A Father/Daughter Reunion
by Ron Presley
An Ohio River catfish event was much more than just a tournament for Aaron and Breanna Preece.
Aaron Preece had an especially nice time at the 2nd Annual Bink Fox Fishing For Vinton County Cancer Research Group (VCCRG) Tournament. Aaron has known Bink for some time and considers him a friend. Bink is a cancer survivor who operates a tournament in the name of cancer research with his wife Janet Fox.
“I got to meet Bink at the first tournament I ever fished,” recalled Aaron. “It was a Cabela’s King Kat tournament out of Gallipolis, Ohio about 10 years ago. He’s been such a good friend. He has invited me out to fish and has shown me so much about the sport. I was one of the first persons he told when he was diagnosed with colon cancer.”
“Doc Lange decided to have a benefit tournament for Bink,” continued Aaron. “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Bink is a fighter and a survivor and beat it so now he’s paying it forward by having this tournament for Vinton County Cancer Research.”
Bink’s second annual tournament was scheduled for May 20, 2023. Aaron hoped to fish the tournament with his oldest daughter, Bree, who he had only seen for a week since November 2021.
Bree graduated in May 2021 and left for the Navy in November. She spent 10 weeks in Chicago and 6 months in corpsman school in San Antonio Texas. After coming home for a week she was shipped overseas to Guam where she now works in a Naval Hospital.
“She took leave from Guam to come home,” conveyed Aaron. “She was scheduled to go back to Guam on the day of Bink’s tournament. Fortunately, she got her departure postponed to Monday so she could fish with me on Saturday of the tournament.”
Things were looking good for tournament day. Aaron and Bree were supposed to fish with Cody Carver in his boat. Unfortunately, circumstances arose that caused Cody to have emergency surgery two days before the tournament. Aaron’s boat was down for repairs with carburetor problems and it looked like the tournament would have to be abandoned.
Next some good old fashion catfish friendship came into play. Cody told Aaron to go ahead and take his boat to compete in the tournament.
“Cody is one heck of a good man,” responded Aaron. “And Breanna is no stranger to catfishing or tournaments. She’s been like a pocket on my shirt since she was big enough to walk.”
All the stars aligned, and boat number 60 of 85 registered for the event was manned by the father/daughter team of Aaron and Bree Preece. The team adopted a strategy of dragging planner boards. They set two lines out on the left side, 2 lines out on the right, and 2 lines straight out the back.
“The weather was not very good,” recalled Aaron. “It was raining pretty good at times. I figured I would keep it simple and just cover as much water as I could. There were low current conditions of only .5 mph at the launch site so I figured we would just drag boards.”
The team was dragging a ledge so they had varying depths of water. They caught the first fish before all the poles were out and a great day of fishing began.
“I thought that first fish was just luck.” Recalled Aaron. “But within 20 minutes we had 3 fish in the boat. All 3 were small flatheads. We went 30 to 45 minutes before the next bite and it was a good blue at 27 pounds. All 4 fish came from the shallow side in 16 to 20 feet of water and close to the bank.”
With a pattern developed the team just kept dragging and picking up small flatheads until about 2 pm. By that time they had landed 12 fish total. One was a channel, 3 were blues, and 8 were flatheads.
“The tournament was over at 3:00,” noted Aaron. “At 2:30 pm I said we better pack up and go.”
Bree responded saying, “Just a little longer Dad.”
“I was pretty sure I was outta bait,” Aaron said. “But I dug in the cooler anyway and at the very bottom I found a pack of mooneye that I had vacuum sealed the day before and had forgotten about. Within 10 minutes we had 3 more fish in the boat, all pretty good flatheads. That gave us a total of 15 fish for the day and Bree caught 14 of them.”
The last fish caught wasn’t the biggest but it was big enough to cull a small one and give Team Preece the final weight that they brought to the scales. Bree caught the final cat on a Mad Katz pole that she won the weekend before and it was the only pole she hadn’t caught a fish on all day.
In addition to Bree’s Mad Katz Glacier rod, Team Preece used Parks Planer Boards, Whisker Seekers 12/0 Triple Threat Hooks, Dirty South Dragging Weights, and Big Cat Fever Rods to earn the runner-up spot.
At the end of the day, Aaron and Bree weighed in the second-best weight of the day to earn the runner-up spot in the tournament. The father/daughter team claimed their spot with 80.01 pounds. Additionally, Bree was recognized as the Top Finishing Female Angler for which she received the Lynn Lange Memorial Plaque. She was also recognized as the Top Finishing Service Member. The weigh-in was a victorious end to a great day of fishing and memory-making.
“To me, this was so much more than a fishing tournament,” concluded Aaron. “I wouldn’t miss it for anything. It’s not about fishing or winning, those are just a bonus either way. It’s about supporting and helping those who are still fighting to win!”
Epilogue: Information on next year’s tournament will be posted on Facebook when it becomes available. If you are interested in supporting the event contact Janet or Bink Fox. Maybe you too can create some lasting memories as Aaron and Bree did in this year’s event.
