20th Manhattan Cup to benefit vets and stripers

PRESENTED BY

This year marks the 20 th

anniversary of this all-release charity fishing tournament to benefit transitioning combat veterans and striped bass research and conservation. This article is a look back at its past and a look forward to this year’s event on June 5, 2020 by someone who has fished it, reported on it for the media and is now a valued member of the tournament committee.

If it’s a Friday during fishing season and you’re out on the water, you’ve won. Me, I remember sitting at my desk on a beautiful Friday morning in May of 2011, and on another one in May of 2012. I lost both times. At work in the financial district, the numbers on my computer screen didn’t matter and neither did the ones on the CNBC ticker on the TV. My mind was with the anglers fishing the Manhattan Cup and it was the images

that played on the screens of dozens of center consoles and sportfishers running full throttle, waking the Statue of Liberty on their way to chase stripers and blues in the shadow on the Big Apple. That’s what mattered. Not being out there felt worse than losing a 40-pound striper at the boat. knots down solid, yet alone understanding how this passion unites people from disparate walks of life. We all loved this thing called fishing and

I felt a hell of a lot better the following May because I was covering the Manhattan Cup for a regional fishing magazine. Going into the day I was thinking what a great way to just be able to walk up to anyone in the tournament and start a conversation. By the end of the night, I’d heard how a world record fish was caught—by the guy who caught it. I made friends with guys for whom fishing was only second to one thing, their families. Families that were put to the test that previous fall after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. I had the opportunity to tell warriors recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, “Thank you for your service” and heard why any of those brave men and women who were being honored that day would sacrifice again if called on. No questions asked.

Yes, that was a huge win for me, and it didn’t matter if I was writing an article or not. I was six years into my fishing evolution, and it was becoming more than just a hobby or annual ritual at that point. I wasn’t close to having all my Author Mike Dean with the bass that won the 2012 Manhattan Cup. Like all fish caught in this event, it was released alive. Tagging is encouraged and Gray FishTags are provided by the tournament.

we’d always work to protect and share it. And most important, a fishing captain taught me how fishing could be used as a force for good. I count weeks, then days on the calendar every year until the next Manhattan Cup like a 7-yearold does for Christmas. Eleven weeks, 2 days, and 7 hours until June 5, 2020 as of this writing, and I think about the fishing year’s past and hope for good fishing for everyone who comes to fish it again. Long time organizer and chairman of the Manhattan Cup, Captain Frank Crescitelli once bellowed over applause for the guides and captains who donated their boats and services for the day to benefit the Manhattan Cup…. “Look around the room, we’ve got all the top guides here, look at the good that was done here today. Like any one of us wouldn’t have a full day trip booked on a Friday in the spring, but we all chose this and chose right!”

In 2015, the fish were really in just one spot and they’d been there for a week. Everyone knew the spot. I was on the boat with the captain that knew the spot inside the spot and that’s where the winning fish was swimming and it was my year to win the cup. There’s a small number of guides and captains that are consistently on the bite. Their boats are fast, their gear is never guilty of losing a fish, their book is full a season out, and the waters of the NY Bite and beyond are their place of business. That room’s gotten a lot more crowded since the first time I was in it. The view changed too, for the better. June 5, 2020 will be the 20 th

Manhattan Cup, and the third year the Recreational Fishing Alliance through their non-profit Fisheries Conservation Trust is ensuring Capt. Frank’s promise of conversation and using fishing as a force for good is kept. During those two years there were more veterans brought into fish in the tournament, more science funded to preserve, protect, and understand our beloved striped bass, and more anglers experiencing their first Manhat-

