“What was the best part of your week?” my boss, Dr. Brian Morris, asks every Monday during our morning meeting. I knew my answer before he asked: “Fishing the Derby with combat veterans from the Warrior Reunion Foundation.”
Fishing can be a humbling experience. One six-pound bonito can bring you to your knees when you lose it in the wash, or you can stand on the beach casting the same lure as your friends are all hooking up with, and you get skunked — all day.
Or you’re casting at the Drive On, with combat vets on either side of you, all of them younger than you, and each of them has faced death, lost friends, and now carries memories none of us would ever want to experience, never mind remember. I stood on the shore, toes in the sand, not a worry in my heart, because the veterans on my left and my right fought to protect my freedom, your freedom, and the freedom of people I’ll never meet.
How do you thank someone for that?
“Thank you for your service,” though spoken, felt inadequate.
Since 2013, the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby has hosted veterans as one way to thank men and women, along with their families, for their service to our country. This year, the Derby partnered with the Warrior Reunion Foundation, an organization that “brings combat veterans back together, orchestrating meaningful reunions that renew the bonds forged on the battlefield.”
Five combat veterans, one foundation board member who was in the Twin Towers on 9/11, and one family member spent three days on the Island, staying at the Menemsha Inn, boat fishing with Captains Buddy Vanderhoop, Scott McDowell, and Jen Clarke, and then shore fishing on Wednesday with a few of us from the M.V. Surfcasters Association, including Vineyard veterans Paul Schultz, Bob Beal, and Ron McKee.
“We don’t normally do small reunions like this. These guys were all handpicked,” said Warrior Reunion Foundation Executive Director Bart Cole.
“Some guys haven’t seen each other since they were on the battlefield. I haven’t seen Kirby [Jones] in years. When we left Iraq, I wrote a letter home to his dad, telling him how good his son did. Kirby was a Navy corpsman with Charlie 1/24. He was a medic taking care of three platoons, plugging holes and saving lives,” said Bart, who served 12 years in the Marines with three combat deployments to Iraq, and one to Afghanistan.
Kirby Jones and his dad Donny caught bluefish on the boat, and went to weigh in on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, our lines came up empty, but our hearts were full.
The Derby awarded Bart, Kirby, Sonny Mott, Shane Mott, and Doug Osborn plaques on the beach, thanking them for their service. Everyone went to headquarters, and the soldiers received Derby T shirts and sweatshirts.
“It’s not about catching fish. It’s about being out here in the fresh air and smiles on the beach,” said Bart, as the grill was being fired up and food was laid out on the table for a beach barbecue. “It heals when you gather. We need each other. We might have holes. We might be missing parts. We might be broken. But we need each other. Not just vets. Everyone.”
If you’d like to learn more about the Warrior Reunion Foundation, please visit their website: warriorreunionfoundation.org.
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Rarely is it a great thing when fishermen spend days discussing the weather. Last week held far too many conversations about how strong the winds were, how much rain was falling, and where the water might be fishable instead of muddied up, or full of weed.
My Derby fishing during week one included hours upon hours spent in pelting rain and winds in excess of 30 mph. My craziness paid off, though. I landed a 10.41-pound bluefish on Friday to take a daily first place and the women’s weekly, and on Saturday morning I weighed in a 3.61-pound bonito that also earned a first place daily.
I watched Jared Stobie weigh in his albie on Wednesday night to clinch the first shore Triple Crown. Jared is such a good fisherman, as in incredibly talented. No one would doubt Jared could secure a Triple Crown from shore in four days.
Jared not only earned his Triple Crown, but he also clinched the Abe Williams Memorial Award for the first angler to record a shore Triple Crown, which he’ll receive on stage at the Derby Awards Banquet.
I can’t predict whether Robert (“Andy”) Robertson will also be on stage on Oct. 20 but Andy and his wife Melissa had a sweet morning on Sunday. They were fishing together with a bait ball in front of them. A fish hit Melissa’s line about 15 yards out. She reeled in a 12.15-pound bluefish, and told her husband, “I’m weighing this one in.”
“I want a pin,” said Andy, who lives in Deerfield, N.H., and has fished a week of the Derby since 2009.
About 20 minutes later, Andy hooked up and landed a 14.81-pound bluefish. “We’ve fished the Derby for decades, and never weighed in fish. My wife said, ‘You need to weigh that in, it’s fatter than most Derby fish.’”
The couple went to weigh-in, and Andy bumped Tony Jackson and his 14.08-pounder out of first place. Andy and Melissa took home first and second place daily pins, as well as their First Fish pins. With three-plus weeks to go, Andy has days and nights to watch the grand leader board to see if his blue holds.
Andy and Melissa depart on Friday. His goal between now and then is simple. “I sincerely hope to catch an albie. Last year we were here for the same week, and got tired of catching albies. This year, we haven’t caught one yet.”
Like Andy, I’ll be chasing albies all week, casting to secure a Triple Crown, and, of course, dreaming of a Grand Leader.
I hope to see you at the Kid’s Derby on Sunday morning, or on a sunny beach with winds blowing less than 10 mph.
God Bless all these beloved Veterans who put this country and its citizens ahead of their own safety and well being. We will forever be indebted.
The Menemsha Inn has been hosting Vets fishing the derby for years. The Nelsons are real patriots.
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