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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a2cdf3f8-b387-76ad-2e04-1ef4dd1181ce"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This years contest was one for the books. The amount of species and top notch specimens caught amazes me. I feel this is a real testament to the growth of the roughfish.com comunity and am more proud than ever to be a part of it. Keeping with last years tradition I want to give a shout out to all persons and things that made this possible. First off shout out to Corey and Andy for all the time, money and effort they sink into this website and contest each year. I really appreciate you guys keeping this fishing insane asylum open year after year for all of the terminal patients. Next I want to shout out everyone who participated this year, thanks for being here and we hope to see you next year. Shout out to anyone who got over a dozen species, remember that there are a lot of fisherman out there who would be hard pressed to even properly ID a dozen species of fish. Shout out to anyone who got over 20 species of fish, you guys are rock stars remember a lot of people have never even caught 20 species of fish. BIG shout out to the top ten anglers this year, a lot of years any of you would have taken the win with those numbers, very nicely done gentlemen. BIG BIG Shout out to my home boy G-Woody AKA FishinDude14 for his integral role in the planning and execution of our western campaign. Without you I couldn’t have pulled this off man you make a great Chewbacca and your knowledge of western endemics is encyclopedia like. I hope we have many more similar adventures in years to come doe... Shout out to Perc30 for an epic and mysterious run. Who the hell are you doe! Shout out to the Rough Fishing brothers Carp Chaser and Phil for another very well angled season. Shout out to RF 29 for catching some seriously sick fish and way more Gars than me. Great job man. Shout out to Gary for making a serious suicide run to Missonois and not only surviving but catching some very awesome fish in the process. Shout out to my main man Goldenfishburg for kicking some serious ass in his first contest and providing moral support. Shout out to my Sensei Dr. Flathead for your usual invaluable intel and also for finding time to catch 38 fuggin species while running a business and taking care of a kid. You a bad Mo Fo. Shout out to Tony S. for the bad ass intel even though we didn’t get a chance to use it. Shout out to Erik Kol for letting me know that there was still an ass load of snow high in the mountains this time of year helping me avoid a frozen fiasco. Shout H&M gas station in Hastings, MN for having chicken gizzards. Shout out River Rat: I see you Amigo! Shout out my Grandma’s yard for having a shit pile of night crawlers in it. Shout out water and gatorade. Shout out Corey who owns the hotel we stayed at in Wyoming for being a strange dude and sending us to some sick remote spots even though we didn’t catch sheeeet. Shout out the hillbillies in Wyoming who removed the Chevron building cameras with 00 buckshot. Shout out Winnie Cooper. Shout out the pants crapper from the lost world for giving me space while I was Redhorse fishing. Shout out Bald Eagle Quickstop for supplying emergency crawlers and fresh Fatheads. Shout out Chicken Shawarma. Shout out all MN State Parks. Shout out my trusty steed Vanny, you hit 200K miles on this trip and didn’t even flinch. Shout out the two suicidal Jack Rabbits I hit in Utah for not taking out anything important on my van on their way out of this world. Shout out Jknuth for help with ID’s and other intel as well as the whole Knuth family. Shot out Ranger Rick. Shout out Graceclaw. Shout out Fit Finley,Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Mick Foley and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Shout out Black and Mild cigars. Shout out the friendly fisheries biologist in Montana who hooked me up with a sick ass Grayling spot. Shout out to the Bears near the Grayling lake for not trying to eat us or our cooking fish. Shout out to Uncle Pat for over the road technical support and top notch intel. Shout out Auntie Lia my editor, I owe you sushi! Shout out Bimbo Bread and Oscar Meyer Bologna. Shout out Gamakatsu, Mustad, Tiemco and Owner hooks. Shout out Mr. Spacely. Shout out the Gas Station In Arco, Idaho for having chicken gizzards. Shout out the hustlin’ Hutaritite who made us pay him ten dollars for fishing in a spot we shouldn’t have. Shout out Jack In The Box, especially their burritos. Shout out Little Cleo spoons. Shout out Crayfish. Shout out the Sagebrush