Sports
Daylight is on the wane, temperatures are dipping and beaches are emptying, but on the high school athletic fields the fall sports season is just starting to heat up.
As one Vineyard sports fan put it this week, “The leaves are turning, the busy season is over, and there is high school football on Saturday and the Patriots on Sunday . . . not to mention the Red Sox are going to the playoffs . . . it’s the most magical time of the year.”
With well over 2,000 fishermen competing in the 62nd annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, the contest is now on the home stretch.
More than 13,000 pounds of striped bass, bluefish, bonito and false albacore have been weighed in at the derby headquarters so far.
Last weekend the evidence of interest could be seen along Vineyard shores, all populated by anglers with gear. The flat waters from Chappaquiddick to Aquinnah were crisscrossed with boiling waves from fast boats, driven by intent anglers.
The Vineyarders and Whalers renewed their long rivalry on the soccer field this past week. The boys’ team traveled to the Grey Lady to turn back a hostile crowd and defeat a talented team, while the girls lost a tight yet ultimately frustrating game to the Whalers at home.
After defeating the Whalers last week, the boys’ golf team followed with an up-and-down week, beating Mashpee on the road, losing a nail-biter to Old Rochester at home and then winning a match at Sturgis.
As the Chilmark shellfish department wraps up its first summer, efforts at spearheading restoration projects have been successful. Selectman Warren Doty, chairman of the board and liaison to the department, reported a low mortality rate among planted scallops and a very high production rate.
“It has been a very successful season,” he said.
To date, 100,000 scallop seed have been set to grow in an upweller, purchased by the town this spring and located in Menemsha, as well as in spat bags and pearl nets.
Weather was a big factor in creating memories in this past Saturday’s annual Pat West Gaff Rig Race. A squall line came through that will be talked about for years to come.
Three schooners were the top winners in the race.
The Island-built 65-foot schooner Juno, captained by Scott DiBiaso, won the race on both corrected time and elapsed time. The vessel completed the race in 2 hours 44 minutes and 8 seconds.
Island fish, like Island tourists, come and go with the seasons. Striped bass, bluefish, false albacore, bonito and scup and summer flounder all migrate.
Yet there is one species of fish that once were caught here year-round. Winter flounder stayed in Island waters through the changing seasons.
Next week the Chilmark Public Library is hosting a forum with a top New England authority on the raising of juvenile winter flounder.