One of the volunteers - a striped bass sporting a specific neon green plastic tag and nicknamed Diamond Jim - is worth five figures if caught before the end of July. Impostors are worth $500 each.
As of Saturday afternoon, no one had reeled in June's Diamond Jim, who was released off Chesapeake Beach by outdoors writer emeritus Bill Burton. If anglers come up empty by Wednesday's release of fish, the new DJ is worth $20,000. If someone does catch June's DJ, the July amount drops to $10,000.
As for the other portion of the event - the Challenge - more than 1,200 citation-sized fish have been entered by anglers to win prizes, by my count. More than 60 species of fish are eligible, and the contest continues through Labor Day. The contest fine print is on the DNR Web site.
Take your seats, gents
Here are your new representatives on the Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission. Please hold your applause until all names are announced: Dave Sikorski, Coastal Conservation Association of Maryland; Bill Windley, Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association; Ed O'Brien, Maryland Charterboat Association; James Wommack, recreational angler; Roger Trageser, Maryland Bass Federation; Val Lynch, Ocean City Marlin Club; Brandon White, Tidalfish.com; Bill Goldsborough, Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Larry Coburn, guide and tackle shop representative; Neil Jacobs, Trout Unlimited; Herb Smith, McDaniel College; and Jim Gracie, Maryland Aquatic Resource Coalition.
And these are the members of the Tidal Fisheries Advisory Commission: John Van Alstein, waterman and potter; Larry Simns, Maryland Watermen's Association; Richard Young; Andrea Jacquette, seafood retailer; Jack Brooks, crab processor; Mike Benjamin, JR Gross, Russell Dukes, Greg Price, all watermen; Steve Gordon, coastal bays aquaculture; and Brian Keehn, Maryland Charterboat Association. The SFAC will select one of its members as a representative to TFAC.
As James Brown sings, "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World," let's congratulate all the Bills, Steves, Eds and Mikes. Oh, and you, too, Andrea.
