10-19-2013 The Beaver Dam store's annual fishing contest. For those who don't know this contest has been running since the late 90s on the Beaver Tail Waters.
Rules are simple. You draw a partner at random. Only one fly or lure may be used for the entire contest. Most trout win. This year we had 22 fishermen.
Weather was amazing, LOTS of fish, and the Catfish lunch after made most of us ready for a nap. When the whistle blew it was a crazy shotgun start. I was happy no one was jogging on the road right then.
As imagined the pairs went to different spots on the river. My partner and I decided to go right below the dam near the first boat ramp. As we arrived there were 2 other pairs there too. We all settled to our spots and almost all of the first casts had a fish on. In our case for about the first 1.5 hours there were lots of fish being hooked by most everyone. Then slow and steady was the ticket for the rest of the morning.
At check in 12:00 noon the first 3 places were announced.
First place with 29 trout caught and released was a tie.
Jim Sinclair and Ken Russell.
In event of a tie the winner is the earliest entry and that was Ken. Ken picked the TFO BVK 9' 5wt fly rod for his trophy.
This made me 2nd place. There was one young man under 18 that fished in the contest. I gifted him the second place prize. He picked the 7' TFO spinning rod. It was cool to see him smile. He did catch 11 trout in the contest.
A close third was Bryce Cadion with 27 trout.
Ken and Bryce used a small midge pattern. I didn't ask the color and will update when I ask them.
I used a nickel and gold Colorado Spoon.
Thank everyone that came out and hope to see you next year.
Jim and the Beaver Dam Store crew.