Anglers fishing beautiful Spring Ridge Club in Spruce Creek know that taking a deep breath of country air is not something to take for granted. While pursuing trout in the pristine waters of the club, participants in the Fourth Annual Little Juniata Fly Fishing Classic Celebrity Tournament raised funds for Cystic Fibrosis research.
\nThe recent tournament, part of the international Mercury Redbone@Large Celebrity Tournament series, raised over $70,000 to go to finding a cure for the hereditary lung disease.
\n\u201cEverything went well. We\u2019re at least at $71,000,\u201d said Donny Beaver, Spring Ridge owner, of proceeds tabulated.
\nThe figure did not include several of the silent auction purchases or other donations. The final tally could be closer to $75,000 or range up to $100,000 because of interest some visitors to the fundraiser expressed in making contributions. Last year\u2019s tournament raised $50,000.
\nBeaver said he\u2019s excited that some folks involved with the tournament for the first time have pledged to talk to family members and various organizations about supporting the event next year.
\n\u201cThey\u2019re saying they want to double it next year,\u201d Beaver said.
\nThe Spring Ridge event was the first freshwater tournament held in a program which began with redfish and bonefish as the quarry \u2014 hence the \u201cRedbone\u201d moniker.
\nGary Ellis, a Florida fishing guide, and his wife, Susan, started the tournaments in the early 1980s after their infant daughter was diagnosed with CF. Nearly 30 events are held now at locations around the U.S. and in Costa Rica and Mexico. The Ellis\u2019s daughter, Nicole, 21, is now a college student and helps in tournament planning.
\nGary Ellis attended this year\u2019s Spring Ridge event, held at the Espy Farm, along with guest celebrity Ernest Schweibert, author of numerous fly-fishing books including \u201cTrout\u201d and \u201cMatching the Hatch.\u201d
\nBeaver said the hot weather slowed the fishing action somewhat.
\n\u201cThe top guys performed really well,\u201d Beaver said.
\nBrian Waldron, a Resica Falls, N.J., resident, again won in the individual category, repeating last year\u2019s win.
\nBeaver\u2019s brother-in-law, Bob Simpson of Altoona, was the runner up, also repeating last year\u2019s placing.
\nSimpson and teammate Tom Jonocko took the team trophy, as they did two years ago.
\nSusan Waterfall of New York City was the winner in the women\u2019s category. This was the first year such a category was offered.
\nAnglers score points on the length of each trout. Beaver said Waldron pulled out the overall win with the catch of a large fish at the end of the tournament.
\n\u201cA big fish can really give you a big boost,\u201d Beaver said.
\nBeaver said a small earthworm-like offering called a San Juan worm was working well as was a pheasant tail nymph.
\n\u201cThe only place they were really active was in the deeper, shaded areas, in the riffles,\u201d Beaver said of the hot spots in hot weather.
\nAbout 30 teams registered for the tournament and fished sections of the stream according to a schedule.
\nIn the end, the fishing is less about catching fish and more about raising money for research.
\nHeather Connors, director of special events for the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Pittsburgh worked with the Spruce Creek tournament for a third year.
\n\u201cIt was tremendous,\u201d she said. \u201cSpring Ridge Club did a phenomenal job of hosting this tournament.\u201d
\nConnors said the funding is used in a number of ways including research for a cure.
\n\u201cIt supports children\u2019s hospitals and clinics,\u201d Connors said, adding that many strides have been made in research.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s so many things in the hopper,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anglers fishing beautiful Spring Ridge Club in Spruce Creek know that taking a deep breath of country air is not something to take for granted. While pursuing trout in the pristine waters of the club, participants in the Fourth Annual Little Juniata Fly Fishing Classic Celebrity Tournament raised funds for Cystic Fibrosis research. The recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}