Third Annual Fishing Derby

What a catch!

The Third Annual CSMM Fishing Derby was held this past Saturday and it was a great success! Over eighty kids participated and we had three trophy winners, as well as two additional prizes for fish caught. Twelve rods and reels were also raffled off for the kids. One proud fisher hauled in a 2.5 pound catfish, captivating the kids in the crowd! They all enjoyed watching it swim in the tank before it was released back to its home in the Delaware.

Our winning fisher-kids were: Tyann Thomas of Urban Promise for the longest fish, Franklin Tran of Sacred Heart for the first fish caught, and Yarimar Santiago of Urban Promise for the heaviest fish. Additional catches were reeled in by Yeily Betancourt of Sacred Heart and Xavier Ruiz from Urban Promise. Of course there's always "the one that got away," but luckily for Adeja Rice of Urban Promise, there were witnesses to confirm her fish tale!

The derby, which involves Charles Bay's Youth Instructional Team of the Delaware River Fishermen's Association, has grown over the years and is now the Association's largest youth fishing event. Many thanks to Charles and the DRFA for their time, the trophies and the fish weigh-in.

Youth Instructional Team of DRFA

Also, special thanks to Jim Cummings and all the good folks at the Urban Promise Day Camps for coming out and doing such a great job!

We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of our sponsors and contributors: Andy Krikun and his crew from the CCMUA for the food, drink, and t-shirts, Fred Lenz of the South Jersey Bass Club and Roxann Coleman of Pure Fishing Inc. for much donated equipment, and Tim Schenk and the kids from the Sacred Heart School.

This was the first year that the Derby was run as a fundraising event and because of its success in this regard, it will continue to be a fundraiser in the future. Greatly appreciated financial support was provided by Kevin Castagnola and the South Jersey Port Corporation, Camden Iron & Metal, American Transport, Camden Yards Steel, Camden International Commodities Terminal, A.P. Construction, John Bantivoglio, William Lang Sr., Marilyn Roze, BRS Services, William Judd D.M.D., Bill Leatherbee of Leatherbee & Associates, and Stephen Richter. Additional contributions continue to come in and all involved with the museum express our gratitude to each and every donor.

Mayor Dana Redd was unable to attend but she sent along her congratulations and expressed an enthusiastic interest to be with us for next year's event. With this third fishing derby in the books as both a fun and educational day, we can look ahead to the fourth with confidence that it will be even better!

For more pictures of the event, please visit the CSMM Flickr Photostream.

For a really fun peek at the event, please check out Brian Newhall's wonderful video below!