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Thanks to all for the well wishes. The coolest thing about this win is that it happenned on my little brother Ronnie's b-day in the exact location I cast my first fly rod and caught my first fish on a fly rod.
The story is simple...we had fish working the area for multiple nights out in a rip on Darters (Tattoo 3oz were the best producers). One night they came into the trough and after a few cookie cutter 36" fish I went for the fly rod. I got a 13# fish that night and in the am weighed in the first shore fly rod S-B of the entire Derby (In 2006 I weighed in 3 of only 6 and did not make the top three). Later that morning I was bumped by a professional fly guy from Italy that was shooting a show about fishing the Derby. I could handle being topped by a local but a foreign fly guy... I could have none of that and vowed to represent the colors (Massachusetts Striped Bass Association) and went out on a mission. I probed the trough with eels throughout the next night and eventualy they came in again. my second fish on the fly rod that night was 38" and was the eventual winner at 17.61.
I can also report that minutes after filling out the form as the new leader in the division, long time Derby fly legend and a hell of a nice guy George P. Moran walked in with a Bass similar to my own. I watched as his fish weighed in at 17.50, just .11 oz shy of my own. Talk about nervous. A few years ago I came in second to another Islander and was a mere .05 oz behind.
I won a high end Orvis fly rod (est $600), a couple bags with the derby logo, a prinxceton tech head light, some flies, hooks and other trinkets. I was also in on the drawing for the pontoon flats boat but alast I was not to win that drawing.
Oh yeah, I also won the Roberto Germani Catch and Release Award for the fly division which turned out to be a 4 pc travel fly rod by Orvis.
Pretty cool and as always a good time.
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