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

A Day of Fishing and Friendly Competition on Fan Pier

Manny Dejesus, Mark Rose, and Joe Cirame pose with their first-place winning catch on Fan Pier after a day of fishing out on the Harbor.

Nine-year-old Joe Cirame of Saugus took first place in the 2^nd Annual Save the Harbor / Save the Bay Youth Fishing Tournament at Fan Pier on Boston’s waterfront with a 46-inch striped bass weighing close to 42 pounds. The young angler made the impressive catch while fishing with Captain Mike Fallon on his 34-foot Regulator "Marinaro" with a team of young anglers that included Save the Harbor / Save the Bay youth program summer staffers Manny Dejesus of Fenway, Tom Kenary of Wellesley Hills, and Mark Rose of Dorchester.

Taking second place was 11 year-old Brady Marshall, of Mattapan, one of 22 kids from Camp Harbor View who fished aboard the head boat "Belle" with Captain Charlie Gibbons of Boston Fun Cruises, his mate Darryl, and an experienced crew including Save the Harbor / Save the Bay’s own Bay Watcher Bruce Berman as well as tournament sponsors Harold and Richard Tubman of Circle Furniture. Marshall’s winning catch was a 36-inch striped bass, weighing in at 21 lbs.

Tournament sponsor Joe Fallon of The Fallon Company set the tone for the day with a pep talk on the dock at Fan Pier Marina. “Don’t just go fishing, go catching,” he said as he wished all participants the best of luck.

After distributing bait, tackle, rods, and other equipment provided by tournament sponsor Peter Santini of Fishin’ Finatics, 18 junior program assistants from Save the Harbor / Save the Bay boarded a fleet of donated boats and set out onto the harbor looking for big fish. The fleet was soon joined by 22 teens from Camp Harbor View, who joined the competition from their base on Long Island.

The young anglers used a number of techniques throughout the day, including “chumming and chunking", jigs and worms, and trolling with deep diving lures, "9er" umbrella rigs, and of course the deadly Santini tube. The largest fish was caught trolling off Boston Light, while the 2^nd largest grabbed a jig and worm between Spectacle Island and Camp Harbor View.

After a couple of hours of fishing in the clear, clean waters of Boston Harbor, the young anglers returned to Fan Pier Marina for a weigh in ceremony and photos before enjoying sandwiches provided by Top Secret Sandwiches on the Boston Fish Pier and ice cream sundaes donated by Emack and Bolio’s Aquarium Store. After lunch, the captains and crew filleted the winning fish and distributed fillets to all the campers to bring home for dinner.

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay's Bruce Berman and Patty Foley, along with Circle Furniture's Harold Tubman, pose with tournament participants and the day's winning catches.

 “There really is no better way to spend the day than out on Boston Harbor with great kids like these" said Harold Tubman of Circle Furniture. "I think my brother and I had more fun than they did!"

Each summer Save the Harbor/Save the Bay leads two free Youth Environmental Education programs that combine experiential learning with hands-on education that brings the harbor to life for young people. Since 2003 their "All Access Boston Harbor" and "Boston Harbor Explorers" have connected more than 60,000 youth and teens from the region's youth sailing centers, community organizations and youth groups to Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands.

These free summer youth programs are made possible with Leadership Grants from Distrigas of Massachusetts/GDF SUEZ, P. I. Garden Fund, Bay State Cruise Company, Forest Berkley & Marcie Tyre Berkley, The Coca-Cola Foundation, The Ludcke Foundation, Yawkey Foundation II, The Fallon Company, Massachusetts Port Authority, P&G Gillette and Schrafft Charitable Trust.

Save the Harbor also appreciates funding support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, The Dolphin Trust, Alice W. Dorr Foundation, Massachusetts Bay Lines, National Grid Foundation, John Hancock Financial Services, Lawrence J & Ann Rubenstein Charitable Trust, Arbella Insurance Group Charitable Foundation, Boston Bruins Foundation, Clipper Ship Foundation, Jay Cashman, Inc., Mass Humanities, Bank of America Pavilion, Circle Furniture, Fuller Foundation, Thomas & Lucinda Foley, Lovett-Woodsum Family Charitable Foundation Inc., South Boston Community Development Corporation, Andus Baker & Rowan Murphy Family Foundation, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Martha Mazzone Charitable Gift Fund, Matthew J. & Gilda Strazzula Foundation,  Community Suffolk, Inc., DeMarco Produce and hundreds of individual small donors.