1998 Jersey Coast 4th Annual Fluke Tournament Recap.
What a gorgeous day for Jersey Coast’s Fourth Annual Fluke Tournament. Five hundred sixty-eight boats competed in the tournament organized by the Jersey Coast Anglers Association and sponsored by Cobia, Yamaha and Resorts Casino Hotel. Additional major sponsors were Penn Reels, Shorelander, Fisherman Magazine, South Jersey Angler, Point Pleasant Ford and Star Bright Boat Products. Once again, prizes were awarded at every port, including a thousand dollar prize for the largest fluke weighed in. This year, the largest fluke was over seven pounds and many of the winners were in the three to four pound range. Moving the tournament date to June produced a larger over all catch and bigger fish. Due to the large number of port prizes available, almost ten percent of the boats registered won a prize. For more on the additional prizes awarded at Resorts, see the following article. When you consider the sixty door prizes available at Resorts, about twenty percent of the eligible boats won a prize. It would be hard to find a tournament that has a better boat to prize ratio. Close to sixty thousand dollars worth of prizes were distributed. Although nobody broke the state record and won the Ford pickup valued at $32,000, we’ll try again next year.
This tournament is a major fundraiser for Jersey Coast Anglers Association and supports JCAA’s work in fisheries management, habitat protection and legislation. This was an opportunity for anglers to enjoy a great day and support JCAA’s ongoing efforts to protect the marine resource and the recreational anglers. More information about JCAA is available at www.JCAA.org or in the JCAA Newspaper by calling 732-506-6565.
AWARDS CEREMONY AT RESORTS CASINO HOTEL
This year, Atlantic City’s famous Resorts Casino Hotel hosted the annual Jersey Coast Fluke Tournament Gala Awards Ceremony. The management of Resorts Casino Hotel invited all tournament entrants and their guests to come and enjoy the casino both before and after the awards ceremony. And what great hosts they were! To my delight, Resorts put on a spectacular buffet with way more than finger food. With clams on the half shell, jumbo shrimp, prime rib and other great items available, we were only sorry we ate dinner earlier. Everyone raved about the food and the hospitality. Gary Caputi did an outstanding job as master of ceremonies as he awarded the port prizes, the door prizes and, finally, the 19’ Cobia Boat/Yamaha Outboard & Shorelandr Trailer worth $25,000. The Grand Prize winner was Michael Wanca of the Forked River Tuna Club. Michael continued what has become a Jersey Coast Fluke Tournament tradition by winning the Grand Prize without ever weighing in a fish. Many of our sponsors were at the Awards Ceremony including representatives of Yamaha, Apelco, Penn, Hobby Lobby Marina, The Fisherman Magazine, South Jersey Angler and Steve Goione. Steve did the great design for our tournament T shirt, displayed his art work and contributed three prints as door prizes. If you didn’t get a chance to purchase a T shirt at the ceremony, they are available by mail, fax or phone. Check out the full color design on our website, since the black and white reproduction in this newspaper does not do it justice. Many of the winners expressed their amazement at the quality of the door prizes. Many of the door prizes could have been grand prizes in other tournaments. Given the number of boats represented at the ceremony, almost twenty percent won a prize. If you didn’t enter this year’s tournament or didn’t make the awards ceremony, you missed a great event. Our thanks the Resorts Casino Hotel for all their efforts and to all our sponsors for their support. They made this tournament the event of the season! We would like to continue to show our appreciation to Resorts. If you were at the ceremony and received a star card, be sure to use it on subsequent visits to Resorts when you visit Atlantic City.
Here are the winners.
