MassWildlife Director Wayne MacCallum presented  the 2004 Freshwater Sportfishing Award gold pins and plaques for the top catches in 22 categories on Saturday, February 12, at the Eastern Fishing and Outdoor Expo at Worcester’s DCU Center (formerly the Centrum).  The 2004 Angler of the Year, Roy Leyva of Hyde Park, was also honored at this time.  Leyva also took top honors for largest Largemouth bass and Smallmouth bass.

The Angler of the Year Award recognizes anglers who caught the most fish species within a year that met the minimum weight requirement in multiple Sportfishing Awards categories. The purpose of the award is to recognize the accomplishments of anglers interested in honing their skills on a broad range of fish species, rather than one or two. This is the third year for this award.  This year’s winner, Roy Leyva, caught 16 different species of fish, breaking the record of 15 species caught last year. Two of his fish were gold pin winners mentioned above. 

Leyva is no stranger to the Freshwater Sportfishing Awards Program: he’s also won gold pins in 1999 and 2000!  He submitted 29 “pin” fish affidavits in 2004, representing 16 different species caught from all over the state.  Roy knows that in order to catch a wide variety of pin fish, you have to be willing to go where the fish are. Roy caught broodstock salmon, brook trout, brown trout, bullhead, chain pickerel, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white perch and yellow perch from an assortment of Cape ponds, carp from Jamaica Pond in Boston and Neponset Reservoir in Milton, channel catfish and white catfish  from the Charles River in Cambridge, landlocked salmon from Wachusett Reservoir in West Boylston, rainbow trout from Walden Pond in Concord, shad from Indian Head River in Pembroke, and sunfish from the Concord River in Lowell.

More importantly, Roy loves sharing his fishing stories and skills nearly as much as he does fishing.  He has his own website (www.offthehookfishing.com)  where he shares fishing reports and tips for catching the big ones, including video he shot of a great white shark off Chatham. Roy also volunteers his time as a Lead Fishing Instructor with The Fishing Academy, based in the Greater Boston area, where he encourages kids to get involved with fishing to assure a new generation of anglers will continue catching fish in the Commonwealth. 

MassWildlife’s Freshwater Sportfishing Awards Program has been celebrating the catch of exceptional fish for over 40 years. Any angler catching a fish that meets or exceeds the set minimum weights for that species is eligible to receive a bronze award pin.  The fish must be caught from a waterbody open to the public, weighed on a certified scale at an official weigh station, and a signed affidavit with a photo must be submitted. A list of weigh stations and minimum weights may be found in the Fishing area of MassWildlife’s webpage www.masswildlife.org. In addition to a bronze pin, the angler lucky and/or skilled enough to have caught the largest fish in their category during the calendar year also receives a gold pin and a plaque. Gold pin winners are listed in the table below.