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Well the third year for the Emerald Coast Redfish Club comes to an exciting and close end. Panama City was once again the venue for this showdown we like to call the ECRC Championship. The weather predictions were WAY off for the day and teams scrambled from plans A to B and back to A as the weather turned out to be very fishable, almost great! Blast off was awesome with a purple sky as the sun was coming up through the clouds. The pesky reds were tight lipped with a front moving through as only 9 teams brought a limit to the scales, another 8 teams bringing in just one offering, and leaving 4 teams wondering “What happened?” “The Golden Boys” Blake and Wes Nelson brought in a combined weight of 12.72 lbs and smashed the field taking home 1st place. “Team Redfish Riviera” Dan Snapp and Jerry Adams were a close second with 11.79 lbs. Third place went to Joey Sosthiem and Jake Matney “The Panama City Pros” with 9.56 lbs. The trout Calcutta was won by the Nelson brothers with a sweet 24” trout and 2nd place going to the “Trout Slayers” Alan Chase and Larry Thompson. Everyone for the most part had a tough time getting the fish to cooperate but all participants were in good spirits and swapped stories from their day. After the weigh-in everyone put their boats back on their trailers and went in side Boondocks for some good food, great conversation and to hand out all the prizes from the day and for the year. A very big thanks goes out to Boon Docks for being a fantastic host for the second time this year. The awards kicked off in great fashion, not by handing out awards to the top anglers, but by surprising the club president with a great thank you gift for his job with the club this year. After a touching speech by Jimmy and announcements about next year, the real awards started. With the points tallied up for the final time this year the top five teams were awarded prizes and praise. 5th was Team “Redfish Riviera” Dan Snapp and Jerry Adams with a total of 736 points. 4th place went to Team “RED TRACKER” Bill Lipscomb and Bob Hoard with 741. 3rd place went to “The Prez” Jimmy Jimenez and his arsenal of partners Tony Coughlin, Matt Smith, Dawna Fackrell, Pete Turner, and Mike Schweppe with 755 points. 2nd place went to “The Golden Boys” Wes and Blake Nelson who seemed to come out of nowhere with a great last 4 events to take over 2nd place with 757 points. Concluding the awards, Jimmy presented Mike Pattison and Ken Cube with the 1st Overall Prizes and “Team of the Year” Trophies. With 3 tournament wins and 779 total points they managed to beat the rest of the field by over 22 points. They walked away with custom ECRC team shirts, gift certificates for the 2010 IFA Gulf Coast Division tournaments, gift certificates for free membership and entrée fees for the 2010 ECRC tournament series, and a free boat wrap from Sudden Impact Graphics. They will be the official ECRC Team next year in the IFA and soon to be the most followed team on the Gulf Coast! What a great year we had! Seemed we had wind pretty much all year but that never slowed any of us down. Next year brings new challenges and more fierce competition from our anglers and lots of new teams. With the growth of the ECRC looking strong yet again for 2010 and the comeback of the IFA to the gulf coast, next year is sure to be a banner year. Until next year happy holidays and tight lines. Bill Lipscomb |