YOUTH DIVISION
The youth division $1,000 Scholarship winner (donated by the Fisherman Magazine) is
Wade Pratt of Pt Pleasant, NJ with 4.50lb fluke.Port Winners
Name Town Boat # Weight| 1st Phil Lidow | Belford | 1051 | 4.54lb |
| 2nd Doug Drake | Dayton | 68 | 4.18lb |
| 3rd Chuck Jones | Carteret | 346 | 4.04lb |
| 4th Dave Myers | Clifton | 372 | 3.72lb |
| 5th Joe Krainski | Sayerville | 364 | 3.68lb |
| Jr. Division Joe Krainski Jr | Sayerville | 364 | 3.26lb |
2. Shark River Inlet
1st Steven Gasper Bethlahem PA 461 5.25lb 2nd Michael Caracciolo Bradley Beach 1052 4.03lb 3rd Robert Forsyth Tinton Falls 338 3.94lb 4th Chuck Hauser Wall 171 3.78lb 5th George Murga Mercerville 223 3.75lb Jr. Division Michael Fontanella Wall 381 3.47lb
3. Manasquan River
1st Jane Zonkle Brick 438 7.15lb 2nd John Hensler Trenton 205 5.10lb 3rd William Jernstedt Pompton Lakes 554 4.25lb 4th Art Kasper Brick 547 3.85lb 5th Al Kulaszewski Pt. Pleasant 266 3.75lb Jr. Divisioin Vincent Granozio Freehold 417 3.95lb
4 Barnegat Inlet
1st Steve Wojasek Linden 522 5.4lb 2nd Terry Goodman Caldwell 1201 4.6lb 3rd Alex Oliszewski Trenton 167 4.4lb 4th Paul Sellitto Forked River 150 4.1lb 5th Bruce Partyka Manahawkin 44 3.8lb Jr. Division Bruce Jarred Partyka Manahawkin 444 2.8lb
5. Beach Haven
1st Bucky Filling Pomona 70 5.3lb 2nd Brian Hodgson Pembertom 32 4.9lb 3rd Darren Ludlam Westcreek 28 4.5lb 4th Harry Carney West Deptford 38 4.2lb 5th Al Mosier Galloway 60 4.1lb Jr. Division Scott Christy Allentown PA 1353 3.9lb
6. Ocean City Town
1st Dennis Dobrowolski Haverton PA 1400 4.84lb 2nd James Van Dalry Absecon 261 4.79lb 3rd Jack Kraz Darby PA 478 4.16lb 4th Bob Paxton Atlantic City 505 4.16lb 5th Sreve Colao ? 1402 3.59lb Jr. Division Bill McCoy Mays Landing 507 2.09lb
7. Townsend Inlet Town
1st Joe Jamison Sea Isle 55 4.7lb 2nd Robert Kennedy Bellmawr 316 4.0lb 3rd Mike Krajicek Alaine 247 3.3lb 4th Jeffery Daunoras Marlton 429 3.0lb 5th Thomas Ryan Huntington PA 532 2.9lb Jr. Division Michael Whitside Linwood 187 1.5lb
8. Cape May Town Boat Number Weight
1st Richard Tess Cape May 260 3.32lb 2nd Tony Sabo Philadelphia 1500 2.94lb 3rd Bill Donovan Abington PA 392 2.79lb 4th Tina Hoskin Plainsboro 411 2.78lb 5th Bill Sheaf Sicklerville 408 2.66lb Jr. Division David Vanaman N Cape May 271 2.27lb
9. Fortescue Town Boat Number Weight
1st William Grandville Pennsville 1550 3.2lb 2nd James Mckeuwn Hainesport 243 2.14lb 3rd Doug Walsh Bridgeton 68 2.13lb 4th William Muyan Elmer 66 2.11lb 5th Les Lupton Fortescue 10 2.7lb Jr. Division Terry Bishop Gibbstown 144 1.8lb
10. Port Norris Town Boat Number Weight
1st Charles Bodine Westville 122 3.3lb 2nd Dominick Ieropoli Atco 289 2.9lb 3rd Robert Jarton Millville 312 2.2lb 4th Phil Juhring Mullica Hill 197 1.5lb 5th Paul Cassidy Millville 110 1.5lb Junior Division
(none entered)