The Block Island Inshore Fishing Tournament made a powerful return this weekend. Capt. Chris Willi of Block Island Fishworks, Tournament host, said, “We are proud to bring this tournament back, we had great weather Saturday and most were able to fish Sunday morning too. We had good Island participation and a strong presence from anglers who live on the mainland too with about seventy boat and shore anglers participating.”
To encourage mainland participation, the tournament had four co-sponsor tackle shops including Ocean State Tackle, Providence; The Saltwater Edge, Middletown; Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown; and Watch Hill Outfitters, Westerly. Over $10,000 in prize money, tackle shop gift cards and tournament swag were awarded at the Tournament which was sponsored by Ørsted and their Block Island Wind Farm.
At the awards ceremony held Sunday at Capt. Nick’s Rock & Roll Bar, Block Island, Willi said, “Thanks to the Ørsted sponsorship the tournament was able to donate 100 percent of Tournament entry fees and then we had a matching donation from Block Island Fishworks to the Block Island Fire & Rescue Department.”
Ross Pearsall, fisheries stakeholder relations manager for Ørsted, said, “Sponsoring the Tournament allowed Ørsted to demonstrate our ongoing support of the recreational fishing on and off-Island. We thank Capt. Chris Willi of Block Island Fishworks for continuing to hold the Tournament as it celebrates the Island’s relationship to fishing and offshore wind. We are happy that our sponsorship has helped the Tournament make a donation to such a cornerstone of the community, the Block Island Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department.”
Beth Rousseau, Keisha Brown and Greta Hines of the Fire & Rescue Department were present at the event to receive a $3,250 donation check form Block Island Fishworks.
“The fishing was very good with some striped bass, bluefish, fluke and black sea bass edging out other fish by just a half-inch” said Capt. Willi.
First place team honors went to Richard Lipsitz of North Kingstown and his team ‘Frayed Knot’, the team scored most points in the overall Tournament taking second and fourth place in the bluefish category, fist in the striped bass category with a 47.5-inch fish, and a third-place black sea bass.”
Richard Lipsitz said, “The Tournament was great and all had a lot of fun. If we knew about the Tournament earlier we would have stayed on Island, or maybe I need to buy a larger boat.”
Boat division first place fluke went to the ‘Fluke It’ team with a 21.75-inch fish and first place black sea bass to team ‘Outer Limits’ with a 20 inch fish. The boat bluefish division was taken by team ‘Hook’m’. Team member John O’Keefe of Jamestown caught a gator size bluefish that was 35 inches to take first place (the Rhode Island record is 39”).
The shore division had great representation from Block Island and mainland anglers. Shore angler Max Eicoff of Block Island said, “We fished all night and worked pretty hard at it.” Eicoff took first place bluefish from shore with a 25-inch fish and second place striped bass with a 31-inch fish. The first place striped bass shore division went to Sam Hughes with a 35-inch fish.
There were two youth (under 13 years old) division winners in the black sea bass (Hines) and bluefish (Willi) boat divisions. Both are Block Island youth.
A special tournament photo division had three prizes including the most scenic, best team photo and best fish photo all had to be taken with the wind farm in the photo. The most scenic and best team photos were won by Matt Haczynski of team ‘Fluke It’ and the best fish photo was taken by Jim Stevens of team ‘Hook’m’.
Willi said, “This was a length-only Tournament. When registering online participants downloaded our Tournament app developed by Taylor Ingraham of Tightlined Slam on their smartphone. When they wanted to make a Tournament entry they took a photo of their catch up against the Tournament supplied ruler and send their entry into the Tournament electronically encouraging catch & release.”
A complete list of winners will be posted online at https://www.sandypointco.com/bi-inshore-tourney.