It was a tighter than normal race to the finish with only 4 pounds separating tenth and first place teams at the 23rd Annual Paul Jadro Memorial – Fortuna VFD Company 2 Bass Tournament held at Ruth Lake on June 4th. Twenty four boats hit the water just before 6:00 am for what turned out to be a fairly good day of fishing with twenty three coming to the scales weighing in a total of 113 fish, all of which were returned alive and well to the lake.
While we didn’t see the larger limits this year in comparison to the last few years, we did see more boats with five fish limits than normal, of the 23 weigh-ins – 22 had 5 fish. Our first place finishers were not new to the podium, Jeff Noga and Brett Banducci weighed in a 15.84 lb. bag to win $1,000.00 along with 1st place hats and plaques. Close behind Jeff and Brett, at 15.51 lbs. was the 2nd place team of Ryan Alto and Jared Comfort who also brought in the big fish of the event at 6.15 lbs. Third place went to the team of Sam Humphrey and Thomas Bruce with a weight of 14.90 lbs.
Three Youth Anglers competed for heaviest team weight with newcomer Jacob Fleming taking the 1st place award consisting of a plaque, rod and reel and a $50.00 check courtesy of Umpqua Bank. 2nd place in the Youth Angler division went to William Justesen, winning a rod and reel combo, shirt, hat and $25.00. Another newcomer to the Youth Angler side, Salmon Sigman claimed 3rd place to take home a tackle box, flashlight and a check for $25.00.
The proud recipients of the “smallest limit award” were the team of Zach and Shannon Zerlang, bringing in a 5 fish limit weighing 7 lbs. even. They were awarded a $50.00 check for their efforts.
As always, the members of Fortuna Fire Co.2 would like to thank all the fishermen/women for coming out and supporting the tournament as well as our many sponsors;
Plaque sponsor
Ponci’s Diesel Center
Youth Angler sponsors
S & H Auto Machine Umpqua Bank Fortuna Fire Co. 4
Boat Inspections
Reynolds RV Repair
Smallest Limit
A-1 Radiator & Battery
General sponsors
Gale & Nielsen Attorneys Frank Milehan Natural Resource Management
Raffle sponsors
Redwood Marine Pacific Outfitters Englund Marine
Renner Petroleum Snap-On Tools Grundman’s Sporting Goods
Dave’s Auto electric Sequoia Gas Interstate Battery
Les Schwab-Fortuna RWS Services Springville Safety and Supply
Fortuna Ace Hardware Auto Zone NAPA Auto and Truck Parts
Humboldt Petroleum Hummel Tire Sport & Cycle