Fishing for shark on Chappy on the 50th

1 of 6

What did you do last weekend? Did you celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Jaws” with the thousands of tourists who visited the Island?

Everywhere you went, there were shark shirts, shark drinks, shark bites, shark ice cream, and I even saw a shark-shaped popcorn bucket that had a working jaw for the lid.

So many tourists and so many sharks, but I wonder how many people saw a live shark swimming in Vineyard waters. If you were out on Chappy this weekend, then you most likely saw a shark.

Amity, as you probably know, means friendship. On Saturday, the Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters gathered together on Chappy for a day of fun, fishing, and seafood. The weather was perfect, and the conversations and laughter were even better. The fishing was slow, though, at least from shore. 

I arrived on Leland Beach at about 9:30 am. Some of the guys had already been there for an hour. They hadn’t seen any fish. On Friday, they were out all day, and only Donald Scarpone (11 pounds) and Dan Sentementes (10.58 pounds) landed a bluefish. 

Saturday was sunny and calm, unlike Friday’s 20-mph winds. I was hoping the fish would prefer the sunnier weather, as I did. We cast on and off for a couple of hours. I switched between a pink and yellow Hellfire X, a Kastmaster, and a pink and white Coltsniper jig. 

We watched plenty of boat fisherman with rods bending and fish being pulled in. They were so close we could almost cast to them. We could certainly see them clearly — every single time they hooked up.

Finally, just after high noon, I felt that beautiful hit on the line. My rod bent and the fish ran. And ran. I knew I’d checked my drag, so the fish wasn’t a rat blue.

When he finally jumped, I saw he had some size. I got him close to the beach, and he turned and took a short run. The fight to get him in, I’m fairly certain, felt longer than it actually was. But it was worth it. The fish was big. Rich Mann helped me weigh him. 14.29 pounds.

I posed for a few pictures, and then released him back into the water. That blue barely got 10 feet from shore when a shark ate him. 

Just like that, we knew why the fishing was slow from shore, but good for the nearby boaters. Simple answer: All of Jaws’ relatives showed up for the 50th anniversary. 

Chappy is known for an abundance of brown sharks, who normally arrive in late July or early August. Not this year. Last week, one of the guys was reeling in a bluefish, and suddenly a shark was stealing a snack.

On Saturday, there seemed to be a line of delineation in the water. On one side of the line, where the boats were, there were bluefish. On the other side of the line, close to shore, there were sharks.

According to Jaws’ Mayor Vaughn, “You yell ‘shark,’ we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.” That may be true of great white off State Beach, but if you yell shark on Chappy, most fishermen are grabbing their rods and hunks of fresh bait.

After the shark ate my blue, nearly every one of the guys put a shark line in the water. Tony Dagostino’s rod bent first, and the shouts went up. We were celebrating the “Jaws” 50th anniversary with real sharks, and they were all released. Chief Brody didn’t need to shoot an air tank. 

While most of us on the beach had been shark fishing before, Dan Sentementes hadn’t. Dan has been visiting his Island friends Donald and Michelle Scarpone and fishing Chappy for decades, but he’d never been on Island when the sharks were in. Saturday was his lucky day. He landed his first brown shark, a real beauty, too.

“What an adrenaline rush to feel the power of a large fish on the line, and hear friends cheering for you,” said Dan, who lives in Putnam, Conn.

“When I was younger, I didn’t know how to swim, and had a fear of the water and of sharks. It was exciting running in the water and dragging the shark out by the tail, then unhooking it, and releasing it alive.”

“What an experience! I can’t wait to do it again,” said Dan, adding, “And to do it on the 50th anniversary of the movie ‘Jaws’ made it a more special memory.”

Personally, I didn’t catch a shark on Saturday, because I had to leave the beach to catch another shark — The Shark. Some friends and I went to the “Jaws” screening with the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra at the Winnetu. It was a fin-tastic event.

I hope to see you on the beach, and I hope the sharks are farther out and the blues are jumping on our lines.