At our annual Christmas banquet on December 6th, the club honored those members who have had an outstanding year, either in service to the club, in their accomplishment and/or contribution as fly tiers, or with individual achievement. Each received a custom-designed coffee mug with their recognition, featuring artwork by famed fly fishing artist James Lady.
The club also recognized the winners of our 4th annual Mixed Bag Contest.
Member of the Year - Bruce Shockley
Awarded to that member who has made great individual strides in our sport, and/or whose efforts have benefitted the membership, or furthered the mission of the club. Bruce participated in nearly every meeting and activity the club had, and personally made great strides as a fly angler in 2021.
Fly Tier of the Year - Flip Siragusa
Awarded to that club member who has dedicated themselves to the art of fly tying, either through significant improvement in their tying skills, or in enhanding the education of others. Flip has helped lead a couple of our tying sessions, as well as individual tying instruction to a couple of our members. He also teaches tying clinics for our friends at Pack & Paddle.
Presidents Award - Chris Williams
This award is chosen by the president. It goes to someone that he or she believes has helped the club internally. Chris participated in just about every meeting, and helped lead a couple of our tying sessions. He also has been a great ambassador for our club, promoting our events and activities.
Mixed Bag Contest
Our annual Mixed Bag Contest is a months-long CPRE (catch-photo-release encouraged) tournament where size doesn't matter, but diversity does. This year, six places were awarded. In addition, every member who made at least one entry had their name placed in a drawing for several prizes.
Bill Morrison, MBC Chairman, provided statistics for this year's contest at our recent Christmas Party. We had 22 participants (slightly up from 2020), a record number of entries (164) and a record number of entries by a single participant (30).
Among the most common species registered were rainbow trout (16), bluegill (12), longear sunfish (11), largemouth bass (10). New species registered for 2021 included carp, mangrove5) snapper, hardhead catfish, whiting, atlantic croaker, striped mullet, flier, wiper, redfin pickerel, silver perch, and jack crevalle.
By state, Louisiana had the most entries (90) followed by Arkansas (41) and northwest Florida (13), Texas (13) and Oklahoma (6). The most common waters for entries were the Little Missouri River in southwest Arkansas (20), White River in north Arkansas (14), and Cotile Lake (10).
The most common fly patterns were Clouser Minnow (20), Squirmy Wormy (13), EP Shrimp (10), Woolybugger (7) and Bully Bluegill Spider (5).
Here's the final standings for the 2021 Mixed Bag:
1st - Jerry Patton (30 entries)
2nd - Chris Williams (27)
3rd - Bill Morrison (18)
4th - Jim Johnson (10)
5th - Carlton Townsend (9)
6th - Robert Hughes (9)
The 2022 Mixed Bag will kickoff on January 1st. The form will go active shortly after midnight. There are a few rule changes for next year, so be sure to read them (changes in red text).
