Cumberland River Festivus
Beside the archway leading to the Cumberland River along upper River Street was the sign-in booth for the fishing tournament last Saturday. Trout fishermen, about 80 in total, came in search of that big fish that would earn them $1,000.
By Greg Wells
CCN-Editor
The trout fishing tournament this weekend kicked off around 8 Saturday morning with about 80 entrants.
Todd Davidson of Burkesville pulled in a 20.75-inch trout to walk away with the top prize, $1,000.
Several boats were gathered in the Cumberland River as another prepared to launch in advance of last week’s fishing tournament. Trout anglers search the river for the biggest fish, with a $1,000 prize at stake. This was one of the events for this weekend as a lead-up to the Cumberland River Festivus events this week.
Normally, the second-prize winner would receive $500, and $250 would go to the third-prize winner.
This summer, however, 19 7/8 inches was a popular size. Three anglers pulled in trout with that measurement, meaning they share the prize money.
That three-way tie went to Leslie Anderson of Glasgow, as well as Aaron Leavell and Patrick Crawley, both of Burkesville.
The event known as the “fun run” began a little later in the morning and had contestants running, driving, and otherwise moving through challenges, obstacles, and puzzles covering much of the county.
Southern Kentucky Distillery’s own Junior Cecil, at left, looks on as competitors tried to answer the quiz necessary to move onto the next stage of the event. The next stage required each contestant to put two bags into the cornhole. Before that, they had to circumnavigate a cornfield to read the signs that had the answers to the questions they would have to answer to get to that second stage. This was just one of many stages in the race around the county. Local and state law enforcement were made aware of the contest in advance, and anyone getting a ticket for speeding automatically lost.
Taking first place were Lance Willen and Derek Sells.
Burke Sells and Ray Harwood took second place.
Kurtis and Kalyn Claywell earned third-place honors.
Rounding out the top five were the teams of Lucas and Daniele Knutter and the team of Abby Morgan and Graci Craft.
One of the stops had competitors eating jellybeans of many widely assorted flavors, including a vomit and snot.
Another stop had them singing karaoke in front of a bar, full of patrons, at Mike’s Landing in Sulphur Creek Resort.
In the name of fun competition, those taking part in the “Fun Run” had a challenge at Mike’s Landing to sing a karaoke song in front of a full bar. This contestant “enjoyed” belting out a rendition of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “I Like Big Butts.”
One of the later stops, at Southern Kentucky Distillery, had contestants walking all the way around the cornfield, reading informational signs, then being tested on their retention of the facts thereon.
This is the second year for this event and has been moved, along with the fishing tournament, to the weekend preceding River Festivus in order to allow more people to be involved in the fun of Burkesville.
