The leaves are turning beautiful shades of red, yellow, and orange. I love driving around the Island and seeing splashes of color along the way. We don’t have the spectacular foliage of the Berkshires or New Hampshire, but we do have some greens and blues and stripes and dots. I’m talking about fish, of course.
Fall fishing is often bittersweet, as we chase the last hardtails and blues before they headSouth and we clean our gear and store the rods.
I was talking with Andrew Jacobs and he summed it up best: “The real change of the season is when the rods get put away.”
Andrew fishes from shore, but mostly from his 1970s Boston Whaler. He took his mom Midge Jacobs out during the last week of the Derby. Midge landed a massive 17.37-pound bluefish to win the Madison Alwardt Memorial Award.
Andrew is pulling his boat from the water this week, but wanted to make a few more runs. “I took my wife out on one of the last trips. I tried to get her on fish. I failed. We saw one school, but couldn’t hook up. Seemed they were tuned into microbait,” said Andrew.
A few days later, Andrew went out by himself to visit a favorite spot. “It was a weird tide. I fell into a giant school of albies. I got a couple of whacks, but only caught one fish. Must have been the pink epoxy,” Andrew laughed.
Andrew put his albie in the cooler, stopped by his 3-year-old daughter’s preschool to pick her up from Pajama Day, and then drove to Larry’s Tackle Shop to weigh-in for OctoberFish. With Alya in her pink pajamas, Andrew watched the scale tip to 10.65 pounds to put him in first place in the After Derby division. When the paper comes out on Thursday, Andrew will be hours away from knowing if his albie won.
OctoberFish ends on Thursday at 4 pm. As of Tuesday afternoon, Julian Pepper leads the Bonito After Derby division. Julian weighed in a 5.10-pound shore bone on Oct. 25 to bump his friend Sam Bell into second.
Julian laughed when I asked about his leading bonito. “My little bonito,” he said with a chuckle. At 5.1 pounds, his fish is small compared with past winners, but the bulk of the bonito landed and weighed from August until now have been under five pounds.
I have to believe that Julian would have landed a bigger bone if there was one in Edgartown Harbor. Julian is at the gas dock daily. “I’m there every morning until the fish leave. That’s my spot. I hang out for a little bit, drink my coffee, and take some casts. I love it down there,” said Julian.
Julian’s friend Beth Tessmer is holding firmly to the After Derby Bluefish lead with a 16.30-pounder she caught from the boat. Beth fishes a lot from the boat with her husband Nate Durawa, but she also works at the gas dock in Edgartown Harbor, and spends her free time casting into the harbor.
“The bonito were just crazy this summer,” said Beth. “I didn’t get out on the boat as much as I wanted to. I worked more full-time than I had in the past. But I spent a lot of time casting. I caught 10 or 15 bonito on the gas dock.”
Beth fished as much as possible during the Derby. She earned two daily pins, and two women’s weeklies. Now she’s in first place for OctoberFish. “I’m competitive,” said Beth, adding, “Nate and I are both competitive. We compete against each other.”
Beth moved to the Island in 1989. Ironically, she only started fishing four years ago. “It took a long time to get hooked on fishing,” said Beth. “No, we put a lot of time in. Time equals fish. I’m fortunate and happy we get to go out as much as we do.”
Beth and Nate will winterize their boat on Nov. 1. They’re heading out for one last trip on Wednesday. “I’m gonna try to beat my blue. Who knows, maybe try to beat Andrew’s albie,” said Beth, who finished second in last year’s OctoberFish with a 16.45-pound bluefish.
Personally, I haven’t weighed in anything yet for OctoberFish. This is not for lack of trying. I’ve cast at some easy sunrise locations in Vineyard Haven, but haven’t had any luck. Some friends came for a visit this weekend. We fished the Menemsha jetty. It was full of activity. We had fish busting all around us. Lots of small bonito were caught, and I reeled in a large sea bass that was unfortunately out of season, and had to be released. Some guys were also jigging for tautog, and had a few nice ones in a bucket.
When the bonito bite died back, we relocated to fish the creek. My friend Brad landed a nice bass on his first cast. We didn’t catch a keeper, but there were plenty of bass in the water. Though we didn’t have any fish in the cooler, Brad, Julie, and I agreed that it was the perfect sunny fall afternoon.
I hope to see you on the beach. I’m headed to Chappy on Thursday morning for sunrise. As it will be Halloween, I’m dressing up as a fisherman and asking for a treat to weigh in on the last day of OctoberFish.
