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A Successful First Website Tournament!

Fortworthbret Wins Inaugural Tournament!

By Andrew Ragas

Posted: July 2, 2007 

2:10AM CST

Since the creation of the Fishing Headquarters in January, 2007, we have had the pleasure of putting together "for-fun", competitive on-line angling tournaments for our forum membership to be held during the summer of 2007. These tournaments have been able to take place in large part due to the support from our members, as well as our website sponsors who are generous enough to help us out by donating prizes.

June, 2007 marked the beginning of our inaugural website on-line angling tournament, the 2007 Rough Fish Tournament. This year's tournament took place during June 1 through 30, 2007. A grand total of 14 anglers registered for the tournament, with six of them placing in the standings.

Throughout the tournament, a total of 50 species of fish were allowable for tournament submissions. Out of 50 species ranging from the abundant Common Carp to the rare North American Paddlefish, a total of 8 fish species were registered into the tournament by our six anglers. The most common species caught were Freshwater Drum, Common Carp, Channel Catfish, Black Bullhead, and Creek Chub. Despite these common catches, a few surprises we caught such as an 8lb Wild Koi caught by Bret of Texas, and a Wild Goldfish that did not count, caught by yours truly - the author.

Jeremy Dunfee of McDonald, PA, holds his 8lb Freshwater Drum - his largest fish entered into the tournament.

Right from the beginning of the tournament, Bret of Fort Worth, Texas was on fire with his catches. In order to win this tournament and to be successful, finding the time for fishing was critical. Through dedication, motivation, and having fun, winning the tournament was accomplished easily by Bret. In the end, he won the tournament by a good margin of 80-points over J. Dunfee.

On day-1 of the tournament, Bret was able to register three quick Freshwater Drum, totaling 30-points, with the largest being between 5-10lbs. His three fish came from his local river which featured a spillway.

Meanwhile, other anglers were able to capitalize on the early opening day of fishing. Andrew, who claims to be possibly one of our worst Rough Fishers on the website was able to bag one modest Common Carp - his first in over two years while Carp angling. His fish came in between 8 and 10lbs from his local neighborhood river. After day-one, he finished 1 for 2 - landing one fish and losing two others. His baits of choice were bottom rigs with 14lb fluorocarbon leaders and kernels of corn. Two rods were pegged along the shore and his fishing areas were chummed with kernels of corn.

During the remainder of the first week of the tournament, Glenn (Rowdy10) jumped out to a marginal lead over the opposition. He managed one Common Carp (10), one Channel Catfish (10), and three Bullhead (15) - 35pts total. Most of Glenn's fishing took place at the small creek behind his home in central, Illinois.

However, his lead would not last for long; not until the opposition began to cash in on more points. The notables who took over the competition were Bret, and Jeremy Dunfee of McDonald, PA.

While Bret was still catching Freshwater Drum and the occasional Common Carp,   J. Dunfee was making brief outings to his local 'flow and was catching numerous Creek Chubs and the once-in-a-while Channel Catfish. Throughout the tournament, J. Dunfee had trouble finding the time for good productive fishing. However, thankfully, he managed to sneak in a few very productive outings for Channel Catfish, Creek Chubs, Suckers, and Freshwater Drum. These catches enabled him to keep up with Bret - which until the end was not enough to win.

To keep up with the runs of fish produced by J. Dunfee during week-2, Bret was able to come back with fish of his own. These catches included Common Carp, Channel Catfish, and Black Bullhead. Apparently, this was a "tough" month for Bret. For the majority here, we would consider this to be a very good month of fishing.

Despite the mass accumulation of points by Bret and J. Dunfee midway through the tournament, other anglers were able to keep up with these two strongest contenders. Glenn was still catching Channel Catfish worth 10-points apiece from his streams in central Illinois, and Andrew was catching 8 to 10inch Creek Chubs with the occasional 5 to 10lb Common Carp from his small local river in northern Illinois.

To make Glenn's and Andrew's catches look like nothing, J. Dunfee responded with a mass-accumulation of Creek Chubs from his small streams. In result of his numerous catches of Creek Chubs for points (5 per fish), he got tired of submitting Creek Chubs and instead had a preference for submitting all other legal fish, which included Channel Catfish and Freshwater Drum.

Although J. Dunfee and Bret were pulling away from the pack by week-3, Andrew was able to stay persistent and made one last run of his own. At one point, Andrew was in second place by the end of week-3 with 75-points, all thanks to three Common Carp valued at 10-points apiece. Sadly, he was forced to retire for the remainder of the tournament due to engagements with other species of fish found in Northern Wisconsin. Just what could have happened if Andrew fished hard during the remainder of the tournament? Would he have been able to keep up with J. Dunfee and Bret till the very end?

By the end of week-3 of the tournament, a few surprise catches had been made. First was Andrew's Wild Goldfish that was valued for zero points because it was [unfortunately] nowhere listed on the tournament rules & regulations page. His rare Goldfish came from the local neighborhood river and was caught while Carp fishing, right before retiring for the evening.

Shortly afterwards, Andrew permanently retired from the tournament to fish for other desirable species of fish up north. At this time, Bret went on one final run at his local fishing holes in Texas, which in the end was too much for J. Dunfee to handle. The usual plethora of species were caught by Bret which included more Common Carp, Channel Catfish, Bullhead, Freshwater Drum, and a surprise catch, which is the fish of the tournament, an 8lb Wild Koi!

Midway through week-4, Bret had already accumulated 180-points for the tournament, which was already good-enough for a first place finish and a tournament win..... But he still was not done.

Bret ended the tournament on a good note with a few more entries and a final finish worth 210-points.

As Bret finished the tournament a few days before the final day, new anglers began submitting their catches. These individuals included Kenny (cambridgefisherman) of western Illinois. He finished with 50-points - all Channel Catfish.

Another angler who placed in the standings and who finished with a strong third place finish with 80-points was Kehlen of Pennsylvania. Throughout the month of June, he was quietly fishing behind the scenes almost to the point that we had all forgotten about him. In the end, his catches of Creek Chubs, Channel Catfish, and Freshwater Drum were submitted - but was not enough to finish anywhere close to first place.

Despite their late entries and for their strong efforts, the total points accumulated by these two anglers were nowhere near good enough to finish at the top of the leaderboard - but good enough to garner the respect from other anglers for at least trying to participate in this tournament and for being able to place in the official standings which eight (8) other registrants were not able to do so.

As the tournament concluded, six anglers were able to place in the official standings. Everyone who participated in the inaugural website event fished entirely for fun, and somewhat competitively.

The first official tournament was a fun event to be part of as America's less desirable fish species, the Rough Fish, were targeted and now have the respect of numerous members of the website. It was a great learning experience for all tournament participants as new "unknown" angling methods were learned, new species were added to a few angler life-lists, and fishing skills and methods were refined, and some new ones were learned.

With closing this summary & tournament re-cap, a special "thank-you" goes out to our sponsor for donating the prize - CB's Hawg Sauce. In addition, the anglers who participated in the event are to be thanked for their honesty, integrity, and friendliness for making this inaugural website tournament a success.

Congratulations to fortworthbret for winning the 2007 Rough Fish Tournament!

See you at the 2008 event.

Official Scoreboard:

http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=830

Tournament Rules & Regulations:

http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=794

Tournament Entry Patch:

http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=844