As many of you are aware the last Plugfest was dedicated to our friend Flaptail / Steve Shiraka. We raised money at the plugfest thanks to donations of plugs etc. , purchasing tickets, and door money. After expenses we cleared over 2 grand to help Steve's family. Today Bigfish and I got down to the Cape to see Steve's wife Deb and gave her the check and Steve's award for angler of the year which he so much deserved with the great year he had fishing. She was very touched by it and wanted us to thank you all. I want to thank you all again. And thanks to John R for agreeing to set those funds aside for Steve's family. I know it is appreciated. Larry brought along some copies of The Fisherman Magazine with the tribute article he contributed to , for her as well. She is doing well hanging in there, misses Steve very much. The three of them keep busy working. I know lots of us think of Steve often and miss him. Fishing just isn't the same without him. It's nice to be able to give back a little to the family of someone who gave us so much.

I just wanted to let you all know.

RIP Steve, we love ya man

:fishin::fishin::fishin::fishin::fishin::fishin:

good job gentleman.

Thank you Larry and Bruce for doing the hard work on this. Kudos to the plug community and Steve's friends that really went above and beyond :btu:

Steve - go large upstairs

It was a nice visit and Deb (Steve's Wife) was deeply touched buy the generosity and kindness we all put forth. Steve will always be missed by us all......I certainly wish he were still here with Deb and his girls.....they miss him deeply.

Well done guys bravo!
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Awesome job guys!

Well done!

Thank you both very much.

Never had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman, but he apparently had quality friends.

He was a quality friend.:)

Thought of Steve the other day when I saw my new OTW on the kitchen table .. Only reason I subscribed origonally was Steve's writing .. Great job fella's ..

Great job guys.

Great going guys!
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nice job to both you guys, and to the striped-bass.com community for all of their generosity.

Steve...RIP...think of you often

Not an easy thing to do, go an visit the widow of a guy you both were close with. Larry told me the day he came back that he and Bruce went to visit Steve's wife. I come to realize this is typical of Larry and now Bruce too.

There are alot of things that are difficult to do in life......especially in regards to a friend who has passed away.....these things are not easy and often not pleasant for sure. It's because we respected Steve (or others who have passed for that matter) and we shared so much as friends do......it is out of respect for Steve and for his family that we let them know that our community has not forgotten him and will not. We can hope that Steve rests easy knowing this. I personally feel that I owe so much to Steve that to do things such as this is just a small token of friendship.....I would also hope that if the role was reversed that maybe a friend of mine might do the same for me or for any one of you if it was needed. I know Deb appreciated it very much. So many contributed....Bruce and I just made the delivery. Thanks goes to you all.:)

great job to all involved...

Well done point men and well done S-B community!

Awesome job everyone. That's what it's all about, taking care of our own. I hope everyone had a happy 4th.