ALTON — For the 2nd year, Alton is releasing the Twisted Cat Outdoors Fishing Season with a competition Saturday in the Riverbend.
Despite a $100 boost in registration cost, this year’s competition has almost as lots of entries already signed up. There were 67 groups in the inaugural contest in 2015; since Sunday, 62 groups had actually installed $300 to contend in this year’s competitors.
This year all of those registration costs will be gone back to winners, with contest organizers keeping absolutely nothing for their efforts.
On an online broadcast recently, Alex Nagy of Twisted Cat Outdoors said the Alton location is favored by anglers, and popular for beast catfish. Nagy said the confluences of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers — in addition to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam and the Chain of Rocks location — produces a great deal of interest by anglers in the Alton location.
Last year’s inaugural Twisted Cat contest saw 3 fish weighing more than 90 pounds, Nagy said. and numerous fish weighing more than 70 pounds.
“There’s a lot going on there,” he said, likewise keeping in mind the fall successes of the Alton Catfish Classic. “Not lots of competitions are weighing that lots of fish regularly.”
Fishing groups will satisfy beginning at 5 a.m. Saturday for live-well checks prior to heading to the river. Teams can have up to 3 individuals in a boat, fishing in between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. All boats should be back at the amphitheater by 4:30 p.m. And all fish should live.
Last year’s leading reward in the Alton Twisted Cat Outdoors competition was declared by Jake Nalley and Scott Linton. The duo landed 3 fish weighing an overall of 188.80 pounds to declare leading honors, along with a 90.89-pound catfish to claim greatest fish honors.
“I still think the very best fishery is right there in Alton, bar none,” Nalley said in Nagy’s broadcast.
Nalley said he and Linton started competitively fishing in lakes near their houses prior to attempting river competitors about 8 years earlier.
“We actually had a hard time (when) we went to the river,” he said. Those (lake) techniques don’t work.
“We appeared like fools out there, however we persevered,” he said. “Every possibility we got, we struck the river. It was a great deal of experimentation.”
Both Linton and Nalley said they discovered a lot from other competitive anglers — and from bad days without any fish.
“I believe I learn more from not capturing fish and having a hard time,” Nalley said. “It makes you believe harder, look more locations.”
Because the competition is a catch-and-release, they have actually likewise enhanced how they keep their prizes healthy through the competition weigh-in.
“The anglers are actually finding out a lot about how to keep their fish alive,” said Linton.
“If that fish isn’t alive when we go through weigh-in, it doesn’t count,” said Nalley. “You don’t win any money.”
This year’s Alton Catfish Classic is prepared Sept. 9, with weigh-in likewise prepared at the amphitheater. So far, 86 groups have actually signed up for this year’s classic which will have a grand reward of $20,000 and a big-fish award of $1,500.
