The Results

Here are the results...

Day one beat one... or should I say beat 8... Blank

Day one beat two... beat 3... 1 stocker rainbow

Day two Lake... first place 13 fish

Day two lake... second place... actually a tie, so they will add up fish points to break the tie

So the river story.

No one caught a fish out of beat 8... so I was not the only one

In beat 3 I caught the only fish of the entire competition out of that stretch.

I had a good time but I don't think I will make a vacation out of this again. If the have a comp that
I can drive to I would do it again in a heartbeat. Going to this event is most likely going to result
in me not going to Montana this summer.

One of these days you'll have to explain to me what beat 1, beat 2, beat 3, etc. means. Nice job in any case. Watch out for puke on the flight home.

I think I speak for everyone when I say we are all very proud of you no matter how you finished.

Aaron,

You did great, it is not easy to get out there and put yourself on the line when it comes to competiton events, many may well talk about it but will never do it.

Davy

Great job on your first competition, actually getting first in a session against guys who are already on Team USA & have done this before. Impressive. Tough luck on getting crappy river beats, can't do anything about that, but you can take consolation that nobody caught one out of Beat #8, and you got the only fish in the other beat. Too bad they didn't have 4 river sessions instead of 2- at least that way the chances are you would get both good & bad beats, and it would all average out. That and it would be nice if they did it on a stream with wild trout, or at least if it was a stocked trout situation, make it far enough after stocking that the trout are basically holdovers.

Make sure you let us know as soon as they notify you if you made it to the finals in Pennsylvania.

Nutman-
"Beats" are sections of stream you get assigned to fish, typically maybe a 200 yard section, and you have 3 hours to extract as many fish as possible. Half the competitors fished the river Saturday, and half fished the lake out of a boat, with 2 anglers in each boat. Sunday it was reversed. The field of competitors was divided into 2 groups of 12 (I think).

Keep your chin up kid ;) Because of the luck of beat draw these comps aren't always about who's the best or not the best, but who shows up for the most comps to beat the draw. G.Daniels told me that after a tough river beat in Colorado.

Your saving grace is you might still qualify because of your lake showings. Last I looked there was nearly 6 or 7 team members competing at this comp. - since they are all ready qualified for finals their placings don't count. With 3 or 5 qualifying spots you really only need to beat out 10 or 7 other non team members. This should be one of the easiest comps to qualify this year. I could be completely wrong though.

I echo what Davy said though. Just getting there and putting your ego on the line is a win. Good job. Takes a few days, but wait until the yearning(aka addiction) sets in:)

A-

You put your money where your mouth is. A lot of us are living vicariously through your experiences. Getting your head handed to you only makes you better...and not for anything....all of the success you had there can't hurt either. An experience, regardless of the outcome, that you will never forget. Great job.

Its tough! There was nothing that I could have done in the river. I drew bad sections. I did the best of everyone on beat three with one measly little stocker rainbow. That was all that was caught between four skilled anglers. For that I consider myself lucky! On the other beat no fish were caught. I would call it getting my ass handed to me if people caught more fish than I did in those beats. I might have not placed well but its not the same as if I fished a beat and got one and the next guy tore them up. Putting together a good competition and winning requires a lot to say the least. I WILL do another one when I see a river that is more legitimate and requires more skill to catch the fish. The Rio Grande is weird. If there are no pike in your beat you will catch fish! They should have these comps on "non-pike" fisheries ;) In addtition to the pike wiping them out there were a lot of bait containers and spinning line along one of my beats. The controller was untangling the line that was trailing from my boots as I treaded upstream!!! It was a good time and I met some great individuals!

Yo, thats not a bad showing. I'm sure most of the competitors had fished there before. Way to represent, bro!

Aaron,

As l did say to you when you called me, rules and regulations for events should be made well and clear to all before the event, which allows for any complaints to be made against those who fished otherwise.

In so far as how those beats were divided, given what you told me l do believe that there should have been a little more consideration, that is of course not to say that event if fish were present that all who who fished those beats would have caught, as that is the name of the game, however a beat that is worthless from the get go is another issue.

Davy