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Rich Boggs, NPAA Pro #495, Wins AIM Bay Mills Invitational

Category: npaa

 Jun 7th, 2010 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Jun 7th, 2010 at 12:00 AM

Rich Boggs, NPAA Pro #495, maintained his day two lead to win the AIM Bay Mills Invitational, taking home a plate load of cash (literally) and a new Crestliner powered by a Mercury Opti Max motor for cash and prizes totaling $40,000.

The AIM Bay Mills Resort and Casino was an ‘Artificials Only’ event, the first of it’s kind to be held in the US.

Rich weighed in 22.26 on day one, and on day two added 24.5 to that total to put him about 10 pounds ahead of the nearest competitor going into the last day. The field was cut to 22 for the final day.

 A cold front with plenty of rain rolled through Friday night, and that combined with the Canadian power facility cutting back the water flow slowed the bite on day three.
      

The prefish wasn’t promising, as many of the pros had a tough time patterning the bite on the massive and varied waters of the St Marys River and Lake Superior that was available to them. As the event moved into day one, the bite either improved or the Pros dialed it in to produce respectable totals for the day, and the bite held well throughout the event.

Jim Carroll  NPAA Pro #13 lead after day one with only two fish, but they were giants; his three fish during the event were enough to give him 33.74 pounds and a 14th place finish. Jim was pulling small cranks out in the ‘big blue’ in a dished area that was protected by a sand bar, stabilizing it some from the otherwise wild temperature and clarity fluctuations seen elsewhere in the system during the event.

	Rich Boggs Wins

Brandon Carpenter, NPAA Pro #393, had patiently worked Brimley Bay, situated in front of the Bay Mills Resort and Casino launch, with enough success to be a serious threat. His day one CRR 19 plus pounds and day two total of 15.41 were enough to give him second place. Scott Duncan, NPAA Pro #197, was on big fish, and was so close the AIM stage officials held him back to weigh in last.

Scott had CRR’d a day two ‘big bag of the event’ total of 25.31 pounds, and his two four pound fish on day three placed him only .33 of a pound behind Carpenter, good enough for third place.

Mike Gofron, NPAA Pro # 93, stayed consistent as is true to form for the all time top ten leader, scoring enough CRR weight to take fifth. Local favorite Dane Stanaway, NPAA Pro # 814, took sixth, Jason Przekurat, NPAA Pro #169 took seventh, Gary Parsons, NPAA Pro #24 took home eighth, Tommy Skarlis, NPAA Pro #11 took home ninth, and Dan Plautz, NPAA Pro #74 rounded out the top ten.

NPAA Pros Mike McMaken, #97 took eleventh, 2009 AIM Angler of the Year Todd Riley, #19 took thirteenth, Jim Carroll #13 took fourteenth, and Case Parsons, # 806, took sixteenth.

	NPAA Kids and Family Fishing

While the Pros making the cut were out on the water Saturday, the NPAA Kids ad Family Fishing event hosted by the Bay Mills Resort and Casino entertained and educated over 250 young future anglers and their families. The turnout was the largest in the NPAA Kids and Family Fishing events history, and 200 kids left with a rod and an NPAA T Shirt. Marianne Huskey, NPAA #150 chaired the event that offered minnow races, fishing instruction, casting lessons, face painting, prize drawings, and a drawing for three lucky kids to fish with one of three NPAA Pros Sunday.

The NPAA is a non-profit organization focused on growing the sport of fishing and increasing the professionalism of its members.  Its supporting partners include Northland Fishing Tackle, Navionics, Mercury Marine, Evinrude Outboards, Lund Boats, Ranger Boats, Off-Shore Tackle, Fin-Tech Tackle, Berkley, AIM Walleye Series, Masters Walleye Circuit, FLW Outdoors, Frabill, U.S. Forest Service, Liddle Marketing, FPS Financial Planning Services, Do-it Corp., Optima Batteries, John Butts Outdoors, Pasha Lake Cabins, Oahe Wings and Walleyes Guide Service, Outdoor First Media, Advanced Tex Screen Printing, Pro Staff Gear, and Worldwide Marine Underwriters.  More NPAA member and association news can be viewed at www.npaa.net.