Rain and wind flood week two of the Derby

Just as the Derby was heating up, the fish were biting, and the leaderboard was changing like a roulette wheel in Vegas, the winds of change blew in. 

Can we collectively say, “Wow! What a weekend!”? Wind gusts over 40 mph, road flooding and closures across the Island, canceled ferries, boats docked or pulled from the water for safety, and six days of interesting fishing. 

Keith Krogslund weighed in a 5.11-pound boat bluefish on Monday, Sept. 21, and that was the last boat fish weighed during Week Two. While wind and waves kept boaters off the water, and many shore fishermen opted to stay home during the worst of the storm, there were a few dozen of us crazy enough to continue fishing. 

The wind kicked up a bit, but not horribly, on Tuesday. The breeze seemed to push more bait and a few larger hardtails closer to shore. As the doors opened at headquarters on Sept. 22, Michael Goldsmith carried in an 8.56-pound albie to take the Grand Leader position. About two minutes later, Josh Kresel placed an 8.79-pound albie on the weighmaster’s table to move into the Grand Leader position. Not quite 12 hours later, Angie Fisher showed up at headquarters with a 13.70-pound fish to claim the Shore False Albacore Grand Leader position. 

Angie is a 15th-generation Islander. She jokes that she’s “an original Wharf Rat,” named for the crew that fishes Memorial Wharf during the Derby. She’s also from a long line of fishermen who make a living on the sea. “I enjoy fishing. I really look forward to the Derby. It’s a family thing,” said Angie.

Last Tuesday, Angie was multitasking as she stood on the wharf live-lining. “I was typing on my phone, answering an email about a charter. I had my finger on the line, and my bail open. The fish hit, and I was trying to get my phone into a pocket while the fish ran,” said Angie with a chuckle. Fortunately, she secured the phone, flipped the bail, and set the hook. 

“It gave quite a fight,” said Angie. “After about 10 minutes, someone on the wharf said, ‘Do you need to tighten your drag?’ I thought my drag was tight, but then I wondered if my drag was really loose, and it was a small fish.”

The albie wasn’t small. Far from it. After measuring the fish, Angie realized her cooler wasn’t big enough. One of the guys fishing alongside Angie loaned her a fish bag, and Ron McKee gave her some ice. 

She’s held the lead for the past week throughout the storm, but Angie knows anything can happen in the next 2½ weeks. “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” said Angie, who owns Nauti Girl Excursions, providing sunset charters and private beach days from May 15 to Oct. 15. 

As the skies poured and wind roared on Friday, those of us still out there on the beaches were casting into whitewater in hopes of reeling in something other than seaweed. At one point, Oliver Valdes looked over at me and said, “This has taken the ‘F’ out of fun.” We had a good laugh and continued fishing.

There were a surprising 22 fish weighed in on Friday. One 4.53-pound bonito was caught by Tony Jackson, and one 7.04-pound albie by Jacob Batchelder. That was it for the hardtails. Of the 20 bluefish reeled in, Bill Robinson landed a 9.72-pounder to win the first-place daily pin.

With the Saturday weather predicted to be worse than Friday, the Derby committee announced that Bluefish Super Saturday would be rescheduled for Sunday, Oct. 4. Mother Nature didn’t disappoint the storm chasers. Fiercer winds and a deluge of rain all but washed Saturday away. The rain actually hurt when it pelted my face, but I fished for hours in case a Derby weighable opted to bite my lure. I found fish, and spent more than 30 minutes casting into them, changing lures multiple times, constantly reeling in silversides, but never getting a hit, never mind a tug. 

At the end of the day, only three bluefish had made an appearance at headquarters. Johnny Rogers topped the board with his 9.96-pound blue. Johnny and his teammate Kevin Seger fished daily throughout the storm.

“We love fishing in the weather. It’s when it’s the most fun,” said Johnny, 25. 

“For us, fishing in storms is our passion, especially fishing the Derby in a storm. It doesn’t get any better than that,” said Kevin.

On Sunday, the winds had died back and shifted from a north to a south wind. The rain wasn’t as hard or as drenching, but it was consistent and wet — so, so very wet. Oliver and I left the beach at lunchtime on Sunday and drove to Chilmark General Store for sustenance. We ran into Kevin and Johnny getting their lunch. Johnny had a bonito in the cooler, which completed his triple crown. We headed in opposite directions in hopes of seeing each other again later at weigh-in.

I fished through the afternoon, once again getting rained on. I didn’t see any fish at West Chop or Eastville, but decided to go to weigh-in sans fish to cheer some friends on. I ran into Kevin right after parking my truck. He had a bluefish, slightly bigger than the one he’d previously weighed in, which would up his team points.

Kevin and John, the Bozos, are a little less than two pounds behind the first-place Tongatapu team of Tyler Poole and D.J. Consolati. I’m so happy to see Kevin fishing and enjoying some success. The previous two years, Kevin did very little fishing as he struggled with some debilitating medical issues that made holding a rod, casting, and reeling in a fish impossible. “I went through so much healthwise — mentally and physically. When you have your health, you really do have everything. It’s like all the joy is back in fishing,” said Kevin, adding, “and seeing Johnny catch these fish is the best.” 

Johnny had two bonito to choose from on Sunday night: The smaller one he caught in the morning and the slightly larger one (4.85 pounds) he reeled in after lunch. After weighmaster Mike Cassidy put his fish on the scale, Johnny moved into first place in the Shore Triple Crown division, bumping Tyler Poole to second place. 

“My goal every year is to get my triple crown,” said Johnny, who had never been in the lead before.

Johnny moved to the Island with his family before he turned 1. His family moved off for a few years, then moved back nine years ago. Johnny graduated from MVRHS in 2019. He and Kevin both own boats, but they’ve been a shore team for the past five years.

“We like it from shore. We do enough boat fishing the rest of the year,” said Johnny. “And we’re not going to Nantucket.” 

As I was leaving headquarters, Bill Robinson arrived with a bonito and an albie. When I got home and checked the leaderboard, Bill had claimed the lead in the Shore Triple Crown by .05 pounds. Such a tiny amount, but more than enough to edge past Johnny.

At the close of weigh-in on Monday, Sept. 28, we had gone a full week without seeing a boat fish carried into headquarters for weigh-in. Let’s hope the seas settle, the fish return, and the boaters can safely return to the water.

As Dave Balon and I plan our fishing locations for the week ahead, I’m also hoping the rain is done, and I can leave my raincoat in the truck.

This weekend, we will have Super Saturday for false albacore and Super Sunday for bluefish. I can’t wait. Double the fun, at least 12-hour days fishing, and probably a bit of exhaustion on Monday, but who cares!

I hope to see you on the beach, and I definitely hope to see you at Derby Headquarters when I’m weighing in a fish that’s slightly bigger than yours.