TCO Win at Perryville Goes to Justin Borgfield and John Spatafora
by Ron Presley,
Photos courtesy of Twisted Cat Outdoors by Tom Stolze
A Big Fish of 96 pounds nailed down the win for the first-place team.
Twisted Cat Outdoors (TCO) catfish tournament trail visited Perryville, MO for their most recent event. A total payout of $11,00 was on the line for participating anglers. The event was part of a series of tournaments that culminate with the TCO Classic which will host 50 qualifying anglers.
As part of the American Catfishing Association (ACA) Tournament Alliance, ACA member anglers who compete in Twisted Cat events have a chance to win a new SeaArk Boat and earn points that could result in additional cash and prizes.
The event attracted 35 teams representing 85 anglers from 11 states. Four of those anglers were ladies and 2 were youth anglers. The Mississippi River at Perryville is a big fish destination and is highly anticipated by anglers.
When all the weights were recorded 22 of 35 teams brought a bag to the scales where a total of 1,227.81 pounds was weighed. A 90-pound plus blue helped separate 1st and 2nd place by about 60 pounds. It required nearly 200 pounds to take the win.
First Place and Big Fish 
Justin Borgfield and John Spatafora teamed up to take the top spot at Perryville. They put together a strategy that resulted in a whopping total weight of 191.6 pounds. Their bag included Big Fish of the tournament at 96.28 pounds. The team earned $4,200 for 1st place and added $500 for the Castaway Customs MWSC Big Fish.
Borgfield worked hard at prefishing before the tournament without producing a strategy for tournament day. When tournament day came the team decided to try something different.
“On tournament day we made the game-time decision to head to a totally different area,” recalled Spatafora. “We were in hopes of finding more active fish than we had in prefishing. Our strategy included bumping in water that ranged from 25 to 35 feet deep on Chanel ledges.”
At first, the result was Deja Vu all over again. The first several spots they fished on tournament day did not reveal many active fish. They stuck with their game plan hoping to work something out.
“It was around 11 am we caught our first fish,” reported Spatafora. “It weighed in at about 25 pounds. It was enough to keep working in the area. Around 11 am we picked up our second fish at 75 pounds. Know we knew that we were 1 bite away from a contending sack of fish.”
With their newly found confidence, Borgfield and Spatafora continued to follow their plan and worked the new area hard. Then, around 1 pm a Spatafora thought he was snagged.
“As I continued to pull the snag started pulling back,” confirmed Spatafora. “A fish fight ensued and about 15 minutes later the largest fish either of us had ever seen surfaced. Justin netted him on the first pass!”
The big fish sealed the deal and the team was confident going to the scales where they won the whole thing with an awesome weight in 3 fish.
“Our biggest takeaway from this tournament was the fact that we made a plan and stuck to it even though it wasn’t working as good as we hoped. Ultimately, it worked out better than we could have ever imagined!”
Second Place 
The runner-up spot was won by Andy, Tye, and Casey Needham with a total weight of 130.18 lbs. The very respectable weight earned this family team the 2nd Place check of $2,100. They had a massive 85.38-pound blue in their bag.
Third Place 
Third place went to Kaleb Diercks, Kevin Diercks, and Lance Picker. They earned a check of $1,400 for their total weight of 92.13 pounds in a bag that included a huge 76.62 pounds
Fourth Place 
Rob Benningfield, Rusty Morris, and David Shipman nailed down their place with a total weight of 88.15 pounds. The team earned the 4th place money of $736.
Fifth Place 
The 5th-place team was John Jamison, Kevin Parks, and Justin Neece. They teamed up to bring a total weight of 73.18 pounds to the scales and earn the 5th place check of $664.
Note: To view more Tom Stolze photos and more winners from the event visit the Twisted Cat Outdoors Facebook page.
Final Thoughts
Among all the big fish and in a lighter moment, Greg and Lori Holtgrave weighed the smallest fish ever to cross the TCO scales. Their unusually small cat pulled the scales to 0.09 pounds.
The Mississippi River at Perryville was the 7th stop on this year’s TCO schedule. The next event is scheduled for St. Joseph, MO, on August 17th! Twisted Cat anglers compete during the year to qualify for the championship based on their top 4 finishes during the year. Then the annual points race winner will be determined at the championship.
Qualifying anglers always look forward to the year-ending, no-entry-fee, invitation-only, TCO championship. This year’s championship will be held out of Helana, AR on November 2, 2024.
Twisted Cat Outdoors originator and tournament director Alex Nagy thanked the anglers and sponsors for their support of TCO.
For more information on Twisted Cat Outdoors visit their website or follow them on Facebook. You can also tune in to TCO on Monday nights for a live show at 7:00 pm on Facebook and YouTube. Nagy discusses tournament action and features Twisted Cat Outdoors anglers and industry leaders.
