BTB fishing tournament a 'success in the books'
Oct. 4—This year's Back the Blue Bass Fishing Tournament was a success and officials say a change to next year's date may occur to accommodate hunting season.
Tahlequah Police Lt. Dexter Scott said Saturday's event was a success in the books and he's looking forward to next year's tournament.
"We had more public show up than normal and I think being at Jimmy Houston's Marine and Kawasaki made it a lot easier for people to travel to and from," Scott said. "It made it to where we had quite a bit a people at weigh-in."
The entry fee was $100 per boat, and Scott said they had 40 boats registered for the tournament.
"We actually raised over $6,000 this year," he said.
Proceeds go toward purchases within the police department and those purchases can be used by other area agencies, if needed.
Scott said there's no plan as of yet on what the proceeds will be spent on as he's waiting on the outcome of this year's tournament.
"Our next year's tournament, we're wanting to move to a different date and once we have that tournament, we'll determine with those proceeds and this year's proceeds what we want to do with the money," Scott said.
Scott plans to make an official announcement sometime in the next few weeks on which date next year's tournament will be. He said they are planning for either March or April of 2023.
"It was opening season of bow season — also people have fished all year. They're ready for that hunting season and I think with March or April, will give us more entries mainly because people have been in the house for two or three months. Deer season is over and people are ready to get out and spend time in the outdoors," Scott said.
The tournament began from "safelight" — when it was safe to launch on the water and get started. Scott said they launched around 6:45 a.m. Saturday morning.
"Everything went really well, no complaints, and no issues whatsoever," he said.
First-place winners were Lane Kindle and Jake Biram, who got $3,000 and second place winners were Drew Porto and Blake Doster, who got $1,000. Third place winters to get $800 were Wayne and James Childers.
