Club honorees, Mixed Bag winners recognized at banquet

At our annual Christmas banquet on December 9th, the club honored those members who have had an outstanding year, either in service to the club or with individual achievement. Each honoree received a 15-ounce custom artwork designed coffee mug with their name and award.

New Member of the Year - Eron Borne
Given to a club member who joined over the last 18 months, and who has been very active in our club, shown a strong dedication to our sport, and a willingness to learn.

Fly Tier of the Year - Orlando Madrid
Awarded to that club member who has shown exceptional dedication to the art of fly tying, either through commitment, or significant development in their tying skills, or in enhancing the education of others, or some combination of.

Presidents Award - Cynthia Griffin
This award is chosen by the president, and recognizes someone who has given outstanding service to the club, and benefitting the membership.

Member of the Year - Rich Hudson
Awarded to that member who has fulfilled any combination of the following: frequent participant in club activities, helped organize or assist in club events, personal accomplishment, helped promote fly fishing in general, aided the development of other members, furthered the mission of our club.

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. Five places were awarded gift cards of varying amounts. In addition, every member who made at least one entry, but wasn't a winner, had their name placed in a consolation drawing for a wide range of prizes including an Epic fly rod.

Here are the 2024 MBC winners:

Chris Williams - 34 species
Eron Borne - 26 species
Bill Morrison - 22 species
Jim Johnson - 19 species
Ed Jones - 17 species

It should be noted that Noah Hoyt, who was recognized by the FFI Gulf Coast Council for "Youth Angler of the Year" finished in 7th place with 12 species.

This year, we set new records for number of entries (228) and number of different species (47). In addition, we had the most participants since 2018 with 25 entrants.

The most entered species was bluegill followed by largemouth bass. Some of the more unusual catches included: black spotted topminnow, striped shiner, lowland cichlid, golden shiner, ironcolor shiner, orangespotted sunfish, steelcolor shiner, Atlantic croaker, Wiper, dollar sunfish. Chris Williams also achieved a personal goal: catching all four species of native Alabama black bass along with largemouth and spotted bass.

Our 8th annual Mixed Bag Contest kicks off January 1st, 2025.