Who won the Big Cat Quest?

[bluecat]

Just curious how the tourney went? Was the hourly format a good change?

[rudedog2844]

72.95 won the tourney. caught near the chick.

[fatcatonthejames]

We fished the tourney on Sat. and had a good time. Format is very cool and gives a chance for anybody to win money no matter what your skill level is. Hope that next year more people will turn out for the show. Alot of money was up for grabs and you didnt have to catch big fish to win. In one hour an angler won $400 for a 22lbs fish. It attracted hundreds of spectators and talked to some bass anglers and they said it was better than any tourney they had ever been in. The only thing I didnt like was that the winner said "He wasnt scared of th local people". My opinion is that any dog can have a good day. If this guy thinks he is that good then I invite him to fish the ECC this summer and lets see how good he thinks he is. Just my 2 cents [grin]

[RANGER690]

I had a terrible day. Only caught one fish, 7 pounds. Sad on my part. Went and weighed it in and almost one fourth place for the hour. A 22 weighed in the last minute bumped me out.

Congrats to Kevin Salmon for finishing second with a 50.xx. He had first place all day, than the winners weighed in with about 5 minutes to go. Kenny Bennet won 5 or 6 times with hourly prizes and target weight fish. The Gough (3) guys each won. Richard Mills, one of the Anthony boys. Travis Clack took a third place for one hour. Congrats to all of you.

The way I see it, the guy that won the tournament was right in what he said. He has nothing to be scared of. There are more than a dozen guides on the James river, and some dude from another state wins the tournament. The winners said their fish came from the Chick. 72.95 pounds. Looks like Flowerdew and Strugeon are being fished out. No shortage of VA boats fishing down there. Congrats to the winner, but it would have been nice to see a local name on the top of the leader board.http://www.club3g.com/forum/images/smilies/bash.gif

I would have been better off to invest my $100 into new gear for my virtual service!!![tongue]

Going to try to redeem myself with 72+ pounds of hickory/American shad and white perch right after this upcoming warm spell.


Dayton

[mtracy2u]

Dayton ,

Dont feel like the Lone RANGER ...No pun intended.I fished with Madtom and I didnt catch squat .I loved the format .I thought it was a Great tourney . I still had a lot of fun . I always do though while fishing for Cats because you just never know if one of the big fellas will grab your bait . Madtom won the 5-7 pound wildcard with a 6.90. He let me have the rodholders that came with the prize (Thanks) I did have a real big Bowfin to the boat and a 3-5 pound Blue but I just couldnt land them .We did pick a few brains while we were there and I think we got some usefull info from some real good catfishermen .

[BBCroaker]

I was there as a spectater. Got there around 9:30 am was only going to stay an hour or two.Had such a good time I stayed til the end. Lots of friendly people locals and out of towners. Even the cops were friendly and talking about catching fish down at Sturgeon point.
Had lots of good chats and met friends back from the 50's and 60's from Hopewell that I hadn't seen in years. Yeah I 'm old!
Yes fish were being weighed in seemd like the whole time.From 3 lbs to 72.95 lbs at the end.
.Guys bringing fish from all directions. Some coming into to the ramp ,some between the boat slips and some would drive in the parking lot from fishing in other locations. Something going on all the time.
Lots of money was given away .They gave 2 twins a 100 bucks for catching two fish axactly the same weight 32 lb plus.s and a 7yr old got a 100 bucks just for catching a fish That was great shoulda seen the grin on the kids face!
Some guy tried to sell me the winners boat while I was there looking at it .I told him he better get out and get to fishing and win it first. He musta thought I was an old fool that fell of the tater truck.
By the ehd of the day I was worn out as if I had been fishing it.Maybe gonna start practicing for next year and get in it.So you guys may see some grey headed guy following you all in a CC boat looking for your fishin spots.
Yeah and the winners even passed the polygraph test. Was a good day by the water!

[kepone cats]

How many people fished the tourney? Where was the guy from that caught the big fish of the day? You guys are slippin' I guess I will have to come out for the next one with the old stratos bass boat to represent the locals cuz you guys sucked big time.[grin]
That guy caught a monster cat, won the tourney, talked junk and then went back home with his boat and money. Put that in your book! [shy] -Kepone out

[CATAHOLIC]

Congrats to the winners!
I 'm sure the winner was jus trying to throw you guys off on the location he caught the winning fish.......
THERE'S NO BIG FISH DOWN RIVER!! ESPECIALLY IN THE CHICK!!!!! (alittle help EARLYRISER)
Its safer upriver the way this wind has been blowing..
The largest fish caught this month was caught in sight of the Dutch Gap ramp...So that means the big fish are up river!!!![grin][grin]

[Gottheblues]

the fish was caught in the Chick. I talked with them Friday and they asked me if they should check out that river and I regret now for telling them yes(lol). They thanked me Sat. night but wouldn't give up any cash when I asked them for a kickback. I was taken back too(as FatCat mentioned) when one of the guys started talking about not being afraid of the locals. But then I had dinner later on with them and they talked a different toon then. I took it the same way that FatCat did but at dinner they said they did get worried about locals. I'm still a little confused but I will say that they are very nice guys after talking with them for a couple of days. I had some great conversations with them about catfishing.

as far as where the big fish are.....they are upriver and downriver. In the Appomattox, the james and the chick. A fish isn't going to spend his whole life in one area and I'm sure there are fish that have travelled from Walkers Dam in the Chick to the fall line of Richmond. You never know where the next record fish will come from. The hole that produced the winning fish on Sat is a hole where I've fished(and tons of other people) and it's not a place that is known for or has yielded a lot of big fish. But it did this past Saturday. My point is that we shouldn't put our blinders on and think that certain areas are better than others(I too am guilty of this). My tournament plan(and I'm sure no one elses) included winning it in the Chick. But these out of towners did. They looked at a map and decided this river was much smaller than the James and it would be easier for them to target big fish in it. They are lucky they didn't read this board first. Otherwise they would have fished flowerdue with all the other million people.

