Good article Ross. Thanks for posting.

The author talks about the "true meaning of the Derby". He should go out with Rick Hern. Rick was the first person to get me to wetsuit by letting me wear one of his wetsuits and borrowing one of his Nautils (of course he didn't tell me until later that he peed in the wetsuit).

When Jim knew that if he was able to weigh in a Bluefish, he would take over the Grand Slam lead, Rick prob. spent the next 30 hours of fishing trying to catch Jim a Blue - fishing certain spots he wouldn't fish if we was trying to catch a Bass, catching Squid, netting other bait fish and transporting them in a livewell to certain spots, chunking and making sure to never touch the rods if a fish was hitting them so Jim could hook and land the fish, etc. etc. If anyone knows Rick you know he wanted to Bass fish as much as anyone but sacrificing to help a friend was more important to him (and that is why I lie to him and kid him by saying that he is a better guide than a fisherman). I saw a kid come up to him and start talking about squiding as I don't think he was catching any. About 3 min. later I see Rick handing the kid a bunch of his home made squid jigs.

I could give you many, many more examples.

Great Article on the lady (Mary Ann) who is leading the shore albie....


some classy stuff happening ....


http://www.mvtimes.com/2014/10/15/go...mary-ann-well/

Thanks Paul for the nice words. I had a reason for helping Jim since he was my teammate. You, on the other hand, sacrificed a good portion of your Derby tagging along with us. Thank you for your understanding and I hope you take some satisfaction in Jim's slam.

thanks Rick for the invite. was an awesome time fishing and hanging out with you guys.

heres a little Albie pornAttachment 59911

Attachment 59912

i have some great pics ill put up and some great highlights

after its all over

needless to say - im grateful to supportive friends and teammates.

Ive been a beneficiary of the largesse of others, and hopefully from being a student of the game

im humbled by even standing in the company of some of the best anglers in the game

I've come to realize that as much of an individual effort as it is, its more of a team effort

thanks to all of you I have learned from- whether this results in awards or not.

Thats the least important part of all of this..... im a wealthy man from what i have learned, and from meeting many of you

Jim👍☀️🌊🇺🇸
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

awesome accomplishment!

Bluefish sweep the key ceremony! Congrats to all that fished The Derby, you all win... Good posts in this thread, exactly what the derby is all about...

I've been thinking lately that I wish the Derby Committee would either raise the SB minimum limit or stop the dailies like the albies, but with the weigh in #s down, I'm not sure how they have to address it yet. I'm actually hoping the weigh in numbers dropped higher proportionally than the catch numbers, indicating a bit of restraint on the anglers part...
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Back from the vineyard, in what was a fairly uneventful derby by most peoples standards. Met several people who live on Chappy year round, who started giving me bits and pieces of fishing info. Making connections is almost as good as catching, but not quite. Caught a dozen or so albies, one a new PB for the smallest albie I ever caught. Worked harx to dredge up one bluefish. The derby thrill happened early one evening when a seagul flew into my fishing line as I was chunking on an east facing beach. After throwing a towel and jacket over the gul, and attempting to save my power pro line, that was wrapped around two wings and one leg, my second rod bends over hard and gets yank out of the rod holder. That other rod then starts heading down the sand into the trough. By the time I stopped stumbling over myself and my waders, and picked up the rod whose top 1/4 was now wet, I yanked it back to set the hook, but the fish was gone. My first thought was, this better not be the 2014 derby thrill. Its not always the catching though, its the entire journey. Every morning driving the trails I saw anywhere from 3 to 20 deer, all healthy, all does. We've already reserved the house for next year. Peace.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Hey Frank, the Derby is filled with "what If's" Jim and I were lamenting that had we stayed and fished closer to you that night, we would have been able to help with the bird and you may have caught that fish(which was surely a 17.87 bluefish).

Wait 'til next year.

Another Derby has indeed come and gone. It really is less about the fish and more about the friends for me however it was awesome to once again get into the bonito, even if it was from the boat. We definitely were hindered by the wind but were able to spend enough hours on the water to make the cost of bringing it over worth it. Besides the return of good numbers of bonito it was also great to share a night with Surfpirate, my brother Ronnie and take old man Johnny squidding. Its been a loooong time since I had 100 squid in the bucket but we got them this year in just one night. We spent most of our time throwing eels at no bass along the Elizabeth's. I was shocked that we never once got a hit. Just shows how few Stripers are around compared to prior years. All in all a great week and plans for next year are already underway. Really missed Rphud who had circumstances out of his control prevent him form using his bed.

I had my 2014 Derby moment on the back side of Nantucket. Trolling a sand eel umbrella through a beautiful rip that shall remain nameless we hooked a fish that had the "almost" locked down 4/0 Senator screaming. 30 feet out we started thinking we had a decent Bass because of the sandy brown color and fat body. 20 feet out and "HOLY SH#&T" that's a giant Bluefish. I have won multiple tournaments with 14-16 pound bluefish and haven't seen one larger in many many years. When it simply opened its mouth and spit the rig at about 8 feet from the boat it sort of twisted there for a moment in time. SurfPirate took a failed shot at it with the net but it was just out of reach. We clearly saw that the both the head and tail were outside the 34" width of the net. I guarantee this fish was well over 15. How big we will never know but it was from a spot at a time when true monsters are known to be harvested. As my old friend Bells from the Island said to me, it just wasn't my time..YET. Eventually its gonna happen and until then Ill just enjoy the journey.

:kewl:

Great job Jim, very happy for you.
Fish or no fish, it's always a good time when in good company, never mind showing them up....:rotf2: