Strong rainstorms moving through the region forced event planners to postpone the Twisted Cat Outdoors Fishing Tournament, initially scheduled for July 6, due to high water and floating debris. Now, a new date for the event has been announced — Saturday, Aug. 10
Even though Perryville County Tourism Director Trish Erzfeld was disappointed that the tournament couldn’t be held on the date originally planned, she and Alex Nagy of SeaArk Boats, the event’s corporate sponsor, immediately began working on an alternate date.
“Mother Nature is always the wild card when having an outdoor event, and even more so when our team is working on the river,” Erzfeld said. “We involved quite a few people in making the decision to postpone, and now we're happy that we were finally able to find a weekend that worked with everyone. Almost everything about the tournament will be the same as before, but we will be on the opposite side of the courthouse. On Aug. 10, the tournament will be held on W. St. Maries Street instead of E. St. Joseph Street.”
“Just like before, we're encouraging folks to bring their lawn chairs, set them up on the courthouse lawn, and watch the teams come in. Our live music will be from The Warehouse Entertainment District, and we'll have Jackson Street closed because that is where our puppet fishing boat show will be. So, we're still going to have all of the elements of the tournament as before, just in a slightly different location. We're hoping the river gets back within the normal water level range. I know there are a lot of tournaments out there dealing with the water right now, and some of them have also had conflicts.
Asked what the biggest challenge that planners faced when moving the event to another date was, Erzfeld said, “Our biggest challenge was our fish tank. The fish tank guys come from Arkansas. Because we are a catch-and-release tournament, we have to provide a vehicle for our fish to be returned to the river — so they were the most crucial element of our tournament. If not for that, we would have probably had it rescheduled within days instead of a week.”
According to Erzfeld, the teams participating in the tournament are excited about coming to Perryville.
She said, “Those who visited the week that we had to reschedule or who have been here before really love our town, and they're excited that we decided to bring the tournament to Perryville.
This is the 10th year the tournaments have taken place across the Midwest. Perryville's Twisted Cat outdoors fishing tournament is one of 14 locations where the competition is being held, leading up to a culminating championship event.
“I encourage everyone to come out and be a spectator,” Erzfeld said. “You’ll want to see the fish that are brought in. We're accustomed to larger fish in our area, but many of these fishermen are not. This is where the big cats are.”
