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Angler's
Profiles |
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| A series of articles introducing RISAA members to the rest of the club. |
| (From the July, 2001 Newsletter) CRAIG PICARD |
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The past three years, this Angler's
Profile column has been written by Mike Lanni. He has done an excellent
job, introducing us all, in an intimate way, to many of the members of this
organization. He has helped us to place a name to many of the faces
we see at monthly meetings, and has helped us to see the widely varied personalities
that make up RISAA.
A couple of months ago, Mike decided to take a rest from his many duties with RISAA. A search began for someone to take over this column, which has become one of the most widely-read features of the RISAA newsletter. That search has ended with the selection of Craig Picard who will take over as the writer of this column. Craig was ready to dive into his duties to begin interviewing members, but we decided that the first article should be written about him, so you all had an idea who HE was. 
Craig is a new member to RISAA, having joined just a few months ago, but
his fishing experience is not new. He grew up fishing on his father's
boat, a 36-foot Trojan Sportfish name RIDE-ON, docked at Channel Marina in
Snug Harbor. Although they spent little time fishing inland - they
would occasionally fluke outside the West Wall - they concentrated their
efforts fishing south of Block Island for shark, marlin and tuna.Craig's dad, Rick, was the president of the Block Island Billfish Invitational Tournament and was one of the Board of Directors for the Rhode Island Tuna Tournament. Craig notes that, even though his dad was very tired after a long week of work at one of the four Sunoco gas stations he owned, he still managed to pack them up each Friday by 6:00 p.m. and drove the 45 minutes to the boat where they spent each weekend. Craig fondly recalls this as the best part of his childhood and why he still enjoys fishing and "being on the water" so much. He saw a lot of sea life during those early years, and saw several white marlin. He tells of an event back in the mid-80's when a 20 foot Great White Shark that was feeding on the carcass of a whale about 8 miles off Point Judith, bit the bow of his friend Nick's center console and pushed it ten feet into the air! When you see him in person ask him to tell you the full story to this frightening adventure! One of his most memorable angling moments was as a teenager when they hooked into a 250-pound Blue Shark and Craig begged to reel it in, so they strapped him into the fighting chair. But this shark was more than he bargained for, but he handled it. After that, he was able to handle many of the 200+ pound Yellowfins that they caught. In the 90's he saw the huge decline in the Bluefin Tuna population, and notes that "the fishery will probably never recover." His family sold their boat in 1995, and for the next few years he did very little fishing, but during the summer of 1999, he started to read the fishing reports and decided that it was time to get a boat and get back on the water. In March, 2000, Craig bought his first boat, a 1973 22-foot Aquasport center console. He had Joe Mollica of the Snug Harbor Marine Service Center install a new 130 HP Honda. Even though he had been fishing since he was 8 years old (Craig is now 28), he felt like a newcomer because he had rarely fished inshore. His first weekend on the water was one of his best, having landed a 30" striper on a white bucktail outside the Harbor of Refuge. He was then shocked to land his biggest fluke ever (8 pounds) and found that it wouldn't even fit into the net! He spent the rest of the season catching fluke, scup, weakfish, black seabass and stripers. He credits much of his success that first season back on the water to the other anglers on his dock at Kenport Marina. They showed him the right tackle to use for fluke and stripers. Although he'll sometimes go out alone, these days he fishes mostly with his dad, but also with his wife, Jennifer. Craig said that "Jen" also grew up fishing with her dad, but she never really got into it. These days though, she enjoys fishing for fluke with Craig and also enjoys being out on the water. (Perhaps another future RISAA member?) It was when Craig got back into fishing that he found out about the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association. He said that he was looking around on the Internet for saltwater fishing information and found the web site of the Ocean State Angler. That site led him to the RISAA web site, and after investigating the organization decided it was the perfect group to join. Craig plans to become actively involved, attending meetings and making new friends. He and Jen will be attending the upcoming Viking Queen Moonlight Cruise sponsored by RISAA. Most important, he hopes to gain the knowledge to improve his fishing abilities. When not fishing, he works at the Flow and Control Division of Tyco International as a sales representative and makes his home in Narragansett. |
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