Channel U Fishing Youth Program celebrated its inaugural opening weekend on Saturday, July 23 at the newly reopened Masterson Lake Park with food, drinks and several hours of recreational fishing. Masterson Lake Park, also known as the Frank Masterson Memorial Recreation Area, is located at 660 Little Britain Road in New Windsor.

This new youth program, sponsored by the city recreation department, was created by city resident Rufus Monk, who has been fishing for most of his life. The program is held every Saturday from noon to three, where Monk teaches young children from the city and greater area how to prepare a line and pole, prepare bait on the line, how to cast and provides a safe and fun environment for the children.

Though the 23rd marked the grand opening date, Monk was still at Masterson Lake the previous weekend and assisted kids with putting bait on hooks and helping them cast their lines. “I just enjoy the people being out here and I love the kids catching fish. You see the smiles on their face, you know that’s more than money,” said Rufus. “I’m just so thankful and grateful to have the kids here and teach them how to fish.”

Several months ago, the city had announced that the park would reopen to the public for recreational usage and public fishing once again since its closure in 2016. The closure was for needed infrastructure repair and maintenance work by the city water department, which has now since been completed.

Water Superintendent Wayne Vradenburgh had announced to the city council and public several months ago that 5,000 fish of varying species were released into Masterson Lake for recreational fishing.

While the lake is back and fishing is now open to the public, fishing at Masterson Lake is strictly catch and release only. Masterson Lake sits adjacent to Washington Lake which was contaminated by PFAS [per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances] but Vradenburgh previously stated to the city council that proper signage would be posted for fishers to be aware of the catch and release requirements.

On the opening day of the program, Recreation Director Matthew Nordt and staff member Maritza Sanchez-Wilson greeted guests at the park pavilion while Monk met with parents and distributed t-shirts with the official city and program logo for the kids. Children were required to wear life vests for safety while fishing.

As a child, Clara Johna had grown up fishing because of her father and her grandfather. Now as a mother, she has started to bring her sons, Elijah and Emmanuel, to be part of the fishing program and is grateful that this is available to not only her son but the other children in the area as well. “Kids need stuff like this,” Johna said.

“Hopefully later on down the road, it’s still available.”

Several of Monk’s family members, who have had experience with fishing, brought their families and other friends to come out and fish for the day. Cousin James Monk, born and raised in the city as well, shared that he was proud of his cousin for starting this program and was happy to see children out there fishing. “He’s [Rufus] doing a wonderful job. It’s joyful,” James said.

Cousin Jesse Monk, who only started fishing a few weeks ago and learned all that he knows from his cousin Rufus, was happy to be volunteering and helping the kids out. “We just glad to have the opportunity to do something with the kids,” Jesse said.

According to Jesse, several poles used by the kids were bought while the others were donated by the city recreation department. Jesse hopefully would like to see this program continue all year round.

The mission of Rufus’s program is not only to teach children and others how to fish but provide a safe and fun environment with a fun activity rather than kids getting into trouble.

“With the community, it’s not really about the support system, it’s just about Newburgh period, I mean we need to come together more as a unit and do more of this,” said Rufus. “It’s about the kids, it’s not about us.”

Young or old, Monk said he is ready to teach anyone how to fish and hopefully one day, his goal is to incorporate this sport and program into the Newburgh Enlarged City School District [NECSD]

Speaking on this specific program, James shared that he was especially happy to see the many children in attendance for the program. He concurred with his cousin Rufus in the hope and goal to bring more city kids into the program rather than they get into trouble or worse.

“It’s good for the city to help the youth that’s coming up today, to keep them out the streets,” said James. “We should have a lot more programs like this. It’s about the children of today.”