The sturgeon side of the derby was to be decided by catching a fish closest to a predetermined length (65") announced Friday morning by the derby organizers, Mike Guidry (Groundy) and Barry Canevaro (one of The Fish Hookers). The striper side of the derby was to be determined by weight. 87 "Trash Talkers" had placed their bets and it was time to fish.

Friday morning brought ideal weather and fishing conditions. A cold snap had descended on the delta and had lowered water temperatures early in the week. Four days later the fish had adjusted to the conditions and were hungry and co-operative. If you could wade through the "trash talk" over the air/radio waves, the early indications were that a lot of fish were going to be boated and it could be an exciting derby.

Late Friday afternoon a clear target was established for the striper anglers when Rob Castro weighed in a 48 pounder he caught at Garnet Point. Garnet Point proved to be a hot spot over the weekend producing a couple more fish in excess of twenty pounds Saturday.

Fishing Friday night, Larry the liar, aka hookemup, tied into a monster. "I got the big fish," he claimed in the morning. 72" and 105 pounds!" "Yeah sure Liarry and you still have that bridge for sale in Florida?" was the general Trash Talkers response. "Better take a picture Liarry." Sunday he produced the photo and claimed the derby braggin' rights, I'm sure we're going to hear about it on the board until the next derby. The fish was caught off of Meeks, North of Snag Island.

Saturday morning rumors were flying by radio and cell phone that someone had a 65" sturgeon. At 11 AM Darren Glosser produced the 65" diamondback and it was right on the money, exactly 65".

The derby wasn't even half over and it looked like first place was done deal for both stripers and sturgeon. Then, early in the afternoon, the impossible happened, Shellie Raffandi checked in with a 65", not 64 7/8" or 65 1/8", fish she nailed at Sherman Island. Darren's fish had not been weighed so the tie would have to be done some other way.

Saturday evening I was enjoying dinner with Barry and Diana Canevaro when Mike Guidry called to tell us Mike Newman claimed to have another 65" fish he caught at the Mothball Fleet. It looked like we were in a situation that was going to be harder to sort out than a Florida election.

As the sun came over the horizon on Sunday morning, Mike was at Dockside Market weighing in his fish and sure enough, it was exactly 65". He didn't even have time to get his fish back to the boat when Dennis Nagel walked up with his fish, you guessed it, exactly 65", caught on grass Shrimp at Big Cut at 4 AM.

The fishing slowed down Sunday morning, no one was bragging about fish even though second place for stripers could be had for about 25 pounds. "Hey we just boated a 52 pounder!" came over the radio. "Who boated a 52 pounder?" Who ever it was wasn't saying, so we weren't going to find out whether it was the biggest striper or trash talk of the weekend until weigh-in closed at 2 PM.

With three prizes and four winning fish Mike and Barry decided to offer the winners their choice; pick three winners by choosing cards, or split the prize money 4 ways. Fortunately the winners unanimously chose to split the money saving the derby the dilemma of having to deal with dimpled diamonds and hanging hearts much to the chagrin of the lawyers in the crowd.

The derby was a success. The competition was friendly but intense and we got to put faces with all the handles from the board. Due to the popularity of the event it was decided the next derby, sometime in Spring 2001, will be by invitation only. If you want to fish, talk some trash!

The Trash Talkers

From left to right we have FishLady, the next two had keeper sturgy..the guy in the white tee shirt is a friend Darren (Mr. Montezuema) he had one of the 65"ers...behind him is the shyguy...next to him is the original 10%er(mike) who was one of our 65"ers...the little/big guy in front of him is Darren(currently an 11%er,it`s not going to take this kid long to reach the 10%er status)...next to him is the infamous..let's see should we say LTB? Hookemup? Larry the Liar? Liarry? Ole` Lar? That's right it`s Larry...behind him is Moose..then the infamous Big Eraser...then well not too sure who that is but give him another drink...Next to him is Farmer Dennis(our newest member and friend of LTB, he also had one of the 65"ers)...then the infamous Kapt. Katfish...then we have the returning champion David Maples (StriperStringer)...pops FishMode...Lil`ss brother Darren was there but went into hiding for this picture...and last but not least the infamous Sturgy Slayer.