This is a picture from one of our previous trips. We NAILED the Bass that year. These fish are all 40" plus! Of course in my confusion to set this picture up in the total blackness out on Wasque, I was the one who holds his fish sandy side to the camera.Monday 10/13
The Blues Brothers Ride Again!
Much to Gail's dismay, I am off to the Vineyard for a week of fishing with the guys. I am keeping everyone posted just to rub it in a little! We'll be fishing the Martha's Vineyard Stripped Bass and Bluefish derby again this year. We have been going to the Vineyard for this trip since '93.
We missed the Vineyard last year to visit our newest team member Billy on his home turf down in North Carolina. Of course it was the best Derby on record since we were not there!
It was a nice change in pace as I have never been fishing in my bathing suit in the water in October around here.
The report for this year is not looking good as all the bait fish seem to be gone. We can keep our fingers crossed though for a late run.
Tuesday 10/14
What a great house we have this time check out our back yard!
We spent the first couple of hours here snagging fresh scallops from the "back yard" = )
Here are the boys prepping the first dinner.
We spent a little time on the east beach casting but we were just killing time waiting to get into the house.
Just a small schoolie from the kayak off the back of the house but a fish none the less. Did not have the camera with me in the kayak so, sorry, no pics = (
Wednesday 10/15
Here is Billy hanging out enjoying the view this morning from our back porch.
Dragging an eel this morning from the canoe and WHAM! This thing towed me around like a water skier =)
Thursday 10/16
No fish today. We just hung around the house for the first part of the day and fished then headed out and visited Menemsha and Lucy Vincent Beach
We went out to Cape Poge and rolled the beach all day. Stopped for lunch up toward the lighthouse.
Here is Bri cooking it up.
On our way back we saw some Albies breaking on the inside of the gut, but no luck snagging them.
As it turns out, we would have better luck in our back yard again...
He snagged this one from the shore on a drifting eel. He is pumped. This is a big fish where he comes from.
Friday 10/17
Last night I went out again to the inlet and fished until 4 AM. Saw some fish being caught, but I could not get one on. I will need to get some sleep or I will fall over.
The kayak trip back to the house was simply beautiful though. Stars, moon, a couple of clouds.....I just laid back and floated there with my MP3 player.
We have been fishing out by our place in the morning and in the evening with no luck.
We pulled up to Squibnocket beach today for lunch and fished the majority of the day with no luck.
Sunny days are always a good time for some cut bait on the bottom (lazy man fishing).
We got a little rest in too. = )
Rick jumped in and went body surfing.
Brian learned some oil painting from a local artist.
On the way back to the house, Billy stopped in to pay his respects to the infamous John Belushi.
Home finally....Nappy Time
Saturday 10/18
Hi Matthew and Steven !! I finally got to sleep in a little today. Rick started cooking up some pasta sauce for dinner later.
Around lunch time the boys saddled up and headed for Gay Head. I decided to stay local and fish the Tashmoo inlet for the rest of the day. The tide would be going out all afternoon and this would be the last chance that I would have to catch another fish to enter into the derby. Despite my best efforts, I could not land another fish to enter. I wanted to go out trying. According to everything we have been hearing, we have been very lucky to catch what we did. Hey, it was cool to be on a very short list on the Derbies website, Check it out! about half way done the page.
Bri Billy and Rick went out and visited Gay Head Lighthouse and showed Billy the other end of the island. 
Later they met up with me at the inlet and along the way the stopped in and visited Diane Saywer's house.
Sunday 10/19
Another trip (and Derby) for the books...
So last night Rick and I went down for the last hour of the derby weigh-in and watched as they rang the official closing bell for the 2008 Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Blue Fish Derby. It proved to be one of the slowest derbies on record. We did pretty good considering they were recording days with NO fish being caught.
We went to the Awards Ceremony by the MV airport and watch two lucky overall winners out of 8 take home a new truck and a new boat.
We ended the trip as we always do, shopping for gifts for the family.
On the way over to Oak Bluffs we ran into a bunch of kite boarders on the inner bay of East Beach.
The wind was sooooo crazy out of the Northeast, these guys were jumping like 30 feet off the water.
I was really bumming that I did not have my camera bag in the car. If I did, I would have been there for hours.
When we did finally drive into Oak Bluffs, the waves were crashing over the sea wall and flooding the road.Brian was freaking out as the salt water was battering his clean car = )
Luckily, Billy lent me his camera and I was able to grab these shots.
Man!, we have been busy little photographers lately.
