1st Annual Rocky Mountain Spearfishing Series Championships

[SpearMax]

3 states, 4 tournaments, 1 Grand Champion

CASH PRIZES

All tournaments will be 6 hours long from 9am-3pm with a shotgun start and honor stop. Registration will start at 8am the day of each tournament. Advance Registration may also be done on line by contacting any of the tournament organizers. Weigh in begins at 3:00pm. All participants will be required to check back in by 3:45pm. Any participant not checked in by 3:45pm will be disqualified.

Tournaments will be scored on a point-per-fish and a point-per-pound basis. Tournament Winner will be decided by the total number of points For All Fish Shot That Day.

The Series will also have an overall GRAND CHAMPION. This will be decided by the spearfisherman’s ability to take large fish of various species. Grand Champion competitors will receive a point-per-fish and a point-per-pound on each species of fish with a Maximum of 4 fish per species. Competitors will be allowed to weigh in their top TWO fish for each species at each tournament and accumulate points towards overall Grand Champion placement. At the end of the series, the Grand Champion and Reserve Champion will each receive a separate cash Prize.

Each tournament will have a cash payout for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for each of the two divisions; PRO and NOVICE. Anyone is welcome to sign-up for the PRO division. However any NOVICE who has scored 100 points or more in any one tournament will be required to participate in the PRO division.

Entry Fee is $30.00 per tournament. All money received from the Entry Fee will be awarded back to the competitors in the form of cash or prizes. Twenty percent of entry fee money will be allocated to the GRAND CHAMPION pool. The remaining money will be split between the two divisions. The Pro division will receive 65% and Novice 35% to be paid out to the top three placements. First place in each division will receive 60% of that division’s funds, Second Place 30%, and Third Place receives 10% of the money for that division. This puts a bigger emphasis on moving up and competing in the PRO division.

Competition Rules:

All competitors must display a Diver Down flag as well as remain with in 75 feet of that flag while competing.

All competitors must adhere to all state fish and game laws. If a competitor breaks or is caught breaking any state fish and game laws, they will automatically be disqualified from that individual tournament.

Divers will start the competition from the same point and will be required to check back out at the end of each tournament by 3:45pm.

Each Competitor is responsible for choosing their biggest fish for each species to compete for the Grand Championship, and must present them at the beginning of their individual weigh-in. After their individual weigh-in is over, they must sign off on the weight.

EACH COMPETITOR MUST DISPOSE OF THERE FISH PROPERLY AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW.

Dates, Tournament Lakes, and Registration Areas will be:

*June 7th - Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah at the Sailboat Beach and Launch Boat ramp.

*June 28th - Glendo Reservoir in Wyoming at the Marina Boat Launch Parking Lot (this tournament will be our family friendly weekend. With a treasure hunt, underwater poker, group camping, and other activities for all members of the family)

*August 23rd - Lake McConaughy in Nebraska at Martin Bay Boat launch

*October 4th - Fish Lake in Utah at the Fish Lake Lodge Boat Ramp (for information on cabins and lodging www.fishlake.com)
We will be awarding the Grand Champion and other donated prizes at this tournament. This tournament is at High Elevation(Above 9,000 ft.) with cooler air and water temps. SO COME PREPARED FOR COOLER WEATHER.

[SpearMax]

For further information, please PM James whose screen name is scubadown16 or post your questions to this thread and he will respond. Thanks, Tony

[IRONHEAD]

Interesting, hope some photos of the fish come in.

[scubadown16]

Any questionns you can contact me at scubadown@yahoo.com or send me a pm and I'll send you my phone number. I will also be posting the Results and Rankings here on spearboard. Thank you James Hardesty

[element]

Count me in for all 4. Im glad to see they are on Saturdays. I had conflicts last year with the tournaments being on Sunday.
-Cory

[sticknrelease]

Rocky Mountain Carp Killers UNITE!! If anyone wants to do some pre-tourney scouting, let me know, i'm always up for early spring diving!

[Durango]

What fish do you guys spear besides carp?

