Football at Carson Beach

Over the past few weeks that I've been at Carson Beach, I've been really working on how to improve the athlete side of me. Catching footballs is one thing, and throwing them is a different game. I almost never catch the ball standing up, but for me, sitting down is a different story. Catching the football seems so much easier while sitting down (I don't know why but it just makes it easier for me!). Sometimes Joe or Preston would call "hands!" to Bridget and the best is when she has one hand holding her coffee while shielding herself with the other hand (sorry Bridget but it was funny). We have all learned that coffee is the one thing Bridget will not drop for the hands game. It is her morning priority! Recently however, Bridget has started to be able to catch with one hand, which is amazing, while I haven't progressed at all unfortunately, here's a picture of Preston with his hop game on point.

Now the 'hands' game at the beginning wasn't too bad the warnings were given before the person threw the ball in many cases would be Preston, however throughout the few weeks I've been at Carson things got a bit more extreme with Joe joining in. Now the warnings were given right before the ball hit you which was hilarious when the person receiving the ball couldn't catch it with the small amount of time given to them, but when they do catch it, it was amazing especially when the person receiving caught the ball with one hand which was what Bridget has been doing lately. In the end I'm still bad at catching, I still don't know how to throw a football correctly and the same goes for frisbee, but that's a different story.

Can't hold us...from fishing!

Last Thursday the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay summer staff participated in the 3^rd Annual Fan Pier Fishing Invitational despite the cold, rainy weather!  Everyone arrived to Fan Pier by 7:30am, where they ate donuts, loaded up on hot coffee and headed to the pier to choose their boat for the morning!

Ready....set...fish-on!

This year the fishing invitational was extra special because each Junior Program Assistant was allowed to bring a guest; a parent or guardian, friend or family member.  Unfortunately, many guests were not able to come due to work obligations but of the ones that fished, we knew they had a blast!  Will Conroy brought along his little brother, Jack, who was a fish-catching machine.  Monique invited her friend Dali, while Will Clark's girlfriend hoped to catch more fish than him!  I was lucky to have Karrisha and Anicia's Mom, Marlene, in my boat, while Ahmed and Andy filled their boat with friends and Andy's brother.  Vinh rounded out the guest list with a fellow O'Bryant graduate, Jean.

Even Bruce and the Senior Marine Educators joined in on the fun!

Tom? Is that you? How's the fishing?

Thumbs up to a great day of fishing in the harbor!

As the fishing boats headed back to Fan Pier, everyone was excited to see who caught the biggest fish.  Although some groups had a tough day resulting in zero fish, Vinh caught a 22 inch striped bass and Will Conroy a 15 inch flounder.  Many JPA's on The Belle caught black sea bass but they had to be thrown back just like Vinh's striper because they were not regulation size.  However when it came time to award the fishing prizes, Vinh, Will Conroy's brother, Jennifer and Hung walked away from the invitational with brand new fishing rods from Fishing Fanatics! 

The winner! Wait, where did those stripers come from?

Everyone had a wonderful time fishing in the harbor but this day would not have been possible with out the help of many.  We would like to thank Joe Fallon and Fan Pier for hosting the event and Circle Furniture, Russo Marine and 3A Marine for sponsoring the invitational.  No one would have been able to even get out on the harbor without the different boats and captains that volunteered their Thursday morning to hang out with us - especially Rick and Steve of The Reel Pursuit which I had the privilege to fish on.

But wait, where did those stripers come from?  Sometimes when the biggest fish you catch is a 15 inch flounder, you need to improvise for a group photo.  Thank you Mike Fallon for the stripers! As soon as the photos were taken Tom went to work on fileting the fish.  Who doesn't love fresh fish for dinner?!

Big plans are already in the works for next year.  I will win the invitational.  Mark my word!

Keep on fishing,

Bridget