by Steve “Tuna” Tornovish
“It’s in his blood.”
“He comes by it naturally.”
How many times do we hear someone say things like this? I’m guessing that these are common refrains if you’re hanging out around the University of Texas football field, watching young Arch Manning warming up. Arch, projected to be one of college football’s better quarterbacks this season, is the son of Cooper Manning. Cooper was a football player at one time as well, destined to play for Ole Miss, but a diagnosis of spinal stenosis caused Cooper to leave the game. Cooper went on to have a successful career as an entrepreneur, a slight variation of the quarterback business.
Cooper Manning does have a couple of younger brothers, of course. They’re named Payton and Eli. Rumor has it that they were pretty good at the quarterback position as well. It’s in their blood, you see. They came by it naturally. Their father is Archie Manning, perhaps the most famous quarterback ever at Ole Miss and the second player selected in the 1971 NFL draft. Archie went on to have himself quite a career, playing for the New Orleans Saints for 11 years, followed by a couple of years in both Houston and Minnesota. Yes, Arch Manning has strong bloodlines. I wouldn’t bet against him being a top NFL quarterback in a few years.
Fishing is in Victor Boucher’s blood. He comes by it naturally. And wow, does he catch some big fish! Victor caught, measured, and released a 46-inch monster striped bass on May 26. To put this fish in context, here’s what Rafael Osona posted on the Spring Sea Run Opener Facebook page: “Victor is always setting the bar high, but last night he landed a tournament record 46” striped bass. Additionally it may be the longest/largest beach-based striper landed in the last TWO DECADES.” Yikes! And believe me, Rafael would know, as he is one of the main cogs in the Nantucket beach fishing scene (and he caught a monster 45- inch fish in 2020).
Of course Vic’s fishing accomplishments are more than just that one big fish. He currently holds the record for the biggest striper caught in the Inshore Classic tournament with a 43½-inch bass. He’s won three big fish awards in tournaments. Victor modestly told me, “A lot of it was luck. A lot of variables came together for me.” Yes, Vic, perhaps there was some good fortune that helped you along the way but as the great golfer Gary Player once said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” Victor fishes hard.
“My dad Paul started me fishing the ponds as a wee child, catching slimy pickerel. Going out in his jon boat in the water tower pond—one of my favorite memories! I caught a big pickerel when I was 7 or 8, throwing a rooster tail (an old school freshwater fishing lure with feathers and a spinning blade). I’ve been throwing them forever!”
Young Victor was hooked! “I remember going out a couple nights puppy-dogging my dad up and down the beach. I didn’t catch a lot but he did and it was really cool. It lit the spark for me—out in the dark, the headlamps would come on and it looks like a plane landing.”
So how did Victor develop into such a dominant force in the fishing community? I asked Victor’s dad, Paul Boucher. He summed it up very quickly: “It’s easy. Genetics. Tracy’s family (Victor’s mom), the Reeds, are famous for catching big fish. The legacy of the Reed family fishing this harbor goes back more than 100 years!” Paul sent me two pictures of Barbara (Reith) Reed and her son Andy near the Brant Point rocks holding striped bass that clearly weigh in excess of 50 pounds. I’m guessing that the pictures were taken in the early 1970s. “My son Victor is named after Victor Reed Sr., his great grandfather. He was the caretaker for the Cox estate on Brant Point for years. Fishing was always a huge part of their lives. Things were different in the 50s, 60s and 70s—local people lived off the bounty of the island.”
I’ve done some work at the Cox estate. The Reed family is loved very much, as evidenced by a picture of Vic Reed Sr. that hangs in the kitchen. Vic Reed Jr. is now the caretaker for the estate. I called him and he and his wife Maureen were kind enough to share some time with me.
“My dad told us that he could smell the fish. He’d say that the bass were in when the wild cherry trees blossomed.” Yes, Vic Sr. knew when and where to be if you wanted to catch big striped bass. “He would tell us to not bother going out until the last half hour of the outgoing tide. And as for Great Point, you have to fish the tide change.”
Vic Jr., Maureen, and I went back in time for an hour at their kitchen table. We talked about what we remembered from the Nantucket that we grew up in. The Sandpiper restaurant—I thought it was on the corner of Main and Federal streets. Nope, it was down on Main Street, the second storefront from Federal. What about The Skipper? Yes, Henry Fee ran that down on Steamboat Wharf. Did they really have singing waiters and waitresses? Yup. The Opera House? Gwen Gaillard ran that and it was the place that movie stars would pop into, right? Yes it was.
“My dad had lobster traps all over. So did Maureen and me. We supplied the North Shore restaurant: Bob Ruley’s place. When my dad died, he wanted his ashes spread everywhere that he had set his lobster traps. We ran out of ashes before we ran out of places!”
Vic Jr. backed up Paul’s assessment about Nantucket folk living off of the island’s bounty. “By the time I was 12, I couldn’t eat another clam! I had developed some sort of seafood allergy. These days I can eat scallops, but that’s about it. We were always eating fish, deer, pheasant, rabbit. We lived on King Street in ‘Sconset. My dad would row off of Sankaty and fill a dory with fish. He’d go out with the outgoing tide and come back on the incoming. We would haul the fish off the beach and to the truck on sleds. My dad would blow this old foghorn that he had. That let the neighbors know that he had fresh fish. People would come running! He also sold fish on Main Street.”
Vic Jr. joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He admitted that his admiration for the Coast Guardsmen that he had met during his time as a kid helping out at the Cox estate (adjacent to the USCG base on Brant Point) was a big factor. “I was hoping to get stationed on the Coast Guard freighters in the Pacific. Instead, I got assigned to the Group Islands: Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket! I spent two years stationed in my own home town. Finally I got transferred to Point Judith, RI.”
“And that’s where he met me,” Maureen piped in. Vic agreed that she was the catch of a lifetime!
Vic and Maureen showed me some more absolutely amazing family photos. One that made my head spin had been taken by Larry Cronin. He had gone with Vic Sr. to First Point on Coatue for a fishing trip. Mr. Cronin’s note on the photo reads, “Vic and the bass. First Point, Late 80’s.” The picture shows Vic Sr. hooked onto a huge striper while two fish that I would reasonably estimate to be 50 plus pounds were stacked on the beach behind him. Wow. Just wow!
Another photo shows Vic Sr., Barbara and a very young Andy Reed each dragging similarly sized fish off the beach at Brant Point. We estimated that this picture was taken during the early 1970s.
So yes, Victor Boucher comes by it naturally. It’s definitely in his blood. And he’s keeping things going by taking his daughter Bailey, four years old, and his son, Benny, almost two, out fishing every chance that he can. “Bailey reeled in her own striper and will win a junior prize at the Spring Sea Run Opener awards. In a few weeks, we’re going to dig sand fleas at Great Point and use them for bait to try to catch stripers in the surf.” I bet that they do. It’s in their blood. It comes to them naturally. To paraphrase the great Hank Williams Jr., if Vic goes fishing all night long, it’s just a family tradition. (Thanks to the Reed and Boucher families for the amazing pictures!)
Steve “Tuna” Tornovish is a Nantucket native who has spent his life fishing from the beaches of his beloved island. He loves to introduce clients to the joy of fishing with his Nantucket Island Fishing Adventures: stevetuna.com
