AOTY 2019 - Wrap-up and Congrats and Prizes

AOTY 2019 MAIN EVENT CHAMPION: Casey
2038.75 pts

Next Adventure

NEMRods

Lancer Jigs

Fin & Fire Fly Shop

IceMule

Gator Guards

Casey - Champion - Grand Prize Provided by Next Adventure: $500 gift certificate
Casey had a truly historic NWKA fishing year. He not only won the 2019 AOTY Main Event, he also won the 2019 Oregon Rockfish Classic, and the 2019 Angler of the Day tournament. I'm sure I've said this before, but I've gotten to know Casey and he's as solid of a dude as you'll ever meet, and the guy grinds. I don't know if I've ever seen someone fish harder than him. That isn't to take away anything from anyone else, because there's a lot of folks on here who fish hard. So I'll just say "he earned everything he won" and leave it at that. CONGRATS, Casey, on a year for the record books!

jed - 2nd Place - Prize Provided by NEMRods: custom fishing rod
In terms of rarity, Jed's feat maybe rivals Casey's. This is Jed's threepeat 2nd place AOTY finish! That's kind of ridiculous. A lot of you have met Jed because he gets on the road and fishes a lot of areas and he seems to quickly pull lunkers out of every new body of water. He's also the organizer and host of the Brownlee Crappie Shootout. I've heard nothing but good about this tourney and I'm looking forward to going for the first time this year - check it out: https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=21948

BasinKayakGuy - 3rd Place - Prize Provided by ICEMULE: premium kayak catch bag
From 13th to 4th to 3rd, BasinKayakGuy keeps climbing the ranks. Will he be the one to challenge Jed for the #1 spot in 2020? Perhaps the most impressive thing about his excellent 1907.25 point total is that (correct me if I'm wrong) all 10 fish are freshwater. As UplandSandpiper found out in years past, trying to crack the top spots without fishing saltwater is difficult. Check out the Walleye, Rainbow, and Bull Trout that make up his top 3 fish for 2019 - incredible!

4th - Merz - Prize provided by Lancer Jigs: $50 gift certificate
5th - Nobaddays - No prize (won fly division)
6th - Ashley - Prize provided by Gator Guards: $25 gift certificate
7th - lutefisk - Prize provided by Gator Guards: $25 gift certificate
8th - Captain Redbeard
9th - Westslopecutt
10th - Jrob

T-Money - Youth Division Champion - Prize package TBD
I think even more impressive than his Youth Division win is that he outfishes his dad, Noah! Every year I hope I can get my kids more involved, but they're not going to be kids for much longer. What can we do to help encourage youth participation?

Nobaddays - Fly Division Champion - Fin & Fire Fly Shop - $25 Gift Certificate
Nobaddays defends his fly title again, this year with Westslopecutt nipping at his heals. We should just rename this category the "Nobaddays" award. Come on you fly fishers - let's give this guy a run for his money in 2020! Good job, Nobaddays, and especially impressive given your regular strong performance in the Main Event.

Captain Redbeard - Tiny Fish Champion - Tiny Trophy
Hey that's me! I kept saying I would give it a go one year, so I finally took the time to photo some of my smaller fish, and then I was "blessed" to only catch small fish of several other species. I plan on defending my title in 2020 - come and get me!

Snopro - SUP Champion
For the 2nd year, the 2017 Main Event Champion was the only person to register a fish on a SUP. Let's not let that happen again. Any SUPers out there that want to put a fish on the board? I'm going to give it a go this year, for real this time.

I will reach out to you individually via PM to get addresses or give you git cert codes, etc. If you don't respond, I can't give you nice things. There's only a few things to ship, but I'll start that this week if I get addresses.

All said and done we raised $1450 for Heroes On the Water. Thank you for supporting this worthy cause.

THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS AND SPONSORS. I hope we can get 40 participants this year and send $2000 total to HOW. Let's do it!

THANK YOU to polepole for keeping the lights on and to the volunteers and judges that make AOTY a 100% donation effort.

Big thank you to everyone who helped secure prizes as I was not able to do as much in 2019. I'm really excited for Drifter2007 to be in charge of the prizes - he's already got more lined up for 2020 than I did in 2019!

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.

Keep safe, have fun, and fish on, brothers and sisters!

Congrats Casey on the big win! 

Congratulations to all of this years winners and a big Thank You to Captain Redbeard for all his hard work throughout the year!

Another great year of competition!
-Mark-

I think all of the prizes have been sent out. If you were one of the people with something coming in the mail it should be on its way. If I missed anyone please let me know!