THE HARBOUR LIGHT

The Official Newsletter of the
Village Harbour Fishing Club

PO Box 1026
Manahawkin, NJ 08050

VOLUME # 100                ISSUE # 4                     July 2000  

Upcoming Events

Friday 7 July: VHFC Board Meeting starts at 8 PM in the Community Center's rear room.

Friday 14 July: Monthly Membership Meeting at the Community Center . 
    7:15 PM: Come early and help with setup.
    7:30 PM: Table clinics and refreshments.
    8:00 PM: Club Business.
    8:30 PM: Video training & net casting practice.

Saturday 15 July: Fluke Tournament postponed.

President’s Message

The June meeting went well. Rich King held our group's interests captive for more than an hour with his slide presentation on the Ecology and Baits in the Bay. 
The July General Meeting will emphasize netting bait. After we watch an instructional video on net casting, we will go out on the lawn and try out our newly learned skills. If you have a cast net, please bring it. If you know how to cast a net, please help the rest learn. Our original July speaker, Jay Mann, has been rescheduled for September.
The really good news for June is that the Great Bay Day was a GREAT Day. Please try to join us when we have our next (presently unscheduled) fleet event. A full report is given further below.
Some more good news is the level of our member's interaction and participation at the meetings. Apparently, supplying refreshments, scheduling breaks, working the hands-on tables and even the new hats have all been a success. 
Unfortunately, based on our inability to find fresh volunteers who want to share fishing know-how and experiences at the hands-on fishing tables, I will have to propose more emphasis on presentations by guest speakers during 2001 and less by "volunteered" sharing from members. 

Weigh-Ins 6/30/00- reported by Gerge Fruh

We have some bigger fish added in June:

Bluefish June 9 13 lb 10 oz Paul Galasso
Fluke June 12 7 lb 4.8 oz John Nonnenmacher
Sea Bass May 27 3 lb 8 oz George Schiavone
Striped Bass May 21 29 lb 4 oz Dick Vesper
Weakfish June 9 6 lb 15 oz. Ed Cherry
Winter Flounder   1 lb 9 oz George Fruh

Fish-of-the-Month Awards

July: Bluefish is the Fish-of-the-Month.
June: Ed Cherry's Weakfish wins the June Award.
May: No award; no Blackfish were weighed in May.

Membership

VHFC has 91 members; a good number. If anyone receiving this newsletter has not received a Year 2000 Membership card please call Dick Vesper at 609-494-0263 and leave your name and phone number.
This issue of the newsletter is only being sent to members who have paid their dues for the year 2000.

JCAA Annual Fluke Tournament

The annual JCAA Fluke Tournament was a huge success this year. 854 boats participated out of 10 ports. Our very own Ed Cherry took 8th place out of Beach Haven port with a 4lb. 2oz. fluke right out of the Middle Grounds. As you know, JCAA is a non-profit organization and money raised from the tournament and other activities are used to fight for the environment and the rights of the recreational fisherman.
Congratulations to Ed.

VHFC Web Site

Save this address as a favorite or as a bookmark in your browser.
We have made many changes to the VHFC Website over the last two months. Dave Sikorski and Ed Cherry have been updating old links and adding new material to the site to make it "Y2K-compliant." 
 
         
         

Each button links to additional information relevant to its name. (The last two still require some work).
We plan to continue updating the site on a regular basis to keep up with our own tournaments, events and weigh-ins, to provide current information on fisheries management and any other relevant fishing information we come across.

Great Bay Day June 24th

Everyone who participated in the 11 boat fleet activity reported they had a great time. Most proposed we have a similar event again later this year. 
Paul Turi's VIPER led the fleet to Great Bay.
We fished most of the time in the area of buoys 138 and 139 along the InterCoastal Waterway. Unfortunately, fishing was slow for most and some of us wandered off to try other spots. The cruise to Great Bay, fishing together and the VHF interchanges were all better than expected.
Nineteen of the participants attended our celebration dinner at The Ming Dynasty Buffet on Route 72. Due to the last minute date change we made during the last meeting, we could not use the Community Center as had been planned for the 17th. 
The $50.00 prizes were awarded but I do not have access to all the weights and names as we are going to press. I can tell you the biggest fluke was caught by Bill Logan. I remember his fish because he roared over in his REEL IMPRESSION to make sure we all got to see it. Nice fish Bill.
I can also say that the winning bluefish was less than a pound because the participants with bigger fish did not go to the weigh-in. Paul Turi had the largest weakfish. 
The day worked out very well. It was a day of learning and teaching one another how best to fish these areas (new to some of our members, familiar to others). It was fun. The flying of the club flag helped a lot. 
There was good participation. We will do another event like this again this year if at all possible.
Participating boats included:
WATER MUSIC, WORK OF ART, REEL IMPRESSION, FLEXIBLE, OUT FOR WEEKS, RELEASE, VIPER, ANNIE TOO, TRITON AND BEHIND BLUE EYES.

