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Old 11-16-2009, 06:05 PM   #61
spearthebigones
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Almost set for diving.











And we're on our way. The current varied quite a bit depending on the depth and angle of the river. But no matter where we were we were always pushed further down river. It was like those rides at Disneyland with the lazer guns, except 100X better. You had your gun at your side gliding down the river with the goal to shoot as many carp as possible! And every few hundred feet of gliding down the river a lone carp or school of carp would appear you'd try your best to hunt one down before the current pulled you past. Once past the carp there was little chance of turning around and chasing down the fish. We were at the mercy of the river, but it was so calm and clear that it felt like paradise. A river ride like nothing I've experienced before!



The thought of winning the tournament kept us from taking it easy. The whole 7 hours of the tournament was packed full of non-stop carp killing action.

Not knowing what was down river made it even more exciting. Neither Alex nor I had dove this part of the Colorado river before, but we'd scoped it out on Google Earth. Each bend in the river brought new structures to explore: underwater boulders, reeds, moss, sunken logs fish homes, sandy bottom, rocky bottom, and everything in between. Always keeping both eyes open for the familiar tail wag of carp.



Eventually we met up with Shanan to drop of some of the carp hanging off our stringers.



I speared a few nice sized carp right off the bat.



And Alex speared even more than me. We were off to a good start.


Last edited by spearthebigones; 11-20-2009 at 03:03 AM.
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Old 11-16-2009, 06:06 PM   #62
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Wish the the rules allowed striper in that section of the Colorado river because I saw at least 2 dozen stripers with some easily in the 15lb range swimming right up to me. Also saw small river bass, tons of catfish, small rainbow trout, brown trout?, and plenty of carp that escaped the spear. Alex said he saw a school of 50 razorback suckers.

At one point I had so much fish I just couldn't move with my scuba fins. Alex like a pro carried both our carp, totaling around 15. He even speared a few more before we headed to shore with all those carp in tow.

We made it back to the weigh in by 3pm and they were just setting up the weigh in. So we dumped our carp in the white trash bags right in front to mark our spot.




There's our pile of carp~



The very first carp of the dive I shot was this big guy. I knew it was big enough to compete in the Big Daddy Carp prize. But Alex said my carp was probably around 11-12 lbs, so I had my doubts. Looking over to the other big carps being weighed I thought they were just as big if not bigger than mine. Below is a pic of the carp.



I was really getting antsy. I just had to know how we did in the competition. Buckets of carp just kept coming off that boat in front of us. Jerry even joked about me hovering around him. But after they weighed the last of our competitors carp it was finally our turn to weigh in.



First they weighed my big carp and when they said 18.92 lbs I couldn't believe it! That sounded off, but I wasn't going to argue with a weight like that. Next came time to weigh the rest of the fish. We loaded 7 fish into the basket like they asked. I couldn't stop smiling when they maxed out the scale and said make it 6 fish, then 5, and then 4. Made me feel like we had the fattest carp in the tournament. They tallied the score and we were in first place overall at 343 lbs! And my large 18.92 lb carp also placed first, for biggest carp of the day! But then the real pros showed up and smoked our score by an undeniable margin. Bumping us down to 3rd place. Both the top 2 teams beat out our score by more than double the amount of fish we speared! With the top team at over 700lbs of fish. That is some serious time management skills, because both Alex and I were in the water the whole time. I've never dove that much in my life!



Oh yeah I forgot to mention I got the smallest carp of the day as well. It ripped off the spear as soon as I shot it, but with a lucky stone shot it wasn't going anywhere. So I picked it up off the river bed and strung it up with my bigger fish. Everyone had fun laughing at it. Ha! It was so puny that Alex and I had to look through our bags twice just to find it!

Pictured below, the big one is probably a mirror carp which is the same as a common carp, just different scale patterns. It won the Big Daddy Fish contest at 18.92 lbs.



