The Governor's Surf Tournament was held on May 15th and boy was it a windy day! It was one of those days that when you opened your car door, it was tough to close it with the wind holding it open. In spite of the strong west wind, approximately 600 anglers showed up for this tournament. Over 245 blues were caught, but only three striped bass were landed. The biggest blue was 38 inches! Dakota Hahn won the Governor's Cup with a 43 1/2-inch striped bass!
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno was there along with her kids who also were in this tournament. Our Lt. Governor really enjoys fishing and she is really into it! She had to go to Rutgers University in the afternoon to greet President Obama who was invited to give their graduating class an address or she would have spent the rest of the day with us.
One of the things I really enjoy about this tournament is watching the participants receive their prizes for catching the biggest fish in each category and there were really some nice rods and reel combos given out to them! There are three divisions: Child, Teen and Adult in this tournament. When you see kids around 7 years old (plus or minus) receive their prizes, they look like they are holding a million dollars and nobody is going to take that away from them! Also, I saw a teenage girl who was really dressed up to do surf fishing with her boots and fishing clothes that made her look like she has been surf fishing for many years beyond her age! This tournament really gets kids turned on to fishing and that is what this tournament is all about! DEP Commissioner Bob Martin presented the prizes to the lucky winners and he told me that he really enjoys doing this!
The JCAA had a booth at the tournament along with other organizations like the Beach Buggy Association, the NJOA and others. I have to give thanks to Tom Fote, Greg Kucharewski and Bill Browne for helping me set it up. Bill Browne and I gave out our JCAA newsletters and fluke tournament applications to anglers and answered their questions about the JCAA.. Bill is one heck of a salesman and who talked a lot of people in buying our High Roller and Super 50/50 tickets.
All in all it was a good and an enjoyable day, but I had to stop on the way home at a diner to get some hot chicken soup to warm me up since that cold wind never let up during the whole tournament.
Our High Roller Raffle Drawing will take place on Tuesday May 31st.
