Road to the Final Fish - Cheeky March Madness is Back

Forget the lame NCAA tournament office pool and head over to Cheeky Fly Fishing and sign up for their second annual March Madness Fly Fishing Tournament.

Thirty-two fish have been seeded in a bracket, but only one will be crowned champion based on your votes. Fill out brackets by selecting which fish you prefer in each matchup. Pick the winners and receive great prizes (over $5,000 worth) from Cheeky Fly Fishing, Thomas & Thomas, Howler Brothers, Kast Gear, Sarah Lauridsen Art, Montana Fly Company, Patagonia, Maui Jim, Fishpond, The Fly Shop, Jim Teeny, Mud Dog Saltwater Flies, Free Fly Apparel, Nomad Fly Fishing, Vedavoo and The Fiberglass Manifesto.

Bracket entry is $5 and 100% of the proceeds are donated to Casting for Recovery, Stripers Forever and the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.  Last year, the tournament raised nearly $1,000 to benefit these causes and this year they hope to quadruple participation.

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Of course if you're not a hoops fan you can always play fly fishing baseball.

CHEEKY MARCH MADNESS UPDATE - VOTE FOR STEELHEAD!

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The latest from The Road to the Final Fish.

Thank you for helping to promote Cheeky March Madness. We’re excited to have raised almost $1,000 that will be donated to the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, Casting for Recovery and Stripers Forever.  We appreciate you and your readers helping to support these great causes, below is a recap of the tournament thus far.
 
3,088 votes have been cast, and after two rounds and a week and a half of Cheeky March Madness, we find ourselves entering the Elite Eight with a strong group of usual suspects still in contention.
 
While the top seeds handled their first round matchups with ease, we saw a handful of nail biters that came down to the wire.  Round one included a spectacular upset by the sixth seeded Albies (51%) over Giant Trevally (49%) and a tight battle in which Peacock Bass (51%) took down Cutthroat Tout (49%) by only a handful of votes.  In another tightly contested matchup, the fourth seeded Largemouth Bass (54%) prevailed over the number five seeded Landlocked Salmon (46%) in a victory for warm water species around the world.
 
The Sweet Sixteen pitted a lineup of the top gamefish against one another in matchups that should have been tight.  Unexpectedly, the voting results left Striped Bass, Sea-Run Browns, Peacock Bass and Marlin (who fell to Tarpon, Rainbow Trout, Steelhead, and Bonefish respectively) heading home in the aftermath of double-digit losses. In an epic clash between two of salt water’s top fish, Permit remained unbeaten by taking 61% of the vote against Redfish.
 
The excitement builds as we enter the Elite Eight.  With the leaderboard tight  and matchups as unpredictable as the flip of a coin, anyone with fish still in the tournament has a chance at the Championship.

Elite Eight Matchups include:
 
Tarpon vs. Roosterfish
Atlantic Salmon vs. Rainbow Trout
Steelhead vs. Brown Trout
Permit vs. Bonefish

Cast your vote!

Right now the brown trout is beating the steelhead, ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Come on steelheaders! Are you going to let an invasive trout species from Germany beat out pure wild chrome? Bad enough the rainbow trout has  beat out the Atlantic salmon in the eastern bracket where it now faces the tarpon for a trip to the finals. Go poons!

Fly Selection Sunday: The Top 64 Patterns of Fly Fishing

More fly fishing related March Madness, this time fly patterns.

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Meanwhile voting has begun on The Road to the Final Fish over at Cheeky Fly Fishing. You can still vote for the 1st round in the Eastern Division, sweet 16 voting starts on the 23rd.

Can't believe Albies nipped GT at the buzzer.

The Road to the Final Fish

It's that time of the year when college hoop fans around the country start filling out their brackets and throw down some cash for the NCAA Tournament office pool. Why not take a little of that money and invest in Cheeky Fly Fishing's fishified version of the Big Dance to benefit some great causes?

The concept is the same as the NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament, except with game fish substituted for basketball teams in the bracket. The idea is for people to vote on the web for the fish they like to target the most in each respective match up. Just like in March Madness, fish that win each matchup will move on to the next round and only one fish will be crowned champion at the end of the tournament......the most accurate bracket wins some sponsor swag.

If you're interested in filling out a bracket it will cost you just 5 bucks and 100% of the proceeds will be divided between the nonprofits involved, which so far include Casting for Recovery and Stripers Forever. They have also contacted Bonefish and Tarpon Trust and One Percent for the Planet, as other potential beneficiaries.

The contest kicks off tomorrow and brackets need to be submitted my March 16th, everything you need to get in on the action can be found by banging the link below to Cheeky Fly Fishing. Should be fun to follow, watch for our bracket updates along the way.

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While you're there check out their new reel scheduled for release this spring.