Schoolboy Weighs in Derby’s Biggest Bonito Yet

If his big bonito holds the lead through the derby's end, 11-year-old Wyatt Jenkinson will have wait five years to drive his prize.

Monday night, a young angler moved in amid the grand leaders of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. Wyatt A. Jenkinson, 11, of Chilmark, a West Tisbury elementary school student, caught a 9.71-pound Atlantic bonito, the largest bonito caught in the derby so far. The young angler’s fish is huge, heavier than the biggest fish weighed in last year. If it lasts, the junior fisherman could win a truck. Wyatt was fishing with his father, Patrick, in the boat Wyknott. Joanie Jenkinson, West Tisbury animal control officer and Wyatt’s grandmother, said she and her husband Patrick, a lobsterman, received a cell phone call from the young angler midmorning on Monday, reporting that he had caught the fish. “He wanted us to come down to the weigh-in station later in the day, because he had caught the big bonito,” Mrs. Jenkinson said.   Ann M. Howes of West Tisbury, who works for the derby, saw the boy walk into the headquarters with his fish. She said the crowd cheered when Mr. Jenkinson’s fish hit the scale at 8:19 p.m. Mrs. Jenkinson said of event: “I didn’t realize the enormity until we got to the weigh-in.” Wyatt won a mystery prize for his fish. She said of her son and grandson: “Those two have been putting the time in together.” She said her grandson loves fishing first, then hockey. 

UPDATE: David Kinney, author of the derby book “The Big One”, the film rights to which were recently sold to Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks, has an excellent post on his blog that recounts his personal experience fishing with Wyatt and his father Patrick in the 2007 derby. Check it out here:

www.davidkinney.net/news/2009/10/junior-fisherman-major-league-bonito/