CAMBRIDGE, Idaho — The first scholarship in memory of Payette River Bassmasters member Aaron Grant was awarded during the American Northwest Outdoors/Aaron Grant Memorial Open, June 27, at Brownlee Reservoir.
Grant died in a boating accident in 2005. His family owns the American Northwest Outdoors (ANWO) boat dealership in Fruitland, Idaho.
“The owners of American Northwest Outdoors have been the single largest supporter of B.A.S.S. youth events in Idaho since the store opened,” said Chris Rambough, special events coordinator for the Payette River Bassmasters.
The first Aaron Grant Memorial Scholarship for $1,000 went to David Ashton, who has been a Junior Bassmaster for nine years and competed in the Bassmaster CastingKids National Championships in 2006, 2007 (a second-place finish) and 2008. He also won the 2010 Idaho Junior Bassmaster state championship and took second in the event the following year.
Twenty teams entered the benefit tournament, but hot weather dropped the field down to 17 boats.
“We had extreme heat with a record-breaking temperature of 111 degrees that day,” Rambough said. “We had to change the weigh-in back to 2 o’clock from our normal weigh-in of 4 o’clock to avoid having any medical issues and stuff.”
The heat failed to stop the winning team of Tony Shuler and Traces Jarvis from catching five smallmouth weighing 20.06 pounds. They also had the big fish of the tournament with a 5.36-pound smallmouth.
Payette River Bassmasters who volunteered to run the tournament were Dan Cook, Dot Cook, Stacy Rambough, Pam Wells, Lisa Wells, Jim Wells, Van Hill, Eric Beard, Becky Stratton, Harold Vaughn and Chris Rambough.