Shenandoah Riverkeeper's 5th Annual Shenandoah River Rodeo went off without a hitch where 200 lucky Shenandoah River enthusiasts managed to dodge torrential rains to celebrate the beauty and history of the Shenandoah River.  Oh, and the fishing too!  The name "Rodeo" rose out of Riversmallies.com get-togethers and the first ever Rodeo was nearly fifteen years ago on the banks of the Shenandoah. According to tradition, earlin in the morning fishermen and guides met at the site of the afternoon party to receive this year's contest instructions and drew straws for where they would fish on the South Fork that day.  Fishermen then departed for the day with their scorecards in hand and hopefully....  a little luck on their side.
 
After about six or seven hours of fishing all 13 guides and 25 fishermen returned to the site of the party and handed their honor system scorecards in.  For the first time in recent memory fly-rodders ran away with the Rodeo first prize by posting a score of 505 points. The winning team, guided by Brian Trow and included anglers Carter Lewis and Robert Audet, tallied 49 smallmouth and only one largemouth. The rodeo takes place on sections of the South Fork which are heavily populated on a mid summer Saturday by inner-tubes and canoes. Sometimes it's a miracle any smallmouth are caught at all but these guys never fail.  Also according to tradition, prizes are meant more to embarrass the winners than to award them for a good day of fishing.  This year, Jeff even admitted he was embarrassed when purchasing the Justin Bieber backpacks which he then tried to pass off as tackle packs for plano boxes for first prize!

 

Guides, fishermen and other supporters of Shenandoah Riverkeeper gathered at 5pm for some swimming, Bundy's monster BBW, door prizes, and bluegrass music from Uncle Henry's Favorites, including some line and square dancing.  Even though four inches of rain fell just a few miles away in Harrisonburg that same evening the event was dry as a bone.