For five weeks each fall since Harry S. Truman was president, thousands of addicted anglers have lined shores and jetties and propped themselves up in boats, hoping to ease the craving of striper madness by taking part in the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
In his book "The Big One: An Island, An Obsession and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish" (Atlantic Monthly Press; $24.95), journalist David Kinney chronicles the 2007 competition, from the opening moments until the weigh station closed. For the uninitiated, he explains: "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. ... People have died fishing the thing."
