14^th Annual JCAA Fluke Tournament Awards Ceremony & Port Winners

It was a fun tournament on June 14. In 2007 the 120 winning fish weighed a total of 587 pounds and this year the total weight was 624 lbs. The largest fish weighed in was 10 lb 9oz at Shark River caught by Jeff Bognatz. The first place prize winner in Sandy Hook was 10 year old David Edwards from Marlboro who weighed in an 8.44 pound summer flounder. It is interesting to look at the results for some of the ports where it was hard to get a fish over 5 lbs and a lot of 3 lb fish won prizes in the south. It will be interesting to see the JCAA survey returns to see what the throwback ratio was and how many keepers were actually caught.

Tournament Director Phil Celmer congratulating Paul Konieczka the winner of the 18-foot Century Boat with 115 hp Yamaha 4 stroke engine sitting on a LoadRite trailer  (See more photos...)

This annual tournament provides funds to help Jersey Coast Anglers Association to continue its fight to protect the marine resource, fund summer flounder research and fight for the rights of the recreational anglers. This year JCAA provided over $25,000 for summer flounder research.

It was also a great night at the 14th Annual JCAA Fluke Tournament Awards Ceremony as Pat Donnelly our master of ceremonies opened the event. The Grand Cayman Ballroom at Trump’s Marina was filled with anglers enjoying a good time. Roger Lehmann the owner of our new port sponsor ProFishCo, could not believe the excitement and how many people were trying to get into the ballroom to see the show. We estimated over 1500 anglers attended the ceremony. The tournament port winners were there to pick up one of the 120 Port Prizes that they had won the previous Saturday and to celebrate their expertise in catching those prize-winning fish. But all of us were there to see if we could win one of those over 100 door prizes worth more than $8,000! And more importantly, to see if we could win the final door prize, an 18-foot Century Boat with 115 hp Yamaha 4 stroke engine sitting on a LoadRite aluminum roller trailer, a package worth over $31,000. By 9:20, the door prizes were given out, and the port winners had all received their recognition and $1,200 each for the top port prize. Now the moment had arrived for John Zastocki, Yamaha representative, Jim Hoffman representing LoadRite and Rick Traver, of Century boats, Pier 47, to draw the winning ticket for the grand prize. John pulled the ticket. Paul Konieczka was there representing his boat named the “Fishing Poles”. Like all of us, he was waiting to hear the magic number. When his number was called we could hear his team from the left side of the room yelling that they had won the boat. For the second time in a row the winning number had broken a twelve year tradition and weighed in a winning fish. Not only that, but Paul’s lucky number had won a great door prize. Paul told us the Trump Hotel Marina Casino had also been kind to him on the gambling floor. What a night for Paul and his team!

JCAA would like to thank Trump Marina Hotel Casino for hosting the event and supplying $10,000 of the money for the 1st place prize. Fisherman’s Headquarters sponsored their port at LBI and JCAA sweetened the prize to $1,200 for each of the 12 ports. We must thank again Century Boats and Yamaha Motors for supplying the boat and motor respectively that makes this tournament one of the largest one-day tournaments. JCAA would also like to thank all the other major sponsors who donated the port prizes. Their names and the prizes they donated are listed below. There were many manufacturers that donated door prizes and they will also be listed on our web page with ceremony highlights including pictures of port winners.

HERE ARE THE WINNERS FOR 2008

1. Jersey City

2. Sandy Hook

3. Shark River Inlet

4. Manasquan River

5. Barnegat Bay

6. Long Beach Island

7. Great Bay

8. Atlantic City

9. Ocean City

10. Townsend Inlet

11. Cape May

12. Fortescue

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