lizard. Shout out Captain Black and Borkum Riff pipe tobacco. Shout out reasonable gas prices. Shout out my neighbor for having White Crappies stocked in our lake. Shout out Reeses Peanutbutter cups. Shout out Matt Miller for being a nice ass dude and hooking us up with some awesome spots in Boise area. Shout out to all the fish I tried for and couldn’t catch. Shout out to Marika the fine fisheries biologist from Idaho, even though she sent us to Squaw creek. Shout out loud music. Shout out National Forests. Shout out roads with shoulders that are semi straight. Shout out Sopes. Shout out Bill Strunner for a well angled month. Shout out Bills Dad Uncle Donny; time for some leg shakers! Shout out the little restaurant in bum fugg Idaho who had some of the best burgers I’ve ever had and saving us from certain starvation. RIP Macho Man Randy Savage RIP ODB RIP Otis Smith.</span></span></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a2cdf3f8-b387-76ad-2e04-1ef4dd1181ce"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shout out Shimano reels. Shout out Raw Papers and Zig Zags. Shout out Bear Mace. Shout out Green Leaf dispensary In Spokane Washington. Shout out to the backwards fisheries departments out west for stocking tons of weird shit for us to catch. Shout out Bullheads for being everywhere. Shout out Night Crawlers, Wax worms, Red wigglers and Pile Worms. Shout out Midwest Menace and JeanaBeana! Shout out Desert Angler for entering the last fish and having a cool name. Shoutout Fishaholicsanonymous89 for not getting mad when I tell people she is my girl friend. Shout out Motel 6. Shout out Canna King dispensary in Oregon. Shout out to the little kid in Idaho whooping on Cichlids and Tilapia with waffles and bread. Shout out Montana legend Justin Casey for showing us the spot on the spot for the Grayling and hooking us up with some sick streams to fish. Shout out Gushers and Fruit Roll Ups. Shout out all Gummies especially Twin Snakes. Shout out Okuma rods and reels. Shout out St. Croix Fookin Rods. Shout out my neighbor Eric for making me a bunch of sweet ass bullet case weights. Shout out Mister Twisters. Shout out Ravens and Magpies. Shout out Sagebrush and Mesas. RIP Dimebag Darrell. RIP Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Shout out UpperMI roughangler for catching some really nice fish(esp that freak of a shorty) and for having serious style. Love it man keep it up. Shout out the owner of the Vietnamese restaurant we ate at in Klamath Falls for being wacky as fuck and having excellent food. Shout out to the Game Warden in California for settling the eff down and helping us out on our quest. Shout out to the Latino couple in California who tried to help us find a decent hotel the weekend before fourth of July. Shout out Life Flower dispensary in Colorado. Shout out Casey’s gas stations for having chicken gizzards. Shout out Hot Sauce. Shout out Fiddlefish, where you at doe?! Shout out MuskyMags. Shout out Hobo Spaghetti and water jug coulenders. Shout out Dr. Grabow. Shout out OD4L for bringing me into this crazy world. Shout out the Chocolate Milk drinking Dutchman. Shout out Chicken Gizzards everywhere. Shout out to aquarium releases. Shout out Kenny Rogers for writing the song The Gambler. Shout out folk legend John Henry. Shout out Craters of the Moon Idaho for being unreal. Shout out the fuggin incredible sceanery of North America in general. Shout out Orvis hooks for making small hooks with larger eyes for people who are going blind but refuse to get glasses. Shout out to whoever invented polarized sunglasses. Shout out CastNblast for trying to hook us up with Bulltrout water. Shout out to Bulltrout for being elusive as hell. Shout out to clean clothes after days of filth. Shout out to the poor cleaning ladies who found our bucket of shad in the fridge after we checked out. Shout out Tyler Goodale for rolling around on a milk crate in the back of my van on a last minute species raid and providing invaluable intel on current local conditions once again. Shout out Millie’s in Wappapello, Missouri. RIP Slabber Dave’s. Shout out to Delorme for putting fake campsites on their maps, you guys are such rascals...Shout out Doug Stange for making me want to be a Catfisherman and teaching me the value of bringing a sandwich with you fishing. Shout out Sandwiches. Shout out Patrick F. Mcmanus. Shout out Hong Kong Fuey. Shout out Jack Burton and Snake Plissken. RIP Greenwoods reel. RIP to all of the crawlers who died in the heat of my van. Shout out again to Red Worms for living through anything. Shout out my little brother Smqkey. Shout out to my whole family for supporting my dreams