The month of July was a big one for the Pabst Blue Ribbon Northeast Fishing Tournament. The summer weather finally arrived, and the full moon fell on a weekend. There were certainly a lot of weigh-ins waiting for us when we got back to the office on Monday, July 14th!
Even before the full moon, 50+ pound fish were a regular occurrence in the Bass caught by boat category, and since then they’ve only gotten bigger! With the number of big fish seen recently, especially around Block Island, we expect to have a few more on the leaderboard soon. For now, the first place entry is a 53lb 0oz fish caught on July 12th by Mike Littlefield. Only 1lb 7oz separates Mike from 2nd and 3rd placed John Frione and Paul Santa Barbara, so this division is extremely close!
There’s been a bit less action in the Bass by Shore Division, with just one additional weigh-in in July. Chad Braga and his 45lb 5oz fish caught near Westport, MA on the 11th are now in second place in that division.
There have been a number of new entries in the Catch and Release Division, including a nice 40” fish from Philip Rupnick, and an impressive seven from Sean Kearney, six of which were caught over the weekend of the 12th-14th! He’s definitely been putting some serious hours in on the rocks, and his 43” and 45” fish hold the 2nd and 3rd places on the leaderboard in that division. Jonathan Lewie’s 48.5″ entry from June 21st is still the largest caught and released fish, but all properly documented caught and released fish will be added to the Evan Metropoulos $5,000 Conservation Award to be raffled off at the final prizegiving.
In the bluefish division seven new catches came in, including Michael Larson’s massive 17lb 1.6oz fish caught during the evening of the 12th off Montauk. James Katsaros’ 14lb 14.5oz blue caught on the 13th and Tom Hall’s 14lb 14oz fish caught on the 17th round out the leaderboard in that division.
The fluke division was busy as well with nine new weigh-ins, however only the 12lb 14.4oz slab caught by Christopher Wallis was able to make it onto the leaderboard. He’s now in first place, with Thomas McMahon and Dan Galligan hanging on to 2nd and 3rd respectively.
With school finally out, it’s not surprising that there’s been a lot of action in the junior divisions. Kevin Fasulo still holds on to the top of the fluke leaderboard, but Dylan Blackburn and Elliot Budney have entered nice fish to fill out the 2nd and 3rd positions. We received 4 weigh-ins for the junior bass by boat division. Elliot Budney narrowly missed 3rd place with his 37lb fish, and the leaderboard is made up of Joey Scrofani’s 40lb 9.28 fish in 3rd, Francine Mastrangelo with her 42lb 2oz catch in 2nd, and Cole Perschino holding down 1st place with a massive 50lb 5oz striper! It’s also worth mentioning that Francine is still the only woman on the tournament leaderboard, so get out there ladies!
There were two new entries to the Junior Fluke division, both weighed in at Block Island Fishworks. Dylan Blackburn’s 4lb 12oz fish narrowly edged out Elliot Budney’s 4lb 5oz fish for second. The lead position is still held by Kevin Fasulo’s 7lb 11.2oz fish caught last month.
There was some good action on the Junior Bluefish leaderboard as well, with Richard Rade III and Joey Scrofani taking over 1st and 2nd place respectively. Richard’s fish weighed in at 13lb 12oz, while Joey’s was 12lb 15oz.
We still haven’t had any entries to the Junior Bass from Shore, so kids, persuade your parents to let you stay up late, and get out there!
All in all July was a busy month in what’s shaping up to be our biggest PBR Fishing Tournament yet! If you haven’t yet signed up, what are you waiting for? You can enter online at www.pbrfishing. com with the tournament just about half-way through, we can’t wait to see what comes through the Tournament Office in August!
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