Derby Comes to a Ceremonious End

Pulling up the dirt road to Nectar’s on Sunday, the first things that came into view were a shiny new Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck and a sleek yellow and chrome 22-foot fishing boat. It was the final awards ceremony for the annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby, and then, as it had been for the past five weeks, all eyes were on the prizes.

Nearly 3,000 fishermen had taken to the sea and shore for the competition, in which participants compete to reel in the biggest striped bass, false albacore, bonito and bluefish. Over the course of more than a month, those thousands of anglers in a bevy of divisions—boat, shore, fly rod, junior, senior men, women and so on—were whittled down eight division leaders, four offshore fisherman and four on boats, who caught the biggest of each species. On Sunday, having earned their place on the stage, they were handed keys. Soon, they would be whittled down to two.

The Derby works like a lottery of sorts—it takes skill to make it on to the stage at the awards ceremony, but after that it’s all luck. One of the boat fishermen would win a pickup truck; one of the offshore folks would win a boat. Whoever’s key clicked in the padlock would walk away with the prize.

The packed crowd roared at Nectar’s during the event; the side doors of the venue were opened to vent some of the cheers and shouts of encouragement. Stephen “Stevie” Morris, owner of Dick’s Bait & Tackle Shop in Oak Bluffs, tried his key first.

Nothing. The crowd fell silent.

Then a twist the other way—click.

Morris jumped clear across the stage and disappeared behind the podium in the blink of an eye, headed toward his new boat.

This wasn’t Morris’s first glimpse at Derby victory. In 1983, he won the shore division with a 49.96-pound striped bass.

The prizes were markedly different back then. “Everybody always asks me, what did you win when you won in 1983? I got a pair of round-trip tickets on PBA Airlines. I got a sports jacket from Brickman’s. I got a rod and reel combo—I still got it," said Morris. "And now I got an Eastern boat.”

Next up were the boat fishermen, vying for the pickup truck. Mike Canha went first, but came up empty. Richard Penney, from Carver, followed. Penney has been fishing the Derby for the past 14 years, but he wasn’t expecting to win. When he did, he jumped in the air. Penney thanked his Island friends. “If home is where the heart is, this is my home,” he said.

Much has changed at the Derby since it began in 1946, when, Derby president Ed Jerome said, there were only 1,600 participants. And yet, tellingly, and purposefully, much has also stayed the same. It remains a hallmark event for the community, staffed by volunteers and dependent upon community sponsorship. Jerome thanked those who had made the Derby possible, and who worked to secure prizes for participants and establish a scholarship. Special praise was given to the Derby's sponsors, in particular Clay Family Dealerships and Eastern boats, which donated the two grand prizes.

In keeping with the theme of tradition, two men who have had particular influence on the Derby over the years, Nelson Sigelman and David Pothier, were inducted into the Hall of Fame of Sunday. Sigelman, who is the managing editor of the Martha’s Vineyard Times and has written a fishing column for the past two decades, called the Derby a “grand fishing reunion.”

The 2011 Derby by the Numbers

2011 Division Leaders