No, this isn’t the actual Hatfish but it is half of the fish that caused a tie and a subsequent tiebreaker. There were several factors at play on Strawberry this May. In contrast to last spring, this year, we felt that the lake and spring in general was about 5 weeks behind schedule. It was cold and very rainy. We had never seen the water level so high. Another factor was that the lake association had decided to add structure to lake. Their well-intentioned goal was to provide a haven for the little fish. The problem was that they were using a mixture of PVC products, imported pine trees and pallets of junk. This combination of factors made the fishing unpredictable. The typical patterns were not present.

I had the hat for a while but it eventually wound up that Aric and Scott were tied at 1lb 3oz. I had to leave a day ahead of them so they were going to have a tie breaker. We never had a tie before so we decided that they would begin the last day like it was a new competition with the biggest fish of the day taking the hat. I left specific instructions for them to take a photo of the eventual winning fish but they forgot or something. I’m told that Aric caught the first couple of fish and Scott was just about to throw in the towel when he caught a 2lb 7oz bass to bring home the hat. Would have been nice to have a picture.