2023 Al Pietrosilli’s Kid’s Day on the Pier — Marin Rod & Gun Club

Marin Rod & Gun Club — Al Pietrosilli’s Kid’s Day on the Pier

Saturday, August 26, saw a large group of volunteers host the 34th annual “Kids Day On The Pier,” an event given a new name this year—“Al Pietrosilli’s Kid’s Day on the Pier.” Although the 45 youngsters in attendance was a somewhat smaller than expected number, they and roughly 90 adults filled the pier with high hope, excitement and fish. The atmosphere was upbeat, the kids were smiling, and the weather cooperated with mid temperatures and just a slight breeze.

Registration

The Marin Rod and Gun Club and Pier Fishing in California (pierfishing.com) brought free loaner tackle and people to help out at the event while the club provided the free bait. Assistance for the (often) newbie anglers was available from both club and PFIC members.

Loaner rods and reels

People quickly headed to what they hoped would be a “hot” spot

Fish on!

A nice variety of fish were caught by the young anglers including 3 striped bass, 2 leopard sharks, 2 thornback rays, 1 bat ray, 2 walleye surfperch, 1 barred surfperch, 1 staghorn sculpin, and many, many jacksmelt.

Thornback Ray

Leopard Shark

Walleye Surfperch

A young lady with a jacksmelt

Jacksmelt

Striped Bass

Once the fishing was completed, every youngster received a free hot dog lunch courtesy of the club followed by the announcement of the age group winners. Each individual age group winner received a 1st Place trophy and an autographed copy of Pier Fishing in California by Ken Jones of Pier Fishing In California who was making his eleventh appearance at the event.

Ken Jones

Next up was the announcement of the winners in the various age categories. Age Group winners: 5 & 6-Year-Old — (tie) Baxter Grey and Crystal Ariya; 7-Year-Old — Gemma Schultz; 8-Year-Old — (tie) Isaac Guiterez and Maddox Doherty; 9-Year-Old — Destin Malony; 11-Year-Old — Evan Magoria; 12-Year-Old — Bora Tekin; 13-Year-Old — Vincent Borosso.  Special prize to Miles McCulloch who fought a large ray to the surface but whose fish was lost in the netting.

5 & 6-Year-Old — Baxter Grey

 5 & 6-Year-Old — Crystal Ariya

7-yr-old Gemma Schultz

8-yr-old Isaac Guiterez

8-yr-old Maddox Doherty

9-yr-old Destin Malony

11-yr-old Evan Magoria

12-yr-old Bora Tekin

13-yr-old Vincent Borosso

Special Award – Miles McCulloch

Last but certainly not least was the raffle, which provided brand new rods and reels for EVERY youngster that was in the derby. It was fun watching the youngsters pick out their favorite rods and reels.

There are many, many volunteers to thank, those who assisted with registration, setting up the rods, reels and bait, the judges, and all the cooks and servers for the lunch.

First and of upmost importance is Al Pietrosilli, the club coordinator for the event. He’s the one hitting the streets and getting the necessary donations (thousands of dollars) for the event, money that paid for everything from the food to the rods and reels. The change in the derby name certainly reflects the honor he has earned for his outstanding work on the derby over the years.

Registration was handled by club members Katie Schultz, Patti Clark, Ann Marie and Rita Magdamo (who’s also a PFIC member).

Setting up the rods and reels were club members Scott and Gary along with PFIC members Rita Magdamo, Hans Jones, Robert Gardner and Kyle Pease.

Judges included club members Nick Kerr, Justin Etter, Mark Tognoli, Mike Tomita, Kevin Tomita, Ed McCain, and Vince Simpson, along with PFIC members Mel Kon, Kyle Pease, and Hans Jones.

Helping with water and recycling bottles was club members James and Daniella Hearn.

In closing, special attention once again should be given to Al Petrocelli but two additional men were instrumental in making everything so smoothly come together—Joe Morrison, a board member who has helped the derby for years and President Dan Nonberg who was busy throughout the day making sure everything came together. A big thanks to both.

Al Pietrosilli and Ken Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The 2022 “Kids Day on the Pier” — Marin Rod & Gun Club Pier

Saturday, August 27, saw a large group of volunteers and a large group of kids and parents at the Marin Rod & Gun Club pier for the annual “Kids Day on the Pier” fishing derby.

The Marin Rod and Gun Club and Pier Fishing in California (pierfishing.com) brought free loaner tackle and people to help out at the event while the club provided the free bait. Assistance for the (often) newbie anglers was available as needed.

We had 86 youngsters on the pier with at least that many adults and fish were caught although not too many. The red tide, which unfortunately has negatively affected much of the bay, was making its presence known and only 11 bat rays, 3 leopard sharks, 1 halibut, 1 jacksmelt and 1 surfperch were caught. Typically the list is led by a large number of jacksmelt so I think their absence more than anything else reflected the red tide.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere was upbeat, the kids were smiling, and even the weather cooperated for the most part (although just a tad bit windy).

