Between the end of the actual fishing tournament and the results of who won was a casting contest. If you have ever seen a casting contest for children, you know that it can be a wild and dangerous time, as little kids attempt to cast fishing poles with a weight on the end of their line into a circle or target some distance away.

Now, the @little-peppers can cast a fishing pole, but normally they are just trying to get the lure into a river or lake, not a small hula-hoop sized circle on the ground. Needless to say, they didn’t do so well in the casting contest. Also, with children up to 17 years old at the fishing tournament, a four year old and a three year old have a better chance with the fishing part of it than the casting part of it.

Fishing comes down to random chance a lot more, while casting requires more skill.

Besides having winners for the actual tournament and the casting contest, some random tickets were handed out as well. One for each child. For the fishing tournament, there were three age groups, with a first, second, and third place for each. It may have been the same for the casting tournament. If I remember correctly, this was basically the breakdown.

• Ages 4-7
• Ages 8-12
• Ages 13-17

We had no idea what to expect, other than we thought that the Largemouth Bass caught by Pinkie-Pepper might be big enough to win. As all the parents and children gathered together, the winners announcements began to be made.

I think that they must have started with the Grand Champion… which was Pinkie-Pepper!!!

This was interesting too, because when they got to the winner of the 4-7 age group, Red-Pepper won with her Sunfish. This surprised me for two reasons, first, she was only 3 at the time, and they knew that. Secondly, Pinkie-Pepper technically had the largest fish in that category. However, since she won the whole tournament, they removed her from the age groupings, which gave more children a chance to win.

For winning the Grand Prize and the Fishing Tournament, Pinkie-Pepper was awarded a very nice rod and reel combo, and a tackle box. The reel even came with a back-up spool, in case you wanted to change the fishing line while you were fishing. Personally, @papa-pepper had never spent that much on a fishing pole. After some research, it looks like poles like that sell for around $160 USD… not bad for a free tournament. The tackle box is about a $40 USD variety, so that was like winning $200 USD worth of fishing supplies.

Red-Pepper also won a very nice prize, which was another rod & reel combo, though it was a close-faced model and probably worth $20-$30 USD. Still, a fishing pole is a fishing pole, and we were blessed to win it!

Then came the raffle tickets! They had three fishing poles to give away for three winning numbers. When they called the first number… it was Pinkie-Pepper! So, she ran up and got another fishing pole.

Then, they read the second number… which was Red-Pepper, so she ran up an grabbed another fishing pole!

Next came the third number, and thankfully is was not the number that Monster Truck the Pepper had, because this thing already looked rigged!

Since someone else won the third raffle, and the casting contests had winners too, many other children won, but if you notice, they all got one pole each. The two oldest of our @little-peppers each one two poles, plus the tackle box.

After all the awards were handed out, it was time for lunch, which was provided for free as well. It was some wonderful pizza from a nearby restaurant. Once the free lunch is taken into consideration, it means that we received the following that day all for free!

• An opportunity to fish a private pond
• Fishing Bait
• A Tackle box
• Four Fishing Poles
• Free Lunch for a family of five

Oh, I almost forgot the most incredible part of the whole story. When we were taking the photos of Pinkie-Pepper with her great catch, we noticed something in the mouth of the fish. Interestingly enough, there was a long-shanked “bullhead” hook, which is the *same exact kind that Red-Pepper had on her pole when the line snapped on her pre-tournament Bass!!!

The only possible way that could have happened is if the same fish that Red-Pepper had on the line before the contest even started is the same fish that Pinkie-Pepper caught to win the entire tournament!!!

WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT?

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Also, just in case you missed the previous parts of the story, here they are:

PART 1

PART 2

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