[CATAHOLIC]

Those are alot of the reasons why I love the Chick and best of all were the years that not alot of people were fishing it!!! I know they gotta find out about the monsters that lurk there sometime.. [wink][grin]
Kepone is gonna show us how big they get down there next month with the State Record from the Chick!!! Getum Kepone[excited]

[mini moe]

How was the weather sat? I had to leave a day early. Windy,rain?

moe

[earlyriser]

Yeah, Cataholic there are no fish down river, especially big ones. I wander if that fish was caught in one of kepones holes????

[racn35]

just like the 78 pounder that Earl got LAST weekend !!

[wasabi]

Dayton, I told you that you should have gone and fished the Chick. [excited]

[mini moe]

Who's Earl, Jamie?

moe

[kepone cats]

I was cleaning vines and trees away from the hunt club building on the property I am going to lease this fall. I had K95 on with the truck wimdows down. I was kicking myself in the pants at the mad money they were giving away for small fish. !!!!!!

I will be in it if it comes around next year you can bet the farm on that.

Kepone out.

[clarkaa777]

I was there from 6 until about 4:30 on sat and had alot of fun. I dont do much freshwater fishing but was there to help out the chamber of commerce. The format was exciting and we hope to get them back next year. Going to look at adding more festivities to the parking lot. More entertainment like bands and rides for the kids. Also thinking about having an event where volunteers would take kids out fishing similar to wish a fish events. I would love to hear some feedback from you guys as to how to make it better. Feel free to bmail or e-mail me or call the Hopewell-PG chamber of commerce. Here are a couple pics of the winner and also my buddies young son Hayden Bell who was smiling from ear to ear after winning $100 and a couple other prizes. They also gave away over 100 small fishing combos and t-shirts to kids who showed up.

Andy

http://images.snapfish.com/34666%3A7%3B%3B%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3266%3E%3B63%3E853% 3EWSNRCG%3D32335%3B555%3B%3A%3B%3Bnu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/34666%3A7%3B%3B%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3266%3E%3B63%3E853% 3EWSNRCG%3D32335%3B555457%3Anu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/34666%3A7%3B%3B%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3266%3E%3B63%3E853% 3EWSNRCG%3D32335%3B555%3B%3A%3B%3Cnu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/34666%3A7%3B%3B%7Ffp344%3Enu%3D3266%3E%3B63%3E853% 3EWSNRCG%3D32335%3B555457%3Bnu0mrj

[racn35]

mini moe originally wrote:
Who's Earl, Jamie?
moe


He's the guy who got the 78 pounder LAST weekend, ya know the one bigger that the winner of THIS weekend tourney !!!

http://www.katmasters.com/forum/files/earl78blue2_947.jpg

[ketch69]

BRICKYARD!!!!!!!!



DEAN

[Gottheblues]

close Dean, but not the brickyard.

[fatcatonthejames]

Looks like the squeeky shed hole to me.

[fatcatonthejames]

Looks like the squeeky shed hole to me.

[DZLPWR]

That 78 was caught in a top secret location, with-in a boat ride of the boat house, from what he said.

[racn35]

he said they "traveled" to that spot for the photo and then went back and let it go from the spot it was caught (under the 295 bridge) [wink]

[kepone cats]

Close fat cat but not the squeeky shed hole.[grin]

[mini moe]

They're not territorial anyway. He may put snorkle gear on and slip around the bend and go up the Cape Fear.[grin][grin]

moe

[TexacoRide]

I know where it was supposedly caught (winning fish and I was told it was not the Chick) but I ain't telling....[wink]

[wasabi]

Knowing what hole it came out of isn't going to help anybody catch that or a similar sized fish....is it?

[Gottheblues]

didn't you know that all of the big fish are only in a couple of holes in the river Wasabi?

[wasabi]

gtb, shouldn't you be out fishing and not harassing amatuers? Leave the fishing forums to us experts [grin]

[Gottheblues]

I'm going now.....stripers here I come.

[kepone cats]

You might as well...cuz you sure can't win a catfish tournament![grin]

[Gottheblues]

you are right kepone....maybe if I keep working at it I'll win one sometime. [grin]

[kepone cats]

[smile][grin][wink][tongue][sad][shy][excited]

[racn35]

i am glad you will get some striper action going up there- i am sick of them down here......fish after fish after fish.......

[fatcatonthejames]

Say what you want. Look over top of his left shoulder. [wink]

[fatcatonthejames]

Say what you want. Look over top of his left shoulder. [wink]

[RANGER690]

http://www.yourfishpictures.com/data/507/8fishing_074_1_.jpg