Gone Fishin'
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| Mark Younger holds a net that proved to be too small for the cagey Green Mountain men. Photos by Ben Scott |
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Cagey Vermonters teach Islanders a thing or two
By Nelson Sigelman - July 20, 2006
I figure there are lots of black flies in Vermont, maple syrup, cows I suppose, cheddar cheese, expatriate New Yorkers wearing clean plaid shirts, trout, and no big striped bass.
But the Green Mountain state has always been known for producing enterprising citizens, notables like Ethan Allen and characters Larry, Darryl, and Darryl on the popular Bob Newhart Show. So leave it to a pair of Vermonters to teach local Islanders a thing or two about fishing for bass on their own doorstep.
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| Mark Younger. |
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With customers flowing into Menemsha's fish markets in search of the freshest fish and the up-Island charter fleet leaving the harbor to hunt for big striped bass, Mark Younger and his father James set out chairs behind Larsen's Fish Market and pulled in big fish after big fish at all hours of the day right from the dock. The biggest fish was 55 inches long and weighed a whopping 47 pounds.
Day after day another man fishing from the dock caught nothing. What was the secret? The Vermonters had stumbled upon bait that was irresistible to striped bass.
I tracked down James this week at his home in Brattleboro and asked him about his Vineyard vacation. I said that I had heard that he and his son had caught an impressive number of fish. He spoke in the flat accent and laconic manner of a native Vermonter.
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| Twins Andrew and Peter Ruimerman of Chilmark (9 as of Tuesday) got in on the dockside action using squid. "It was the first keeper striped bass I ever caught and it was really big," Peter said, "as big as I am." |
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James likes to fish "all the time" he said. Most of the fishing he does is for trout, often in the portion of the Deerfield River that runs through Massachusetts.
James is a retired cook. Mark is a contractor. "How old a fellow are you? I asked James.
"Seventy-three, today," he told me.
Mark's girlfriend's mother owns a house in Vineyard Haven, he said. He and Mark traveled to the Vineyard the end of June and stayed until July 8. It was their second trip. "We went down last year and we caught one fish," he told me.
Why did they decide to fish off the dock behind Larsen's? "Well, we wanted to go out in a charter boat and they want $400 and something and you're only allowed two fish. That's a pretty expensive fish," he said.
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| Mark Younger and his father James hold a big catch. Photo courtesy of the Younger family |
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"So we were in the fish market gettin' something to eat and someone said try it right off the dock, so we did, and it worked pretty good."
In a later conversation James expanded on the decision to first fish off the dock. "My dad's kind of handicapped and he could not go a lot of places so I asked the guy in the fish market where I could take my old man to catch some striper and he says, try right off the back of the dock. And I said, really? He says, yeah right off the back. So I brought a chair down for him and sure enough he caught one. He was happier than hell."
Not surprisingly, when their first fishing foray on this year's vacation, a trip out to the beach at Wasque, came up dry, they decided to go back to the dock. And it was absolutely amazing, said James excitedly.
But just how amazing was it really? You decide.
"What were you using for bait?" I asked James.
"Farm-raised salmon," he said matter-of-factly.
Had that come from an Islander I would have laughed. Had I been having a conversation standing in a Vermont general store I would have suspected he was putting me on. But talking to this Vermonter on the phone, I knew he was telling me the truth.
"From the fish store?" I asked.
"Yup."
Island striper fishermen use live eels. They use squid, clams, scup, herring, menhaden and sand eels. Serge de Somov, the legendary "mad Russian" who won the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby in 1963, 1964, 1965 and again in 1969 was rumored to use lobsters for bait. But salmon, that was a new one on me.
I checked with the Stop and Shop. Salmon was going for $5.99 a pound. At Island tackle shops eels cost between $18 and $24 a dozen. Squid is $2 per pound.
I asked James what gave them the idea to use salmon for bait.
"Well, we went to the fish market and bought every damn thing there was," said James. "We bought squid, we bought herring, heck we bought everything but swordfish. So we were at this supermarket at the Island there, Stop and Shop, and we bought a couple of packages of farm-raised salmon there and we tried it and it worked marvelous."
I wondered if maybe it was a question of having leftovers from dinner. "No," James assured me, "We bought it for bait, not to eat it."
Mark expanded on the choice of bait. "We tried it the year before when we weren't catching anything and we caught a couple the day before we were going to leave. So we said the next year when we came down we were going to try it again and it was absolutely amazing - 55 inches long, 47 pounds!"
