The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) TrophyCatch program wrapped up a successful 11th year with two major events, awarding anglers with neat prizes including a brand-new bass boat! The TrophyCatch team awarded one lucky winner a Phoenix bass boat at the Bobby Lane High School Cup fishing tournament on Dec. 2. Five finalists randomly selected from TrophyCatch registrants participated in a reverse drawing that named youth angler Curtis Collins the winner of the boat package.
“Most of the fishing Curtis has done is from a pier or off our dock,” said the boat winner’s mother, Amy Collins. “So, it comes as no surprise that he has wanted a boat for a while. Several months ago, he decided he wanted to get his boating license. On Sunday he completed the boating license but the even more interesting fact is that the very next day, Monday, we received word that Curtis was one of five finalists for the Trophy Catch boat!”
Curtis enjoyed a practice sit in the driver’s seat as the winner at the final drawing event. The boat package and giveaway are made possible by TrophyCatch conservation partners Phoenix Boats, powered by Mercury Marine, guided by Lowrance and anchored by Power-Pole Total Boat Control.
Another celebratory event, the TrophyCatch Hall of Fame Ceremony, was held at partner Bass Pro Shops’ Daytona location in November to celebrate the biggest catches of this past year. Eleven anglers who caught Hall of Fame bass weighing 13 pounds or more celebrated at the event and received a free replica mount of their giant catch. Program participant, Chad Dorland, was crowned as Hall of Fame Champion for the heaviest approved catch of the season, a 14-pound, 1-ounce bass from Orange Lake. Because TrophyCatch is a catch-and-release program, all catches celebrated still swim Florida’s waters waiting to be caught again. While prizing provides a fun incentive for anglers, the real payout of the program is the submitted trophy bass data that is helping guide FWC’s bass research and management. This data continues to yield surprising new insights about Florida’s most popular freshwater sport fish.
TrophyCatch is a largemouth bass conservation program designed to promote the responsible catch, documentation and release of trophy-size bass while rewarding anglers for their contributions to fisheries research and management. Your participation in TrophyCatch helps the FWC better understand and conserve Florida’s freshwater fisheries. For more information about the TrophyCatch program, email KP Clements at [email protected]. For fishing information on Florida’s most popular waters see FWC’s Freshwater Fishing Forecasts.