tan Cup. This is a very special tournament held in a very special place and emotions run deep. Just being a catch and release tournament, and the largest one in the Northeast, is not enough on its own to protect and honor our local fishery. In our commitment to conservation through science, there was a new trophy presented the past two years, a stunning striped bass mount provided by one of our sponsors, Gray Taxidermy. The mount is awarded to the boat responsible for tagging the most fish during the day. The tagging program is implemented with the help of a partnering nonprofit organization, Gray Fishtag. A portion of the proceeds from our sponsors and entry fees is what makes this possible. Without hard science, understanding of how we can better conserve this resource isn’t possible. About a month before last year’s Manhattan Cup Gray Fishtag, working with staff from The Fisherman magazine, caught two mature, post-spawn striped bass in lower NY Harbor aboard Capt. Frank Wagenhoffer’s Fin Chaser guide boat. The fish, one nicknamed Liberty and the other Freedom, became the first stripers ever implanted with MiniPSAT satellite tags. Months later, the collective consciousness of the fishing community was turned upside down by the initial data retrieved from these tags. These supposed “inshore” fish were making a journey all the way out to deep ocean canyons and back. Liberty made that trip in just under two months. Freedom’s tag stayed intact longer and showed similar travels with time spent in the Hudson Canyon and beyond before heading to New England waters and then back toward the NY Bight. (For more on this see Born to Run by Jim Hutchinson in this issue)

Tags provided by Gray Fishtag Research are implanted in fish caught and released during the tournament.

MiniPSAT tags are the most advanced available for research and expensive to purchase and implant. They record temperature, depth, light and GPS position as the host fish proceeds along its migratory path. In association with Gray Fishtag Research Manhattan Cup tournament anglers tag and released dozens of additional bass with conventional spaghetti tags that provide more basic information and proceeds from the tournament will be used to implant additional bass with satellite tags. This new tagging effort is one of the most effective steps to gain a better understanding of striped bass, knowledge that can be used to restore the stocks. If you’d like to learn more about tagged stripers or any of the species they are tagging worldwide, the data is available to anyone at www.GrayFishTagResearch.org. Gray tags are free to anglers and captains, and their engagement with the fishing community is crucial to the progress being made. Their motto, “Fish for fun, Tag for Science.” Crescitelli always pounds home his personal motto, “Using fishing as a force for good,” and it is embodied in the Manhattan Cup. Some of the goodthat’s been accomplished are the life changing moments for some of the warriors who are brought to the tournament as guests to spend the day on the water and, in many cases, being introduced to fishing for the first time. The early June sun gleamed off One World Trade Center across the Hudson River at the close of fishing at last year’s event. As scorecards were tallied, steaks and lobsters were grilling, Hummock Island oysters were being slurped and glasses clinked, the good-natured story telling of the day’s events began. Talk of the ones that got

transitioning combat vets who are experiencing similar problems.

away and the ones that swam away after posing for the fishing paparazzi. I spotted SGT Robert Gil, Jr., a Manhattan Cup fishing convert from several years ago sharing his story with 20 or so other combat veterans. They were there because of his dedicated outreach and his experience at the Manhattan Cup had them mesmerized. The NYC skyline behind him was a much different one in he saw in 2001 before the destruction on 9/11. The hole in that skyline is what beckoned his and many others’ like him to do something to defend their country. A couple years later he was a warrior in an US Army Ranger battalion in Afghanistan, injured during an IED attack. Crippled by PTSD after returning home from battle, Robert shared his story with the audience at the Cup awards dinner several years later. He told of returning unable to adjust back into civilian life with nightmares, sleep deprivation and symptoms much worse, and he admitted he just didn’t want to live anymore having attempted suicide once. He never discounted the support of family, friends, doctors, and fellow warriors, but it was a fish, the fish that won the Manhattan Cup year’s before for a humble veteran who had never fished before, that became the transformational event in his life. He explained that his initial exposure to the Manhattan Cup literally saved his life, and he feels it can do the same for other With restored faith and hope, Gil is dedicating to bringing these gifts to other seemingly hopeless veterans. The past two years he as been the veteran outreach coordinator for The Manhattan Cup, and he is involved in other fishing outreach programs the rest of his time. SGT Gil saves lives and we are privileged to bear witness to it through his work introducing other vets to the joy and serenity he has found through fishing. The 2020 Manhattan Cup will be held on Friday June 5 th

at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City. Boats are available to accommodate teams of up to four and individual anglers are welcome to join other teams. You’re able to fish from your own boat in the Sportfishing division, or you can make a donation to fish one of the boats provided by the region’s top guides and charter captains. You or your business can donate to sponsor a boat for a team of vets or an individual warrior, and tickets for the awards cocktail party and dinner are available as well if a day of fishing isn’t in the cards for you. Sponsorships are still available for companies, individuals, and organizations to join leaders in the fishing and business community that enable this monumental day to happen. All donations are tax deductible through the Fisheries Conservation Trust, which hosts the event.