New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The Schwartz Center for Children has changed its 4th annual Fishing For A Cause® tournament dates to Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21, 2014, culminating with a celebratory awards dinner on Saturday night. This catch-and-release fishing tournament will be anchored at Pope’s Island Marina, 102 Pope’s Island, New Bedford, with fishing grounds from Cape Cod Bay to Block Island and beyond.
Fishing For A Cause® dates previously coincided with the historical visit of the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship, a National Landmark built in and first launched from New Bedford in 1841. “As we learned more about the scale and scope of the city’s plans and resources needed to support this historical event, along with other annual events currently scheduled for the same weekend, we felt it would be best that we move our tournament to a weekend with less activity in the port,” said Mary Hodgson, CEO of the Schwartz Center.
Fishing For a Cause® is a striped bass, bluefish, and fluke tournament organized by and for the benefit of the Schwartz Center for Children, a non-profit organization that provides critical services for children with special developmental and medical needs throughout Southeastern Massachusetts.
Interested anglers can register their own boat at an early-bird rate of $200 per angler thru March 25 or $250 per angler after that. Alternately, anglers can organize a team of anglers to join an all-inclusive fishing charter with entry fees staring at $1,500 per charter. Tickets for the catered awards dinner on Saturday, June 21 – complimentary to registered anglers – can be purchased separately and start at $100 per person. Top prizes for the tournament include: $2,500 for striped bass, $1,000 for bluefish, and $750 for fluke. Anglers have the option of departing from and returning to their homeport. A limited number of complimentary boat slips will be made available at Pope’s Island by request for early registrants.
Dr. Joanne Cameron, who has participated in the tournament with her husband David since it started four years ago and who has joined the planning committee this year, said, “I was born in New Bedford, worked as an emergency physician at St. Luke’s Hospital and as a pediatrician I understand the many challenges the children served at the Schwartz Center face every day. Taking part in the Fishing for a Cause tournament allows me to contribute in some small way to the Center while having a great time with my husband and friends competing in a fishing tournament that is a natural for the New Bedford community. And, it’s great fun to spend a weekend out on the water trying to outsmart big fish or, more likely, having them outsmart me.”
For more information please visit: fishing4acause.org or call 508-996-3391 x425. This event is made possible, in large part, due to the support of Clarke Distribution Corporation, New England’s official Sub-Zero, and Wolf Showroom and Test Kitchen.
