Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
Ben Morton was the Vineyarder who was the father of the Derby. It began as a way of attracting visitors after the summer season ended. It was originally sponsored by one of the ferry lines, and after that, the Chamber of Commerce took it over. A guy from NY named Gordon Pittman was the first winner, and started the tradition of having Islanders griping and making cheating accusations when an off-islander won  . From the start until 1984, the winner of the bass division was the Grand Leader at the end. I think they added bluefish as an eligible species in the second year. They later added weakfish and bonito, and finally false albacore. The Derby was indeed on the ropes in the 80s, with the decline of the bass, but the current Derby Committee was incorporated and they've run it ever since. They started the random key drawing for the Grand Prize in 1985. Bass were removed that same year as a conservation measure. Weakfish were removed around 1986-87 after a couple of years went by without one being weighed in. They put bass back in for trophy awards only for a couple of years in the early 1990s, then back as a full award-eligible species around 1995-1996 or so. They removed albies from eligibility for daily awards about 10 years ago. |
I have been looking for not the official derby booklet, but the newspaper that was also given out that had this article inside of it about how the derby began. The gent who started it was I thought a member of the surfcasters. The Chamber of Commerce took it over many years after it was a viable fishing tournament.