Month: March 2009

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Freshwater Fishing Contest In New Jersey

Hey – I was reading through the news from the Press of Atlantic City.com and found out about a fishing contest for salt as well as fresh water fishing! Here’s a quote from their article:

Bent Rods Contest

The Press Bent Rods Fishing Contest opens Wednesday with cash prizes of $50 and a trophy for the winners in Freshwater, Other Than Boat (surf, pier, jetty, banks), Boat Bay/Inshore (inside three miles), Offshore (outside three miles), Youth Saltwater (under 15), Youth Freshwater (under 15), Women, Senior (65 and older), Most Unusual Catch, Flounder, Striped Bass, Bluefish, Weakfish, Kingfish.

The season-long contest runs to Nov. 30, and within that, seasonal segments offer three prizes each. They are April 5-June 21 for Freshwater, Youth, Striped Bass; June 22-Sept. 20 for Flounder, Offshore, Inshore; Sept. 21-Nov. 29 for Striped Bass, Bluefish, Weakfish. The winners of those each get $150 gift certificates at participating bait and tackle shops or marinas.

Anglers can enter and submit photos and details of their catch online at www.pressofatlanticcity.com/bentrods or by mail. There is no cost or pre-registration, but the fish must be entered at a certified weigh station. Entry forms are available at most area bait and tackle shops or marinas.

The entry list will be updated online all season long with every catch submitted, and it can be seen - along with Press Fishing Contest records, a list of weigh stations and Shep on Fishing columns - on the Web site. The Press Fishing Contest Leaderboard will appear in the Sports section every couple of weeks during the season.

I’m not a big contest fisherman – I do it because I like it and it’s fun! But if it gets more people involved, then I’m all for it. So go check out the contest and I wish you luck!

Catch you later!

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A Freshwater Fishing Weekend Bonus!

I went to Somerset, NJ this past weekend with my wife for the FLENJ conference. That’s the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey – for those not in the know! 😉 I was looking forward to a nice relaxing time – spending quality time with my 5 year old son at the pool and jacuzzi!

I was surprised to see that the building next to where we were staying – the Garden State Exhibit Center was having a Saltwater Fishing Expo. Now, I’m not a big saltwater fishing fan, as you may have guessed by now, but I do like to go saltwater fishing ocassionally. So I looked up the event on the Internet and found that they were giving the kids a free Plano tackle box for the first 100 that showed up on Saturday. I asked my son if he wanted a new tackle box and sure enough he said yes!

So we went to the Expo and he got a new tacklebox. And even though it was a saltwater fishing expo, we were able to find some fresh water fishing lures and bobbers. The Nikon exhibitors even gave my son a new Nikon Frisbee!

In addition to all the exhibitors with rods, reels, lures and the other paraphenalia – there were large fishing power boats to be looked at and even kayaks for those with less offshore endeavors in mind! They also had casting contests for the kids and fish cooking sessions with other numerous instructional workshops. My son was getting tired after a while and we headed back to our hotel for some more swimming, but we had a very enjoyable time at the Expo.

We opened all the lures and put them in their “correct” spots (the way my son wanted them!) once we returned home and now he can hardly wait to go try them out! I’ll get my fishing license this week and hopefully we can start the new year off with a successful freshwater fishing trip next weekend.

Catch you later.

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What Are They Doing With All Those Fish?

I was reading through some articles today on freshwater fishing and found this one:

FOUR SOUTH CAROLINA ANGLERS ON HOOK, 1,268 FISH SEIZED

So what were 4 people going to do with 1268 freshwater fish? Maybe since these are hard economic times, they were going to clean them and save them in their freezer? Or maybe they were going to sell them to their friends and neighbors? They certainly couldn’t eat all of them at once!

Regardless, I had always wondered if the local game wardens ever did their job and cited folks for game law violations. Looks like the Florida wardens are doing their jobs! 🙂 The article mentions that Florida has an anonymous tip line that people can use to report violators – and that’s what led to these folks getting caught!

Does your state have an anonymous tip line? Have any of you ever seen your local game warden or know of anyone having a run-in with him/her? Just curious – personally, I’ve never seen our local game warden – ever! Some of my friends have – when he came to check their fishing licenses, but I’ve never been that lucky!

Have a good day and I’ll catch you later.

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Freshwater Fishing Tips – Topwater Lures

I saw this video on you tube about the proper way to fish freshwater fishing topwater lures and thought you all might like to check it out! So here it is:

So what do you think? Are you fishing your topwater lures too slowly?

I’m starting to get back into the swing of things and getting the fishing equipment ready. I’ll share some more news with you tomorrow.

Catch you later!