AOTY 2016 Congratulations and Prizes

2016 is in the books! Let’s take a moment to recognize the truly awesome effort and skill required to place in AOTY by congratulating the winners.

AOTY 2016 MAIN EVENT CHAMPION: MERZ

Kayak Shed

Next Adventure

Kokatat

Merz - Champion - Grand Prize Provided by Kayak Shed: Kokatat Supernova Angler Drysuit
We have a new champion kayak angler and his name is Merz! I have had the pleasure of hanging out with him at a couple of events and I watch his Facebook feed and all I can say is I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a nicer guy catch bigger fish. At 1887 points, he really sets a ridiculously high standard. Awesome job!

rawkfish - 2nd Place - Prize Provided by Next Adventure:  $500 Gift Certificate
Perennial AOTY favorite and Next Adventure pro-staff kayak fishing OG rawkfish posted 1826.5 points to come in a close second. For those of you who haven’t met him, rawkfish is a fishing machine who posts trophy salmon at an unheard-of pace when they’re running. He also actively educates kayak anglers in safety and fishing tactics - try to make one of his seminars at Next Adventure if you can.

smokeyangler - 3rd Place - Prize Provided by Kokatat: Bahia Predator PFD
And then from out of nowhere AOTY newcomer smokeyangler clocks in 1784 points to take the 3rd spot on the podium - sweet! I love seeing people who haven’t competed before do well. I’ve met this guy a couple of times and I’m hoping I can fish with him in 2017… and steal some of his secrets!

4th - jed - Prize package including Stealth rod holder, bump board, fishing rod combo, Big Hammer baits
5th - crackergraham - Prize package including Stealth rod holder, fishing rod combo, Big Hammer baits
6th - Nobaddays - Prize package including Stealth rod holder, digital scale package, YakAttack accessory, , Big Hammer baits
7th - Snopro - YakAttack GearTrak, digital scale package, Big Hammer baits
8th - onefish - YakAttack GearTrak, fillet knife, Big Hammer baits
9th - Westslopecutt - YakAttack T-shirt, GearTrak, Big Hammer baits
10th - kwik - YakAttack RotoGrip paddle holder, Big Hammer baits

Osteves - Youth Division Champion - Prize package including fishing rod combo, bump board, waterproof case, and more
I’m really glad the Youth Division stayed on life support this year with one entrant  - Osteves - who registered a heck of a smallmouth bass. That bass also got him 8th place in the Bonneville Bass Bonanza - nice work! I’d really like to see more youth anglers participate and I’m committed to getting prizes for the Youth Division so if you have any youngins that want to participate please get them signed up.

Side Challenges
Since there is a lot of crossover between the top 10 Main Event participants and the top 3 in each of the side-challenges, each Main Event top-10 winner will be awarded their Main Event prize in addition to one side challenge prize (the side-challenge they placed the highest in, except Tiny Fish and On The Fly). Remaining prizes for the side-challenges will slide down the list to the next participant.


Salmon Slam
1 - rawkfish - NEMRods custom salmon rod, Pro-Cure Herring
2 - Merz - n/a (1st place Saltwater Slam)
3 - smokeyangler - Stealth rod holder, Pro-Cure Shrimp
4 - Snopro - n/a (1st place Freshwater Slam)
5 - jed - n/a (4th place in Saltwater Slam)
6 - Westslopecutt - Pro-Cure Salmon Slammer

Saltwater Slam
1 - Merz - Lucid Grips, Cabela’s bag, Big Hammer baits
2 - rawkfish - n/a (1st place Salmon Slam)
3 - whakamomoka - Lancer Jigs pack of jigs, Pro-Cure Bloody Tuna, Big Hammer baits
4 - jed - Custom bottomfish jigs by Yaktastic, Big Hammer baits

Freshwater Slam
1 - Snopro - Diawa bass rod, Cabela’s bag, Big Hammer baits
2 - crackergraham - Stealth rod holder, Big Hammer baits
3 - Merz - n/a (1st place Saltwater Slam)
4 - jed - n/a (4th place in Saltwater Slam)
5 - smokeyangler - n/a (3rd place Salmon Slam)
6 - Nobaddays - Custom spinners by Yaktastic, Big Hammer baits

On The Fly
1 - surf12foot - Sillwater Fly Shop fly line voucher, Cabela’s Bag
2 - Nobaddays - Sillwater Fly Shop fly line voucher
3 - Westslopecutt - Sillwater Fly Shop fly line voucher

Tiny Fish Challenge
1 - surf12foot - Stealth rod holder


Thank you!
A heartfelt THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to all of the participants for sharing the camaraderie of the event and raising money for a good cause. I’m amazed when I look at all the huge fish that got registered. I’m stoked that there are already fish on the board for 2017 and I can’t wait to see where this year’s contest leads!