[ANYH2O]

I hope to make all 4 meets--Thanks for taking the time to put them together.
MM

[scubadown16]

Originally Posted by Todd M Peterson

What fish do you guys spear besides carp?

Todd as far as species go. I will list species by lake that I have personally taken or know of someone personally who has taken.

Deer Creek Resv: Carp,Walleye, Small Mouth Bass,Rainbow Trout

Glendo Resv: Carp, Walleye, Both Small and Large Mouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Black and White Crappie, and Yellow Perch.

Lake McConaughy:Carp, Suckers, All kinds of Bass white/hybrid/striped/large mouth/small mouth, walleye, Bull Head catfish, Channel Catfish, Tiger Muskie, Norhern Pike, Blue gill, and Shads.

Fish Lake: Suckers, Rainbow trout, Lake Trout, Splake Trout, Brown Trout, Tiger Muskie

All these fish were taken in less then 30 feet of water. Most of the freshwater hunting is from the surface down to 30 feet. The Vis on these lakes is great as well for freshwater hunting. Vis is going to be great for these tournaments as well with some lakes having double diggit vis all the way up to 40+ feet at Fish Lake.
Here are some photos of some fish taken at all these lakes.
pic 1 walleye from Deer Creek
pic 2 walleye and crappie from Glendo
pic 3 trout from Deer Creek
pic 4 channel catfish from Glendo

[scubadown16]

pic5 Tiger muskies from Fish Lake
Pic6 Striper and Hybrid Bass from Lake McConaughy

[Durango]

Wow I have to say I am impressed, I thought all you guys caught were carp (is it edible") but those walleye and tiger muskies look impressive. Never having speared in fresh water I am very curious how fish respond to divers compared to our resident reef fish. I wish the events weren't so far I would do it just for the experience to see how you fellas hunt. I look foward to seeing pictures from he events. Scubadown 16 thanks for posting the pictures it looks like a lot more fun and the diversity of fish makes it much more seductive than I expected. Good luck and dive safe!
Todd

[SpearMax]

Originally Posted by scubadown16

Here are some photos of some of the fish I have taken at all these lakes.
pic 1 walleye from Deer Creek
pic 2 walleye and crappie from Glendo
pic 3 trout from Deer Creek
pic 4 channel catfish from Glendo

Now I am really confused James...............is that you in each of these pictures?

If so, what span of years were they taken? Just curious.

BTW.....nice fish! Definitely motivating to try fresh water!

[scubadown16]

Originally Posted by SpearMax

Now I am really confused James...............is that you in each of these pictures?

If so, what span of years were they taken? Just curious.

BTW.....nice fish! Definitely motivating to try fresh water!

Tony, These are pictures from the past two years at these lakes. I am the one with the Walleye catfish, and bass. The guy in the picture with the walleye and crappie is StickNRelease aka Justin Fox and the Guy with the Muskies is Christian Baker from Vail Colorado not a member of the board yet. Sorry about the confussion.

James

[SpearMax]

Just razzin ya bud!

Seriously, those fish look good! Just two questions:

What sorta depths are each species found for spearing purposes?

And what kinda viz would tournament contestants expect at these lakes in general?

[scubadown16]

Tony I will put this in my thread up above as well but to answer your questions. Most of the fish will be shot between the surface and as deep as 30 to 40 feet. But on average most will be in the 10-25 foot range. Our tournament dates were choosen for dates when the visiablity would be at its best.
Deer Creek vis will be from a couple feet up to 20 feet depending on which area you hunt but most of the lake averages 8 to 12 feet.
Glendo Resv. Will be a few feet up to 25 feet. Most of the good hunting areas should be 10 foot.
Lake McConaughy is funny in that sometimes the Vis is 15 plus in most area and sometimes it is 3 foot. I would say at the time of the tournament if the weather holds good for a few days befor the tournament. You should see 6 to 12 feet in 75% of the lake.
Fish Lake: You always save the best for last.. Right. I am not kidding you are going to have 40-60 foot vis. But its a colder Higher elevation lake.