The ladies lead in Fluke for Luke

Family, friends, and fishermen of all ages gathered this past weekend to compete in the ninth annual Fluke for Luke tournament. The tournament commemorates and celebrates Luke Gurney, a commercial fisherman from Oak Bluffs who lost his life on June 20, 2016, while setting conch pots from his boat No Regrets. The easiest way to win Fluke for Luke is to spend time with people you enjoy, because that is the spirit of this great event.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sun was shining, the temperature was warm, and the wind was gentle. The Flukettes — Anna McLaughlin, Midge Jacobs, Ursula Kresky, and myself — were up before the sun and boarding Tenacious, with Capt. Ed at the helm. Let me be clear: We were not the early birds. Team Payback, led by Capt. Donny Benefit, was on the water in the wee hours of the morning. I heard reports of 1, 2, or 3 am. Don’t ask Donny, though. You’ll never get a straight answer. He’s led his team to five first-place finishes, and he isn’t giving anything away.

We got into fish as soon as we dropped our lines. Lots and lots of little fish. Sea bass, scup, sea robins, and baby fluke. We weren’t bored, but we weren’t putting anything in the cooler. This went on for an hour or so. We moved, drifted, drifted, moved, and drifted some more. Finally, Ursula reeled in a keeper fluke. Our hopes rose, and we rode that drift again and yet again. We couldn’t find another keeper fluke, but the dogfish had shown up. Every other bite seemed to be an annoying little shark stealing our bait and wasting our time. Don’t get me wrong, dogfish are cute, deceptively strong, and gave us a few laughs. But when you feel a tug on your line and you’re hoping for a fluke or a sea bass, you don’t want to see or feel your line peeling off to the left or right.

Throughout the day, we all got fish and put some in the coolers, but Ursula, our 86-year-old teammate, had the hottest rod. She caught the most fish, the biggest sea bass, and the biggest fluke. While she wasn’t in the top three at the end of the day on Saturday, our female team was thrilled to see Jena Beauregard had claimed the lead in the adult fluke division, and Martha Montesion was once again leading the adult sea bass division.

We met Capt. Ed bright and early on Sunday morning. The wind was up a bit, and it was a tad cooler, but fluke fever was running high. We fished hard. The wind died down by 9 am. Captain Ed tried a couple of new spots. We couldn’t find keeper fluke. Our team had weighed in one fluke — Ursula’s. We needed three more.

Once again, we all caught plenty of fish. We released all but a few of the sea bass, as we knew they weren’t heavier than the top three on the board from Saturday’s weigh-in. The ones we kept would be dinner on some cold night this winter when we need a reminder of summer.

After six hours of fishing hard with no fluke over 17.5 inches, we motored over to a known sea bass spot that had the potential to produce a winner. We dropped our squid and immediately had nibbles. The four of us reeled. Nothing huge, but big enough to motivate us to keep jigging.

Anna, who had the hot rod on Sunday, was reeling in another fish when she yelled, “Fluke!” She got the fish in the boat. It was absolutely a keeper. No need to measure it.

OK, we had a couple of hours left to catch two more flukes. Lines in the water, we jigged and waited. We added fresh squid, more squid, less squid. We followed that same drift multiple times. We reeled in fish. Just not fluke. 

Then Anna’s rod bent. At first tug, she thought it might be a dogfish, since it was heavier than the average sea bass we were catching. Fortunately, her line wasn’t zigging as she reeled. Finally, the fish came into view. A fluke. A decent fluke. Not a top three, but a beauty.

Now we had three flukes for our team. We needed one more. We rode that drift multiple times. Flukeless. We reeled in, stowed the rods, and headed to the dock. Time for a shower and the awards ceremony.

Joe El-Deiry began the awards ceremony with a special announcement. “The tournament has raised enough money to put Jacob and Sam [Luke and Robyn Gurney’s son] through college. We have just formed the Luke Gurney Foundation,” said El-Deiry to cheers and claps. 

“The community has been so good to us in their unwavering support,” said Robyn, Luke’s widow. “As of this year, the tournament will fund the Luke Gurney Foundation. We want to give back to the people who have given to us.

“The tournament has surpassed what I thought it would be,” said Robyn. “Luke’s life can’t be measured in years, but he obviously touched people. Everybody comes together, they share stories. It’s a happy event, not a sad one.”

Jena Beauregard had a lot to be happy about on Sunday. She’d spent two days on the water fishing, her fluke held onto first place (8.39 pounds), and her team, Three Buoys and a Gull, won the team competition for the second year in a row.

“We had a good captain,” said Jena of her partner, Julian Pepper. “He knows how to put us on a drift. We had four drifts in a row that we were on fluke.”

I asked Jena if she had a picture of her catching the fluke to share for publication in the paper. She shook her head and smiled. “No pictures. It was a quiet celebration, and we put it in the cooler,” said Jena.

“No hooting and hollering,” added Julian.

Why no pictures, no celebration? Simple: Team Three Buoys and a Gull didn’t want any nearby boats to see or hear or even think that they were on big fish. They didn’t want anybody motoring over and following their drift, potentially hooking up on a winning fish.

Jena and Julian’s teammate Patrick Martone picked up the third-place fluke (6.63 pounds) on Sunday, which helped their team to first place overall. Three Buoys and a Gull also finished first in 2022, and finished second in 2024 and 2021. When I asked Julian about his team strategy, his answer was short and sweet: “Beat Donny.”

I laughed so hard. We share that sentiment on Tenacious as well. Now Capt. Ed and Donny are brothers-in-law and best friends, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a bit of friendly (or fierce) competition going on.

I confess we had some fun chatter going on over the radio and our cell phones. When Donny mumbled some information about their location and catching that may or may not have been factual, I showed Capt. Ed a picture of a small halibut that I’d caught in Alaska two summers ago. A small halibut looks an awful lot like a winning fluke. We sent the photo to Donny. The phone rang instantly. 

Team Payback didn’t finish in the top three this year, but Martha Montesion was hotter than the Fourth of July again. For the third year in a row, Martha won the adult sea bass division (3.68 pounds).

Martha fishes with her boyfriend Donny on Payback. I don’t know if Martha is the lucky charm or if all her lucky charms are what keep her in the winner’s circle. “I wore my lucky shirt and my lucky pants. I wore my Aunt Lorraine’s Valentine socks for good luck. I also had two hearts from Trish [Bergeron] and Roy’s [Scheffer] service,” said Martha.

Martha has been fishing Fluke for Luke with Donny since 2018. She enjoys the tournament, but would be just as happy tanning on Norton Point. “I scallop. I’ll go fishing to fill our cooler for the winter, but I like to be on the beach. There’s nothing better,” said Martha.

After the awards ceremony, we went back to my house, cooked up our sea bass, sat on my deck, ate fish tacos, and talked about how blessed we are.

I hope to see you on the beach, and I hope we’re living our lives with no regrets.