The 12th Annual Ohio Valley River Cats Catfish Tournament will take place Saturday, Sept. 9th and Sunday, Sept. 10th in Rising Sun.
Prizes are the same as last year, according to club member Frank McIntosh. The first place team will take home a guaranteed $10,000 prize, second place $2,000, and third place $1,500. Additional prize money will be paid for fourth place $400 and down to $170 for 20th place. There will be $100 for places 21st through 25th.
Other $1000 cash prizes will be handed out to the team with the biggest catch and to the team that includes a female angler with the most weight. Last year’s record setting big fish weighed in at 69.6 pounds.
Catfish Tech will be presenting Hummingbird Helex 5 to the highest ranking team with a member16 years of age and under.
Drift master will offer bonus money or merchandise for the angler who using driftmaster products only and has a decal on their boat.
The tourney starts at 8 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday. Weigh in will be at 4 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday with 140 to 160 teams expected to take part.
“There are no other major fishing tournaments this weekend,” McIntosh noted. Just how many teams show up depends on the weather. “Sometimes locals plan to come but if its raining they decide to stay home,” he added.
The prize money is made possible from the support of the city of Rising Sun and tourism. There are many smaller sponsors that help out with door prizes.
Last year there were 329 people fishing. Total fish caught on Saturday was 2438.2 pounds and Sunday was 2444.8 pounds.
There were 25 places paid out plus the biggest fish and best team with a female on it. The total payout for the tourney was $34,249.00.
A team from Brookville caught nearly 200 pounds. Derrick and Terry Johnson caught 196.8 pounds of fish to win the $10,000 grand prize. Their biggest fish weighed 46.4 pounds.
A total of 4,883 pounds of fish were caught including the biggest catch of the weekend, a record 69.6 pound catfish by the team of Samantha and Thomas Petrowski and Henry Nefus of Brooks, KY. The big fish earned them $5290. The team also earned an extra $1,000 prize for being the top-ranking team with a female angler aboard. Their total catch was 116.4 pounds for a fourth place prize of and additional $1230.