Also a huge THANK YOU to all of the volunteers that work to make AOTY possible. 100% of the effort for this event is donated by NWKA members and none of this would be possible without them. I appreciate the work of the judges to get entries verified quickly and I especially appreciate the help of bSteves and Noah to get signup setup, payment setup, prize organization, and AOTY website help. And as always NWKA's godfather himself, polepole for making any and all of this possible.


Notes on the prizes:
1. In addition to the prizes listed above, the top 10 Main Event places get a Hoo-Rag bandanna. Additionally we will throwing a couple of hats and some other misc. items at random into the prizes.

2. While the prizes are in-hand the list above should be considered approximate as you are dealing with volunteer labor here. If I made a mistake on my spreadsheet we will have to make adjustments.

3. IF YOU ARE DUE A PRIZE PLEASE PM CAPTAIN REDBEARD (ME) WITH YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS FOR SHIPPING PURPOSES. Noah and I are working on getting the prizes packaged up the next week or so. A generous corporate sponsor has offered to cover shipping, so this does not deduct from our donation to HOW.

You can do me, HOW, and AOTY a big favor by posting pictures of you with your winnings on social media and tagging the appropriate sponsor along with a “Thanks for supporing NWKA’s Angler of the Year” or similar message.

Congrats to the winners!

This was the most well organized AOTY competition I've seen since I joined NWKA. Keep it up!

Congratulations to all our AOTY winners, and Merz: what a year you had!  And go osteves!  Your bass kicked my rockfish's butt, for sure.

Thanks to all of our competitors for helping to support our Heroes on the Water chapters.  Everyone of you helps us to make a difference.

Thanks, again, to everyone who volunteered to make the 2016 AOTY happen.  And Cap'n, a special thank you not only for the job you did, but especially for your unwavering enthusiasm for the challenge.  You kept it light and fun for a whole year!

thanks for a really nice wrap up to a great 2016 AOTY!  Thanks to all AOTY organizers, judges and participants. 

Good job everyone and congratulations to the winners. Thanks to all the organizers.

Looking forward to this season.

Congrats to all the winners and participants!! This year I will definitely be putting a bit more effort into it, seems like a lot of my nicer catches were not qualified for AOTY unfortunately, this year will hopefully be different.

Congrats to all the winners.  I think I might have to sign up in 2017.

Thanks Lauren and everyone else involved, and congrats to the other competitors. This was my 4th year of AOTY and I feel honored to have climbed into the first position. I encourage anyone to sign up for AOTY, even if you think you dont have much chance of placing. Its a great way to learn to fish for new species, discover new places to fish, learn new techniques, and catch bigger fish! I cant even explain how much I have learned over the last few years because of AOTY. Looking forward to this next year and hopefully getting to fish with more of you guys.   Thanks!    -Evan

Koatat Supernova drysuit, that's a bad ass prize! Congrats


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Congrats, Merz!  Thanks to everyone who helped this year!  This was a great AOTY!

Congrats Merz!  You definitely made a statement with all of those big fish. Rockfish, getting it done like usual.
Jed, You came on strong, if only you didn't have that photo malfunction.
Nobaddays, I still appreciate and owe you some fish.
Crackergraham, I wish you could have made the Chumfest.
Congrats to everyone else it was a lot of fun.  Hopefully everyone will compete again this year.

Thanks to Captain Redbeard and everyone involved.

I just want to give a big shout out to all those that made this possible. Already planning for which fish I'm going for this year?

Congrats to all the participants and a huge shout out to all the donors. That is an impressive prize collection for all the top finishers.

I really like how seeing the success of other competitors is great motivation to try for similiar results for myself.

Already trying to figure out ways to better results for different species for this year.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made the 2016 AOTY a great competition to be involved with.  I am excited to compete again this year.

Organized and boxed up most of the prizes last night with Noah.

A lot of people have already sent their addresses - thank you! I probably won't have time to ship today so early next week the packages should start going out.

Organized and boxed up most of the prizes last night with Noah.

A lot of people have already sent their addresses - thank you! I probably won't have time to ship today so early next week the packages should start going out.

Holy moly! Gonna have to fish harder this year!!