Tournament has concluded and all winners are on the leaderboard at
http://www.garbagefish.com/leaderboard2011.htmWell off from last year, sadly. We had 51 guys/gals fish it the first year, 101 fish it last year and only 62 this year. No signups down on Long Beach Island this year and I think we had 30 from all the shops down there last year. Most of the tournament fishing was done out of and then weighed in here in Forked River or Seaside this year. Tons of huge dogfish weighed in Seaside that were caught from IBSP off the beach. We raised a little over $200 for Reclam the Bay or if my math is right enough to purchase roughly 30,000 seed clams.
Lots of issues this year. We had one guy catch a fish and then find out about the tournament - and try to pay to get in on it so he could weigh the fish. When we found out what he did and disqualified his fish, he naturally wanted his money back. We refunded him and he started sending threatening emails, complaining how his fish should be allowed - he'll report us to the I.R.S. - he'll sue us. I can't make this up.
We had a brown shark weighed in. (yes - illegal to possess and no, not a category in our tournament) We had cownose rays weighed in. (not a tournament fish) And we had people try to weigh fluke for the garbage fish tournament. We had people try to weigh fish for the tournament in June. (the tournament started in July) Needless to say - thank you to all the shops and shop owners who participated as weigh stations and helped me with the tournament again. Some shops tell us to go away when we ask if they'll help - but the ones with a sense of humor and ability to remember fishing is fun - get in on this and help us to raise money for reclamthebay.org.
Thank you to the members of this forum who fished the tournament:
Sean
Colin
Roger K.
Dan T.
Paul H.
Griff
Rich F.
Jack S.
and probably some guys I'm leaving out. apologies.
I don't know if we'll do this again - I kind of doubt it at this point - but to those of you who participated in this fun tournament - fished the world's only salt water garbage fish tournament - and raise money for an organization that is doing a lot to help the bay, thank you. I'm personally not a member of Reclam The Bay - but I've been to their upwellers where they raise the baby clams - seen the volunteers work...hard - been to their meetings - visited the sedge island resource center and dove the oyster reef they planted to count oysters with them. What I like about this organization is that it's small - doesn't get bogged down with politics, bureaucracy or partisan agendas. They just go out there and friggin' do it. They volunteer to work hard, take classes, go to meetings, and put clams back in the bay and do countless exhibits at any event going to teach kids the importance of taking care of our waters and how that relates to the marine life we rely on for our ways of life - be that our ways of life on the weekends in the summer - or our ways of life when we go to the supermarket for fresh seafood - or the people who rely on the waters for their livelihood like charter captains, tackle shops, fishermen or any coastal related tourist business. It's a good group of people at Reclam The Bay who've done far more for the bay than anything I've seen done in Trenton. Last word on it and then I'm off the soap box - from what I see - our government with regards to managing and addressing the situation in terms of any and all marine environmental issues (and pretty much everything else) - is so useless and inefficient in how it functions that if not for proactive groups like Reclam the Bay and
The Recreational Fishing Alliance, we are simply doomed and my kids who are growing up on the Barnegat Bay, better learn how to fish for jelly fish because that's all we'd have left - if left in the hands of the powers that be.
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