Night of the Living Bass Heads

"If you see anything big in the water, let us know," said a solemn-faced young girl who was standing near me in the waters of State Beach. Her brother was close at hand, scrutinizing the water. Let me remind you that Martha's Vineyard is the location where "Jaws" was filmed, so the idea of "anything big in the water" is a bit troubling to me.
Thankfully, the kids were not hunting a Great White Shark; they were pursuing an impressive bass that must have easily weighed 15 pounds. Unfortunately, they were hunting him with almost comically small plastic nets that would have been more appropriate for hunting butterflies. "The Deadliest Catch," it was not.
I spotted the bass almost immediately and alerted the siblings, who scampered through the shallow water to track it down. The bass, of course, easily eluded them. It even seemed to be teasing them, swimming within a foot of their nets and then making an abrupt turn to take them off in another direction. I did not stick around for the finale of this particular fishing expedition, but I seriously doubt the kids dined on bass last night.
State Beach, located on the coast of Oak Bluffs, is a fascinating place to spend a warm afternoon. The water is so heavy with salt that you can practically float on the surface simply by laying down on the water. The waves are mild, unlike the roaring surf of South Beach. And State Beach is also the site of The Inkwell, the area of beach once populated almost exclusively by African-American vacationers. Although the term may sound vaguely derogatory, it's still widely used by people of all races in Oak Bluffs. "We're not actually in The Inkwell, we're just outside it," a black woman told a friend on the phone who was trying to locate her.
At least on this particular afternoon, The Inkwell looked much more like The Melting Pot, as sunbathers of all colors and nationalities gathered to enjoy a perfect day of brilliant sunshine and reasonably warm waters. And that elusive bass, of course.