David Kadison chose the key that popped open a padlock to win a Suburu Forrester, and Paul Hoffman chose the key that won him a new center console fishing boat.
A record number of fishermen signed up for the 73rd Martha’s Vineyard Bass and Bluefish Derby. Fishing finishes today and the awards ceremony begins on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Farm Neck Golf Club.
Stories are reeled in every day at derby headquarters at the foot of Main street on the Edgartown harbor. A Gazette video captures a night at the weigh station.
Striped bass are plentiful this year and yet the big breeding females, the ones that star in the old pictures of derby fishermen straining to hold up 60-pound bass, have yet to return.
Derby fishermen, friends and family members mourned the loss of Ed Jerome, longtime president of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
Aubrey Warburton, a fourth-grader at the Oak Bluffs school, has been fishing since she was five. When talking with the Gazette this week, she wore a “Girls Kick Bass” sweatshirt.
Fishermen were hauling in plenty of stripers from shore, a total of 45 weighed in by Thursday morning. Weighmaster Mike Cassidy said it may be a sign of a healthier fish stock.