[RonG]

I had the honor of winning the 1st Place and Big Fish categories of the First Annual Henry's Fall Salmon Night Derby. I don't believe they continued having the derby after the 2nd year.

It was a poor night of fishing with maybe three fish caught amongst all the contestants. With one lucky cast, I caught a 17 lb King and was able to take the top two awards and picked up a nice rod as well as a Finn-Nor combo.





Contrary to a rumor that was started, the fish was not caught on a homemade glow spoon made by a owner of a local fishing website. It was caught on a factory glow KO Wobbler. That fish continued to give and give... It had 3 glow spoons in it's mouth when I caught it, donated by other anglers that lost their fight with this elusive fish. Lastly, it turned out great in the smoker.

[Marc]

Nice way to get the new forum started Ron. Great story to go with the pic.

[T-bo]

Very cool Ron. Way to go. Luck has an awful lot to do with fishing sometimes. Maybe alot more than most would be willing to admit.

Honestly though it also does take skill and patience to land one of these brutes. Great pics!

[Esox Tracker]

Cool

[wsj_outdoorsman]

Yep remember your days of glory well. Is that a new rod that was won? Are you still fishing it?

[Jay]

I remember that fish Ron... Congrats again.

[RonG]

wsj_outdoorsman wrote:

Is that a new rod that was won? Are you still fishing it?

Actually, I won two, one for big fish and one for highest total weight (1st place).

The first was some kind of specialty rod, a 9 footer. It still has Henry's $60 price tag on it and I have never used it.

The Finn-Nor combo I used to see in Sports Authority normally for $99 around that same time. I got a lot of use out of it. One day I returned from fishing and found the handle missing. I couldn't find a replacement, not even from the manufacturer so it's long gone. The rod was a one piece that I never liked so it's gone too.

So excited about the win that night, I didn't pay attention to how I put my rods in the car and the automatic seat belt snapped both the rod I caught the salmon on as well as the Finn-Nor I just won. Even though it was my stupidness, Henry's was cool enough to replace it.

Jay wrote:

I remember that fish Ron... Congrats again.

DaFish was the excellent man with the steady hand on landing net. I'm glad it was him landing it and not me.