Twenty seven boats blasted off from the Ruth Lake Marina at 5:30 am with hopes of claiming a spot in the top ten and a chance of winning some of the $2400.00 in total payout at the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department Company 2 “Paul Jadro Memorial” Bass Tournament on Ruth Lake June 7th.
24.11 Lbs, a new record for a 5-fish limit in this annual event, earned the team of Brian Barthman and Tom Helberg a second consecutive first place win. The pair also managed to bring in the 2 largest fish of the event at 5.64 and 5.25 lbs. The pair received first place winnings of $1,000.00, plaques, hats, big fish option money of $234.00 along with a rod/reel combo donated by Pacific Outfitters and a custom rod built by John Crotty of Crotty’s Guide Service.
The first boat to come to the scales for the 3:00 weigh-in was the team of Steve Frick and Lyle Johnson weighing in a good bag of fish at 20.15 lbs. enough to hold onto a second place finish and a $400.00 pay check. Third place was claimed by the team of Jason Gellman and Jesse Mela with a weight of 18.17 lbs earning them $250.00. The team of Dan and Cory Sutton, long time father-son duo in the annual event, managed a fourth place with a kicker fish weighing 5.01 that gave them 3rd big fish option money for a total weight of 14.88 lbs. and winnings of $226.00.
It took 5 fish but only 10.06 lbs. for the team of Kyle Saunderson and Jeff Meyer to claim the first ever “smallest limit award” and $50.00 sponsored by A-1 Radiator of Fortuna however, after re-tabulating the results we realized, all too late, we had erred and the smallest limit, at 10.01 lbs. was actually brought in by the team of Jeff Noga and Brett Banducci. We certainly could not let such a prestigious honor go un-noticed so they have now been included in the awards and have been sent a check for $50.00.
On the Youth Angler side, William Justesen of Carlotta earned a first place finish for the second year in a row for which he received $50.00 from Umpqua Bank towards a savings account, a rod-reel combo, tackle bag with tackle and a first place “Youth Angler” plaque. Taking a close second and catching the 7th biggest fish of the tournament was Zoe Sigman of Honeydew. She received a rod-reel combo, tackle box with tackle and a $25.00 gift certificate to RMI Outdoors.
Once again, sponsorship and support for the tournament was nothing short of excellent. The members of Company 2 of the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department would like to thank both the contestants and sponsors for another great tournament.