2nd Annual Healing And Reeling Recap

[Poxy Boggards]

Hey BWE,

First off I want to say thank you to all of the men and women in our armed forces past and present, your sacrifice helps keep us free to do what we all love doing!

Wow! What a great day and a great event!

I arrived at the lake just after 8:00 PM on Friday night to find a good sized crowd in the line waiting to do battle with some Super trout the following morning. We got set up fairly quicky and started taking pre registrations for the tourney. It was a real pleasure getting to say hello to old friends, and to meet new faces that I only recognize from BWE or Facebook.
We wrapped up the pre registration at 11:00 PM, and we had about 50 people signed up. We started again the following morning at 4:00 AM, and by the time the we opened the line at about 5:20 AM 200 anglers had signed up for the tournament.

It didn't take too long before a beautiful Steelhead was brought up to the scales by Tristen Harrison. Tristen reports catching this beauty on a Drews Custom Baits jig in the grasshopper pattern. This beautiful fish weighed in at 6 pounds 13 ounces held up for a 1st place finish for Tristen earning him $800.00 in cold hard cash.



Here is a shot of the top 4 big fish winners.
1st Tristin Harrison $800
2nd David Rochin $600
3rd Chad Homan$400
4th Jay Lamori $200



Here is a shot of huge crowd waiting for the raffle to start:



After the Big Fish winners were announced, we jumped straight into the raffle and silent auction. A HUGE thank you to all of the great sponsors who came through with very generous donations. Here is a shot of the prize table and silent auction. In total we had over $30,00 dollars in prizes that were given away from leading companies in the industry, not to mention a brand new Chevy Silverado compliments of Simi Valley Chevrolet. If your in the market for a new car or truck, make sure to check out Simi Valley Chevrolet! Be sure to check out www.fishinglakes.com/healing for a list of all of the great sponsors who donated so many great prizes, and support the companies that give something back to our fishing community.

A huge thanks to Andy and the OEX sunset beach team for the $300.00 dollar gift certificate which was a part of our Silent Auction.



A special Raffle for the kids:


At the end of the raffle we drew the final ticket for the grand prize winner of a brand new Chevy Silverado. The truck could not have gone to a better person. The gentleman who won the truck was a college student who had no vehicle, and was counting on his parents to get him to and from his classes. Here is a shot of the Grand Prize winner in front of his brand new truck!


In total we raised over $14,000 dollars for Project Healing Waters (http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/) which will go to our local long beach chapter to heal those who serve. I highly recomend that you check out this very worthy cause, and donate if possible.


I want to give a big heartfelt thank you to the fishinglakes.com team. Without their support enlisting sponsors, providing a venue and huge Super Trout to fish for, and countless hours helping to promote the event none of this would have been possible. A huge thanks to Mr. Craig Elliott who was right with me in the trenches working to make this event a success. I feel truely blessed to be a part of such a great event in support of an awesome cause.


Lastly, thank you to all of the fishermen and women who came out and participated in the tournament to support our Vets! We will do it again next year, so don't miss out!

Here is a link to the Video Recap of the event.
http://youtu.be/LVzkhNi4LFU