The Central Ohio Chapter of Muskies Inc. held the Russ Dodridge Memorial Tournament on Alum Creek Lake June 4-5, 2011. With the extensive flooding and massive water releases that preceded the tournament, 31 pessimistic anglers and 5 youth (36 total) hit the water. Everyone left quite optimistic about the Alum fishery, as the tournament recorded a total of 38 legal muskies by 19 of the anglers. There were reports, as well, of many sub-legal fish and at least two reports of huskies lost.

It's a good tournament when two guys with five fish each have to add to the inches to figure out who won, a youth member quadruples and wins a rod and reel, a triple takes fourth, and five guys that doubled don't even make the top five. To my knowledge, all fish were caught trolling.

The Saturday shore lunch was a good time with good food, and it was great to see everyone take a break from the heat and sun and enjoy some time in the shade with good people. My wife, Jodi, took care of rounding up a good fare from Shane's BBQ, and she commented to me that night that everyone was very appreciative and she enjoyed taking care of that for the club.

The minnow fund 50/50 drawn at the shore lunch raised another $100 for the Statewide Minnow Fund.

The tournament results are as follows:

1st Place: Rob VanGorder 38.5", 35.5", 35.25", 33.75", 32.75"
2nd Place: Bob Smart 39.75", 35", 33.75", 32.25", 32.25"
3rd Place: Kyle Honeycutt 37", 33", 33", 31"
4th Place: Bill Lambert 35", 33.25", 33"
5th Place: Robert Neville 35.5", 33.5"

Jack Worline 35", 33"
Jerry Stayer 35", 32.75"
George Smart 34", 33.75"
Greg Hastings 34.5", 32"
Neil O'Brien 33.5", 31"
Ron Murdock 38.25"
Randy Parker 36"
Chuck Wilbert 35.25"
Lou Spezio 33"
Bob Sisson 33"
Tony Crisp 32.5"
Brian Culbertson 32"
Jarrod Bailes 32"
Gary Soloman 31.5"

If you caught a fish and got a good picture of it, please post it to this thread or make sure to email it to Randy Parker.

June is a busy month ahead for the club. Please don't forget that SOMA 56 is having an outing next Saturday, June 11th on Alum Creek. Several of us are planning to fish that outing, and it would be great to get a good turnout to support their event. Our June meeting will be Tuesday June 14th at 6 PM at the Marina boat ramp where we will have a brief meeting and then hit the water for an evening of fishing. Our Nite Bite Tournament is schedule for Friday June 17th from 6 PM to 12 AM. Watch the message board for more information on that. And finally, the Ray Demers Memorial Can-Am Tournament at Lake St. Clair is coming up in the last weekend of June. I hope everyone takes advantage of participating in at least a couple of these great events.


Post Script: If you don't recognize the name in first, it is me. And I have to admit, that while I'm excited about winning the Russ Dodridge for the 2nd time in 5 years, I am more excited about the weekend everyone had on Alum and the number of fish caught. My boat was 6 for 9 and one of the fish we lost was a good low 40's on a spectacular jump. Alum took a big hit, but it hasn't completely gone down the spillway, for sure.

See you on the water,

Rob