The McGinley family of Galloway Township family made it a sweep of the three Chelsea Cup series in Atlantic City. Ashley, an 8-year old, and her 37-year-old dad Shawn picked up first-place awards in all three, and even went one-two for heaviest fish in one of them.
The remarkable performance culminated last weekend in the Kelly's Corner Pub Flounder Tournament, when Ashley got a 3.10 flounder to take the heaviest-fish prize.
Ashley also won Proud Mary's Sports Bar and Grill Flounder Tournament heaviest-fish title back on June 4 and 5. That's when she beat out her dad. They both caught 3.1-pound flounder, but Ashley's was 20 inches in length and her dad's was 19 3/4.
That was the first of the Chelsea Cup contests.
Shawn won the second, Atlantic City Moose Lodge 216 Father's Day Weekend Flounder on June 18 and 19. He had a 3.14-pound flounder. That one held up as the heaviest fish of the Chelsea Cup series.
"I think it was pretty cool to win," Ashley said Tuesday. And she said she was happy for her dad when he won.
Ashley is going into fourth grade at Rand School in Galloway Township. She is a cheerleader for the Galloway Mustangs of the Atlantic County Junior Football League and she is a tap-dancer at Dance Forum South.
What is she going to do with the prize money? "I'm going to put it my bank account," she said.
Ashley is a hands-on fisherman who baits her own hooks and nets the fish. She was fishing with her "Pop," grandfather Frank McGinley of Galloway Township, on Saturday when she caught the winning fish while her dad was working.
She said that when she was little she liked to go on the boat to spend time with her dad. Her 5-year-old sister Aubrey and 3-year-old brother Shawn often go too. Now she likes to go fishing.
"I'll use bucktails and minnows, stuff like that," she said.
Jim Rhodes, a 10-year-old from Mays Landing, took third in the Kelly's Corner Pub contest while fishing on the McGinley's boat. He caught a 3.0-pound flounder to finish just behind Sonny Smith of Atlantic City with a 3.1-pound catch.
Bill Lacovara, of Ventnor, had another successful offshore trip on Lac Attack when he sailed to Wilmington Canyon on Friday for an overnighter. He and his crew of Rich DiCioccio Jr. of Atlantic City, Jack Moran of Cape May and Mickey Schalek of Mays Landing hooked up on the troll back. They had six yellowfin tuna and five mahi, plus a 30-pound bigeye tuna and a couple of white marlin knockdowns.
