On Tuesday night, on a quiet stretch of Park Avenue, some of the most illustrious figures in fly fishing, marine science, conservation and frozen food gathered to celebrate one of the things that brings them all together — the sea.
As Capt. Paul Dixon, put it, the gathering, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s 13th Annual NYC Dinner & Awards Ceremony, was “all about the fish” at the events space 583 Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Like many of the more than 300 guests, Captain Dixon, a full-time guide mainly in Montauk, N.Y., chasing striped bass, and in the Florida Keys, chasing tarpon, bonefish and permit, is usually more at home on a skiff in fishing gear — Simms lightweight shorts and hoodie, and Costa sunglasses — than in a blazer and a tie.
“Not today,” he said with a laugh.
The gala raised $1.3 million for the Trust, which is involved in the preservation and restoration of waterways and conservation of three saltwater fish species — bonefish, tarpon and permit.
Its honoree, Bob Rich Jr., an avid angler, a philanthropist and an author, is the chairman of the Rich Products Corporation, the worldwide food products company in Buffalo, and appears on the Forbes list of billionaires. He is also in the Frozen Food Hall of Fame, along with his father. On Tuesday, he received the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation, named for the celebrated fly fisherman, who died in 2018.
Fans of Mr. Rich said the honor was fitting.
“I love him, it’s well-deserved, he’s an inspiration for all of us and he has a good sense of humor,” said Capt. Abbie Schuster, a fly fishing guide who came in from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
She could spend only 15 hours in New York before turning around to lead a trip in Edgartown, Mass., with a group competing in the five-week Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
“He’s a fabulous, fabulous angler,” said Chip Hammersmith, who considered Mr. Rich a good friend, and runs a family construction business in Chicago.
Downstairs in a room with arched ceilings, men in suits and ties and women in cocktail dresses sipped wine and chatted as John Nicholas, founder and owner of the East Hampton Shucker Company, opened oysters, more safely, with a new device he invented. Silent auction items displayed on a side table included two models of custom Abel Reels with the Trust’s logo and artwork by marine artists.
Around the room were Johnny Morris, the founder and chief executive of Bass Pro Shops; Gaelin Rosenwaks, the scientist and ocean storyteller; Aaron Adams, the chief scientist at the Trust; and Monte Burke, the writer and emcee for the evening.
“My, how we have grown,” said Jim McDuffie, the president and chief executive of the Trust, which started in 1997 with a half dozen anglers — businessmen and guides including Mr. Rich — at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Fla., and now has more than 6,000 members.
True to form, guests chatted about recent trips or ones on the horizon.
Kellie Ralston, vice president of conservation and public policy at the Trust, based in Tallahassee, Fla., mentioned that she had fished for silver Coho salmon in Alaska in September.
Mr. Adams caught eight tarpon, about 15 pounds each, on a flat skiff on Mosquito Lagoon off Cape Canaveral, Fla., four days before Hurricane Milton arrived.
“You could fish and watch rockets go up,” he said with a laugh.
Rashema Ingraham, the Trust’s Caribbean program director, came in from Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, where she is focusing on the restoration of mangrove habitat in the Bahamas that was destroyed in 2019 during Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm.
“The goal is planting one million mangroves,” by the end of 2025, she said.
Later, upstairs in the grand ballroom, guests were served filet mignon, not fish, and also caught a sneak peak at an upcoming movie, “Blood Knot,” based on Mr. Rich’s novel, “Looking Through Water” (2015). The film is about an estranged father and son bonding over a fly fishing tournament, and it stars Michael Douglas, his son Cameron Douglas, Walker Scobell, Michael Stahl-David and David Morse.
“I got a crash course in fly fishing from Captain Dixon,” and his team, said Cameron Douglas. That included casting, shooting the line and stripping the fly. At dinner, he sat with the film’s director, Roberto Sneider, and Mr. Stahl-David, and his father shared recorded video remarks congratulating Mr. Rich.
During dinner, Nick Dawes, who has appeared on “Antiques Roadshow,” auctioned off angling adventures, including five nights of fly fishing in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, for $10,000 and $9,000, and a week for two in the Seychelles, for $20,000.
When Mr. Rich stepped off the stage with his award, he looked to his next adventure — trout fishing on the River Tees in England. “It’s the land of my grandparents,” he said, where he caught his first fish with his grandfather.
“I have 10 grandchildren,” he added, “and have been with each when they caught their first fish.”
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