Fishing for Solace

You owe it to yourself to read this excerpt from David Kinney's The Big One.

Wendy Jenkinson always let her husband, Patrick, join the Vineyard's big fishing derby. But then she got sick. Could it ever be the same for him? LINK (Via:The Boston Globe)

For those of you not familiar with Kinney's book, it is a behind the scenes look at the annual Martha's Vineyard Stiriper and Bluefish Derby. The book's cover shot is Patagonia Fly Fishing Ambassador Dave Skok's. who is a two time winner and the only fly fisheman in the sixty year history to win the grand prize.

Grown men have cried over the derby. They have ignored their wives for week after week, sleepwalked through work day after day, stayed up all night long, skipped out on their jobs altogether, drawn unemployment, burned through every last day of their vacation time, downed NoDoz and Red Bull and God knows what else. They have spied on their rivals and lied to their friends. They have told off strangers and cheated like lowlife bums. If you believe the conspiracy theorists, they have prosecuted bogus charges of rules breaking to get their adversaries tossed from the competition. People have died fishing the thing.

Martha’s Vineyard is renowned for its exclusive shoreline and celebrity inhabitants, but each September, after the tourists clear out, thousands of fishermen take back the beaches to compete in the island’s annual striped bass and bluefish derby, a madcap contest that pits plumbers against investment bankers, schoolkids against senior citizens, and natives against newcomers in a round-the-clock hunt for a great fish.

Island immortality is at stake, and history has proven that anyone can win it: teenage girls, dozing fishermen, complete amateurs.

LINK

Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios has picked up the film rights to The Big One, and is working with producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the duo behind Transformers) to bring it to the screen.

LINK