If I had the option of either taking a trip to Alaska to fish or winning a chili cook off I would probably want to see Alaska, but a lot of folks in the North Georgia area would rather have the title of “Chili Champ of the TU Chili Cook Off.”
Some friends of mine just returned from a trip to Alaska and two of them have cooked in several cook offs and in fact have done very well cooking and fishing.
Steve Peace, founder of the Etowah Yacht Club team, the team that took second place in judging and seventh place in peoples’ choice at last year’s’ Cook Off. Steve no longer cooks, but is an advisor for the team.
Below is a short story written by Steve about the last trip they took to Alaska:
Fishing in Alaska
Last week a group of us from Rome fished out of Craig, Alaska for coho salmon, halibut, rock fish and ling cod. The group consisted of Bernard Brown, Tyler Brown, Mike Moore, David Brock, Steve Peace and Eugene Johnson. The trip was very successful as we limited out every day on all of the targeted species. A few odd ball fish were also caught along the way including a blue shark and four monster skates.
Besides the great fishing we had a chance to view sea lions, bald eagles, seals and a ton of hump back whales. Another highlight of the trip was the escape from all of the heat and humidity, with the mornings being in the upper 40s and the days in the low 60s.
If you ever get a chance to fish in Alaska we all highly recommend Kingfisher Charters and Lodge, it’s the best. Craig is located on the Prince of Wales Island and besides ocean fishing it offers great stream and creek fishing for freshwater species. Steve Peace and I have fished together for about fifty years and he is a dedicated angler.
Steve hates to fly, and this trip required a fivehour flight to Washington State then another two- hour small-plane flight to Alaska. For a person that hates to fly that is dedication.
How to win the Chili Cook Off
The first thing that is needed to win the Trout Unlimited 21st annual Chili Cook Off is to enter the event. If you don’t cook you cannot win. The second requirement is to know how to cook chili. The third requirement is that your chili has to be good and taste like chili. There are quite a few folks that make chili for their own personal tastes and those individuals have recipes that are often unusual and do not fit the palate of the common folks that like chili.
I have always said that the judges are just common folks, nurses, trash men, teachers, lawyers and law enforcement are just some of the jobs that they have. So if you want to win the cook off you need to be just a good cook with a good recipe. Think about the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.
Not too hot, not too spicy and it has got to be just right to make the judges happy and the folks attending the cook off and vote in peoples’ choice are just common folks that love chili.
That is how to win the 21st annual Trout Unlimited Chili Cook Off.
Team registration starts Sept. 1
Bill Summer and I have been very busy registering and reserving sites for the sponsors of the Cook Off.
It seems that almost all the sponsors that are reserving their sites are hoping that their chili makes the judges happy. Active Pest Control is one of our newest, and they are planning several recipes, as is the Performance Concepts and Lindale Ace Hardware teams. All the teams that are not sponsor teams can begin reserving their cook sites just after midnight on Aug. 31.
Teams will be restricted to a total of two cook sites and attempting to reserve more than two will lock those sites as unavailable and require some time to get them released. It could be six or more hours before the system can be reset. Also any team that reserves a cook site must cook at least one chili recipe. No exceptions unless it is a paid sponsor of the Cook Off.
I ask that all teams read the rules that are found on the Coosa Valley TU web site.
There have been some revisions and it would be foolish to enter the event without knowing all the rules.
Go to coosavalley. tu.org and follow the links on the main page slide show and click “starting chili team registration” to begin the process.