07/21/2026
The annual river event was this past Sunday. We didn't have a great turnout, but we went ahead and floated the Blue River anyway!
Fish were caught. Not everyone got a limit, but everyone caught fish. Some were not big enough, some were not the target species, and unfortunately for Gavin, he lost his due to drowning his phone! That is 2 phones in 2 events for that family! There wasn't a lot of service for most, so most waited until the end to upload. At the time the leaderboard was turned off, Matt was in the lead with 65" or so. As it turns out Matt culled a few more times after the boards went dark and ended up with 70.25". TJ followed closely behind him with 67.5" thanks to a Blue River Giant 19.25" Smallmouth! Chris Wargel found himself in 3rd place with 64.75". Thomas McNulty had 5 fish for 61.75" in 4th. And in 5th, Chris Dailey had 4 fish for 54".
But that is not how the event ended. Part of doing these events, especially on the river, is managing your time. Chris Wargel and Matt Kiefer pivoted from their initial plan to fishing a longer stretch when they were told Thomas, TJ, and Gavin would be on that stretch as well. As it turned out, those guys had made a change of plans as well. After a brief discussion, Chris and Matt decided to stick to the 2nd plan, even though that meant they had to keep up the pace to make it to the Check-In on time at 4pm. Rules are rules, and despite their best efforts, they were 5 minutes late! A 5-inch penalty had to be assessed. 1" was removed from each of Matt and Chris' fish to make the math work out. The penalty dropped Matt and Chris down 1 spot in the standings.
Congratulations go to TJ for winning the Blue River event and Big Bass! 1st place was $229.81, and Big Bass was $35. This is TJ's second win of the season. Matt was still able to take home the Side Pot of $25 for the largest Rock Bass caught (9.25"). Matt also took home a $25 coupon for the Wicked Weights Wicked Fast Limit for catching the fastest limit of the event. Matt had a limit by 8:14 AM Eastern. Matt also won the Bioenno Power 12v12ah battery for being first out of the money.
