Team 57 represents at the Lake Isabella Trout Derby!!!

[MAVERICK27]

Well, I took the family and my neighbors family out to the 2009 lake Isabella Tagged Fish Tournament. There were 15,000 trout stocked with FULL tails. over 100 were tagged with 19 numbers sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. One of those 19 fish was worth $20,000. They were numbers 0445-0464.

Here comes the excitement...We had a very rough morning fishing the tourney on Saturday until around noon with only 2 fish on the boat between 2 of us. We picked up the families and stuffed a ton of people on our boat haha. We decided to move over to a marina called Red's. We anchored by the buoys about 50 yards off shore in about 3o ft of water. We tossed our lines in and WHAM!! WFO open bite good for almost 30 fish!!!! Just as we were getting burnt out, I landed a better sized fish, just under 2 lbs. I noticed a yellow tag hanging from its dorsel fin!!!! Further inspection of the tag revealed the number "0449" YEP, in the running for the jackpot fish!!!

We quickly docked and jumped in a buddy's truck to drive over to the headquarters at the Moose Lodge. I checked the fish in and they made a huge deal out of it!! It seems that nobody knew the winning number, the results were sealed. They called me up in front of a ton of people and told me to face the crowd, break the seal on the bag and read what I had won.
Well, $100 is what the fish was worth. Not the $20,000 jackpot, but certainly exciting! I had a 1 in 19 chance that it was the fish. This was the best run tournament that I have ever entered. I will certainly enter again every single year now. My Mother lives by the lake, so I always have somewhere to stay.

I have a few pics that I will add when I can, but I have to track the people down that took them. The best news is that I was sporting my team 57 shirt during the whole thing!!!!!

Sorry this is an average report, but nobody from this board fishes there that I know of anyway, so I thought I would just give a short recap of the excitement.

[exfactor]

they should put what u won on the tag, then no mystery. My 2 cents

[MAVERICK27]

They do, but different sponsors buy a block of numbers. The winning number has to stay a secret, otherwise people will try and make one or cheat the system. the way they do it, there is no way you can cheat. The smaller denomination winners are easy. There is a sheet of paper that tells you what numbers are winners. For example, tag #1 is $500. Tag #1000 was $1000. Anything above that is a sealed baggie that you open when the fish is caught.

[trail blazer]

WTG MAV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good to hear bout some good action up there
100$ OOOOOYAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

[nismotech91]

Sawwweeeet, thanks for the report.

[FISH ON]

congrats mav. from what Ive been reading (the net) and hearing from locals . your derby experience was way above average. so the derby gods were smiling on your crew. BTW there were 2 $10,000 fish caught . 1 Saturday and then Monday. ill bet you and your crew cant wait till next year. WE NEED PICS MAVERICK.

[Seng90806]

great job out there....you'll get that winning fish next time

[troutdog]

WTG MAV!!! You have some writting skillz there buddy, I was on the edge of my seat waiting waiting for you to say "20K BABY!" :Wink:

Isabella can be awfully windy, but fishing there is usually good....congrats on an awesome day. Way to represent Team57 Mav.


TD

[LateFisher]

CONGRADULATIONS MAV !!!!!!!!! Great report,glad to hear you did so well. Good job representing Team 57.

[Skaguy04]

Congrats!!!!
Im sure you were on edge to see if you had the luck one! lol

[Trout Nine]

Nice going out there MAVERICK27 I was there 2 didn't manage any tags though!
My cousin did # 0045 = $100

[Granny Fish]

Hey, even if you didn't win the $20K, it sounds like you had some fun. Congrats on the $100.

[MAVERICK27]

Thankd guys/gals! It was fun. I saw some do well, and others bad. I left out all the bad haha. We trolled for over 2 hours while we metered hundreds of fish....NO takers!! Wierd. We also took on a ton of water Sunday and almost sunk the boat. I guess my transom leaks a tad. Never had it tested at the vine I guess.

Trout 9, you should have hollered! I would have put you on the spot. There was s guy there before us that caught over 20 on his boat. It was a nice lil honey hole. 0045 was in the running as well huh?

Thanks Troudog!!! We gotta slay together soon Buddy!

I say we get a mean showing from Team 57 out there next year!!!!

[Wingnut]

Very cool Mav, congrats on the little extra bonus, way to represent the Team.

[Rooster]

Nicely done Mav. Your becoming a trout Legend. Cant wait to see the pics.. Props bro

[Mondo21]

Was your heart beating a hundred miles a minute?!!! I would have keld over from the adrenalin alone,WOW! How exciting,congratulations!!! Money Bags! Nice representing Team 57!
See you at the WON event! Cindy:Razz:

[youngun]

awesome trip...I was up there too. My brother had the same thing happen to him where they called him up in front of the whole room, and the same thing happened, only $100 bucks. We caught tons of fish on sunday and monday....but Saturday was slow overall. Nice report.

Youngun

[BingJr]

Wow,

First TD qualifies, 2nd Mav wins some $ at the tourney. What a very good week for two very good friends.

Congratz Buddy. Call me and let me have all the details!

[diamondbear]

good going mavrick , Isabella is a cool place to fish . Check your boat plug , maybe its a bad plug , hopefully thats all . // db

[Mojave River Angler]

Yep, I was up there from Thursday night to Monday night. Ended up with 16 trout but no tags. I'll try again next year. It took me a couple of days just to get soemthig other than catfish on the line. A buddy of mine ended up with a 4-6 catfish. All of the trout were on the order of 12-14" where we were. Weather was tough to deal with at times. On monday morning I got beached by the wind...not to worry...I was in a whitwater raft. Funny thing was that I wasn't really catching any fish until I decided to just fish right from where I got beached. Nailed 15 from that one spot in very high winds. Had to throw 2-3 oz. just to get it to stick.

MRA

[MAN VS WILD]

Nice job out there Mav!
Won $100, caught some fish, was with the family and friends = A great time!

[DEADROOTS]

I'm glad to hear someone got something, I got squat! Good job.

[thepuma]

Thanks for the report. I have not been to that derby in a few years. Back then I only caught 1 fish and no tag. I told myself that a boat would be in order if I went again. You can just cover more water and that does matter. Doesn't the $20,000 fish stay active for like 1 or 2 months and if someone catches it they get $$ but only a percentage of the 20K?

[fishincrave]

Nice job out there Mav!
Won $100, caught some fish, was with the family and friends = A great time!

That's the same thing i was thinking about WTG MAV.

[flyngby]

I am sure it did not pay for the trip and hospitality but I am sure you all had dreams of it being the big payoff!!

Thanks for the report and sounded like a great time spent on the water!

Steve