Bat Ray Time

California Halibut

Once the fishing was completed, every youngster received a free hot dog lunch courtesy of the club followed by the announcement of the age group winners. Each individual age group winner received a 1st Place trophy and an autographed copy of Pier Fishing in California by Ken Jones of Pier Fishing In California who was making his tenth appearance at the event.

Age Group winners:

5-Year-Old Winner— Eliza Jane Mills

6-Year-Old Winner — Yahir Salanic

7-Year-Old Winner — Zach Mitchell

8-Year-Old Winner — Lily Mitchell

9-Year-Old Winner — Reed Stewart

10-Year-Old Winner — Trevor Selle

11-Year-Old Winner — Brodie Guerraro

12-Year-Old Winner — Thomas Valdez

13-Year-Old Winner — Matthew Morimoto

14-Year-Old Winner— Kaden Choi

15-Year-Old Winner — Kiana Choi

Last but certainly not least was the raffle, which provided rods and reels for EVERY youngster that was in the derby. Al Petrocelli, the club coordinator for the event, raised more than $7,000 in donations that helped pay for the rods and reels.

There were many, many club volunteers to thank, those who assisted with registration, setting up the rods, reels and bait, the judges, and all the cooks and servers for the lunch. Unfortunately I only have three names, the three ladies who registered the youngsters—Jennie Petrocelli, Ann Marie Melanephy, and Katie Shurtz.  But we are thankful for all who helped make the day a successful event.

I also want to thank the Pier Fishing in California crew that showed up—Rita Magdamo (also a club member), Kyle Pease, Dave DeJong, Robert Gardner (Redfish) and Hans Jones. They rigged (and unrigged) rods and reels, helped judge, and took pictures. It was all appreciated.

A special thanks goes to Rich Reano the webmaster for pierfishing.com who flew all the way up from San Diego to film the event. He took so much film he will probably make two films, one of the club and one of the event.

 

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2009 PFIC/UPSAC SoCal Pierfishing Derby #5, Cabrillo Pier — San Pedro

 

 

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2012 PFIC/UPSAC Mud Marlin Derby, Berkeley Pier

Date: May 21, 2012 — To: PFIC Message Board — From: Illcatchanything2 — Subject: Mud Marlin Derby 2012

A great event. Like Red Fish said, the weather was the best that I can ever remember for an MMD. wind was very lite, jackets, etc. did not even come out until around 10pm. We had 43 people that signed in, and I believe (probably due to the great weather) most all made it until midnight.

Our winners for 2012 were:

Bob G-StipeSideChaser- 1st Place with a 56#

Edwin H- (a guest)- 2nd place with a 40#

Tim Nguyen-Sfork- 3rd place with a 32#

There were also several breakoff’s leading me to believe there are some big rays at the pier right now (if you fish for them please handle them carefully and of you are not keeping them, please return to the water asap….)

Big Thanks to Sofa King for stepping up and pretty much handling all the pre-work when I could not. Also thanks to Big Rich for hauling all the gear to the pier, Chip and the rest of the guys from The City Of Berkeley for hauling all our stuff out onto the pier on the golf carts, Red Fish for donating that beautiful Striper pictured above for the potluck (nothing better than fresh fish fried up right on the spot, GDude for getting the trophy’s and all the other unsung work he does, everyone who donated for the potluck and to everyone who came out to fish, have a good time and show your support. At the end of the day, you, the members and guests are the reason we put in all this effort and do any event.

Posted by Red Fish — Another successful event! Good seeing all the familiar faces, some that have been there every year for 11 years! Thanks to Sofa King and son, ICA2 and sons, Gyozadude and son, Bigrich for putting forth a tremendous effort in sponsoring this event to make sure everyone had an enjoyable time. Congratulations to SSC (for protectin’ the Griffin rep) and all the other derby winners! Oh, and someone did high-stick at the end, and broke their rod at the top and the bottom as a powerful ray dove under the pier. I have never seen a rod so tweaked in my life (totally a wipeout). The best weather we have ever had at an MMD. Ken Jones, you were missed, but you were there in pierfishing spirit!

Posted by West Coast Dave — I had a great time this year, even though I only manage to feed the crabs (I also caught one of those bait stealers, a nice Dungeness crab that I released).

By the way my streak of Mud Marlin Derbies continued with this one being the 11th. I think that Redfish and I are the only people on the message board who have never missed a derby. And Redfish probably has three hours of derby time more than me, because one year I came three hours late at 9 P.M. from a wedding I had to attend in S.F. Is there anyone else out there that has also attended all 11 derbies?

The weather was great, but not the best at the derby. The first one back in 2001 and a couple others were held on windless warm days where it was so hot and humid on the pier, we were down to wearing t-shirts. Tight Lines, and I hope to see everyone next year in 2013!! And thanks to everyone who made this such a great event.

Posted by Ken Jones — Good job guys, wish I could have been there.

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PFIC/UPSAC 2010 SoCal Pierfishing Derby #2 — Oceanside Pier

Eugene getting everything ready

Showing PFIC

Prizes

A thornback ray

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