It took me much longer to calculate the totals than I had expected. A mere inch and a half separated first place from third! Exciting...definitely. Unfortunately, that made the judging very, very difficult. I had tough decisions to make in determining the length of each and every fish. But, I did this best I could and even brought in impartial outside judges to help me determine lengths.
Seventy one anglers competed in the First Annual June Four-Fish Fiesta. My hope is that each of these anglers had a good time. I wanted to let everyone have fun in a competitive tournament, without the stress of entry fees. I also wanted to push anglers a little bit out of their comfort zones, and have them fish for species that they might not always pursue. I wanted to broaden everyone's angling horizon.
I vow right now to host another June Four-Fish Fiesta in 2014, to celebrate my birthday month again. I also vow that this will always be a FREE tournament. I hope each and every one of you will return to sign up for next year, and I hope the tournament will grow even larger. I have some new ideas and twists to throw in next year (that is will discuss later in this post.) But, lets get on to what you really want to see...
...the results...
The winner of the Longest Sunfish category was...
Ashley Meadows with a nice 10.25 inch Sunfish.
To see what Ashley wins: Prize List
The winner of the Longest Catfish category was...
Judd Fleming with a 35" inch behemoth.
To see what Judd wins: Prize List
The winner of the Longest Bass category was...
Ryan McDermid, who caught a giant 26.5" Largmouth (along with the second largest bass submitted, a 25" monster)
To see what Ryan wins: Prize List
The Longest Stringer from a Kayak went to...
Ryan McDermid. Ryan caught all of his fish from a kayak, and ended up with a stringer of fish that totaled 78.25 inches. To see his whole stringer, click here: Ryan McDermid
The second longest overall stringer went too...
Again, Ryan McDermid. His 78.25" stringer was just enough to land him in second place, and almost put him in first.
To see what Ryan wins: Prize List
Which brings us to First Place overall. It was very close, and like I mentioned earlier, I had to call in a few people not associated with the tournament, prizes, or anglers, in any way, to help determine the lengths of a few fish.
Your 2013 June Four-Fish Fiesta Overall Champion is...
Judd Fleming! Judd barely pulled into the lead on the strength of his monster 35" catfish. That is not to say that he did not have any other good fish though. He posted two solid bass and a nice sunfish to round out his stringer. His total length was 78.75 inches. To see his complete stringer, click here: Judd Fleming
To see everything that Judd won, click here: Prize List
Congratulations, Judd, but I am sure you have a target on your head for next year now!
To see the Final Standings, click here: Final Standings
To see the complete standings for each competitor, click here: Competitor List
What coming up?
September Fly
September will be a strictly Fly-Fishing tournament. Though it will not be free, it will still be inexpensive and fun. More details will come out soon!
???
There might be one more tournament next spring sometime, but I am not sure. If you have ideas for input, feel free to let me know! You can email me at river.kayak.pat@gmail.com or comment in the comment section below.
2014 June Four-Fish Fiesta
Remaining the Same:
- You will still be required to catch a 4 fish stringer, with different species of fish.
- It will always be FREE!
Possible Changes: There will be a few changes, and nothing is set in stone. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, but here are some of mine.
- Move to a points based fishing system.
- Each fish will be given a "points bonus" based on overall average length.
- This would give increased importance to the shorter species of fish, and decrease the impact of the longer species.
- It is possible that a "bonus" could be awarded for certain species based of "rarity" or the likelihood of catching it.
- Bring in new species and create categories with different species that you can catch.
- Possibility #1, remove one of the two black bass and add in a different category
- Possibility #2, add different species to each pre-existing category allowing you to catch either this species or that species for the category. (For example, either a striper or a catfish.)
- Other suggestions?
- Add a "Fly-Fishing" category.
- Anything else that you would like to see changed or improved?
Let me know what you think would be fun in the future, and we will see what we can get done!
Congrats Judd.
ReplyDeleteFun Tournament! Congrats to all!
ReplyDeletePat,
ReplyDeleteThank you for having this tournament. I didn't do as well as I hoped, but I went fishing more often and I used different methods than normal.
Great news that you are making it an annual event. I'm gonna start baiting my catfish holes way early.
Chuck K.
Thanks for the tournament! I really enjoyed fishibg for the month and had a feeling it was gonna take a james river blue to crack the leader board.
ReplyDelete