This morning, you could have seen the smallest wavelet left by a fish at the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority wharf. The water was a flat calm, and mirrored the overhead deep blue sky. The sun cast long shadows across the wharf and more than 200 youngsters stood along the rails trying to catch fish.

Steve Amaral came in this morning to weigh in his own 18.15-pound striper as well as Michael Alwardt’s striper, a 17-pound fish. The two men have fished together for 17 years.

Mr. Amaral, of Oak Bluffs, 72, has fished 62 of the 63 derbies. One of the most respected shore striped bass fishermen around, he was named to the derby hall of fame last year. He said he caught his fish Sunday night sometime between 6 and 9 p.m. at the South Shore. The air was calm, the seas were the same. The men were fishing with eels.

Saturday night, an hour before sundown. The ferocious northeast wind from the day before has died, the only reminder a thick blanket of seaweed covering the rocky north shore. My friend and I are fishing. He has entered the derby; I have not. We trade off using two rods, one big, one small. The small rod has a sluggo, apparently the lure of choice for catching bass this year, the large one a popper.

Another lone fisherman stands in the rocks several hundred yards away. We can hear the quiet whine of his reel as he casts far out into the setting sun.

Today is bluefish Saturday. Participating fishermen have an opportunity to win $500 if they catch the biggest fish today in a boat, and there is another $500 for the angler who catches the biggest bluefish from the shore.

Community Supported Agriculture, the popular organic Island vegetable cooperative at Whippoorwill Farm, is on the rocks again, this time because of a business plan that has failed.