Sea Girt Reef Fishing Event by Ed Sidell

Ed Sidell arranged for Casey Alseika of Merrill Lynch to sponsor an asset management seminar and fishing event aboard the Deep Adventure out of Belmar on June 28th. The fishing trip went well--big ling & sea bass were caught----Frenchy G won the poll with a large ling. The following guests made a donation Of 5$ each for the artifical reef fund in the name of VHFC for a total of $110: Charley Kochka, Bill Sussi, Mike Didyk, Douk Schogh, Ian Habich, Steve Bradish, Crish Bradish , John Bradish, Phil Savarese, Don Longstreet, , Mike Ceffilli, Tom Tantillo , Barry Keimchick, Jim McGraft, Glen Bromley, Phylis Bromley, Ed Sidell, Stan Harries, 
Frank Donardo, John Nonnenmacher, Dick Allen and Bill Figley.
Ed reported everyone caught GOOD size fish.
Thanks to Ed and all those who donated to the Reef Program.

New Local Discounts

Bob Mueller arranged for the club members to receive a 10 % discount from Cove Marina (494-8100) located in Ship Bottom at the intersection of Bay and 26th Street. 
Barnegat Light Bait and Tackle (494-4566), located at the intersection of Bay Ave. and 15th Street in Barnegat Light, has also agreed to join our supporters and provide a similar 10% discount.
As with the other supporting businesses, the discounted items do not include pre-discounted or fair traded items.

How to Snell a Hook donated by Ed Cherry

Thread 6 inches of line through the hook eye. Hold the against the hook and form a circle

Make 6-7 turns thru the loop and around both the standing line and hook shank.

Tighten by pulling the standing line and tag end in opposite directions.

How to remove backlashes quickly from conventional reels
also donated by Ed Cherry

First, crank the drag down all the way so the spool won't rotate away from you and allow line to pull out. Apply heavy thumb pressure to the face of the tangled spool while slowly turning the reel handle to rotate the spool. The pressure from your thumb on the slowly revolving spool will actually straighten out the loose wraps of tangled line and realign them. After applying a couple of treatments like this to the backlash, you should be able to pull the remaining tangles free very quickly and easily. (This technique works best with monofilament line.)

Controlling the twist in your spinning line
contributed by Ed Cherry

Excessive line twist can interfere with casting - and even damage your line. Fortunately, it's easy to get rid of the twist.
? The Don'ts:
o Crank your line in when a fish is pulling line out. Every full revolution of the rotor puts a complete twist into the line.
o Don't troll a wobbling lure, or a lure or bait that wants to spin without using a roller bearing swivel
? The Do's :
o Just remove all terminal tackle, and troll the bare line behind your boat for a few minutes. You may even allow the current to work out the twists by allowing it to uncurl an empty line.

THIS SPACE
IS BLANK
BECAUSE WE
CANNOT GET
OUR MEMBERS
TO SHARE
FISHING INFO.

THE SAME
FEW PEOPLE
CANNOT DO
IT ALL
EACH MONTH.

VHFC 2000 Board of Directors

The members of the Board are presented below.  We continue to have no 1st VP or 2nd VP.

OFFICERS:

President Dick Vesper 609-494-0263
1st VP Open  
2nd VP Open  
Treasurer Maurice Piergrossi 609-597-1639
Secretary Paul Turi 609-597-3193
Sgt. at Arms Charlie Kochka 609-597-4430

TRUSTEES (VOTING):

Tourneys Ed Cherry 609-597-9456
Weigh-ins George Fruh 609-597-4588
Past President Larry Gonnello 609-597-8405
Refreshments Bob Mueller 609-597-4184

TRUSTEES (NON-VOTING):

Website Dave Sikorski 609-978-0437
  Don Longstreet 609-978-3991
  Ed Sidell 609-597-3182
  Walt Thomas 609-597-0502
  Ron Roshelli 609-361-9230
  Steve Cook 609-987-8416

 

The following have offered a discount with the presentation of  a 2000 VHFC Membership Card

Fisherman’s Headquarters

Causeway, Ship Bottom, NJ

494-5739

10% discount on all bait & tackle

BOBBIES

7th & Bay Ave., Barnegat Light

494-1345

10% discount on bait & tackle

Tip’s Hardware

West Creek, NJ

296-3192

10% off bait , tackle & supplies

Boat U.S.

VHFC members only pay $9.50 for a year of Boat U.S. Forms for member’s use will be available at VHFC meetings.

Causeway Boat Rentals

On the LBI Causeway

494-1371

10% discount off bait and tackle.

Clarke’s Marine Supply

Tuckerton, NJ 609-294-0166

15%off OMC, etc.parts

10% off on Marine Supplies & Tackle

Cove Marina

Ship Bottom – 24th St and the Bay

494-8100

10% discount on all bait & tackle

 

 

Discounts are

Not Offered on Sale or Fair Traded Items

Barnegat Light Bait & Tackle Bay Avenue and 15th Street

Barnegat Lt. –494-4566

10% discount on all bait & tackle