75 years of Cape May fish stories

CAPE MAY - There's the one about the lady who caught a state-record bluefish off the Jersey Shore and for decades bemoaned serving it up for dinner instead of having it mounted to hang over the easy chair in her den.

Or the guy who lost everything in a series of tragedies, including a house fire, but desperately wanted to recover the only tangible link to his two sons: fishing-tournament certificates from family vacations in Wildwood.

So go the fish stories cast over the 75 years that Cape May County has been sponsoring an annual tournament.

Although there's no way to know if it is the oldest, the year-round contest, begun in 1935 to lure tourists, is among the oldest continuously running fishing tournaments in the United States, said Diane Wieland, director of the Cape May County Department of Tourism. Other states and municipalities have used it for years as a public tournament model.

"We're going on third and fourth and fifth generations of people participating in this tournament," said Lou Rodia, 83, of Cape May Court House, a retired county tourism official, who still helps pick the previous year's winners each January.

That makes the contest's lasting effects - both emotional and economical - difficult to measure with statistics, Rodia said.

While some privately funded regional tournaments have purses as high as $500,000, Cape May runs a modest contest, with no entry fee or cash prizes. The trophies are commemorative pins, which anglers often show off on their hats. Top winners over the years have been awarded Penn reels, tackle boxes, and other gear.

The 2010 contest will feature a 75th-anniversary certificate. Winners are sorted by categories such as size and rarity. Catches must be weighed at one of 40 designated marinas or tackle shops around the county, but contest organizers encourage anglers to release game fish such as marlin and wahoo and enter those species' statistics on the back of a photograph.

Long before sun and sand became the Shore's biggest draws, Wieland said, recreational fishing helped develop sections of the county, including Sea Isle City and the Anglesea section of North Wildwood.

"That the officials 75 years ago had the foresight to understand and recognize the impact that recreational fishing could have on the region as far as tourism promotion is really remarkable," Rodia said.

With the tournament's long history comes 75 years' worth of meticulously kept fishing records that have survived dozens of political administrations - mainly because nobody in county government ever bothers to throw anything out, Wieland said.

"We even have records that still have some of the blood and guts from the fish smeared on them from when they did the weigh-ins years ago," she said. "It's quite a collection."

From the dusty files came the precise dimensions of the 32-pound fish from that long-ago repast, so the husband of the bereft bluefish angler could have a mold cast and surprise his wife with a replica - hung over her recliner - on their 50th anniversary.

And the files returned a small piece of a father's summer memories with his sons and helped replace precious tournament pins lost when fierce winds stole fishing hats.

In addition to Rodia, judges include outdoor writers and local officials with a penchant for fishing, who gather midwinter to review entries from the previous 12 months and award certificates, pins, and, most important, bragging rights.

"A lot of talk and interesting stories get generated in that session," Rodia said. "That's when we hear about the exotic species that someone might have caught or whether any state records were recorded."

Ten years ago, the county instituted a youth division to further encourage families to participate.

"Whenever the boats go out from here, I always encourage them to get involved in the tournament," said Rick Weber, second-generation owner of the South Jersey Fishing Center, a Cape May Harbor marina and one of the contest's weigh stations.

"When people are sitting back in their family room in the middle of the winter and look up at their tournament certificate," Weber said, "it gives them another chance to brag about their fish and remember all the fun they had in Cape May County."

The Cape May County Fishing Tournament is open to anyone catching one of 30 recognized species in county waters, which include the Atlantic Ocean, the Delaware and other bays, and inland freshwater. The contest complies with all state fishing rules and encourages the release of game fish. Entry forms are available at weigh stations in 40 marinas and tackle shops. For detailed rules, go to www.thejerseycape.com

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