ICE FISHING TOURNAMENT AT EAGLE NEST LAKE VERY SUCCESSFUL!
On the morning of January 26, participants from as close as Eagle Nest and as far away as Minnesota braved the cold morning low temperature of 5 degrees at Eagle Nest Lake to fish in the Annual Ice Fishing Tournament. It was a beautiful, picture-perfect, sunny winter morning reaching a high of 35 degrees; however by 12:30 PM the wind made for very challenging conditions.
When registration ended at 11 AM, 301 participants were registered for the event, making it the biggest event ever in its history. Registration started at 6 AM and participants were required to be in line with their catch no later than 2 PM.
Participants contended for $5,250 in cash prizes; and there were 64 door prizes and 6 raffle drawings with a total value of $2,720.
For the first time since this Tournament began in 2012, two participants caught Pike — Miguel Martinez of Taos placed 1st and C.J. King of Albuquerque placed 2nd.
Largest catches in the Trout/Salmon category were: 1st Kyle Dehler of Eagle Nest (pictured above), 2nd Roderick Lujan of Las Vegas, 3rd Samantha Valdez of Chimayo, and 4th Lily Valdez of Albuquerque.
The largest Perch were caught by B.J. Lindsey of Angel Fire (1st); Josh Stuyvesant (2nd), Matt Medina (3rd), and C.J. King(4th), all from Albuquerque.
In the Creel category, winners were: 1st Tony Morehead of Edgewood, 2nd Reggie Quintana of Santa Fe, 3rd Bryan Berrios of Albuquerque, 4th C.J King of Albuquerque. Yes, C.J. King placed in three categories — 4th in Perch, 2nd in Pike, and 4th in Creel.
Congratulations and thank you to all the fishing advocates who participated.
The Ice Fishing Tournament was sponsored by Friends of Eagle Nest Lake and Cimarron Canyon State Parks in conjunction with New Mexico State Parks and New Mexico Game and Fish. Proceeds go to the Eagle Nest Lake and Cimarron Canyon State Parks.
