FCS is Tiger fishing at KITFT in Zimbabwe - Africa

Early this summer, I was approached to sponsor a fishing team in South Africa for a Tiger Fish tournament - Kariba Invitational Tiger Fish Tournament - also known as the KITFT in Zimbabwe, Africa. Here's a link to the website.

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This is what a Tiger Fish looks like -  a striper with lots of big teeth

So the teams are Hamba Bamba 'A' and Hamba Bamba 'B'.

One thing lead to another and we decided they would test some custom FCS spinners that I built for them just last month. The tournament runs 10/26-10/28 and with the - 9 hr time difference to Colorado,  they fish thru our night and rankings are posted about noon. Day 3 finals are in.

It's pretty exciting - FCS in two new countries - Zimbabwe and South Africa, and a new continent!

They are off the grid and its unlikely I'll hear from them until they complete unpacking and settle back into the norm. Maybe never again, if the FCS stunk!

Anyways, to dull the edge on my excitement, I decided to do some web research and gather up a little history on the teams. Here's a facebook page URL KITFT Facebook

The two teams are number 50 and 51 in the 2011 entry sequence (that's not standing, just team registration order).

Last year Team A finished 50th in standing and 111th (Team B) in the 2010 tournament finals.

The 2011 tournament is special, it's the 50th KITFT anniversary - lots of 50's and 1's across the last three lines!

Last year, it took 60 fish and 170kg to place first and win.

Team Hamba Bamba A caught 27 for 51.3kg placing 50th.
Team Hamba Bamba B caught 5 for 7.6kg placing 111th.

At their request, I modified our already noisy spinners to include mirrors for extra flash. I guess the water can be muddy and the extra flash coupled with the FCS noise is intended to get attention and excite strikes. That's the plan.

If you go to the KITFT website and look at the pre-tournament pictures, you'll see there are hippo's in Lake Kariba and they're wandering around camp and in the lake. The last picture in the pre-tournament gallery is a celebrity hippo caught in it's raid.

YIKES! Talk about working for your fish! These guys are hard-core, did I mention it's 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) in Zimbabwe for the tournament?

Here's a Picasa slideshow of FCS contributions from my pre-tournament project.



Day 3 Final results in!~ By my YTY calculations, Team A has moved up in position over last year, by 12 percentile points! 62th of 268 this year, vs 50th of 143 last year.

Maybe that's just me in envy in the Colorado snow, putting a 'spin' on it or cook'in the books to stay warm!

It ends up they caught fewer fish resulting in less weight, BUT relative to the overall population of anglers, their final placement was in the top 1/4 of 268 teams; in the 23rd percentile of the total team population for 2011 vs the 35th percentile in 2010.

Here's my chart and visual representation of Day to Day rank, against 2010 on the left

Hamba Bamba 2011 Final - 62nd place 20 fish 44.315kg
                   2010 Final - 50th place 27 fish 51.3kg

The 50th anniversary tournament brought in more teams. More fishing pressure, for sure.


Team Hamba Bamba A caught 20 fish for 44.315kg placing 62nd.
Their largest fish placed 12th at 6.55kg.
Team Hamba Bamba B caught 3 for 5.990kg placing 165th.


Nice job everyone and thanks for stopping by the blog post. Can't wait to exchange some emails with you guys and hear some fish stories!

Bad Romance

Got up too early, need a blog aberrant.
Got up too early, creativity rant

Outdoor Blogger  network - Anniversary Chant

oo, oo, oo la la ah,
ra, ra, oo la la ah

Sometimes it sparkles, sometimes it's ugly
I want your horror, I want your revenge
I want your Blog

Blog, Blog, Blog
I want your Blog

Is this a Cheap shot or masterful page?
I want your words, your energy too
I want your Blog

Blog, Blog, Blog
I want your Blog

Sometimes you comment,
most time's you just don't

I want your Blog

Blog, Blog, Blog
I want your Blog

Blog, blog, Blogger baby
work it,
move those digits, eyes get Glazy.

Blog blog, blogger baby
work it,
Free gear gonna make you, Lazy.

Fish, Hunt, Blogger baby
write it,
Page Views gonna make you. Crazy!

Happy Anniversary OBN!

Now, click and visit OBN

Elevate River Rocks..:!

Angle Rocks and Rock Stars

Ever been fishing, caught a fish and took a picture?

Since you're reading this blog, its a safe bet you have.

Then at home, when you finally get the pictures off the camera, you're looking for the good ones, and you notice a pattern and familiar background on a few of the pictures.

