Fishing

Project Summer: Week 8

Posted by Ivy

JULY 12: I went to the Edgartown Library to pick up a few books I had on hold, and there was a concert happening on the front lawn! Cell phone photo.

 

JULY 13: The next day, I photographed another concert, which featured a guitarist from Boston (my go-to writing music in the newsroom), a drummer from the James Brown Band and a session musician for Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. The light was absolutely terrible; I shot this at 1/13 of a second, ISO 3200. Yipes.

 

 

JULY 14: July 14 was perhaps one of the longest days I’ve ever had. I woke up to go into my morning job at 5:30, a half-hour earlier than normal, so I could leave early to go to a freelance assignment, which was fluke fishing. I was on the boat from 7 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m., but the last three hours were basically spent sitting on the floor of the boat completely and utterly seasick. Those open water waves will get you. After we got back, I made it home to get some food in my belly, then had a late afternoon assignment covering goats, and then had a housewarming party to stop by. I think I got home for real around 8 p.m. This photo is from pre-seasickness on the fluke boat.

 

JULY 15: Tonight I covered a Chamber Music Society concert at the Old Whaling Church. I got scolded for moving around too much while the musicians were playing, even though I was up in the balcony most of the time. Oh well. Look at that sunset!

 

JULY 16: This week’s selectmen meeting in Tisbury drew a much larger than normal number of people, all there to discuss the view at the Tashmoo Overlook. I did not know such things as “viewshed easements” existed before I started covering town government.

 

JULY 17: I took this while walking home from the bus stop in Oak Bluffs and thought it was interesting because I’d never actually stopped to look at the Camp Ground and the Tabernacle from this little hill. I was also kind of surprised that nobody else was on this path. A little slice of breathing room in OB!

 

JULY 18: I got off the bus in OB and was immediately struck by a very pressing question: what the heck are those guys doing out there in the water? Is it a meeting? An exercise class? I have no idea, but I’ve recorded it for posterity.

Kids Derby

Posted by Ivy

The 67th Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby is here!

The New York Times wrote a pretty lengthy piece on the Derby for this Sunday’s paper. Check it out; it’s a great intro to the event.

Anyway, this year I’m one of two reporters doing Derby coverage, and it’s been fantastic so far (here is a pretty lengthy piece I wrote last week about the four Derby fish). Fishermen are a bit hard to track down–since they’re always out on the boats–but they’re wonderful to talk to once you actually find them. They’re all very Hemingway-esque (shocker!), with their short, direct manners of speaking, and because fishing brings a mix of serious ego-quashing and quiet satisfaction, they have great perspective on life in general.

This morning, I covered the Kids Derby, which usually draws about 200 kiddos (and their parents) to the ferry docks in Oak Bluffs. This is the only time when the docks are used for anything other than loading and unloading passengers, and it couldn’t be for a better cause. I love seeing the youngest fishermen, the four-year-olds, rushing up to the weigh-in table clutching a teeny little scup, totally excited about the whole endeavor.