Bass by Moonlight

Off the elbow of Cape Cod, between Cuttyhunk Island and Martha's Vineyard, the elusive striped bass gallivant in frothy water. Their favorite spots are tide-ripped ledges which are practically inaccessible both to fishing boats and surf casters. For years, old salts have looked for an easier way to catch them. The citizens of Cuttyhunk finally got the answer.

Borrowing the idea from a Long Island fisherman, they built something that looked like an overgrown rowboat, but had an inboard motor powerful enough to fly a small airplane. The Cuttyhunkers' "bass boats" cost about $4,500 apiece, but in them fishermen could profitably engage in a sport that was just as delicate and more dangerous than trout fishing. The trick was to avoid the submerged rocks, and to get at the fish at the right time--either by casting or trolling by moonlight. It was like an old-fashioned coon hunt on salt water.

Last week Martha's Vineyard ended a month-long annual Striped Bass Derby. Cuttyhunkers, who once got their heads bashed if they dropped a hook in Vineyard waters (and vice versa), signed up confidently.

They had the boats and the Vineyard people didn't. Result: Vineyarders got a month's practice at casting into the surf, and Cuttyhunkers got all the big fish. The prizewinner, a fat, 47-lb. black-striper, was landed by New York Salesman Gordon Pittman in a Cuttyhunk boat, at 9:30 one night with the moon shining on the Vineyard's clay cliffs 200 yards away. It gave Cuttyhunkers, who claim that their 636-acre isle is the scene of The Tempest,* another honor to talk about.

* Cuttyhunk's case: the island was discovered in 1602 by Englishman Bartholomew" Gosnold. Shakespeare wrote The Tempest in 1611. Both Shakespeare and Gosnold had the same patron: the Earl of Southampton. Cuttyhunkers insist that Shakespeare's account of the shipwreck isle tallied with Gosnold's description of Cuttyhunk. Most Shakespeare authorities think he wrote about Bermuda.

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