Admittedly, we missed the announcement, but ‘better late than never’ as they say. If you’re not familiar with Fishing for the Mission 22, it’s a charitable organization that focuses on veterans suffering from depression with special emphasis on suicide prevention. The ‘22’ in the name represents the 22 veterans we lose every single day to suicide in this country; a sobering statistic that they hope to help change with fishing. They run all kinds of events from chowder cook-offs to barbecue festivals, but the central theme is fishing, in fact they organize dozens of free trips for veterans every year, and they run various fishing derbies and tournaments as well.
Back at the beginning of June, they ran their second Black Sea Bass Fishing Tournament, which was confined to the waters of Buzzards Bay and offered many ways to win. With over $6,000 in prizes and another $22,000 allotted for the potential of catching one of the 22 tagged sea bass they released ahead of the tournament, expectations and excitement were high! Somewhat surprisingly, not one of the tagged fish were landed during the event! But this cool new addition to the tournament amped up the excitement and will – hopefully – be a part of future events as well.
The overall winner was Marlene Gedenberg thanks to her 4.28-pound sea bass and she took home a healthy $1,500 check for her efforts. The junior overall winner was Logan Christ thanks to his 3.98-pound sea bass, he won a rod and reel combo for his awesome catch. The rest of the winners were as follows…
Men:
- Bob Motta 3.58 pounds
- Bill Dodd 3.55 pounds
- Doug Brodbeck 3.48 pounds
Women:
- Robin Dodd 3.60 pounds
- Paula Smith 3.22 pounds
- Tammy Wise 2.88 pounds
Junior:
- Logan Christ 3.98 pounds
- Logan Jarret 2.19 pounds
- Luke Hensen 2.13 pounds
Big thanks go out to Harold Skelton of Fishing for the Mission 22 for putting this awesome event together and of course, all of the amazing sponsors including Kingman Yachts, Maco’s Bait and Tackle, Quahog Republic, The Boat Guys, Rockland Trust, Sharky’s Cantina, The Kacie Project and My Fishing Cape Cod. To learn more about Fishing for the Mission 22 and all of the things they do, please visit www.fishingforthemission22.org and make sure to find them on Facebook and Instagram as well.