This was my first spearfishing competition ever and I had a blast! Winning some of the prizes in the competition was just icing on the cake. It was the crystal clear diving in the water, the rush of the competition, and hanging around with such friendly people that just made this day so perfect! Thanks again Jerry for setting up such a great competition

I don't recall who specifically donated each prize but I want to give a general thanks to all of you and at least show the donations I received. I was actually borrowing a dive flag from Jerry while I was competing in this competition. So winning a Scuba Max Inflatable Dive Float for 3rd place was something I really needed. I'll be using it the next time I jump in the river~



And a 4ft x2.5ft Pelaj Fij Fish Fridge was an awesome prize for winning the Big Daddy Fish. This cooler is really going to come in handy when I plan my next boat ride or road trip. So thanks again to all that helped make this tournament happen it really was amazing!

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Last edited by spearthebigones; 11-20-2009 at 03:24 AM.
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Old 11-16-2009, 06:13 PM   #63
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Video of Dan and mine's dive is finished, I just need to upload all 700megs of it to vimeo tonight.
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Old 11-16-2009, 11:33 PM   #64
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

RESULTS:

1st place Team: Fish Lips Richard Balta & Mike Van Haele

Total fish: 107 Note: Scoreboard shows 102 fish. Actual recount = 107 fish.
Total weight: 768.41 pounds.
Total points: 875.14

2nd place Team: Terrible Terry Team Terry Lentz & Mike McQuire

Total fish: 98
Total weight: 672.18 pounds
Total points: 770.18

3rd place Team: Flush Twice 4 Carp Alex Stover & Daniel Burke

Total fish: 43
Total weight: 343.15
Total points: 386.15

BIG DADDY FISH: 18.92 POUNDS Daniel Burke

Most fish shot: 74 Terry Lentz

YOUNGEST COMPETITOR. Kelston McQuire 10 years old! Team: Kelston Killers
16 fish for this young man. Total points 115 by himself. Watch out future spearos!

Total fish shot: 419

Total pounds of fish weighed in: 2,860.56 pounds!


Special mention to these teams in no special order.


Hammer Heads Steve Blackburn & Tim Brown

Team Utah Shane Anderson & Jason Melby

Team Joel Joel Battaglia

Kelston Killers Kelston McQuire

Maeser Lions Ryan Battaglia & Phillip Rumpf

Aqua Assassins Duke Spackman & Keith Love

Battaglia Brothers Nuno Batagglia & J. Batagglia

To the teams that made it to town and could not compete due to circumstances...thanks & plan on May 2010.

Last edited by harleydiver1; 11-17-2009 at 12:02 AM. Reason: spelling
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Old 11-17-2009, 03:56 AM   #65
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Here's our video.

http://vimeo.com/7657467
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Old 11-17-2009, 08:08 AM   #66
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Quote:
Originally Posted by harleydiver1 View Post
RESULTS:

1st place Team: Fish Lips Richard Balta & Mike Van Haele

Total fish: 107 Note: Scoreboard shows 102 fish. Actual recount = 107 fish.
Total weight: 768.41 pounds.
Total points: 875.14

2nd place Team: Terrible Terry Team Terry Lentz & Mike McQuire

Total fish: 98
Total weight: 672.18 pounds
Total points: 770.18

3rd place Team: Flush Twice 4 Carp Alex Stover & Daniel Burke

Total fish: 43
Total weight: 343.15
Total points: 386.15

BIG DADDY FISH: 18.92 POUNDS Daniel Burke

Most fish shot: 74 Terry Lentz

YOUNGEST COMPETITOR. Kelston McQuire 10 years old! Team: Kelston Killers
16 fish for this young man. Total points 115 by himself. Watch out future spearos!

Total fish shot: 419

Total pounds of fish weighed in: 2,860.56 pounds!


Special mention to these teams in no special order.