Mark said he and his dad caught their two-bass limit each day. But the biggest thrill was hooking the forty-pounder, an accomplishment any veteran surf man would be proud of.
It was about 3 pm. Mark felt a fish take the bait and set the hook. The fish took off for the inlet he said like a jet plane. After a 25-minute battle he had it at the dock. He had to borrow a net big enough to land the fish.
Meanwhile a large crowd gathered. James said it seemed like the inside of a football stadium.
Captain Dick Vincent of the Flashy Lady, one of Menemsha's most experienced charter captains and a man who knows how to catch big bass, was duly impressed. Dick, who had taken to calling Mark "Texas hold'em" because Mark had asked Dick where he could find a poker game on the Island, got on his marine radio. "He said you ain't going to believe what those Vermonters got."
When the Vermonters first started fishing the regulars along the dock had told them they would not catch bass during the daytime. Mark said there was one older fisherman who became increasingly irritated. Day after day he caught nothing while the father and son duo kept pulling in fish. But Islanders are adaptive.
"Finally, he used salmon and he caught a couple too," Mark said. "Within four days everybody was using salmon."
Mark asked me if I had ever used salmon. I said I had not.
"Well let me tell you they hit," he said.
Mark said he is planning to return to the Vineyard this fall to fish the Derby with his family and co-workers.
"We are all going to be there," said Mark. "So tell 'em they got to make room on the dock, the Vermonters are coming."
Generosity cuts both ways
Several weeks ago I wrote about the Catch and Release tournament and the awards ceremony during which thousands of dollars worth of prizes were handed out by chance to participating fishermen. I wrote about one fisherman, the winner of an Orvis youth fly fishing outfit, who after receiving his prize promptly handed it to Ashley Plante, Mark Plante's daughter who was helping out with the raffle, and told her to go fishing with her dad.
It was the type of spontaneous and generous gesture that has come to characterize this tournament. Not long after that, the fisherman who presented the rod sent the following e-mail: "My name is Bob and I was the one who gave the fly rod to Ashley Plante. I am not looking for any credit and would ask that you use only my first name. The reason I am writing this is to tell all of you what a little act of kindness can do. I walked on air the rest of the day and smiled more than I have in weeks. Thanks again Ashley for making my day."
Striper season vigilance
The striped bass hook-and-line commercial season began Tuesday July 11 just after midnight. Out late Monday night looking for fishermen hoping to get a jump on the season was Environmental Police Sergeant Pat Grady, along with fellow environmental officer Matt Bass and Chilmark police officer Brian Cioffi, who agreed to go along to provide local knowledge of the waters and fishermen.
Rough sea conditions hampered the patrol, but the trio did manage to inspect a number of fishing boats. Sergeant Grady issued a citation and confiscated six bass from a pair of fisherman out of Westport with six fish on board an unregistered boat.
Sergeant Grady said that when they entered Menemsha Harbor the local fleet was tied up to the dock. The moral of the story is that playing by the rules is a good way to avoid trouble.
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| Eric O'Connell holds up a bluefin tuna caught off Chatham. Photo courtesy of O'Connell family |
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Tuna fun
Charter captain Eric O'Connell holds a bluefin tuna weighing approximately 100 pounds he caught fishing east of Chatham on June 27. Eric, who was fishing with Julian and Micah Pepper of Edgartown, said he was trolling squid bars and described the fishing as excellent with lots of crashing hits in addition to three of four hook-ups. "It was a good day watching them hit the bars like that," he said.
Fishermen do not have to travel to Chatham to find tuna. According to Cooper Gilkes at Coop's, tuna are beginning to show up within 20 miles south of the Vineyard. He said there are also big bonito south of the Hooter off the southeast corner of the Vineyard.
For fishermen with lighter gear in pursuit of mini-tuna, bonito have been spotted off Menemsha. Jeff Day of Chilmark told me he hooked a bonito early Sunday evening while fishing for fluke off Lobsterville Beach in his kayak.
Not the monster
shark tournament
The 2006 Martha's Vineyard Surfcasters Association Chappy Shark tournament begins Saturday and lasts through August 6, far from the glare of ESPN or the Humane Society. The catch-and-release shore tourney is an annual event for members. Past winners have recorded sharks up to 125 pounds. For information or to sign up, members should contact either Russ Lawrence at 508-627-9670, (Captain.Russ@ marthasvineyardfishing.com) or Jeff Sayre at 508-693-4841 (jeff@flyfishingthevineyard.com). Sign-up sheets are also available at Larry's Tackle Shop in Edgartown.
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