As the summer is winding down, I hope everyone enjoyed a safe one. The start of a new school year for the young adults and kids is starting. As for the rest of us, our fishing seasons continue to move forward - and for some species, bag limits may increase or decrease. Make sure you get the correct information from reliable sources.
If you didn’t participate in a New Format Fluke Tournament put together by JCAA Past President Paul Haertel, you missed a great tournament. This is a much smaller tournament than our annual statewide single-day Fluke Tournament but with a format altogether different. This tournament was a 3-day Tournament with a barbeque on Sunday after the weigh-in closed. There were 61 entries that participated and all had a great time with a lot of fluke being caught. Even though the ratio of small to keepers was large, there were a few skilled anglers that cashed in. Paul Haertel did an outstanding job coordinating this tournament basically on his own but we all know that his wife Linda was fully involved. I can’t forget to mention that there were a small group of JCAA board members that helped where they could. Paul and Linda: congratulations on having a successful tournament. Paul has put things on our Facebook page and will give a summary later in this newsletter.
In the last newsletter I mentioned that there are a few issues to keep your eyes open for. There was an August ASMFC meeting in Washington, DC to discuss the management of American Eel, Horseshoe Crab, Atlantic Menhaden, Spiny Dogfish, Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass, Tautog and Striped Bass to name a few. They talked about wind power also. There is too much information and discussion that went on to mention it all here, so I recommend you go to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission website. The meeting’s final agenda, meeting materials and the meeting summary is there; you should read it. There will be some public meetings on species coming up shortly that you may want to attend and voice your opinion on.
Just a reminder that we will be having our Sportsperson-of-the-Year Dinner on November 10th. This year as mentioned in the last newsletter, it will be at another venue so check out Paul Turi’s article for details. The clubs will be voting on who will receive this honor at our September general meeting, so make sure your club representative is at the meeting.
The next JCAA General Meeting is September 24th at 385 Herbertsville Road, Brick NJ, 08724. Make sure you mark your calendar. Remember, JCAA is always here for you, but we need more people to get involved to help protect the future of our fisheries.
