Event 1: What A Day For Fishing

The weather broke from the oppressive heat and humidity of earlier in the week just in time for 11 fearless anglers to brave the mighty puddle that is Shull's Hole for an hour of fishing fun earlier today.

Under the watchful eye of Assistant to the Commissioner Garcia, the 2006 Tournament kicked off at 11:45. Less than a minute later the silence was broken by Steve's triumphant "Boo Yah" as he landed the first fish of the event and year on his way to a 53 fish/$95.01 creel. Combined with Merle's 43 fish/$74.31 creel, your two-time defending champions Carp Pros began the defense of the title with their best start in the storied history of the tournament. A shaken member of the 5th place B&B Boys was overhead stating "Those guys must be robots or something. Sure they are smart and kind of sexy, but the way they fish is beyond what I could ever hope for. Oh well, at least I have the Building Inspection database. No one can take that away from me."


It was a quiet start for The Hookers, or so it seemed from the lack of Boo Yah's emanating from the duo at the south end of the pond. When the tally was complete, however, it was Tomski that smoked the competition with the record for the day of 61 fish for a creel value of $103.43. Jeff led the Tournament with the highest average fish value of $2.06 and produced a 16 fish/$32.95 creel. This effort put the Hookers into second place with a respectable $136.38 total within striking distance of the Carp Pros. It was the Hookers, however that have been placed on disciplinary probation for the rest of the tournament due to un-angler like conduct and lewd gestures. As captured by the watchful eye of the Assistant to the Assistant to the Commissioner, the Hookers were obviously in the act of unsportmanslike conduct. A repeat of such offense will likely result in a "re-education" session involving a Senior Safety Officer, a pair of compression shorts, a voltage tester and an inebriated hedgehog.


Pegged in many pre-season rankings as the team most likely to challenge the two time defending champion Carp Pros for the #1 spot this year, the Bass Turds made an impressive start to the event at the north side of the pond. The team, led by Russ with a 35 fish/$65.63 creel and followed closely by Ron with a 30 fish/$54.49 creel, the 'Turds put together a $120.12 day. A clearly pleased Russ stated "While not the top of the heap, we are in striking distance of the 'Pros. Finally Ron's pulling his weight so we have a chance now. The rest of the 'bottom feeders' on the tournament will finally respect us."

Another strong start to the tournament was put together by the Wigglers with Randy landing 20 fish for $28.56 and Jim adding 12 fish worth $23.53 for a combined $52.09 creel, good enough for fourth place. Some questioned the ethics when Jim "forced" Alex and Jerry to fish for him while he sat in the shade of a tree and ate the lunches of he downtrodden students. "He's so mean" said one of the college student anglers "it's bad enough that he rides us all day long with his tirades about plotters and shape files and constant critisms about my clothes and music. I go home every day and ask myself, is this worth it, is Fire Protection so glamorous that I'm willing to put up with a despot like Niehoff. In the end, I come back, because, yes, one day, if I try hard enough, I too can be as cool as Jim.

Fifth Place for the Event was the late-arriving Beauty and The Beast Team. Led by PoBoy's 20 fish/$40.33 creel and supported by Kent's 5 fish/$7.87 effort, the team, best described as lacksidascial managed to stumble into a fifth place ranking with a combined creel of $48.20. "Just wait until the Fox event" exclaimed Pat "I'm bringing my gang and we'll show you."

A yeoman's effort was put together by Tim who fished alone for the Gaff Masters. Despite a late change to live bait, Tim managed a respectable solo creel of 18 fish for $30.23, leaving many to wonder what could of been if only Tom would have been there.

Totals for the event:

• 313 fish
• $556.34 Creel Value
• $1.78 average fish value

More pictures to follow in subsequent posts.