It’s getting close again to that time of year for our annual fluke tournament. The JCAA 21st Annual fluke Tournament this year will be held on Saturday, August 1st and our awards presentations will be held on the evening of Wednesday, August 12th again at the Holiday Inn in Manahawkin (Stafford Township), NJ.
What’s new this year? This year we are going to have Optional Cash Categories of $50.00 and $100.00 for each port. In addition, we are also going to have Optional Cash Categories of $50.00 and $100.00 for the overall tournament. 7/8ths of all the money collected for each category will be paid out to the winner of each port who joins that particular cash category and 7/8ths will be paid out to the overall winner of each category for the overall tournament. 1/8th of the money will be retained by JCAA to help JCAA continue its work on behalf of recreational anglers. Remember, this tournament is a major fundraiser for JCAA and keeps us going year after year to do what we do on behalf of you, the recreational angler. A lot of volunteers put in a lot of time and a lot of their own money to do what we do not only on behalf of the recreational angler, but also the environment, youth education, access, etc.
Also new for this year will be vendor booths at our awards presentations for our major sponsors.
At this time we are also contemplating a cash prize to anyone who catches and weighs in a fish of 12lbs. or larger. I will report more on this in a future column.
Again, this year we will be offering in a Grand Prize Drawing a boat, motor & trailer package. Remember, you do not have to weigh in a fish to be eligible to win the Grand Prize. You just have to be registered in the tournament and be present the night of the awards presentations on the evening of Wednesday, August 12th. And as always there will be thousands of dollars in door prizes given out also. There will also be a 50/50 drawing. Last year was the first time we had a 50/50 and the winner walked off with over $2,000 in cash!
The boat this year will be a 14’ G3 boat. The boat is being donated to JCAA by G3 and four G3 dealers: Salem Boat Exchange, Spring Garden Marine, Mercer Marine Supply and Mayberry Sales and Service. Yamaha is again donating the engine.
Our T-shirt design is near completion. As soon as that is done I will have it up on our website along with all the other pertinent information for this year’s tournament.
Major sponsors so far this year are: Interlux, Yamaha, G3, the four G3 dealers mentioned above, Salem Boat Exchange, Spring Garden Marine, Mercer Marine Supply and Mayberry Sales and Service, Costa Sunglasses, Underwater Green Fishing Lights & Canyon Reels.
Elsewhere in this newspaper is an article on Underwater Green Fishing Lights.
Port sponsors so far this year are Fisherman’s Headquarters for the LBI port; RJ Marine Service for the Cape May port, South Harbor Marina for the Barnegat Bay port. We are still waiting to hear from others as to whether or not they will be port sponsors. I will report on this in a future article.
Our first mailing for the tournament with an entry form will be going out the end of April along with ticket books for our High Roller Raffle and a T-shirt ordering form.
This year’s tournament promises to pay out a lot of money and prizes, so mark your calendar for August 1st and August 12th and let’s hope we have a nice day to fish this year!