of being a fishing bum. Shout out V8, Pringles and Beef Jerky. Shout out to FlytyinJoel for catching a Bowfin that puts my personal best to shame. What a fish kid. Shout out Chicken Gizzards. Shout out to Gunnar for making the bad ass Logo for this years contest. RIP Dr. Gonzo. RIP Arthur Mondella. RIP Pimp C. RIP Lord Infamous. Shout out to the homeless people that lived in the park we fished in Oregon for being mostly cool. Shout out to toilets in remote areas. Shout out to Rosy Red Minnows. Shout out Petersons Field Guides. Shout out USGS. Shout out all the “Fishes Of” books ever made. Shout out Ricky Bobby. Shout out The Dukes of Hazzard. Shout out Hank the 3rd. Shout out weird bait shops in people's garages. Shout out Chicken Gizzards. For anyone I missed I’m sorry I feel like someone beat me with a steel rod, rolled me down the stairs into a basement and put me, through some kind of weird experiments. After I recover for a few days I will start doing a full write up on our Western Campaign. You get total coverage I promise. Thanks again to Corey and Andy for doing this year after year and to all who Participated. I’m going to take a nap.</span></span></p>
Shout out to Ruffes. The only things that were willing to let me catch them in the St. Louis Bay. On three different sessions.
Shout out to Moose (aka Lord Vader) for the amazing display of fishing talent he displayed once again this year and all the roughfishers who got out and fished the contest, just seeing the cool fish everyone posts makes me want to fish every day!! I have one more year to fish this contest in the kids division cuz I will be 12 at the end of July, then I get to get my hands dirty with nightcrawler poop with the big kids! I'm only a padawan but my jedi roughfishing skills increase with every trip we take, Soon Lord Vader, Soon!! 8) Fish on and be sure and make some new pals this summer!
I'd love to catch a Ruffe, and not my dog either!! 8)
Wow Moose! You have set the bar very high. Congrats on showing us all just how it's supposed to be done. I look forward to reading your epic report. Nice job man!
Shout out to the best fishing quote of all time "I feel most alive when I am in mid-coitus with some finned beast." - Alexander Orr. Shout out to shout outs.
Ya just Can't catch um from the couch.
Shout out to the greatest Shout out I have ever read - that was seriously epic, Moose. Shout out to all you crazy devils that just reinforce the fact that June is, far and away, the best damn month of the year by a country mile.
Another Shout out to Corey and Andy - thanks you guys for everthing. You've enriched people's lives with this website and brought together a whole community of like-minded folks who never would have met otherwise.
Many thanks to all involved. This year kicked ass. I can't believe how good some of you are getting - can you imagine what insane things we will see in the next ten years if this keeps up?!?!?!
Do not meddle in the affairs of BAGMAN, for thou art crunchy and good with Old Bay seasoning...
Shout out to you brother man. You and Greenwood make one hell of a team. I enjoyed watching it all go down and couldn't wait to see what would be caught next. You are one talented angler my friend! I still cant believe the Tench. That was freakishly unbelievable dude...Congrats!
Thanks for the shout out. I had been planning my fishing for this contest for a while now. I wish I'd been able to capitalize on more of the species I encountered and gotten over 60. Species that I either was unable to land or saw and was unable to hook included grass carp, grayfin redhorse, striped mullet, common pleco, greater jumprock (watched two take my worm and missed the hookset both times), striped bass (lossed a good one away from the boat), coho or chinook salmon (several small ones followed a spoon I was throwing but I couldnt determine which of the two they were in the water), greater redhorse, alewife, bigmouth buffalo, northern hog sucker, lake sturgeon (lost a good one 15-20 feet from shore), grass pickerel (missed 2), flier (didn't have a small enough hook with me and I missed a bunch on a swampy lake in north Florida).
This year's contest entries have been INSANE, especially when compared to previous years. I did some preliminary and rudimentary number crunching to show just how crazy.
But first, I have a few shoutouts of my own: While my 21 species total isn't much to write home about, it is more than my goal for the month, and I know that I will get a lot more next year when I try again with more knowledge, time, and energy. I had a blast this month; thank you all for helping make it so fun!
Shoutout to Tony for being Tony.
