Pocket Aces Fishing Tournament- Sunday April 30, 2006
ShawnLittle 05/02/2006 - 10:54 Trip Reports Loch Raven
After a month of planning the 1st annual Pocket Aces "fishing" tournament was held this past sunday at Loch Raven Reservoir. Six members of our Wednesday night pool team met at Loch Raven this sunday to hold a tournament. 3 Random teams were drawn and to keep it fair an opposing team member was placed on your boat to weigh the fish that were caught. The fish had to be at least 12 inches of length and were weighed, written down on paper, and released. Your top 5 heaviest fish counted towards your total. Five members had a beautiful and awesome day out on the water. Unfortunately the sixth member, which was me, celebrated at a birthday party a little too much the night before and I definitely felt the effects the next day. Nothing worse than having a hangover with very little sleep and getting sea sick on a boat in the morning into the afternoon. Especially when the fish were cooperating like you wouldn't believe. I managed to pull in 5 lbs and 14 oz for my team before I was unable to fish anymore. My boat partner, Matt, who was on another team also went to the same birthday party the night before but did not suffer any effects of the lack of sleep or alcohol. Matt took advantage of basically being the only person on our boat fishing and had a banner day. He pulled the biggest fish caught out of the group as he boated a 5.1 lb largemouth bass (pic included) and I believe 14 other nice fish on the day. I couldn't tell you too much about the winning total on the day because I was just in poor, poor shape by the time the tournament ended. I do know that a technicality led to the team with the most weight not winning. One of rules stated that you had to be back on shore by 3:00 p.m. or it was a 1lb penalty for each minute you arrived late. My boat came in 6 minutes late so Matt's team recieved a 6lb penalty and my team recieved a 6lb penalty. Due to me being unable to fish most of the day my team wasn't in the running anyway but Matt's team took a hit and consequently finished in second because of the penalty. Overall, it apparently was an amazing day on the water for people who were fishing because a lot of quality fish were being caught and I am upset that I missed most of it. It definitely would have been a very close tournament had I been able to keep my head in the tournament. I would put the total countable fish for the tournament in the 50's with plenty of stories of the ones that got away to go around. Looking forward to the second annual Pocket Aces tournament next year.
After a month of planning the 1st annual Pocket Aces "fishing" tournament was held this past sunday at Loch Raven Reservoir. Six members of our Wednesday night pool team met at Loch Raven this sunday to hold a tournament. 3 Random teams were drawn and to keep it fair an opposing team member was placed on your boat to weigh the fish that were caught. The fish had to be at least 12 inches of length and were weighed, written down on paper, and released. Your top 5 heaviest fish counted towards your total. Five members had a beautiful and awesome day out on the water. Unfortunately the sixth member, which was me, celebrated at a birthday party a little too much the night before and I definitely felt the effects the next day. Nothing worse than having a hangover with very little sleep and getting sea sick on a boat in the morning into the afternoon. Especially when the fish were cooperating like you wouldn't believe. I managed to pull in 5 lbs and 14 oz for my team before I was unable to fish anymore. My boat partner, Matt, who was on another team also went to the same birthday party the night before but did not suffer any effects of the lack of sleep or alcohol. Matt took advantage of basically being the only person on our boat fishing and had a banner day. He pulled the biggest fish caught out of the group as he boated a 5.1 lb largemouth bass (pic included) and I believe 14 other nice fish on the day. I couldn't tell you too much about the winning total on the day because I was just in poor, poor shape by the time the tournament ended. I do know that a technicality led to the team with the most weight not winning. One of rules stated that you had to be back on shore by 3:00 p.m. or it was a 1lb penalty for each minute you arrived late. My boat came in 6 minutes late so Matt's team recieved a 6lb penalty and my team recieved a 6lb penalty. Due to me being unable to fish most of the day my team wasn't in the running anyway but Matt's team took a hit and consequently finished in second because of the penalty. Overall, it apparently was an amazing day on the water for people who were fishing because a lot of quality fish were being caught and I am upset that I missed most of it. It definitely would have been a very close tournament had I been able to keep my head in the tournament. I would put the total countable fish for the tournament in the 50's with plenty of stories of the ones that got away to go around. Looking forward to the second annual Pocket Aces tournament next year.
P.S. Most of the fish were caught on plastic worms and if you haven't been to Loch Raven yet this year you better get there ASAP because the fish are turned on.
