The colder weather heated up the fourth week of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. Shore fishermen caught more fish, and boaters didn’t have to motor all the way over to Nantucket to catch sizable fish.
The hottest location on the Vineyard, though, has been less than a mile from Derby headquarters in Edgartown: a short walk up Main Street, past all the shops, past Lucky Hank’s, where one could stop in for the best cod cakes to fuel more Derby casting, and then a left into Larry’s Tackle Shop.
Yes, Larry’s Tackle Shop. Were you anticipating a spa and sauna? Or a secret fishing location reveal? Dream on!
Though you can buy the same gear at every tackle shop on the Island, whatever Peter and Melissa Sliwkowski have over at Larry’s, the rest of us need more of it. Since Day One of the 80th Derby, everyone working at Larry’s has been celebrating, and perhaps holding their breath a bit as well. Sam Bell, who worked at Larry’s for years, landed his 18.66-pound boat false albacore that first Sunday, and it is still in first place a month later.
Exactly four weeks after Sam weighed in a Grand Leader, Peter cheered, and was on the phone with Melissa as his 23-year-old cousin Brody Valentine weighed in the new Shore Bonito Grand Leader (9.47 pounds). Even better, the new Grand Leader was Brody’s first bonito ever, and his first Derby weighable.
I was working filet duty when Brody brought in his fish. I heard the shouts from inside headquarters and got ready. Out walked a young man with a big, beautiful bonito. He took some pictures, and then I sliced the bone open. The stomach was completely empty, not a single sand eel or silverside. He must have been starving when he hit Brody’s lure.
“It just blew it up. A big splash, and I thought, Holy s___! It ran to the right. My cousins, Bob and James, were there. The line almost clotheslined them. They saw it and ran out of the water,” said Brody, who was named after Chief Brody in “Jaws.”
Brody, from Delaware, is in grad school at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. He majored in criminal justice as an undergrad at Salve, and is now studying cybersecurity for a master’s. He played baseball for four years in college, and couldn’t take time off during the fall season to fish the Derby. The 80th Derby is his third, and will probably be a lifetime memory.
Brody left Derby headquarters with celebratory dinner plans. “We’re gonna eat it. Melissa will do her magic,” said Brody’s dad, Mike.
With two Grand Leaders in the shop, as well as Sam in first and store manager Julian Pepper in second (18.35 pounds) behind Sam, Peter has reeled in his own successes. He currently leads the Shore Triple Crown (31.13 pounds total), and is third in the Shore Team competition with his teammate John Piekos.
“It’s my first Triple ever,” said Peter. “I’ve been chasing the Grand Slam and Triple Crown my whole Derby career. It was always about getting bone, then the past two years, I’ve gotten a bone. Last year, I couldn’t get an albie.
“I went to the bluefish blitz,” he continued. “Massive fish after massive fish. When it ended, we moved down the beach. The north wind was ripping, absolutely ripping. I just kept casting. The fish hit. I almost had a seizure. I kept thinking, ‘Don’t [screw] it up.’ The fish ran down the beach. I didn’t give it any slack. I was back in the dunes walking it back,” said Peter, adding with a laugh, “My wife thought I was going to die on the spot. I fulfilled my goal. Nothing else to live for.”
With all the daily pins earned among Larry’s crowd, and potential Derby stage moments to come, Peter and Melissa have one special memory that’s far better than a daily pin: Their 4½-year-old grandson Theo weighed in his first fish, a 3.89-pound bonito.
“Theo came to the Island on Friday,” said Peter. “We told him that we’d take him down to the harbor. Melissa had spent the summer teaching him how to cast. I gave him my first albie rod, a 30-plus-year-old St. Croix that’s a little whippy. I put tape on his finger. On his fourth cast, the line just went right. I was like, Oh my gosh, he’s on.
“It was unbelievable,” said Peter. “The Derby’s done. We had our moment.”
Ironically, Theo caught his bonito in the same location Melissa, his Mimi, caught her last bonito 30 years ago, using the same rod, with her son Matthew, Theo’s dad, watching.
“Melissa called Theo’s fish ‘the Derby miracle,’” said Peter. “He got a first-place daily, a weekly, a mystery [prize], and his First Fish pin.”
If you wanted to see miracles, and Grand Leaders, you needed to be at Derby headquarters last Thursday night. As Peter mentioned, there was a bluefish blitz last week. It lasted all of two hours, but if you were on Chappy then, you probably caught a couple of blues easily weighing more than 15 pounds.