Shout out to E-Kol for being the ridiculous workhorse that he is and his willingness to share his immense knowledge and prowess with me and listen to me babble on about my month's fishing.
Shouout to Moose, both for encouraging me to return to Wisconsin for my Greater and for giving me a quick conversational quip "Yeah, I'm at 17 species right now, but the guy in the lead is at 63!" (Followed by nods and grunts of bewilderment and amazement)
Shoutout to drawer.bli for coming to visit MN and letting me taxi him around for a couple days; glad you could harness some of my bowfin mojo and get yourself one!
Shoutout to Greenwood for showing me around his home territory and climbing through stinging nettles with me to a tantalizing (if unproductive) sandbar.
Shoutout to my friend Bethani for letting herself get dragged around fishing all day by me last week just so I would have a photographer for my Greater.
Of course, shoutout to Andy and Corey!
And, last but not least, a huge shoutout to Uber Driver Tony, who got dressed at 11:15 PM to drive 20 minutes to pick me up at a super shady dam in North Carolina so that I wasn't stranded overnight.
Finally, the stats:
Since 2013, the total number of contestants entering one or more fish has increased from 45 to 63.
The winning total has steadily increased, from 42 and 43 in 2013-14 to 59 and 70 in this year and last.
Most incredibly, the average number of species submitted by the top 10 contestants has skyrocketed, from 32.4, 33.3, and 34.8 in the last three years to 47.3 in this year! That's 473 total entries for Andy and Corey to review in the top 10 anglers ALONE!
To put it even more in perspective, Tony's 10th place run this year with 37 species would have landed him at 3rd, 2nd, and 3rd in the last three years, which is actually unbelievable.
I haven't had the chance to crunch the raw average entries, but there were so many in the 20s and 30s this year that I'm sure previous year averages were blown to bits. Maybe Andy or Corey can enlighten us about total numbers of species caught by the field as well? 100 is absolutely outrageous.
Thank you all for making this community a place where I feel like I belong and a place where we can do something as incredible as this year's contest. I look forward to future contests, and many hours on the bank with some of you crazy people!
Shoutout to Roughfish.com!
I feel honored to be called a "nice ass dude." I am not sure I have ever met 2 guys who love fishing so much, and so purely. Really. It was cool to play a tiny, tiny role. I know very few biologists let alone anglers who possess your knowledge of native fishes. And it was cool to see someone else excited by chiselmouths.
I hope you do a full trip report. It would make a hell of a book actually.
Hope our paths cross when I am in Minnesota this October.
Matt
Thanks guys, apprecite the love.
Matt I will be very disapointed if you don't hit me up in October...
Thanks for mentioning me Moose. Also congrats on an awesome contest run. It was so awesome to see all of your and Greenwood's (and everyone else's) catches come in. I can't even imagine catching all of those awesome western fishes.
2016 is definitely a year to remember. People caught some incredible fish, myself included. Graceclaw, thanks for the shoutout. Let me return the favor, shoutout to Graceclaw for driving me around and being very patient, and of course giving me some of his bowfin mojo(which I carried with me, more on that later)! Shoutout to Waxworm for fishing with me on the Minnehaha. Shoutout to TonyS for putting me on some rad sturgeon. Shoutout to Greenwood for showing me and Graceclaw around, including some sooper secret spots. Then a huge shoutout to Moose and Greenwood for the absolute insanity they fished up. Shoutut to Roughfish.com and all its members... Crazy, crazy things happen here... it's an awesome place, and I'm glad to be part of the community. Shoutout to the Big D for being incredibly kind to me this contest. Shoutout to all the new spots I discovered (and new things in old spots). Shoutout to the common carp for finally giving me some love. Shoutout to the native brookies I had to track down. This year was amazing. Can't wait for 2017!
I gotta say, those epic runs with tons of species you guys had was crazy. Huge congrats to everybody who entered a fish. Naturally my wife for putting up with me (and catching better than a species per hour in the couple shorter outting she made it out for and my Dad for participating this year and providing some great company on the couple longer outings I did this month. And everybody else I had a chance to share a chunk of shoreline with, even if briefly. And a Goldfish! For finally getting caught and BM Buffalo for being jerks.
This is glorious.
Fishn sure is neat