Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fishing for true stories
Earn lures in annual contest
When the white bass are running and the crappie start biting, there’s one thing on everyone’s mind: entering the annual Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette fish story contest.
It’s that fishing time of year and time to get out on the water to gather material for your true fish story to enter in this year’s contest. You never know what might happen once hooks hit the water. That’s so evident when the stories start rolling in here at fish-story central.
There’s the story from last year where one lucky angler caught 13 fish at once on a single lure. Another entry was about the day a wiggling largemouth bass fell from the sky at a local golf course.
Friends and neighbors, you can’t make this stuff up. That’s why the contest is for true fish stories.
Bob Britzke of Eureka Springs is the reigning fish story champion with his story that played out in Canada. Britzke lost a high-dollar lure to the maw of a big northern pike, only to get the lure back hours later when he caught the same fish. We’ll bet Britzke will send another story this year to defend his title.
No doubt every fishing fan has his or her story that’s worthy of this prestigious contest. All anglers, kids and adults, can get in on the fun.
Here are the rules. Write down your true fish story.
Email it to us at fputthoff@ nwadg.com.
It’s that easy. Be sure to include your name and the town you live in or near. Type Fish Story Contest in the subject line. We can only accept email entries this year. Got a photo to go with your story? Send it along. Deadline to enter is May 31. We’ll announce the winner right here in June.
Such an acclaimed contest naturally comes with a swell prize. Not only will the 2020 champion bask in fish-story fame, our winner gets a nice zipper bag packed full of fishing lures almost guaranteed to catch the big one at your favorite fishing hole. Hey, no one who’s ever won a Pulitzer has walked away with a free bag of lures.
There’s more. The winner instantly becomes a published author by having his or her story and their photo splashed right here on the cover of NWA Outdoors. We’ll publish as many stories as we can fit into this section, and we’ll publish each and every story online at nwaonline.com.
It’s tough duty being fish story judge, reading all the stories and picking a favorite. Our panel of fish-story judges for 2020 includes my good friend, neighbor and fishing pal, Bruce Darr, and his lovely wife, Linda.
Chief judge as usual is my cat, T.C., champion of the 20-hour power nap. T.C. is the twin sister of my late tom cat, Boat Dock, who judged the contest for years until he lifted off for Life No. 10 somewhere in the stratosphere. I like to think somehow Boat Dock has an eye on T.C., making sure her judging is up to snuff.
The fish story contest may be the only competition where we tell you how to win. That is, no long-winded story has ever won. It’s not a fish novel contest. Short and to the point gets the fishing lures.
Now’s the time to be out there fishing, reeling in a limit of good story material. Best of luck in the contest.