Related Articles

IBEW Member Wins Dream Sailfish Trip on Escape to the Wild

December 17, 2007

New Jersey breeds a lot of fisherman, and Folsom, N.J., Local 351 member Rick DiBruno is one of the most passionate. DiBruno’s father taught him to fish when he was six, and he was immediately smitten.

Folsom, N.J., Local 351 member Rick DiBruno,
center, won a sailfishing trip to Costa Rica.

“I crafted myself into a decent back bay fisherman,” said DiBruno, who yearned to go sailfishing in the warm waters of Costa Rica. His dream came true when he won a contest through Versus’s Escape to the Wild, a TV program of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership that honors hardworking union members with the hunting or fishing trip of a lifetime. DiBruno learned he won at a mock fundraiser his wife helped arrange.

In 2001, he was working overtime to save for a trip to Disney World for his wife and children. While driving home from an overtime shift, he fell asleep and crashed into a tree, breaking his leg in three places. Out of work for six months, his union brothers and sisters took up a collection for him.  It was a rough road to recovery, but DiBruno is working again. Last June, he headed to Costa Rica.

“We fished for wahoo, tuna, rainbow runner, rooster fish and sailfish. The final sailfish was the most exciting,” said DiBruno, who learned a “totally different style of fishing” using circle hooks instead of J-hooks.

DiBruno’s trip will appear on VERSUS Network at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday, January 18 with encore airings at 10 a.m. Sunday, January 20 and 12:30 p.m. Thursday, January 24.