I went to weigh-in, because I knew my buddy Chris Tuccelli was bringing in a contender. When weigh-in opened, big blues were on the table. Leila Gardner moved into the Shore Bluefish Grand Leader position with her 16.29-pound blue. Thirteen minutes and many blues later, Justin Poole took over the leaderboard with his 16.94-pound blue.
Justin’s lead lasted all of three minutes, until Chris Tuccelli put his fish on the table. Weighing in at 16.96 pounds, Chris’ blue bested Justin’s by 0.02 pounds. Incredible! We were all standing outside, talking and taking pictures with Chris and Justin, when we heard shouts from inside headquarters.
We figured it was a new boat leader. We were wrong. Chris Hall walked out the door holding a 17.71-pound bluefish, the new Shore Grand Leader. We’ve had at least 10 17-plus-pound shore leaders over the history of the Derby, including Abe Williams’ 20.58-pounder in 1998 and Lori Vanderlaske’s 18.69-pound shore blue on the fly rod in 1995.
Chris didn’t have time to take his boat out last Thursday, so he bought some bait from Steve Morris at Dick’s Bait and Tackle Shop, and went chunking on Chappy. “I’ve been doing this for a long time now. I always wanted to win. When I landed my fish, I had my fingers crossed that this would be the one,” said Chris, who went out to dinner at Rockfish with a bunch of friends before they all walked down to headquarters.
“I checked the leaderboard a couple of times during dinner. When I saw the big fish, I thought this might not be my year. When [my blue] went on the scale, I was like, ‘WOW!’ It was so much fun. I was crying.
“Ninety percent of the time I’m on the boat, but I’ll do whatever it takes to fish,” said Chris. “I’m an obsessed fisherman.”
Chris is a financial advisor for Raymond James. He lives on-Island from May through the Derby, then he and his wife transition back to Providence. Chris is off-Island until Wednesday night for business, then he’ll be back fishing hard.
“Even if I don’t win, I’ll have that moment forever,” said Chris, who has a meeting in Charleston, S.C., on Monday morning. If he holds the Grand Leader position, “I might have to reschedule.”
Derby moments
The Derby is only 35 days long, but within those 35 days there are quality moments that can last a lifetime. During the fourth week of the Derby, I had the great pleasure of meeting Ed Moore and Scott Cole of Veterans Fishing Adventure.
Derby Grand Prize sponsor Greg Hopkins, owner of Eastern Boats, invited Ed and Scott to fish the Derby. They drove up from Maryland on Thursday, trailering 4 Freedom, their retrofitted Eastern Boats 248 Explorer. Ed and Scott launched 4 Freedom in Falmouth and motored over to Edgartown to dock by Derby headquarters.
On Friday, Greg took the wheel and drove Ed, Scott, and Greg’s daughter Ellie to the waters off Chappaquiddick. They got into some nice blues, and Ellie showed the guys how it was done, landing the biggest fish of the day at 15.16 pounds. Ellie took home a first-place daily and lots of smiles and congratulations.
“It’s my biggest bluefish ever. It hit and then it took off. I would get it close to the boat, and then it would go down. It was a battle,” said Ellie, 13, who told her mom she “cried happy tears” when they arrived on-Island last Thursday.
Ellie loves fishing, second only to basketball. She plays point guard, but not for her middle school team. “I’m in middle school, but I play for my high school varsity team,” said Ellie, who hopes to catch a Triple Crown next year.
I was thrilled for Ellie, and equally thrilled that Ed and Scott fished the Derby. Veterans Fishing Adventure takes veterans fishing year-round. They have eight boats and average three trips a week. They target blue catfish, which can easily weigh over 50 pounds.
“It’s all about fishing, and it has nothing to do with fishing,” said Ed. “It’s free to vets and their families. We use fishing as a tool, especially if they have PTSD or other challenges.”
Scott, who is an Air Force brat and a police officer in Virginia, captains one of the eight boats for VFA. “We fish for catfish. They are heavy, bigger than the bluefish we caught, but they don’t fight. The fight these guys gave, the give-and-take, it was fantastic,” said Scott after landing his first blue.
I hope we see more vets and families from VFA at next year’s 81st Derby. Until then, you can read about Veterans Fishing Adventure at veteransfishingadventure.org
I’m heading out to fish now in the wind and rain. We shall see what the fishing is like after the nor’easter. My Chappy intel told me that 90-year-old Ed Amaral was the last person casting on Chappy on Sunday before TTOR closed the beaches. Let’s hope for clear water, fair winds, and following seas for the last few days of the 80th Derby.
I hope to see you on the beach, better yet at weigh-in, and definitely at the Derby Awards Ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 11 am at Farm Neck.
Chris Hall is one of the most generous kind (and hilarious) people I know. So happy for him!
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