“The Derby”: A Surfcaster’s Hat Trick - The Fisherman

“The Derby”: A Surfcaster’s Hat Trick

2017 9 Surcasters Hat Trick MAIN PHOTO
A favorite fishing hat from the 1960s takes a 300-mile yard sale journey before returning home thanks to the power of social media. Photo courtesy of Courtney Franko.

Not everyone wears a hat. Nor a cap. But for those who do, and for those who fish, there’s usually a favorite “head topper” for those special times, particularly the precious moments spent with rod and reel in hand.

Bill Lutz’s hat of preference for surf fishing the beaches of Long Beach Island (LBI) back in the 1960s was a houndstooth hat. “I wore it every time I surf fished,” Bill said recently, describing that brown, tattersall fedora as being very much like the one worn by Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach from Alabama.

Eighty-years-old today, he still remembers that old woolen hat that he’d festooned with LBI Striper Derby buttons dating back to the 1963 contest. The former valves and fittings sales manager from the Philadelphia area retired years ago and moved to Maryland where he’s now the official starter at Rum Pointe Golf Course outside of Ocean City. Speaking by phone back in early August, Bill said he doesn’t actually fish any longer, but still recalls fondly his time spent on Long Beach Island.

Back then, as a single man in his 20s, he would make the trip from Montgomery County in Pennsylvania to his family’s summer home on 76th Street in Harvey Cedars every chance he could. He first started fishing the “Derby” in the 1950s, but didn’t pay much attention to the small, metal buttons that were given out to tournament participants until around 1963 when he was given button #9 when registering for the fall classic at Fisherman’s Headquarters. It was a very low number considering the 2,644 anglers who had registered for the tournament that season.

“I’d only fish for a few days in the fall, but I always entered the tournament, even though I never weighed in fish,” Bill laughed over the phone, adding “it was an insurance policy, just in case I did catch something big.”

2017 9 Surcasters Hat Trick 1963
In October of 1963, James Warner of Hatboro, PA nailed this 48-pound, 3-ounce striper in the Loveladies surf for the top prize in the 9th annual Derby.

That big catch arguably would come a few years later when he met a local lifeguard and fell in love; her name was Ann Messer, and she was the very first female guard in Harvey Cedars; truth be told she was probably the very first lady lifeguard in the entire state of New Jersey! Strange as it may sound, Bill and Ann met through a mutual friend who owned the Boat House Restaurant in Beach Haven at the time; his name was also Bill Lutz (no relation) and he had dated Ann before the second Bill Lutz came a calling.

Small world I guess.

By 1980, Bill had quit collecting those commemorative Derby pins, and that old, brown hat would eventually hang around on a hook in the garage surrounded by old fishing equipment until sometime around 2000 when the Lutz family’s old cedar shake home was bought by a new family, the hat itself fading off into memory in the same way that many other of life’s little mementos seem to do – as in, it was sold at a yard sale.

“I haven’t thought about that hat for a long time,” Bill told me.

On the afternoon of August 7, 2017, a 30-year-old New York City project manager named Courtney Franko posted to Facebook a photo of a wool hat adorned with colorful metal fishing pins. “Bought this hat many years ago up in Lake George (NY) because of the LBI pins,” Courtney posted at the Remember When Long Beach Island page. “I’d love to find the owner/owner’s family or just hear stories of the Striped Bass Derby.”

“My grandfather bought me the hat in a little antique store in Lake George because it said Long Beach Island on the pins and I love hats,” Franko told me later. “My family has been going down to LBI since I was little and have owned our house in Harvey Cedars for 20 years.”

Just a few blocks away from the Lutz’s old home.

Franko said the hat’s been hanging on her own wall for the past 10 years. And as fate would have it, the Facebook group where she shared the photo, just happens to be managed by one W. Kirk Lutz, owner of Lutz Creative Group in Maryland and the son of an Ocean City golf starter named Bill.

Yes indeed, small world.

2017 9 Surcasters Hat Trick SWISSTACK
Barnegat fishing club member Taylor Swisstack enjoys a little father-daughter fishing time at Barnegat Light with her dad Rich. Every year the LBI Surf Fishing Classic donates a $500 scholarship to a local high school fishing club member.

Fifty-four years after the story began along the Jersey Shore, that hat finally made its way to Ocean City, MD to its original owner, by way of Manhattan, after having passed first through the Adirondacks 300 miles away from Harvey Cedars, NJ. “I mailed the hat out today,” Courtney told me by email on August 9. “I love the hat but I love the story more and glad it will be back with its family.”

Having been out of sight and mind for more than two decades, Bill Lutz is still a little in shock over the hat.

“I mean, my god, how did this hat survive,” he laughed over the phone as we spoke.
Personally, I couldn’t stop thinking of the line in the old Neil Young song, “like a coin that won’t get tossed, rolling home to you.” It’s a pretty lyric, but quite honestly it never really made much sense to me, until I learned about Bill Lutz’s hat.

The Derby as it’s referred to by traditionalists – known officially today as the Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic – is entering its 63rd year when it kicks off again on October 7. A lot has changed since the early days of this surfcasters only event; in 2017 for example it has been expanded from eight weeks to nine weeks to take advantage of the later run of stripers and blues. There are still thousands of dollars in daily, weekly, segment and total prizes, and yes, participants still take home a commemorative “button” to affix to their favorite hat.

Some hardcore anglers will be entering specifically to fish hard and win big. Most, however, just as Bill Lutz did, enter as “insurance” for when that big striper interrupts those special moments along this 18-mile stretch of barrier island, delivering that epic hit and run in the surf like a horse pulling hard on a heavy load.

The type of strike that makes you want to hold on to your hat.

LBI INFO REGISTRATION & WEIGH-IN
Tournament registration and weigh-ins for the 63rd annual Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic from October 7 through December 10 are at any of the four participating tackle shops, Surf City Bait & Tackle, 317 Long Beach Blvd. in Surf City (609-494-2333), Fisherman’s Headquarters, 280 W. 9th St., Ship Bottom (609-494-5739), Captain’s Quarters Bait & Tackle, 8201 Long Beach Blvd., Brighton Beach (856-313-0562) and Jingles’ Bait & Tackle, 1214 Long Beach Blvd., Beach Haven (609-492-2795).

Don’t have a favorite fishing hat? In addition to a pin, the first 750 entrants in this year’s tournament will also receive a commemorative tournament cap and a slice of Panzone’s pizza. Cost for registration is $30, just $15 for juniors 17 and under.

For more contest details and daily catch tallies go to www.lbift.com.

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