With the foul weather we had this weekend, Reel Blessed had to postpone our first event in 2 years. This weekend we had a surf fishing event planned. Tania and I were excited to show families one of our favorite types of fishing. Unfortunately, this will have to wait until next month. Since we were unable to get out fishing ourselves and we had to cancel our event I thought I would share about the event we held last year on this same weekend.

On January 15^th, Reel Blessed held our first family fish camp of 2022. It was a chilly morning and I believe that played a part in some of the families not showing up. Tania and I arrived at 730 AM to start setting up and it was only 43°, which is pretty darn cold for southern Florida. The rest of the volunteers showed up between 7:45 am and 8:00 am. We had a pretty good ratio for volunteers to participants today, six volunteers to 9 participants. Although it was a small event, I felt it was very impactful for those who attended.

We started the event today about 9:10 AM as we hoped the families that had not shown up yet might arrive late. At 9:10 Noah, one of the youth participants, opened our event up with a pray.

Noah has attended every event we have held and really loves to fish. He wants to learn how to catch with artificial baits so today I gave him a spinner bait. Noah was the first participant to catch a fish today. He was so excited to have finally caught a bass on an artificial bait.

It turned out to be a beautiful day. It was 70° by the time we started to wrap up the event. Even though the bite was slow everyone had a great time. We had several firsts today. One of the little girls held a worm for the first time, she also casted by herself for the first time and her brother caught his first fish. Noah and his grandfather both caught fish and the last family also caught fish. Unfortunately, not every person caught fish, but someone from each family caught fish and all the kids had smiles on their faces.

We ended the day by giving away one of the rod and reel combos donated by Captain Rich Dubord from Salty Daze Fishing Adventures. Once we handed out the combo, we wrapped up the event. I cannot thank our volunteers enough for the time they give ensuring our camps are successful. Thank you, Matt Gray, Don McDilda, Ed Barret, and William Sang.

Tania and I would also like to give a shout out to all our sponsors. First thank you Fishing’s Future for all you do and for giving Tania and I the ability to hold these events and impact our community. I also want to thank Salt Strong for being one of our biggest financial sponsors since we started in 2021. We need to also thank West Marine and Bass Pro Shop in Traditions for approving grants to help fund our events. Lastly but not least, thank you to all the individuals who have donated to our ministry.

Our next event is scheduled for February 11, 2023. If you are interested in helping at a Reel Blessed family fish camps you can donate by clicking the Fishing’s Future logo below. If you donate, please put Reel Blessed in the comment section to ensure the funds come directly to us. You can also email us at Reelblessed@fishingsfuture.org.