Waning days of the Derby: Celebrations, frustrations, and an egg toss

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As the tides flow from high to low, so did emotions during Week 4 of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. Shore fishermen cast for hours with very little to show for their efforts, while boat fishermen trolled and jigged with massive results. 

I witnessed the first of those massive results on Tuesday night, when I was working the filet table. I heard cheers from inside Derby Headquarters, then watched Sarah Kadison walk out of weigh-in and step under the Derby banner with a monster blue. Her fish weighed 18.37 pounds, making Sarah the new Boat Bluefish Grand Leader. 

Sarah’s lead lasted for only three days, until Jocie Smith, a junior, put a 19.6-pound bluefish on the weighmaster’s scale to become the current Boat Bluefish Grand Leader. Jocie joins her older sister Paige on the Grand Leader board. Paige currently sits in first place with her hefty 17.12-pound boat albie.

If you’re watching the daily weigh-ins — and why wouldn’t you be checking the scoreboard morning and night? — you’ve seen big blues coming in all week. The scoreboard was filled with 16-, 17-, and 18-pound blues. Monstahs for sure!

One of those big blues needed two people to lift it onto the weigh-in table. Six-year-old John Roriz, who won first place at the Kids Derby 8-and-under group two weeks ago, needed a little help hoisting his 16.18-pound bluefish. John’s fish, which was almost as big as him, moved him into first place in the Mini Junior Boat Bluefish division.

“I thought I wasn’t going to catch it. It was really hard,” said John, who took first place in the Mini Junior Boat False Albacore division last year as a 5-year-old.

John’s proud dad, also John Roriz, echoed his sentiment. “Between the crying and screaming, ‘I can’t do it,’ he was very happy when he saw it.”

Little John’s bluefish almost got away. Dad missed netting the big blue on the first try, but scooped him up on the second try. “Once it was in the net, it spit out the hook. Daddy almost messed that up,” said John Senior, with a chuckle of relief and gratitude.

Dad and Son will be out on the water again on Saturday for the last day of the Derby. They don’t fish every day, but they love fishing together when they can. “We keep it fun,” said Dad.

On shore, Gavin Smith entered the fourth week of the Derby as the only original Grand Leader still atop the leaderboard. Amazingly, the 7.49-pound shore bonito that Gavin caught on the first day of the Derby hadn’t been bumped. The leaderboard changed on Oct. 7 when Carmelo Torres weighed in a 8.13-pound shore bonito, to bump Gavin into second place. 

Another cuteness alert happened on Tuesday night. Adorable 10-year-old Tegan Pepper entered Derby Headquarters with his uncle and Islander Julian Pepper carrying a beautiful bonito. Tegan put his bonito on the table, and watched the scale register 5.98 pounds. Cheers went up as Tegan became the current leader in the Junior Shore Bonito division. 

Tegan and his family live in Hawaii. “They come for a visit once a year, usually in summer. This year they got to fish for a week, and he got a good one,” said Julian.

Julian, who works at Larry’s Tackle Shop in Edgartown, is an avid fisherman and has won his share of awards. “He did it all himself,” his uncle said. “He had to do the whole deal. He caught the squid, put the squid on the hook by himself, and handled the gas dock.”

Catching fish on the gas dock in Edgartown Harbor isn’t easy. You’ve got to navigate the pilings, and pray your fish doesn’t wrap around one. Tegan got it done, and he had lots of fans cheering him on. “The whole gang was on the dock. My brother Micah, his wife, Tegan’s brother, Jenna, and myself. We were the only ones there. It was pretty cool,” said Julian.

I’m waiting for the final numbers, but I’m fairly certain the 2024 Derby marks one of the lowest shore weigh-ins in the history of the Derby. No matter how many hours we are casting, the fish just aren’t around. On Saturday, about three dozen of us on Chappy took a break from casting and played an old-fashioned game of egg toss. I’m not kidding. One of the guys bought a couple of dozen eggs, we drew names to create random teams of two, chipped in a $5 entry fee to create the winner’s kitty, and then we lined up on the beach and began tossing eggs.

You know fishermen are frustrated when you see two lines of anglers throwing eggs instead of lures. The eggs didn’t crack as quickly as we thought they would, and the distance between teammates grew. My teammate Amelia and I finished third, when I missed Amelia’s long-distance throw and the egg splattered on my left shin. Jared Stobie and Brad Riddle successfully tossed and dove for eggs, winning the game and the kitty.

My most memorable moment of Week 4 was watching my friend Leigh Lord reel in a 15-pound bluefish on a fishing charter. Leigh hugged that fish and smiled so big you would have thought she’d landed the Grand Leader. Leigh then wore that same scale-covered sweatshirt all day until she weighed in her first-ever Derby fish. Leigh didn’t make it onto the leaderboard, but she earned her First Fish pin, and discovered she truly likes fishing. 

The most frustrating aspect of this Derby for me isn’t the fact that I haven’t caught an albie yet, and still need a weighable albie to earn my Triple Crown. More than a weighable albie, I want my friend Michael Blanchard to catch a weighable Derby fish. 

Michael is the official Derby photographer, and this is the first year he’s entered the Derby. Michael has been fishing from shore, and even went out on a charter boat. He caught a lot of stripers on the charter, and he’s caught plenty of small bluefish and bass from shore. He’s going to all the right places — from Chappy to Lobsterville to every beach down-Island — but he hasn’t yet caught a fish to bring to headquarters. 

If you’re reading this column, I’m asking you to channel all positive fish energy to Michael. He’s not asking to win the Derby, or even get a daily pin; the man just wants to catch and weigh in a Derby fish. I don’t think anyone will be happier, not even the person who wins the boat on Sunday.

Let’s hope the high winds and colder temperatures predicted for much of Week 5 blow some weighable Derby fish into shore-casting range, for Michael and all the shore fishermen. 

I hope to see you on the beach, better still at weigh-in, and definitely at the Derby Awards Ceremony on Sunday.