Name?

Patrick Paquette

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How long have you been a member?

I joined MSBA in 1995. 2022 is my 27th year as a member.

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What club offices that you’ve held, with years?

I served as MSBA President from 2001-2003. I was not at the meeting I was elected because I was on a plane flying from Boston to Chicago for a family wedding.

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I have served as Government Affairs Officer since March of 2002. This position used to be called “Legislative Rep” and I began to do this job while I was President after Past President Chuck Casella formally stepped down in February of 2002. 

 

The March 2022 MSBA Membership meeting will be my 20th anniversary in this position.

 

What committee’s have you taken part in as a member or chair, specify?

• Chair of (1st MSBA) Fly Fishing Program: 1996-1999

• Spray Newsletter Editor: 2002-2005

• Annual Expo Chair: 2001-2007, 2010-2011, 2014-2016 & 2021.

• Annual Expo Vice-Chair: 2008, 2009 & 2012

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What or who introduced you to the MSBA?

I joined MSBA at the Boston Sportsman Show, which in 1995 was held at a large facility in Woburn…at least I think it was Woburn. I went to my first meeting a month or two later and upon entering the hall I immediately noticed then President Tom Downey on the stage of the Viking Club and Bob Baranek (now a Past President) was near the membership table. 

 

Both were friends from another part of my life. From that first meeting I was gut-hooked by MSBA.

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Name a specific activity that you enjoy about the club?

My absolute favorite club activity is the same today as it was when I joined…Mystery Trips. Fishing with other members while having a good time and learning at the same time is what this club really is all about.

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Honorable mention must be serving with the Expo Committee. Working with a group of people over the course of a year forms friendships and bonds that supersede fishing. Not to mention volunteers tend to share inside information with each other and that is always a good thing.

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What type of fishing do you enjoy the most, boat, shore, bait, artificial lures etc.?

First of all…I reject the premise that anyone should have to choose between the two. This is similar to asking a parent which child they love more. I view surf fishing and boat fishing as separate activities and have worked hard to be successful at both. If I had to choose…surf fishing with lures would barely edge out boat fishing with live bait.

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Share a little about yourself, job, background, family, anything you want to add to help people understand more of who you are.

In the late 1980’s & early 1990’s I had a serious drug problem, was in many detox facilities and was arrested multiple times. I joined MSBA in 1995 while on a pass from a volunteer long term substance abuse program located in Hingham MA. That is how this native Bostonian found the South Shore. 

 

In March of 2022 I will celebrate 27 years in substance abuse recovery. Of all the things in my life this is the most important.

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Over the past 20 years, I have become one of the more influential and well known representatives amongst the organized recreational fishing community. I currently serve on the New England Fisheries Management Council’s Recreational Advisory Panel (RAP). I currently serve on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass, Atlantic Menhaden & Atlantic Herring Advisory Panels.

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When the US Congress passed a law requiring a marine waters recreational fishing license myself & Past President Chuck Casella both served with leaders from many other MA fishing clubs & organizations to create a state issued license that would appease the federal government but also benefit MA anglers. That group succeeded and since its inception, I have served as one of 5 citizens appointed to the MA Recreational Fishing Development Panel that advises MA DMF on all manner of subjects related to the license money.

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I am the only person to have served as President of both MSBA & MBBA (MA Beach Buggy Assn). Both organizations were founded in 1950. MSBA was incorporated 1 month before MBBA.

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Speaking of MBBA…as MSBA President; I appointed a woman named Wendy Wasierski to be MSBA’s first Beach Access Representative. She was the lady from MA Beach Buggy that came to MSBA meetings. Wendy convinced MSBA to pay attention to beach access issues and join United Mobile Sportfishermen which was an East Coast coalition of beach access organizations. Wendy convinced MBBA & MSBA to co-host a UMS meeting on a weekend in August of 2006. By the end of that weekend Wendy and I were no longer friends. We were married on June 6, 2011.

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Wendy and I are the core of a professional competition BBQ Team and are a part of the community you see on tv shows such as BBQ Pitmasters. We have won Master Series (pro level) events sanctioned by the Kansas City BBQ Society, have competed in the American Royal World Series of BBQ and in 2016 were invited to compete in the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championships. 

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We have a BBQ Facebook Page…CLICK HERE to view The Basic BBQ Team!

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After a 15 year layoff, I returned to playing competitive steel tip Darts in 2019. My team recently won the Cape Cod Dart League Fall 2021 A Division Championships and I am once again playing at the highest local levels (AA division) and entering tournaments. I am a bit competitive.

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Although my job is likely ending for good…over the past 20 years, I accidentally became one of the first professional recreational fisheries policy consultants working full time advocating for a recreational perspective on fisheries issues. For years, the commercial and environmental organizations had similar independent consultants but besides a few national sport fishing organizations having in house policy professionals; the recreational community didn’t have what I ended up doing for a living. This makes me a controversial figure. Sometimes I work with and for environmental organizations. Sometimes I work with and for commercial fishing organizations. 

 

That is how fisheries management works. Campaigns are developed around common issues that benefit different segments of the fishing community. Its complicated, hard and I get attacked for my work all the time. I have lost friends and had many lies spread about me. So be it. I do the best I can and when an issue such as menhaden conservation goes the “right” way…I know that all the criticism I got over 11 years working with environmental organizations on Menhaden paid off for recreational anglers coast wide. If I never work on another campaign again, I have already done enough to leave the ocean and the community that gave me both a life and my wife better than I found it. 

 

Tell me…what is better than that.