FLORIDA, USA — After a fisher caught one pink-tagged bass, nine more remain left for people to catch and earn money thanks to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's TrophyCatch 10-Tag Celebration.
FWC biologists tagged and released the fish in 10 different locations in Florida, including Polk and Highlands counties, to celebrate the 10th season of the TrophyCatch program.
The bass that has already been caught was from Lake Griffin in Orange county, the FWC said in a news release.
The two lakes in Polk county where pink-tagged fish were released are the Tenoroc Fish Management Area and Lake Walk-in-Water. Lake Istokpoga in Highlands County also contains one worthy fish.
Anyone who catches a fish can be rewarded with a $5,000 gift card to Bass Pro Shops and $1,000 to shop at AFTCO. Also, a lucky fisher will have a chance to win $10,000 at a ceremony this fall, the news release mentioned.
The competition does not require anyone to be a skilled fisher, it can be anyone as simple as planning a random day to go fishing.
Dale Dew, the first angler to catch one of the pink-tagged largemouth basses, said it was not in his initial plans to go fishing, but he's happy he did so.
“It was the first time we heard about it, and we were like, ‘Whoa what’s this? We aren't going to catch it. We’re two guys who can’t fish!’” he said. “We don’t have all the nice equipment or a nice bass boat but we got lucky and caught it! So, it could be any ordinary person who catches it. You never know, it’s crazy.”
People have until the end of September to test their luck and catch a fish worth thousands of dollars.
The FWC provided the remaining lakes that include a pink-tagged fish with a link to their location in the news release which can be seen below.
To learn more about the FWC's TrophyCatch program and how you can be eligible to win prizes, click here.