- Our guest speaker was John Tiedemann, Monmouth University Director, Marine and
Environmental Biology & Policy Program (MEBP), who spoke on “Stripers for the Future,
a Research and Education Program.” He explained that striped bass have been the
target of anglers for hundreds of years in their native range of the Saint Lawrence River,
Canada to the Saint Johns River, Florida. Their major spawning grounds are the
Chesapeake Bay, Hudson River, Delaware River and Roanoke River and their eggs
increase in number exponentially as they get older. Scientists will use acoustical tagging
to study the effects of wind farm fields on stripers. They are also in the process of
detecting environmental DNA in the Manasquan River, with the help of the Manasquan
High School Fishing Club, to the determine the extent that stripers winter there. The
Manasquan Fishing Club also volunteered to periodically take water samples at the
ocean for a similar study. Many thanks to John for the very informative talk.
- The Big Sea Day Youth Fishing Contest was held on Saturday, August 5th. It was a
beautiful day and the contest was very well attended. Fishing was a bit slow but the
contestants all had a great time as did the MFC members who helped out. Many thanks
to Bill Beck, Jack Pongracz, John Sheehan, Paul Hennigan, Joe Choma, John Gassner, Bill
Schwarz, and Luis Cadalzo for assisting at the event.
- Our next fishing tourney will be our Labor Day Weekend Fish Tournament which is
scheduled for September 1 - 4. We’re all looking forward to that one! Make sure to see
the Planned Events section of this Newsletter for more details and mark your calendar.
- We are planning to resume our Annual Dinner in April 2024, John Sheehan and Bob
Gynn are putting things together. This event is a ton of fun so stay tuned.
We will be holding our 2nd Prize Raffle of the year at our September meeting, see
attached listing of available prizes. It is requested that members do not solicit prizes for
our September raffle but rather donate prizes since we will be soliciting prizes for our
April Annual Dinner. We don’t want to overdo it with our friendly vendors and
supporters.
- We will also be raffling off Gruden Fishing Gear at the September meeting.