Syracuse.com - Crowd at Bassmaster Elite Series event in Waddington broke attendance record

[HuntingNY-News]

The event featured an opening-day visit by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

A tgtal of 34,100 people attended the four-day tournament.Bassmaster.com 

A big crowd turned out in the tiny town of Waddington on the St. Lawrence River last week to break the attendance record for a Bassmaster Elite Series event.

A total of 34,100 people turned out for the Evan Williams Bourbon Showdown,which began Thursday and ended Sunday..

The previous four-day record of 33,650 was set at this season's opener, the March 14-17 Sabine River Challenge presented by STARK Cultural Venues in Orange, Texas.

The event featured a visit on the first day by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who announced there would be an Elite Series event next year on one of the FInger Lakes. Cuomo also announced The governor also announced the "2014 Governor's Challenge."

Held in conjunction with the Finger Lakes event, the challenge will be a fishing competition among the governor, elected officials from New York and professional bass anglers.

"Elite Series attendance is an excellent measure of how the sport of bass fishing continues to grow," said B.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin in an article about the event on bassmaster.com. "B.A.S.S. and its sponsors work to promote each event going in. But of course we would not be breaking attendance records if the local hosts weren't going all-out to create the level of interest we've been seeing this year."

A field of 99 anglers competed in the event, which was won by Brandon Palaniuk, of Idaho. His victory earned him $100,000 and qualified him for the Bassmaster Classic, which is billed as the World Series of bass fishing.

,

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog