The Miles Meyer Memorial tournament was a huge success this past Monday (March 8th) despite being canceled in February due to weather. We had fourteen FATC members register for the tournament and participate on what turned out to be a glorious weather day. The following FATC members went for the prize to be the top dog at this year’s tournament: Barry Dunnegan, Al Blair, Don Varner, John Muckerman, Sterling Short, Pete Drochelman, Peter Harre, Steve Baker, Jim Craig, Dan Staggenborg, Stan Rozanski, Bill Byington, and Vernon Preston. Kenny Klimes and Bill Lowry served as judges for the morning tournament.
First, I cannot say enough about how perfect the weather was for this year’s tournament. The sun was shining, and the temps were in the low 60’s for most of the day. After purchasing their trout tags the group met by the covered pavilion to get dressed and select their fishing locations. After the rules were read the fly fishers headed to their “beat” or location to fish for 2 ½ hours. Most trout “in the net” wins – fly fishing rules applied.
Kenny and Bill “visited” each fly fisher to check up on them, take pictures and to see if they were “following the rules”. When the tournament ended all fly fishers returned to the covered pavilion for lunch and to turn in their scores – one point for each trout caught.
This year the tournament was much closer than in the past as the “trout caught” totals were lower than expected. The suspense came down to the end as Sterling Short and John Muckerman were in a virtual tie until it was announced that John caught one more trout than Sterling. Sterling being last years champion relinquished the Miles Meyer memorial plaque to this year’s winner, John Muckerman, with six trout caught for the tournament.
After lunch we had a “free” fish time as everyone fished until 5pm. The afternoon fishing was much more productive than the morning fishing as black zebra midges, red midges, soft hackles, and egg-sucking leech patterns did well. It seemed with the clear and slower current small flies and 6x tippet were the ticket. Most of the group fished the fly only area in the afternoon and found this area fairly free of crowds.
The group celebrated the tournament with Mexican food and were ready to head back out to fish again soon, especially if the weather was going to be that beautiful.
