The winners of the Team Bad Company Dream Trip Give Away were selected at the offshore fishing seminar at Crow’s Nest Boat Center in Mission Bay Tuesday night.  The contest, which has been going on since the San Diego Anglers Bay Bass Tournament in January, had over 500 entrants, most of which entered at the Fred Hall Shows, The Newport Boat Show, or by visiting Crow’s Nest Boat Center during the past few months.

There were over 100 guests at the seminar on Tuesday, all eager to see if theirs would be one of the three names pulled to be the winner of the trip.  Three guests of the trip were already selected, and they couldn’t wait to see who would be joining them.  Al Stasukevka won his spot at the Bay bass tournament in January, and Crow’s Nest Boat Center Customer Randall Loomis had already secured his spot as well.  Leading the group will be Crow’s Nest Boat Center Sales Manager Ray Hsieh.

As the names were drawn, cheers and groans could be heard coming from the crowd.  Marty Beckett of Santee was first to get his name pulled, and he just could not believe it.  Next was Arturo Benevent of El Centro, who was the first guest to arrive, and was attending the event with his son.  Arturo told the group he has fished all over the world, and was very excited to fish Team bad Company. 

Arturo Benevent addressing the crowd after winning the Team Bad Company Dream Trip Give Away


Below is Rod Halperin, Arturo Benevent, Pete Groesbeck, Steve Lassley, and Marty Beckett

The third winner was Greg Smith of Oceanside, who was not present at the seminar.  We placed a phone call to Greg, and received his voice mail.  He called back about 7:30 the next morning and said he was doing back flips about winning this trip.  Here is what he had to say "Miracles do happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEFINITELY STOKED, The Miracle DID Happen BOOYA!"

Pictured below is Ray Hsieh, Randall Loomis, Pete Groesbeck, Steve Lassley, Marty Beckett, Al Stasukevka, and Arturo Benevent.

Now comes the interesting part.  The trip was originally designed to have the group join Team Bad Company to fish aboard the 60 foot Bad Company Edition Viking in Mexico.  The group would either meet the boat in Puerto Vallarta to chase big black and blue marlin and cow yellowfin tuna, or meet the boat in Cabo to get in on the wide open striped marlin bite that takes place there in the fall.  These plans will need to be changed a bit, since the team had a collision with a humpback whale off Cabo in February and the boat is currently waiting to be repaired. 


Now the group has the option of joining Steve Lassley to fish for trophy blue marlin in Kona this August aboard the classic Rybovich Bad Company, or to wait until the boat situation Mexico gets resolved and continue with the original plan.  Sounds like a good problem to have.
45 Rybovich Bad Company in Kona

All who attended had a great time at the seminar.  The all star cast of speakers included Steve Lassley and Pete Groesbeck of Team Bad Company, plus Crow’s Nest Fishing Team Members Mark Wisch, Doug Kern and Greg Stotesbury.  This was a question and answer format, and there were some great questions asked by the crowd.  Everything from electronics, rigging, lure spreads, trip planning, and finding fish.  Fishing deep drop swordfish, using kites, chunking, light tackle angling, and other techniques were also covered. 
The best question of all might have come from Anthony Hsieh, who asked Steve and Pete if they had to choose between turning off the electronics or putting away the binoculars, what would they do? 

That one stumped them for sure!