Annual Veteran Fishing Trip

The Great Gun Moriches Anglers hosted their fourth annual Take a Vet Fishing event at the Union Avenue dock on Saturday, July 22.

“We like giving back to the community,” Great Gun Moriches Anglers member Evan Goldstein said.  “A lot of worthwhile people served our country.”

Active and retired veterans were invited to board boats and spend the morning fishing in local waters.  Participants in the event congregated at the Union Avenue dock at 8 a.m., received bait for the day’s fishing, and were assigned to boats.  Fishing boats returned to the dock at 3 p.m. for a barbecue. The Great Gun Moriches Anglers use the event as a means of expressing their gratitude for the United States armed forces.

“[The event] was my brainchild,” Goldstein said.  “I saw them doing it in Florida; I brought it up to my club, and we’ve been doing it ever since.”

“Our outing is a small way for us to thank our current and past veterans for their service and sacrifice,” Great Gun Moriches Anglers member Tim Markart said.

Members of the Great Gun Moriches Anglers worked together to provide supplies and coordinate the fishing trip.  Bait and barbecue supplies were provided by some members, while other members were responsible for registering veterans, assigning veterans to boats, and selling T-shirts promoting the club.  Some club members even volunteered their own boats for the event.

“We come down, we set everything up, we get [the veterans] on the boats and we get them bait,” Great Gun Moriches Anglers member James Tolson said.

The Great Gun Moriches Anglers reached out to veterans’ organizations in order to promote the Take a Vet Fishing event.  The club contacted Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 414, a local veterans’ organization operating out of its own meeting hall on Main Street in Center Moriches.  The club also posted flyers in local bait and tackle shops.

“This year, we [had] veterans coming in from as far as North Carolina for the event,” Markart said.

Boats sailed into Moriches Bay and surrounding waters from the Union Avenue dock at 8 a.m. and spent the next seven hours fishing.  Past angler events had fished for fluke, sea bass, porgies, bluefish and striped bass.  Participants Greg Menegio and Rocco DeVito caught species such as fluke, sea robins, bluefish and bunker.  DeVito is a Navy veteran who previously participated in military operations in the Middle East, such as Desert Storm.

“I caught a [bluefish]… and a black fluke and a bunker,” DeVito said.

“I like fishing and I like… just being part of the local fishing community,” Menegio said.  “We find the fish by [using sonar], by the splashing [of fish near the surface], and by the birds [congregating near the fish].”

The 3 p.m. barbecue at the Union Avenue dock marked the conclusion of the event.  Great Gun Moriches Anglers members served chicken wings, burgers, and hot dogs to the returning participants.  Members of the fishing club estimate that around 45 veterans participated in this year’s fishing trip.

“This is probably one of the best events that anybody could [have]; it’s free for veterans and lets them know the American people [respect them],” Tolson said.

“Our hope is that… we are able to grow the event to support any and all veterans in the Greater Moriches area,” Markart said.

The Great Gun Moriches Anglers previously hosted a shark fishing tournament on June 24, where a thresher shark weighing 275 pounds was caught and displayed.  The club will be hosting a fluke tournament on Aug. 5.  The tournament will also be hosted at the Union Avenue dock and will last from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.