Tournament Results: Parker Strip September 23-24, 2023

The Colorado River, a thing of beauty that provides water, food, and energy to Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California, and Mexico. It also provides multiple fishing locations for multiple species for not just anglers, but the anglers of the California Bass Contenders.

The CBC tournament series took us to the Parker Strip, located in between Earp, California and Parker, Arizona. this was our visit there as a club and It did not disappoint. I think I can speak for all the attendees when I say “What took us so long?!”

We were all fortunate enough to have both Mark C and Kevin D, the Parker River Rats, as our camp leaders. Not only did they open their river homes to us, but they coordinated all of the housing for all of us. We stayed at the members only Emerald Cove and it was GREAT! Thank you both for all the work and hospitality for both the pre fish and tournament weekends.

Mother Nature gave us a little break a day of sort of cloudy conditions, another with light sprinkles but not cold, and one day of regular Arizona heat…but it’s a dry heat. Yeah! The weather did not play a factor , however the opening and closing of both the Parker and Blue Water Dams did. Current, no current, strong current, both shallow and a little deeper at times of the day. It changed from day to day also. All anglers made the appropriate adjustments and brought bags that end up leading to one close finish.

Fishing wasn’t the only fun to be had. We sang and drank, cooked and ate, played in the water, and there was no shortage of LIES. In the end we all had a BLAST! We even had a side contest between a few of the guys that had them shore fishing for a keeper. The local River Rat Mark C. pulled out the win. Home court advantage? David M. managed a red ear that was graciously made into ceviche by Frank S. That started another adventure with all anglers told to bring the sun fish, striper, and catfish back to camp for more ceviche. When it was all said and done, we had multiple read ear, many larger than our hands, a 8-10lb catfish, and 2 donor fish*. Told ya, We had a BLAST!

More on the donor fish a little later…..

The Parker Strip provided decent “river” limits for all of the teams. Every boat brought a Big Fish to the scales on both days. Saturday we launched without issue. Luckily the Emerald Cove Resort has one of the Top 5 rated launch ramps on the river. Blast off at safe light was fun and had boats going both Up and Down river, but it’s not a big river, so we crossed paths with all of our comrades frequently. So fun. Weigh in was at the base camp and went off with little to no hiccups. All fish were safely and easily returned with the help of the camp leaders’ golf carts. Don’t forget, Mark C and Kevin D are the camp leaders.

Saturday went as follows:

Place/Team/ # of Fish/ Weight/ * Big Fish

Derrick Y and Mark C/ 5 / 12.35
Kevin D and Robert T/ 5 / 10.34
Dean L and Sherman W/ 5 / 10.21
Dr. Randy and Steve M/ 5 / 9.94
Frank S and Pops/ 5 / 9.61 / Frank 4.08
David M and Raul V/ 5 / 8.13

Sunday was the hottest day but did not stop any of us from bringing good bags to the scales. Sunday morning went smooth and the weigh in went smoother than the day before. The scales told us it was going to be a close finish at the top. The quick math had us driving home thinking someone won and a couple others just missed it, super close. Well, like NASCAR and fantasy football, results aren’t official until confirmed by the front office. Remember, I mentioned *donor fish a couple paragraphs above. Turns out 2 teams each had a DF, but only one of the teams had their weights adjusted. The adjustment put a new team on the top with a 21.19 to a 21.10 lead. You couldn’t ask for anything more dramatic.

The Sunday and total results are below. Again a Huge Thank You to everyone that went, especially the camp leaders, Mark C and Kevin D. We can discuss which of the 2 camp leaders get bragging rights for the River?

Sunday Day 2. Not Final Results

Place/Team/ # of Fish/ Weight/ DF / * Big Fish