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While researching a book he was writing on Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, writer and Pulitzer-winning journalist David Kinney wanted to shadow someone who knew a lot about fishing, someone who had a passion for the sport and had played the derby for most of his life.

It didn't take Kinney long to realize that someone was Lev Wlodyka.

Wlodyka won his first junior division title when he was 7. By age 28, he had won the adult competition -- which gives winners immortal bragging rights as well as prizes valued at $30,000 -- a total of five times.

"If you buy the argument that the Derby is sort of the Masters for the Vineyard, this guy's kinda like the fishing equivalent to Tiger Woods," Kinney said during a telephone interview.

But one thing Kinney could never have guessed is that Wlodyka would go on to catch a striped bass -- or "striper" -- that would ignite a controversy among the seasonal and year-round fisherman of the resort island: A 57-pounder with nearly two pounds of lead in its lower intestine that the fish had eaten during its lifetime.

Wlodyka's fish left the revered fisherman open to false allegations of cheating and caused the derby judges to re-examine their rule book.

It also gave Kinney the event he needed to center his book, "The Big One: An Island, an Obsession and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish," that not only followed the controversy but also explored the history of this annual five-week tournament and of Martha's Vineyard itself.

DreamWorks Pictures recently acquired the movie rights for the book before it was released in April.

Kinney, who grew up in Winston-Salem before moving to Philadelphia, has been an avid fisherman for most of his life. But what makes "The Big One" so enjoyable is that it aspires to be more than just a series of fish tales.

It is to competitive fishing what H.G. Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights" was to high school football -- a book that uses sport as a mainline to the heart of a diverse community.

Through Kinney's extensive historical research of Martha's Vineyard, he shows how residents who are rich, working class, seasonal vacationers and year-round islanders are united five weeks out of the year by the derby, creating a history that borders on legend.

"The thing that's cool about the derby is that anyone can win it," Kinney says. "You had stories of a 12 year-old girl who caught a 40-pound striper and got first place, or a guy who showed up on a jetty and had never caught a false albacore in his life and just winning the 'alby' competition."

In Kinney's book, he describes Wlodyka as a broad-shouldered man whose demeanor frequently veered from quiet to goofy. It was easy for Kinney to convince the champion fisherman to share his feelings about fishing and the derby. But the opportunity to board Wlodyka's boat during a fishing trip was a different matter altogether.

"He sort of pulled back a little bit as a lot of people did," Kinney said. "They were more than happy to talk about the derby and about fishing, but once I started asking my way onto their boats, that was a little more challenging, and that was true with Lev."

To earn Wlodyka's trust, Kinney had to do the same thing that Wlodyka did to capture his prize-winning fish: He waited patiently.

"It's like anything else. You build up trust by showing up and showing up and showing up," Kinney says. "And they see that you're not a crazy man, and that worked out well."

As for the DreamWorks movie deal, there's not a whole lot Kinney can say right now. The film rights were optioned by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the screenwriters behind this summer's "Star Trek" and both Transformers movies. Variety reports they will produce the film and intend to hire another writer to pen the screenplay.

"I don't really know a whole lot about it other than what's out there," Kinney says.

The only thing Kinney can do is speculate on which famous actor should play Lev.

Laughing, Kinney says, "His sister thought Matthew McConaughey, which is pretty funny, but I don't know."

Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com