Fishing for Freedom 2019 Central Texas Event Summary

[Donald Garner]

Greetings to everyone,

The Central Texas 2019 Fishing For Freedom Banquet and Tournament has concluded and was a huge success.  Friday night was Banquet Night which was held at the Killeen Civic Center.  The doors opened at 3pm with lots of activity going on.  We had seminars from local pros from around Central Texas.  The food was great as always from Rudy's BBQ, Crispy Cream Donuts and Bushes Chicken.  There were several winners from the Raffle Drawings and from the Live Auction that was conducted. Professional MLF Angler Gary Klein was our Guest Speaker for this event.  Gary has been a part of this event from the very beginning.  He has only missed this event once and that was due to him being Inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame that weekend.

Saturday morning bright and early BLORA (Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area) on Ft. Hood hosted the 14TH Annual Take a Soldier Fishing For Freedom Bass Tournament Launch and Weigh In.  Launching began at 5am with the final weigh in being conducted at around 4:30pm.  We had 261 Teams fish this event.  For those that don't know this is a No Entry Fee Tournament.   With cash and prizes awarding totaling $95,217.00 dollars was paid out to the anglers.

The weather for the event was warm and humid during the early morning.  At safe light the Tournament Director started launching the flights.  We had 11 Flights with 25 boats in each flight.  Once the clouds burned off the day turned into a Bright Blue Bird Skies with very little wind.  Most of the big stringers came from the early flights from off shore rock piles and sunken brush piles.

The top six tournament winners and the Big Bass contest results are listed below.  Cash prizes were paid for 2nd thru 27th place.  Merchandise prizes were paid for places 28th & 29th.  Big Bass paid a total of 4 places.

TOURNAMENT RESULTS:

1st place- Adrian Barnes & SSG (Ret'd) Andrew Eads (PH) (WW);
15.72-pounds; Won 2019 Triton 189 TRX with a
Mercury 115 outboard valued at approximately $31,338.00

2nd Place-Terry Peacock & SPC (Ret'd) Adrian Ocampo (WW);
12.55-pounds; Won $6,000.00

3rd Place- Chipper Lowery & SFC (Ret'd) Christinea Baker (WW);
11.95-pounds; Won $4,425.00

4th Place- Ronald Hitz & LTC Stelle Christopher;
11.86-pounds; Won $3,3000.00

5th Place-Jimmy Willoughby & SGT Kevin Williams;
11.38-pounds; Won $2,850.00

6th Place- Gerald LeGlue & SPC John Gordon;
10.98-pounds; Won $2,100.00

(PH=Purple Heart Recipient; WW= Wounded Warrior)

Big Bass

210 teams entered big bass for a total payout of $4,200.00. There
Were 4 places paid due to the number of entries.

1st place payout was $2,520.00; David Hein & SGT (Ret'd) Marieko Moore;
6.22-pounds

2nd place payout was $1,260.00; Jimmy Willoughby & SGT Kevin Williams
6.09-pounds

3rd place payout was $210.00; Scott Dean & SSG (Ret'd) Elmer Fitzgibbon
5.80-pounds

4th place payout was $210.00; Troy Bryant & CW3 Scott Moser
5.17pounds
 

For those that think that might want to fish this event in 2020 mark your calendars now.  The banquet will be held Friday 2nd of October.  The Tournament will be held on Saturday 3 October 2020. I hope to see some of ya'll here next year.

[zippyduck]

What an awesome event! I applaud all the people involved. 

[Mike Cork]

What an amazing event. People just don't understand what it takes to put something like that on. WOW kudos and standing ovation