Martha's Vineyard Derby 2014

[Romo]

This is a late report and I know this is a little north for you guys but I went up to fish the MV derby last week of September. Albies and bonito were all over the island the week I was up there. I landed 6 albies that week, half from my kayak and half from shore. Never seen more albies in my life but they just wouldn't touch anything until I went down to 10 lb flouro and then I really had to play them out and lost quite a few to break offs.

While the albies weren't showing I was dropping my jig down in front of inlets and catching all kinds of fish. It was a really awesome trip and I was leading the kayak division for albies from day 2 of the derby until 4 days before it ended. So close. Unbelievable how much life is in the water up there. It amazes me every time I go up. Here's some pics to get you through this windy weekend!

[Cowpokey]

Very cool! Albacore and bonito are on my bucket list, bet the put up quite a fight.

[echo5oscar]

My father in law's father in law has won the derby 2 or 3 different times.

[AbuMasgouf]

That's really awesome!

Will have to definitely put that on the calendar for next year!

Thanks for sharing Romo.

[sparky1423]

Great job Romo, that's a nice spread of fish!

[mweber02]

Nice looking variety there! I wish we had the same water quality down here in MD to bring in more fish.

[YaknBass]

thanks for the report!! very nice pic's congrats on a great trip north!!

[Romo]

Thanks! It's an incredible place and I highly recommend getting up there to fish the derby if you can! It makes fishing down here seem dismal. My fishfinder was full of waves of sand eels and bay anchovies constantly.



The local food is amazing



And so are the sunsets

[AbuMasgouf]

What kind of jigging spoon is that in the picture? I see you had a different one for shore fishing.

I don't have much experience about spoons (others might not either), care to give some advice?

[Pc4sun]

Thanks for sharing your excellent adventure with beautiful photos. I spent many summers growing up in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and have fond memories of the wicked fishing.

[Romo]

Glad to hear there's some other people out there who know about this place. As for the spoons I was using a deadly dick mainly from shore just for casting distance. For some reason at the spot I was shore fishing the Albies weren't too picky about the jig size so I was using a large 1 oz deadly dick.

I was fishing different inlets in the hobie and there the fish were much much pickier. I spent an entire day casting into pods of breaking fish with no hookups before I went down to 10 lb flouro and much smaller 1/4 oz hogy epoxie jigs. They have incredible sight so I think that really made the difference. That, and slowing down my retrieve. The biggest mistake people make fishing for Albies is burning their jigs in as fast as possible. They will hit lures retrieved at a moderate speed much more consistently. Also, all but 1 of my fish were caught blind casting. The breaking fish are much harder to fool probably because they're so keyed in on the bait they're chasing.

[echo5oscar]

How much was the ferry over?

[AbuMasgouf]

Thanks for the info bro!

[Romo]

The ferry ain't cheap. My Tacoma cost extra for being long and having the kayak on top so for just me it was about $180 round trip. Passengers are an extra $20 or so. Housing gets cheaper the later into the derby you go. I was able to stay at a place my parents were renting for the first two nights and then just lived out of my truck like a vagabond for the next five days. My back wasn't too happy with me so definitely will be getting a house for next year.

[echo5oscar]

Thanks. I was going to go up and fish with my F-I-L but didn't have anymore vacation days to fish. I'm going to go up next year for sure.