winning the grand championship: a 49.5 lb striper taken off of a boat in some very rough seas. Her name was Molly Fischer. I wonder what kinda Karma she was using? You go girls……
Winter 2006 Issue
