“I’m actually sitting on the back of my boat in Menemsha last weekend on the 3rd Sunday of September reading about Brad and Skipper fishing for albies from the same jetty on the same weekend (see The Big One, Chapter 4). It’s kinda of surreal as I’m popping up out of my chair every so often to see if anyone has hooked up so I can put the book down and join them for a few casts.

“But alas nobody has any luck. I watched guys all day with expensive waders and lots of gear hop out onto the jetty just to see them walk back after an hour or so with no luck. I broke out the binoculars to scan the horizon for birds and the adjacent beaches to see if anyone was dragging in anything. Nope, nothing. I swore I saw a few splashes just out of the surfcaster’s reach, so I put the book down and took a run over to the spot. Nothing!

“I return to the comfort of my deck chair and envision myself fishing alongside Lev for the big one (Big One, Prologue). I get a picture of my kids eating ice cream along Squid Row. I argue with my wife that that guy that just walked along the dock was David Letterman. My wife and I stuff ourselves on lobsters and steamers purchased from Stanley at the Menemsha fish market.

“Oh so good! We head for home with an awesome sunset in our wake. What a weekend. No fish but still a great time.”

Rumors are swirling that President Obama will spend two weeks on the island in August, according to the Boston Globe.

The Obamas would be following in the footsteps of the Clintons, whose presidential vacations brought the Vineyard years of publicity during the 1990s. Celebrities are old hat on an island that has hosted the Kennedys, Princess Diana and half of Hollywood over the years. Not everybody loves seeing the quiet island morph into an A-list destination every summer: Martha’s Vineyard is more crowded and more expensive than ever, and plenty of islanders worry that the glitzy and the super-wealthy threaten to muscle out the working-class and the free-spirited. On the other hand, all the attention is good for business, and in this down economy a dose of Obama star power could only help the bottom line.

One person who will be thrilled if Barack and Michelle Obama visit is Charles J. Ogletree, an author, lawyer and professor who mentored them when they were students at Harvard Law School. Ogletree, who has hosted Obama at his summer home in Oak Bluffs, tells the Globe that the president’s vacation would be typical: He would probably read, play golf and spend time with his family. But I’m betting the professor will try to get the president out on the ocean to haul in a few fish as well. A committed angler, Ogletree regularly fishes for striped bass and bluefish on the Tomahawk Too with Capt. Buddy Vanderhoop (star of Chapter 10: I Fish, Therefore I Lie). Last year, Ogletree ended up atop the leaderboard on the first day of the Vineyard’s legendary derby with a 28.68-pound striped bass.

Buddy has fished with the likes of Taj Mahal and Keith Richards, and he once guided Spike Lee to a 57-pound striper (the director could barely lift the thing). But if he puts Obama on a big one, it would count as a fish story of a lifetime.

UPDATE: The Vineyard Gazette has fun with the rumors.