iStockphoto / Daniel Smith
The 79th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby kicked off on Sunday and will run through this time next month with local anglers seeking eternal glory in the eyes of their fellow fishermen. There are daily weigh-ins at between 8-10 AM and 7-9 PM and daily awards, weekly awards, and division awards split across boat/shore and all tackle, junior, and fly-rod.
It’s a massive production that dates back to 1946 when Gordon Pitman of NYC won the first Martha’s Vineyard Derby with a 47 pound striped bass. And anglers have gotten really good over the years at targeting stripers and bluefish which is a huge reason why one angler was stunned that he hooked up with a 6-foot tarpon on the first night of derby fishing.
Richard Mann was down from Halifax to fish the Martha’s Vineyard Derby and absolutely did not expect to catch such a rare fish on night 1. He landed a 6-foot tarpon, aka the ‘Silver King,’ which is one of the most highly sought after gamefish in my home state of Florida but virtually unheard of in Martha’s Vineyard.
This tarpon obviously can’t be weighed or entered into the Martha’s Vineyard Fishing Derby but angler Richard Mann told the Vineyard Gazette that it was the fish of a lifetime. Mann said “I just cast a fresh piece of bait out, and before I could even put the rod down, I felt the fish hit the line. I picked it up, and I went, I know what that is. I know it’s not a small bluefish. I know it’s something much bigger with teeth.”
He also said they thought it was a shark and were “hooting and hollering” upon realizing it was a 6 foot tarpon.
On the one hand, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility for a tarpon to be caught in that area. In fact, in August of last year a 20-year-old angler caught a 6′ tarpon while fishing off Cape Cod. But at the same time, it really is virtually unheard of to see or catch this fish that far north in the Atlantic and at the risk of sounding alarmist I’m concerned how a fish that THRIVES in the Caribbean tropics can comfortably survive in the Northeast well into mid-September.
Ultimately, fish go wherever the bait is to be found. The best explanation is that at some point this fish kept following its food source and that took it north instead of south.
As a Floridian, it is jarring to see that big tarpon out of the water like that. It’s the law here in Florida to keep them in the water after catching them. Some say their stomach rolls if they are brought onto land. But those are fishing regulations in Florida and tarpon are so rare in Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard that the state doesn’t even list regulations for the species.