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Last Sunday morning at the Lion’s Park on the upper St. Croix River, a hot, pancake and sausage breakfast prepared by Taylors Falls firemen was a welcome sight for contestants of the 22nd annual Catfish Contest.

The twelve-hour tournament officially ended at 7:30 a.m., but many of the sixty-five 2-person teams began to arrive at the park as early as 6:45 a.m. With overnight temperatures that dipped below 50-degrees, they looked tired, cold and more than a bit disappointed.

I’ve been on the Taylors Falls Fire Department for nine years now and have grown accustomed to witnessing a busy weigh-in station surrounded by a throng of team members, 5-gallon buckets full of catfish at their feet, anxiously waiting their turn to tip the scale.

This year, most of the buckets remained in the boats. This tournament regularly attracts catfish anglers at the top of their game, so it was unusual to see a vast majority of the teams arrive to shore without a single fish to weigh and register.

I’m no catfish expert, but I do know one thing; when I began hearing from most of the anglers that “there were a ton of big mayflies out there”, the reason for fewer fish at the weigh-in began to make sense. Unless you happen to be fly-fishing for trout, these insects are not a welcome sight to anglers pursuing any other species of fish.

All fish love to eat mayflies, and when the Midwest’s largest, midsummer mayfly Hexagenia Limbata begins to come off the water, warm-water fishing can be downright lousy. Simply put, most fish will stuff themselves on these protein-rich mayflies and summarily reject any other offering in the water until the hatch ends.

A hot walleye bite on Mille Lacs Lake will shut off faster than water through a kinked garden hose while a hex hatch is on, and it just may have been a simple case of bad timing that a prolific emergence happened to coincide with the tournament.

Although only fifteen catfish were weighed, enough teams caught fish to allow for cash and prizes to be awarded down to 10th place.

Results of the tournament and official weigh-in results are as follows:

1. Richard Marohn/

Brenda Marohn 31.0 lbs.

2. Travis Voigt/

James Hulsega 25.1 lbs.

3. John Brown/

Amy Lindso 23.11 lbs. (plus prize for largest fish)

4. Ron Reese/

Mike Johnson 23.8 lbs.

5. Brent Burington/

Bill Burington 23.2 lbs.

6. Chris Sorenson/

Jeff Selvog 22.0 lbs.

7. John Kallstrom/

Wayne Kallstrom 18.1.lbs.

8. Nick Anderson/

Rick Holcome 17.0 lbs.

9. Rob Amos/

Dave Vanandel 16.1 lbs.

10. Terry Nelson/

Merlin Compo 16.4 lbs.

The Taylors Falls Fire Department and tournament contestants wish to thank the following businesses that generously donated breakfast and prizes:

Marketplace Foods, Brink’s Market, Community Market, Lindstrom Foods, Swanks Old Fashioned Meats, St. Croix Stone, Hanson Electric, Twin City Oxygen, Wal-Mart, Mid-State Fabricating, Chisago County Press, MIX 105 Radio, Taylors Falls Drive-In, Chisago House Restaurant, Dalles Char House, Mid-Minnesota Wire, The Well, Lake Superior Boat Tours, Shafer Saloon and Grill, Wild Mountain, Wild River Electric, Cross Country Excavating, Wild River Contracting, Wannigan Pointe Cabins, Holiday Inn Express, NAPA Forest Lake, Frankies Live Bait and Marine, Holiday Station Stores, St. Croix Outdoors, Springs Inn, and Sportsman’s Warehouse.

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