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