By Bill Ramsour, President
The 2019 All Species Challenge started out cold with the threat of rain and wind. Five brave teams consisting of 16 members set off to fill in their scorecards. Six or 7 out of 10 species – no problem, we usually can get most of those before lunch. Not this year however, some of the most reliable spots did not produce any fish. The water looked good and the tide was favorable but the bite was off. In the first 3 hours of fishing, my team had just one species, a lonely Bullhead Catfish caught by my wife, Julie.
Later in the day the bite did seem to pick up, but this year the winning team managed to catch only 6 of the 10 fish listed on their scorecard. The largest fish entered was a 17 ½-inch Channel Catfish caught by team BG-RENT and the only one of those caught. The smallest fish entered was a 3 ¼-inch Largemouth Bass caught by yours truly, this little guy ended up being the tiebreaker species that put our team in 3rd place. Hey, 10 points is 10 points. The only “extra” species caught was by Team Yakety Yak (a 20-inch Sucker).
Following are the final results:
1st Place 60 pts. Team Yakety Yak - Bud Hartman, Marcia Hartman and Bob Judkins (pictured right).
Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Bullhead Catfish, Black Crappie, Yellow Perch, Walleye.
2nd Place 50 pts. Team 2 Dudes & A Dame - Don Davis, Herb Doumitt and Carol Doumitt.
Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Bullhead Catfish, Yellow Perch, Walleye.
3rd Place 40 pts. Team Lucky Strikes - Dawson Enright, Eric Tonsager, Julie Ramsour and Bill Ramsour. Largemouth Bass (tiebreaker), Bullhead Catfish, Yellow Perch, Walleye (Dawson).
4th Place 40 pts. Team BG RENT - Bill Egan, Gary Nelson and Rich Tombleson.
Smallmouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Bullhead Catfish, Yellow Perch.
5th Place 30 pts. Team Woodburn 3 - Don Clark, Tom Hubert and Dale Hubert).
Bullhead Catfish, Yellow Perch, 3 Walleye.