I know, I know, I always saw the Fish Creek Spinner for the longest time, but then I got older, wiser.

For me, I notice background. What the fish are surrounded by. Beautiful shades of brown, gray, black or white river rocks.

Happened to you? It seems to happen to me.

Over the years, I've started collecting them and bringing a tangible piece of the memory back with me. The fish were back in the water, a few rocks came home. It's a hoot once you get started.

They are everywhere once you start looking, and they are 'free'.

No need to organize them if you don't want to. I just stash them around the house. Marie is the organizer, I'm the hunter/gatherer!

Adhoc rediscovery give you the opportunity to try to remember where it came from, lol. A chance to recollect a pleasant memory tied to fishing; sights, sounds and seasonal smells of that day on the water.

Good times -

Miracle Mile, WY
Red Dirt Reservoir, CO
Copper Harbor, MI
to name a few.

Here's a few bowls full, that Marie organized -

Speckled Rocks - more on these - stay tuned

Copper Harbor Michigan Agates

Miracle Mile - Sinclair, WY

Lately, I've found a new way to elevate these esteemed rocks, by making medallions from them.

Angle rock medallions and Rock Stars carved from Soap Stone.

Rock Medallions and carved soapstone Rock Stars

Angle Rock medallions

My photography skills and the lighting through the basement window well, really don't show off their highlights very much. But after all, they're rocks, not gems - Angle Rocks!

Dig out your Dremel tool and use a 1/8in diamond tip glass cutter bit and you're on your way to making rock dust clouds, being covered with dust and looking like this

Well, maybe not quite that much fun.

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Beautiful Coho's hitting FCS

Blogger and FCS Slinger Doug Porter sent me a few of his fishing pictures today - Forever Fishing Washington State from a trip to the Elhwa River for early run Coho's.

Here's a Coho Salmon from the batch

Nice fish Doug. That 3/8oz Green and Gold Steelhead Armadillo looks like a F554.


The Elwha River is a 45-mile (72 km)-long river located on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. From its source at Elwha snow finger in the Olympic Range of Olympic National Park it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river is contained within Olympic National Park. There are two dams on the river's lower course, both of which are scheduled to be removed.

Thanks for sending the pictures Doug!

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and checkout it's new format!

Heliographic concept Spinners

Fish Creek Spinners - Flash Grenades

Here's a few shots of some flashy new noisy spinner designs integrating mirrors for muddy and stained water and using propeller and buzz blades.

They haven't had much time in the water yet. Just the test tank and a neighborhood pond. Ben's chomping at the bit to get some in his hands.

Interested in getting any in the water?

Let me know with a Blog comment.

Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and checkout it's new format!

Elk wallow - Estes Park Elk Bull dresses up

Took these video's after hearing a bull elk bugle behind the house at about 8:30am. It was still too windy (with a chill) to start sealing the driveway.

Here's another taken minutes before he strolled over to the wallow.

I did get the driveway sealed, only after he walked off bugling, while listening to another elk bugle challenging him.

<- - - 10,000 Page Views in sight

I added a Page View Counter Gadget and decided to write this post and take a moment for Reflection. It's been 9 months, and as far as this parent is concerned, it's gonna be a healthy 10k baby blog soon! AND the line chart, kind of matches the Jackson Hole skyline in the Header, or maybe those tree shadows in its lower left...LOL

Leave a comment to enter the adhoc drawing. Last comment before 10,000 and first after get spinners in their mailbox.

If you hit 10,000 on the head, be sure to mention it, it could mean more swag!.

Here's a few screenshots from blogger stats along with my shoot from the hip commentary.

Profile of Mount Noise - the views are great!

2k Peak in July and not quite 10k today, but NOTL is gonna be a 14er someday! That's 'Noise On The Line'.

What?

Spinner Drawings and Designs, How to's, and Carvings

Giveaway participation was less then expected, but all the winners and spinners are happy and out fishing! Page Views keep ratcheting up for drawings as far back as February, even now.

Where?

My Thanks to Ivan Shishkin and his tree paintings for the northern Asia visitor interest.  Ivan Shiskin - That boy could paint a tree

We'll get by with a little help from our Friends (and Google).

Michael at Troutrageous gets MVP (good luck fishing T!oday).

There you have it. and Thank-you OBN!

PS. Oh yeah, check out the tabs on top. They're connectors and link lists to past posts in case you missed some.

The views are great IMO! (is that being sel- fish?)

And the Fish Creek Spinner website is always good for a few clicks!