Fishing League Worldwide wants Akwesasne spotlight at future fishing tournaments

By Andy Gardner

MASSENA. Although the slate of summer fishing tournaments faces an uncertain future, organizers are still going forward in case they are able to salvage the summer. That includes plans to have Akwesasne play a bigger role in their upcoming events.

Don Meissner told the Town Council via an April 15 meeting held online over Zoom that no one knows what the coming months will bring, so they’re going forward for now.

“They would like to if we feel it’s in our best interest to have the Mohawks be a bigger part of this,” Meissner said.

Fishing League Worldwide wants to have a night with a special Mohawk banquet and “they promised to bring their cameras in for this and include it in the TV show,” he said, adding that they don’t often do that.

“They feel it would be that unique that they want to put it in their TV show,” he said.

Meissner said the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort may also be tied in with a future event.

“In particular the manager of the casino … Todd (Papineau) was really, really enthused about being a part of all the tournaments we have here, in terms of the big ones,” Meissner said. “They may want to play a major part in 2021.”

He said he’s thinking about how Massena can take advantage of when social distancing eventually ends, and people will want to do things outside of their homes.

“As things start easing up … and people want to return and they want to return to a place like Massena instead of the traditional spots that are so crowded,” he said.

In the nearer future, the town even doesn’t know if they’ll be able to have tournaments this summer.

“I’ve been relying on Don … I did notice some of the fishing tournaments down south are canceled. It’s been a concern all along. We’re still three months out before we get started … we still have some time to plan for what’s going to happen,” Councilor Sam Carbone said.

Meissner said Fishing League Worldwide officials want Massena to play a bigger role in their annual events going forward, but are tapering their expectations because of the pandemic.

“They don’t expect the same results from us as they will in the years to come. But they know this is both a very critical year for them and us,” Meissner said. “We don’t know what the governor’s going to say in a week or two.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently issued the PAUSE order, which bars gatherings of more than a few people, and requires all non-essential employees to work from home.