Hammer Heads Steve Blackburn & Tim Brown

Team Utah Shane Anderson & Jason Melby

Team Joel Joel Battaglia

Kelston Killers Kelston McQuire

Maeser Lions Ryan Battaglia & Phillip Rumpf

Aqua Assassins Duke Spackman & Keith Love

Battaglia Brothers Nuno Batagglia & J. Batagglia

To the teams that made it to town and could not compete due to circumstances...thanks & plan on May 2010.


WOW! What a turn out of high caliber SPEAROS. Past, current and future CHAMPIONS.

A special thank you to DEL WREN & TERRY LENTZ for the signed, personalized gift of the photo album & DVD. Words are not enough. Thank you both for a lifelong cherished memory.

Thank you to all of the competitors support people.

Rory, it was a pleasure meeting you.

Jennie, a real treat meeting you. Thank you and I will send you a new set of batteries!

Thank you Terry Lentz for your support & help.

Thank you Mike McQuire for your support and help.

Thank you to everyone for supporting this event and making it successful.

PLAN ON MAY 2010 FOR THE NEXT COLORADO RIVER SERIES.

Thank you to the following:

Susie Carico
Betty Portwood ( thanks Mom! )
Cheryl Burkett
Kevin Smith
Dennis sixbery
Gary Horst
Wayne Carson

These folks in less than 4 days closed down the old shop and had the new shop up and running & ready for the tournament.
They prepared food, weighed fish, counted fish, cleaned up & kept me locked up in the old "jail" cell so that I was out of their way...not really but, the new shop is the old county jail from 50+ years ago and the cells are still there.

Thanks to ALLIED WASTE for providing the dumpsters and hauling the fish and waste away.

Last edited by harleydiver1; 11-18-2009 at 09:10 PM.
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Old 11-17-2009, 08:53 AM   #67
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Great tournament. It was really cool diving in the river and having such clear water. I had fun just riding the big eddies around in circles. Also tell the cooks thanks, there is nothing like a hot bowl of chili after a cool day of diving.
We all appreciate your efforts and look forward to next year.
Thanks,
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Old 11-17-2009, 08:15 PM   #68
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Quote:
Originally Posted by ryddragyn View Post
Here's our video.

http://vimeo.com/7657467
Nice video Alex, although I'm already sick of the song. I probably heard it over a dozen times that trip!

Oh and you need to look at my gun to see if I can drill a hole in it. If I had had the camera mount on my gun I know I'd have gotten more fish killing on video. I just can't hold a camera steady while aiming my gun.
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Old 11-17-2009, 08:56 PM   #69
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Quote:
Originally Posted by PhishSniper View Post
Great tournament. It was really cool diving in the river and having such clear water. I had fun just riding the big eddies around in circles. Also tell the cooks thanks, there is nothing like a hot bowl of chili after a cool day of diving.
We all appreciate your efforts and look forward to next year.
Thanks,
Duke,

Looking forward to the next one. Again, thanks for the support.
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Old 12-03-2009, 10:23 PM   #70
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Quote:
Originally Posted by ryddragyn View Post
Here's our video.

http://vimeo.com/7657467
Alex,

Nice video!

May 15th 2010 is the next Colorado River Series! Open to FREE & SCUBA divers.

New store number will be: 1 928 404-1527. Cell # still 1 928 - 530-3483
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Old 12-04-2009, 12:44 PM   #71
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

Do you know yet if the May tournament will be in the lake or the river? Excited for either...
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Old 12-04-2009, 09:07 PM   #72
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Re: 2nd Colorado River Series "CARP ONLY" tournament Nov. 14th

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Originally Posted by inshanity View Post
Do you know yet if the May tournament will be in the lake or the river? Excited for either...
Looking at opening both the lake and river for the tourney. Possibly even up to Willow Beach for stripers, though it will cost a lot of time for the spearos.

The river as last month I believe is more exciting.

Let me have your input and ideas.

Open to FREE & SCUBA. Let all your spearo friends know.

May 15th & Nov. 13th

BOATS...KAYAKS...JETSKI...PADDLEBOARD...SHORE....O PEN TO ALL APPLICATIONS

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