What a weekend!

[rickhern]

I apologize in advance if this gets long, but I with my memory seeming to get worse every day, I want something to refer back to.

After a tough couple, losing my dog, my Dad and my desire to fish, this weekend came at just the right time. This was my Son and my 2nd Annual MV Weekend. We were on South Beach last year when we heard the tragic news of Bobby's passing and his thoughts were with us this weekend.

I picked Anthony up early from school at 1:00 on Friday. I always remember how cool it was to get dismissed early, especially to go fishing. We went to the Town Spa and split a pizza before heading for Woods Hole(note to self - better start ordering 2 pizza's!).

We sat in standby for a bit but made it over just in time to register for the Derby. He gets number 355, I am 356.

"What color hat do you want this year Pal?"

"Whatever color you get." Tan it is.

We head over to Memorial Wharf to scout out the bait situation. There isn't much going on so we decide it's time to watch a DVD and relax. I have the airmattress all set in the back of the 'Burban, loads of blankets and pillows. We start watching "Green Lantern" and the next thing I know I am waking up at 1:30am and he is sound asleep next to me. The plan was to try to jig a few squid to put on the bottom in the morning in hopes of getting him a pin. When I walk over to the edge of the wharf and look down, there is a 12-15# Bass swimming a foot along the edge. Then she is joined by 2 others! I drop the squid jig down and the big one turns quickly for a peak but decides against a snack. I need to get ANTHONY!

He is slow to wake but amazed as we watch the fish swim in circles, a foot under the water, at our feet. I try a small swimmer but they have no interest. I quickly jig up a squid and pin it to a small treble and drop it in front of the bass but they don't even acknowledge it. Over and over, the squid is going nuts but the bass won't eat. I jig up a tasty little 3" squid bt they refuse that as well. Out of frustration, we lob a squid out into the current and I feel a take. I give the rod to Anth, tells him to reel and set the hook and 2# bluefish comes shooting out of the water. He almost reeled it thru the eyelets! It was the biggest fish that he had caught by himself and a few mins later caught another, then was bit off on a 3rd. Very proud of his accomplishments, it was time to get back to sleep.

I drove over to South Beach with the best intentions of getting up at 5 but I was just too comfortable when the alarm sounded and crawled out at 8. We ate pancakes and sausages on the wharf then headed for the green at Oak Bluffs. We spent quite a while on the green throwing a baseball and wrestling on the grass. Darn kid is getting a bit too strong for my liking!

Next stop Lobsterville but we are too late. A few Albies had been taken earlier but it was dead now. We spent some time in the channel fishing for scup but even they wouldn't cooperate. Headed back to the Vineyard Haven Jetty to see if we could find some scup. On the way we passed a minigolf so stopped and played a quick 18.

At the Jetty, Anth caught a giant Choggie, may have been a juvi tautog. Ten we noticed some bait flying so we grabbed the ultralite and a small castmaster. Snappers were showering bait against the jetty but the first one Anth caught wasn't a snapper but rather a Jack Cravale! Very cool and quite a fight. I was so proud of him for letting another boy on the jetty make some casts with his rod as well.

Dinner was pizza(very hard to find good pizza on MV!) and we headed back to the wharf. Again we watched movies and jigged squid, getting about a dozen(they were delicious). Decided against fishing the beach because we wanted to be at the Oak Bluffs Dock by 6am for the kids tournament.

There must have been 200 kids there! There were some beautiful seabass caught, up to 20" along with some nice fluke but most of the catch were scup and it was loaded with them. Would you believe that for the longest time, we couldn't get a hit. The kid to my right had 5, to the left were a bunch, and we couldn't buy a bite. I could see the frustration in his face but told him it was part of the game. He finally got the hang of it and got 3 nice keeper scup. I literrally had tears in my eyes as we walked to the weigh in station. Though we didn't win any prizes, everyone got a teeshirt and a book on Bluefishing. Very well done event.

By now it was 9am Sunday. Our Reservation is at 9:50pm but we need to get back sooner. I contemplate getting in line and heading back but I have a gut feeling and decide to follow it. We head back to Lobsterville and luck into a parking spot just as a fellow fisherman is leaving. The place is loaded, but nothing has been going on for several hours. The jetty is packed so we walk down the beach a ways, stopping to cast every few yards. Anthony is more intent on the shells and rocks than the fishing, but that's fine. He doesn't really love fishing yet, but he does love the time we spend together so we try to make it an adventure. As we walk down the beach I change from a maria jig to a Magic Swimmer. We are about 100 yds from the next fisherman, not at all in an ideal spot, when I feel a Whack! I look up to see an albie hot on the tail of the plug not 15 yds from sure! Anthony! Look! It whacks it again and misses but on the third whack I am tight. Before the Albie even knows he is hooked, I give Anth the rod. ZZZZZ....ZZZZZZZ.......ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Must have been 50 plus yds on the first run! He is almost on his knees with the 8-1/2' stick between his legs.

"Dad....It....HURTS" It's fine, you can do it. In and out it goes for 10 mins. He finally gets it close and I grab the leader and pull it ashore. The hook, which was under his chin, drops right out!

I can't stop laughing and highfiving him. He sits down and says "I don't ever want to catch one of those again"(he later retracts that statement). He gets congrats by a dozen fishermen as we head out. It weighed 6.7 and would have been in the lead for his age group but we couldn't stay for the weigh in.

The weekend could not have worked out better. He is already looking forward to next year and I haven't stop smiling yet.