1st Annual New England Yankee Challenge

Just after the New Year I received a call from our MA Chairman Bob Giordano. He pitched me an idea for a friendly challenge event, to bring together our New England membership. After some discussion we decided why not make it a yearly event, and came up with the NEYC as a name. It was also decided that each year we would alternate hosting states. Bob & I had some really good ideas, but we wanted to make this event a bit different than the standard “fish-in” format. We decided to have (twelve) 2 man teams – the catch being that we would partner up one competitor from each team in each peg. This would add a social aspect not found in other tournament style formats. It was our hope that it would foster a good opportunity to get to know our counterparts in different regions. A couple of our competitors were quite new to our sport, and this format helped them also, as they learned a great deal from their tournament partners.

The 7 hour event was scheduled for Saturday May 13th. The chosen location for this year’s event was the Merrimack River in the town of Lowell, MA. It had been a fairly dry spring this year, and there were some concerns that low water levels & poison ivy at the original Tyngsboro site would create some major problems. A quick change of venue along with some heavy baiting and the Lowell site was ready to fish. As we watched the impending forecast for the weekend, we realized it would be a wet one, some boo birds were predicting a cold wet day of blanking. Undaunted, the participants dug out their rain gear, brollys, (& life preservers?) to take on the mighty river. Let me just say “wet” was an understatement!

Due to the weather we piled into the local Dunkin Donuts at 8am to get a hot cup of coffee & perform the peg draw. Yours truly was a bit late due to a quick trip to Walmart for rain gear (my wife informed me by phone an hour into the trip to inform me that I had left mine home!). Team shirts (designed by our own cartoonist Monty Mittleman) were handed out, and off we went to set up. Just as we arrived at the venue the sky really opened up. It is one thing to set up in the rain, but it is something entirely different to set up in a downpour. I was lucky as my peg was right in front of the parking lot, making it a bit easier to set up. The river level was low, many pegs needing to use hoop nets to land fish from the wall we fished from.

I highly doubt lines were in at 9am sharp, but by 9:30 or so most of us were fishing. Right off the bat it seemed again that the end pegs would be the ones to produce fish, as Steve Clow (CT) was into fish straight away on peg #2. Popped up sweet corn was working for him, fished at a range of @40 yards. Not soon after, Iain Murray (MA) was hitting them too in peg #1, just downstream from Steve. Funny though – their counterparts in their pegs were strangely quiet! On the opposite upstream “end” (peg #12), Vinny (MA) & Ed (CT) each had a fish early, including the big fish of the tournament, Ed Wagner’s 24.5 lb fish. Ed went to an old favorite of his to land this fish, bran flakes fished on a spring rig. The middle pegs fished slower with the exception of peg #5 where Dave Depeau (CT) patiently pulled in 6 fish with his bread punch setup. A few more fish were taken by Corey (MA), Chris (MA), Marius (MA), & Vinny (MA) throughout the day. My peg mate Domm (MA) took a nice 20 lb fish right at the 4pm buzzer to break the impending blank from our peg #4.

The rain was relentless. I had set up my Trakker bivvy with full intent on hiding inside it, but I found myself socializing to the point I never used it! At least it kept some of my gear somewhat dry. By early afternoon I could see the water level was coming up, and quick! Hoop nets were no longer needed, as we now could reach the fish with our standard nets. The heaviest rain was still falling @2 inches per hour! It was almost a relief when 4pm arrived & we could retreat to our cars for dry socks and some artificial warmth.

Throughout the day I had been keeping mental notes on the fish caught. We had a point system in place, with more points per fish as their weight increased. Mirrors would be given an additional point, and any one lucky enough to land a koi would be given an additional 2 points. The way I was looking at it, I just needed to catch as 30lb mirror koi to clean up on points (but unfortunately that did not happen!). It was nip & tuck. Steve & Iain were seemingly going head to head all day. With the other sporadic fish taken by the others it was going to be close. Every dropped fish could be the one to make the difference between winning & losing. When Domm caught his late 20 lb fish I knew Bob & I would have to go to the score cards.

Post NEYC festivities were held at Applebees, as we took over the bar area. Beer & hot soup was the ticket as some of us tried to shake off the mild hypothermia. Bob & I went through the point totals and wow was it close! In the end team “CONNECTI-CARP” had edged out the “BAY STATE CARPERS” 35 to 34! Big fish awards for each team went to (CT) angler Ed Wagner for his 24 1/2 lb fish, and to (MA) angler Iain Murray with his hearty 21 lb carp. A total of 29 carp were caught in the most dreadful conditions. After the awards & raffle we hit the road for our journeys home, despite the already flooding roadways. As many know, the following weeks after this event were very costly to the region, due to the 2nd worst flood in the area’s history. I take my hat off to all participants, it took a hearty bunch to stick it out for the entire day. It took me days to dry out all my stuff. Kudos to Rick Walker who drove in from Albany for his first CAG event, and to Amy Miller who took a twelve hour bus ride from St. Lawrence county to get there! It should also be noted that 3 spectators requested information about joining CAG during the event. Special thanks to Bob Giordano & all the MA guys for being great hosts to this years event, and also to Bob’s girlfriend Kerry who braved the elements with her daughter Claudia to bring warm coffee, donuts, and tacos to all the anglers during the event!

I highly recommend putting on an event like this in any region. It is a great way to meet new people & share bank space with some really talented anglers. Even though it was a “challenge” event it was more like a typical fish-in. Lots of ideas & techniques were shared, as well as some good stories too! This event kind of summed up all of CAG’s objectives in one shot.

We are all looking forward to next year’s event, which will be hosted in Connecticut. With a little luck Massachusetts might get their trophy back……MAYBE!

Well done all!

-Mike Dragone (CT Co-Chairman)
-Bob Giordano (Former MA Chairman)