12th Annual Fishing Derby

By Pam Allen

This year's My Ole' Mans and Valle Luna 12th Annual Fishing Tournament was a blast. If you didn't have a great time it was your own fault.

Held at Fisherman's Cove on March 31, we had a record sign up and plenty of good stringers of fish (that would be largemouth bass). A total of $1,300 in prize money was awarded to the winning teams.

First place; Big Weight: Bob Patz and Jack Roginette – 22.46 lbs.

Second place; Big Weight: Keith Brown and Ron Romanawitz – 16.46 lbs.

Third place; Big Weight: Dusty Mathis and Mike Heyberger – 15.60 lbs.

Largest Large Mouth Bass: Keith Brown and Ron Romanawitz – 7.28 lbs.

Largest Junk Fish (any non-largemouth fish): Jeff Boyd and John Kemper – 1.71 lbs.

On-site preparation began on Monday, March 26. Brad Davis and company began reserving space for all the festivities, followed closely by many of our loyal campers and fisherman to be sure there was space for everyone.

Tents, motor homes, fifth wheels, and travel trailers continuously moved in for the next four or five days. The campground soon became a close knit parking log. If you missed visiting Carla's Hospitality Tent is was surely your loss.

The event was not difficult to find thanks to Crescent Crown Distributors wonderful signs and banners done up by their outstanding graphics department. Wow! Thanks for those!

Mary Murphy soon had her raffle girls, Debbie Lavake and Jersey Debbie on a roll selling tickets all over the parking lot, I mean campground. And a very fine job they did.

The weigh in was at 2pm sharp, supervised by Bill Gast, Dan Murphy and Roy Hembre at the end of the dock full of spectators.

Following the weigh in, Valle Luna served up a fantastic steak dinner, complete with fixings. That team really has it down to a science and they were in and out of there in record time.

Dan Murphy did his usual fantastic job of MC for the raffle. Although there was a lot to raffle he did manage to slam Tracy Hilton, Bill Gast, Mike Heyberger and Dusty Mathis, with some well planned practical jokes (not to be forgotten too soon). He also employed his lovely junior assistants for prize delivery and we thank them as well.

We finished up the evening's events with music by “ Kokomo ” with a guest appearance from Mary Vrabel who sang “Suds in the Bucket”. Great job!

We would like to thank all our sponsors for the support they have given in helping to make this $1,600 Benefit for Hospice a success. They are as follows:

National Construction Rentals, Perritos de la Luna, Ticor Title Agency, Southwest Closet Design, Vrabel & Sons, The Tyler Corum Foundation, Rose & Fields, Eez Thresholds, Mann & Sons, LLC, Bid Electric, Nationwide Poker Tour, Macayo's, Crescent Crown, Alliance Beverage, & Hensley Inc.