Trenton Rotary Club’s
annual fishing tournament raises $5,000 for SVL

By Charlie Smith

The 2nd Annual Rotary Fishing Tournament raised $5,000 over the weekend for Suwannee Valley Leagues (SVL) sports program, and Trenton Rotary Club members are proud of the fact that they reached their goal.
Forty-five Rotary members and fishermen celebrated the night before the tournament with a Captain’s Dinner at Salt Creek Restaurant in Suwannee.

William Roland and Jarod Harman of Newberry were the winners of the best bag.
The men are shown with Charlie Smith of the Trenton Rotary Club.

Rotarian Shannon Smith talked for a few minutes about all of the positive values that team sports sponsored by SVL provide the youth of Gilchrist County.
Former Gilchrist County resident Tom Caldwell conducted an auction of the boats in the tournament called the calcutta, and several hundred dollars was raised for SVL through the auction.
Sunset at Salt Creek Restaurant is always beautiful and everyone enjoyed the fun and fellowship, Charlie Smith reported.
In all, 16 boats were signed in by 6:30 a.m. on Saturday when the boats left the dock from the new Suwannee Marina.
Despite the hot weather and a full moon, several of the boats produced nice redfish and speckled trout and everyone had a good time.
Winners of the best bag, with two redfish and up to five speckled trout, were William Roland and Jarod Hartman both of Newberry; their bag was 12+ lbs.
John Taylor, fishing with his son John, Jr., took the prize for the biggest redfish; and they were back at the dock by about noon for the 3:00 p.m. weigh-in.
The largest trout was caught by Darryl Feagle and Todd Gray.